Sunday, October 2, 2011

Day 214 of 365

I don't know what it is about sewing that makes me enjoy it so much.

In my lifetime I've tried cross-stitch and counted cross-stitch. Candlewicking and crewel work. I've tried tole painting and scrapbooking. I've made wall hangings, pillows, padded picture frames, and Christmas ornaments. I've painted a garden scene on the side of our shed and I have scrapbooks full of pictures.

But I always come back to sewing.

Somehow attaching pieces of fabric to make some type of creation is relaxing. I love visiting fabric stores, I love buying fabric, and I love sewing the fabric. And these past few months the best type of sewing for me has been sewing for others. Sewing for those I don't know has given me a purpose.

If it wasn't for sewing for others, I couldn't throw numbers around like these. Since March 5th I have made:
  • 17 kids quilts sent to either Quilts for Kids (for sick kiddos) or Operation Kid Comfort (for kids of deployed soldiers), and one to another organization
  • 14 presentation cases for Quilts of Valor (for veterans)
  • 2 quilt tops - one for a soldier, one for a diabetes auction
  • 24 turtle pillows for The Painted Turtle Hole-in-the-Wall Camp (very sick kiddos)

57 items.

Now I get to throw some new numbers around:
  • 4 more kids quilts to be done for Quilts for Kids. Two need to be quilted, two more kits are on the way.
  • 5 more sets of pictures (which will equal 5 more quilts) for Operation Kid Comfort are headed my direction.

And a new project.

Stocking for Soldiers kicks off October 10. Stocking for Soldiers sews Christmas stockings, fills them with goodies, and sends them to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. While I may not have the goodies to fill the stockings, thanks to my fabric stash I have plenty of Christmas fabrics. They provide the pattern, I make the stockings. At least 80 stockings worth. (I still have more fabric, but stopped cutting at 80.)

5 down and 75 to go.