Where do you find comfort?

I can not believe that another week has passed me by. Each time I post to this blog I tell myself that I will not wait a whole week to post again. And what has happened ... it's been another week!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3,4

The above verse from 2 Corinthians was the verse of the day for March 8th. I can relate to this verse and this is one reason that I make so many items for charity ... my hope is that in the same way God comforted me through the loss of my 5 1/2 month old daughter, I would also be able to, in some small way, comfort other women and families going through a tragedy in their lives. Whether it is a loss of a child, loss of a job, poverty, single parent, and the list could go on and on. Some believe that if you have a personal relationship with Jesus that "comfort" means no trouble. This is completely untrue. I believe that God uses the tragedies in our lives to grow us and mold us into the person He wants us to be. And like the above verse states, allows us to use the trials we have gone through to relate to other people going through similar circumstances. God does not cause these troubles, but through our own bad choices or others' bad choices we suffer.

I did go on a women's retreat last weekend and had a good time. Retreats are not really my thing as I would much rather stay home (in my own comfort zone with my own "stuff"). I did get to know a couple of the women there much better and really did enjoy myself. I had stated in my last post that I wanted to finish the baby sweater and maybe a hat at the retreat ... well, as you can probably guess, that didn't happen .... guess I was having too much fun!

There was also a request from Amy who is in a hospital in Idaho on bed rest due to complications in her pregnancy for burial items and any newborn items. The hospital is in desperate need of these so this will be my next project. To work on at least one or two more burial items. Here are a couple of patterns to get you started if you want to make something.

Angel Wrap

Lenore English's Gown

Debbie's Sleeper Sack

Extra Small Gown by Lenore English

And the quilt design that I posted a few weeks ago is coming along ... slowly but surely. I have most of the 3 1/2" half square triangles sewn but not all trimmed to size. And I have started on the blocks. I figure if I do all 16 blocks at once I will have a better chance of finishing the quilt top. I know myself ... If I finish 2 or 3 blocks and can see what the resulting quilt will look like, I will have less motivation to finish. Wish me luck :-)

Not Another Quilt

Yup ... you heard right. I decided last week that I need a quilt for my bed. I have never made - or maybe I should say never finished - a queen size quilt. I do have two tops sitting here that are both about queen size. One is black and bright block of the month (BOM) that I did two years ago from the PlanetPatchwork website. The other is was a New Years Day mystery quilt from A Pocket Full of Mysteries yahoo group from about 1 year ago. I don't "love" either of them so I am sure that is why they are not quilted.

My favourite colours are teal and purple and I have quite a few fabrics in those colours. I was browsing through EQ6s library of blocks and found one that I like and would work well in a large size - 18" finished - and scrappy fabrics. I didn't have any background fabric so needed to go to the store and purchase that - but I was good and didn't get anything else LOL!

The only downside of the block I chose is that it is entirely made from 1/2 square triangles. 576 of them to do the quilt ... yikes what am I getting myself into. Probably setting myself up for another UFO ... but what the hay :-) What's another UFO when you already have .... so many of them!

Progress - I have all the fabric for the blocks cut out and all the teal/purple and teal/light 1/2 square triangle blocks sewn. Getting there ....

Other finished stuff - I finished the pair of socks for Afghans for Afghans and also made a red hat for their circus challenge. Need to get those off in the mail today.

Happy Valentines Day! XOXOXO

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone. My prayer is that anyone who reads this blog would be blessed more than they could ever imagine by God this year!

Do you have any New Years goals? I have a couple that are crafting related. One is to finish all the blocks for my Women Of The Bible quilt. In the past year I have completed half of them so I don't think it is unrealistic to think I can finish the rest. Maybe even the applique for the middle of the quilt. This quilt consists of 53 - 6" quilt blocks and an applique border. I am laying my quilt out a bit differently than how Carol did and will have an applique center on point with blocks around the outside.

Another goal for 2007 is to complete 100 craft items for charity. I participated in Bev's Charity Challenge last year and made 135 items ... more than I had expected. So this year I will keep the pledge at 100 and see if I can surpass it again.

Before Christmas I was looking for a pattern (free of course) that would show how to add an edging to fleece blankets. I don't really like the cut fringe edges for baby blankets but had heard that you could crochet and edge. The Crafty Chic website had just what I was looking for. You punch holes in the edge of the fleece and then use your crochet hook to pull the yarn through and do a single crochet edge. There are some really great pictures on the Crafty Chic website on how to do this. She suggests using a large needle in your sewing machine and sewing around the edge to make the holes. I didn't have a large needle but did have a hole punch used for card making. The punch makes tiny holes but big enough for the crochet hook to go through. It worked really well. I made a hat out of the same yarn I edged the fleece with. Both Newborns In Need and Heavenly Angels In Need are in great need of blankets and I find I can make these much quicker than knit or quilted blankets (a knit hat and/or booties adds a nice touch too).