Would you like to help?

A few days ago I was watching our local news and they have this thing on there called "hometown hero"  Anyway as I watched I got really emotional.  It really touched my heart at what this group of people were doing with no government funding.  They strictly do this with donations only.  Please click on the news clip and watch.  

You are probably wondering what I am talking about.  The organization is called "For Jamie's Sake"  Please read their mission statement on their website.

Their services include:

Informative brochures and pamphlets about foster care and adoption agencies for those seeking to foster or adopt Books- available for checkout- (pertaining to foster care and adoption issues) Clothing Closet- we provide clothing, shoes, pajamas, and much more for the children or families in need Pillow Pals- we provide new standard size pillows for children in foster care Luggage of Love- the items that we provide from the clothing closet are placed into a piece of luggage. This piece of luggage is for the child to keep. Nothing is sent out in garbage bags. Birthday Parties for children in foster care- we provide the birthday cake, a present, and decorations for the party *SNAP (Special Needs Adoption Program) Christmas Party Adoption License Plate- the first ever! “Wish Upon A Star”- we will make a wish come true for children in foster care (for example: sport camps, music classes, class trips, etc.) Journey Home- one day awareness event in May to make the community aware about foster care *coming again 2011* Easter baskets for children in foster care- we provide an Easter basket filled with candy and toys for the children “You Sure Are Sweet”- social workers, foster parents, or teachers can nominate a child in foster care that deserves to be recognized for an accomplishment (good grades, good behavior, making a school team, etc.) Adoption Celebrations- celebrating at the courthouse with parents and children on their newly created “forever families” All God’s Children- seeking churches to sponsor a child in *SNAP (Special Needs Adoption Program) for a year long commitment. We want the church to pray for a “forever family” for the child their sponsoring. Other ways of sponsoring the child is sending birthday cards, Easter baskets, school supplies, etc. The purpose for this campaign is simple; forever families for the children or lifelong commitments are made for the children with the church family. Please go to their website and read more about it.  So I had this on my mind the biggest part of the morning.  I kept wondering, "what can I do to help?"  I got back on their website and saw their WISHLIST.  I saw that they give pillows to all of the children that are in foster care.  Pillows and pillowcases were on the wishlist.  So this is where WE can help!  I would love to donate a ton of pillowcases to them.  Of course, I can't make a million on my own and I'm not asking for a million.......only 100.  With your help we could easily donate 100 pillowcases to be distributed to these children.  I spoke with the lady over this and she said they would greatly accept our donation.  I've noticed even with my own children that a quilt or even a special pillow can comfort them when they are feeling a little down and give them a sense of security.  So, if you would like to help, please contact me through email.     layne1142 (at) yahoo (dot) com.   Any amount of pillowcases would be greatly appreciated, it doesn't matter if it is 1 or 15.  As of right now I would like to set a deadline of October 31st.  I will deliver them myself with documentation with the names of the people that donate.   Here's all of the information that you may need: Deadline:  October 31st, 2012 Pillowcases to fit a standard size pillow There are so many free pillowcase tutorials out there, they are very quick and easy to make.   Please use fabrics that would be suitable for children of all ages.   Please press before shipping them. If you are interested in helping, please email me and let me know "approximately" how many you plan on donating and your name.  I will give you my mailing address so you will know where to ship them.   PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO OTHERS IF YOU WOULD LIKE. Thank you so very much! Kristie  layne1142 (at) yahoo (dot) com

Our Little Trip

 As I mentioned in my last quick post....RICHARD PASSED!  This have been a long time coming and he has worked so hard for it.  I am so proud of him.  So thankful for all of the prayers along the way too.  Means so much to us.  

So if you are interested, here is how our little trip went....

Right after Church on Sunday morning we headed out to Johnson City, TN.  That is where his state nursing board exam was held.  We stayed in a hotel about a half a block from where he was testing.  

Here he is the night before the test, doing some last minute studying.

I had such big plans sewing while in the car and at the hotel, but I never even got it out of the plastic bags!  LOL!  I was having too much fun watching the boys enjoy themselves.  It had been so long since we had gone anywhere that they were both excited.  

 Richard had to be at the testing center at 7:30am, Monday morning.  The boys and I stayed at the hotel and waited on him.  As you can see, they were enjoying themselves.  I was so glad that Andrew as able to get off from work to go with us.  

 Richard came back after a few hours and he was not thrilled at all.  I asked him what was wrong and he said, "I think I failed it"  I think because it was a timed exam and so important, he was just overly nervous.  So we tried to cheer him up and laugh about it.  

It was around 11am when we packed up and left.  As we walked to the car, this is what was parked beside us.  The boys were excited so we stopped and took some photos of them.  

 And of course they did not believe me when I said that I didn't know when I booked the hotel....but look what was right beside our hotel!!!  LOL!  

 I made a quick trip in and was really disappointed with what I saw. I picked up two 1/2 yd cuts for less than $7 and was on my way!  

At this point we were 60 miles from Ashville, NC and my mom kept saying that we were too close not to go see Biltmore.  She had gone there a few years ago and loved it.  Andrew had been wanting to go for years too.  So with tickets gifted from mom, we went to Biltmore!  Oh my gosh!  If you have never been, it is really something to see.  It is beyond me how someone could build a house like this in the late 1800's and it even has a swimming pool and bowling alley in the basement!  No photos were allowed to be taken on the inside but if you click here you can see some of the interior.  

It is huge!  Look at the buses in front, that will give you an idea how big this HOUSE is.  I think they said it had something like 250 rooms.  

BTW...that is the top of my head in the photo.  :)

 After a long day at Biltmore, we spent the night in Ashville.  Got up early Tuesday morning and drove about 25 miles to Chimney Rock.  The website shows better photos, my photos just show what the view looks like from the top.  

 It was very nice, but I am afraid of heights so I had a hard time looking down.  :)

 Then we made the 5 hour journey back home to Kentucky.  We had a great time but we were very tired and it felt so good to sleep in my own bed.  

Richard was still nervous and they said it could take up to 14 days before he knew the results.  Late Wednesday evening he got an email that he had PASSED!  We thanked the Lord for it all, I cried myself to sleep and Richard is still smiling!  :)  Now to find a job....

Have a wonderful and Blessed day!
Kristie

He passed!!!!!

Just a quick little post to say......RICHARD PASSED!!!!  He passed his Kentucky Board of Nursing exam!!!!  I can't tell you how Blessed that we feel right now.  Thank you all so much for your prayers and well wishes.  

I'll do a longer post later.  We just got back home yesterday evening and I have lots of unpacking, laundry, and stuff to do today.  We had a wonderful time on our little trip, more on that later too.  So for right now, I just want to say "thank you" for your prayers, they were greatly appreciated and needed.  He is sooooo happy about this. I didn't think he would ever fall asleep last night, it was almost like a little kid the night before Christmas.  LOL!

Have a wonderful and Blessed day
Kristie

On My Design Wall...

 I was going to write this post early this morning but I decided to go out and clean the goat pen before it got too hot.  It has been 100+ everyday but this week it is supposed to be in the mid 80's.  

Last night after supper the hot water heater busted!  UGH! :(  If it's not one thing then it's another.  We have only been in the house for 8 months but the water heater was bought 13 months ago.  One month over the 1yr warranty.  I'll admit I was a little upset, but then began to think....it could have been worse.  It could have busted while we were gone.  I'm just thankful we were here and we only had a little bit of water to clean up.  

Late Saturday night, I could not sleep so I went upstairs to my sewing room.  It was in the mid 60's that night but a little warmer up there.  I opened the window and turned the fan on and it was tolerable.  Here is what is on my design wall.  

*  8" light string blocks-  I have 30 of them done but need 56. I'm not sure what I will use for the border or sashing or even if I will do that.  

*  My 12" scrappy star blocks.  Just doing 2 a month...maybe more. I'm using a lot of my precut 2.5" squares on that one and some 3.5" squares.  

*  A 7" off center log cabin block.  This was just a test block for me, I'm thinking about making my sister a quilt using these blocks.  I'm still on the fence about that one.  

*  A bunch of flying geese.  I was thinking of making a table runner out of them, but would you do that and call it done or keep making them along for a bedsize quilt?  I flipped the photo to see how it might look as a quilt.  I would have to use a different border fabric because those brown strips are actually the binding strips for the mini below.  

I was trying to work on the tension on my machine.  I had to adjust the tension the other day for a different kind of thread so now I need to adjust it back.  I hate having to do that.  I had this mini laying there so I just threw in on the frame since it was mine and I really didn't care if the bobbin was a little off until I could adjust it.  As you can see the mini is small so it really didn't take but just a few minutes.  In the end, I got the tension issues figured out and my mini quilted.  

 Here is the back of it.  Lots of texture and a few bad stitches.  LOL!  

 I sewed the binding on it and now I just have to do the handwork.  It will probably take me less than 30 minutes and it will be done.  

Today....no sewing really.  I did start the embroidery work on my "Over the hills and through the woods" I am sooooo out of practice of embroidery.  At first my stitches were not even and a little crooked but they look better as I go along.  I'll try to post a photo of that next time.  

I finally got all of the books mailed out.  Shewwww....it is hard when you are down to one vehicle and Richard is not home until the edge of dark.  The post office and everything is closed by the time I have the truck.  I sent the books by my sister to mail so they should be arriving shortly.

Anyway...

I think I will take my embroidery outside and sit on my front porch and enjoy this beautiful day that the Lord has given us...
Kristie

Planning and Prepping

 I have 4 more baskets to add to my pile.  I now have 45 finished and a million more to go!  :)  I am enjoying them.  They give me something to keep my hands busy while I'm not at the machine.  I think one reason that I always like to keep my hands busy is stress! I know we all have it, but sometimes it just feels like it is overwhelming for me.  I can't even sit down and watch tv without having something else to do, even if it is looking at a magazine, doing handwork or just anything to keep me busy.  

I haven't accomplished a whole lot the past few days but some progress is better than none.  I have also been prepping more baskets.  I'm trying to get several of them prepped because we are going on a little overnight trip in a week or so and I am starting to panic on how to stay busy in the car and at the hotel.  Crazy, I know but that is just how I am.  

Richard finally got his NCLEX scheduled!!!!  He will be taking the exam in Johnson City, TN, which is about 4 hours from here.  After passing that it will be about 2 weeks before he is issued his license for Nursing.  I am so excited and nervous at the same time.  After being out of work since December 2009, this has been a long time coming.  I am so proud of him, he has worked so hard for this.  He lost his job 2 weeks before Christmas 2009 and enrolled in college 3 weeks later!  He is 42 and going back to college was hard for him, so much has changed since we were in school....

Anyway, his exam is scheduled for 8am, so we will be going down the night before.  I thought he might want to go alone but he insisted that the kids and I go with him.  It will just be a little overnight trip nothing big.  So we plan on leaving straight after Church that Sunday.

I want to prep several basket blocks to take with me in the car and I also got one of the panels ready to embroidery for my "Over the hills" quilt.  I'm hoping to get this started that weekend too.  It has been a while since I have done any embroidery, I just hope it turns out nicely.  It is only done with the "backstitch" and I think some "french knots"  I will probably have to brush up on the french knots because I wasn't that good at them before.  :)  

 This week will be spent cleaning the house and such.  I still have quilts and books to mail out before we go.  We are down to one vehicle now and Richard always has the truck all day and I'm left here with nothing.  By the time he gets home the post office is closed.  :(  

Oh and my precious mother will be home late tonight!!!  I think she said her flight was at 4:30pm, but by the time all is said and done she should be home around 11pm.  Of course, I will not go visit with her tonight but I will walk to her house in the morning.  I can't see her house from mine but sorta like the above quilt, she is "over the hill and through the woods"  LOL!  It is faster if I walk to her house through the woods instead of walking the roadway.  :)  Oh, I just love country life.  I have so many Blessings that I just can't count them all....
Kristie

Scrappy Stars for August

 Just a quick little post to show you my new project!  I know, I know, I don't need another one but I'm doing it anyway!  :)  Terry over at Terry's Treasures is doing a sew-along.  These are my blocks for the Scrappy Stars Sew-Along.  Only 2 blocks a month, so hopefully I can keep up with that.  It just started for the month of August and you just make as many blocks as you want.  

I first saw this on Michelle's blog and knew I had to join in.  I have lots of 2.5" squares that I am tired of looking at them and some other scraps, so I figure the only way to get rid of them is to use them!  


I wanted to make sure that I didn't use the same fabric twice in any block but look what I did in the first block!  Oh well, once it is all put together hopefully I will never notice it.  

Here is my second block.  I have several 2.5" blocks and 3.5" blocks precut from scraps and leftover from other projects so this was perfect.  And I also get to use up some background yardage that I was tired of looking at too.  

 I also have another star quilt that I want to start soon, but I need to make sure that I have enough white on my bolt before I start it.  


I made one more basket, which takes me to 41 of them.  I also found my cheddar bowties for some reason in my tote of 2.5" squares.  So I got those out and made a few as I was piecing the star blocks.  

Over the next few days my posts will probably be short.  I have a visitor for a few days, so that will take up a lot of my time....see you soon....


Have a wonderful and Blessed day
Kristie

40 and Exploding!

LOL!  You will figure the title out to this post once you read it.  :)  A little more progress on my baskets!  I am up to 40 now!!!!  40 finished and 10 more prepped and ready to go!  Not sure if I will get anymore finished this weekend or not, but I sure hope so.  

 I was sorting through some of my fabric and found some Hot Wheels yardage.  I think mom may have picked this up for Hunter.  Anyway, you know how rough little boys are on quilts, so I don't really want to do anything major with it.  Since there is 3 yards of it,  I cut it in half and planned on just quickly sewing those two pieces together, throwing a border on it and have it ready to be quilted but then I had second thoughts...


I did plan on just cutting the part of the brick wall off of the bottom of the top one so that all of the brick wall pieces would be the same size, but after stepping back and looking at it, I should really line up those cars, shouldn't I?  I wanted this to be a twin size and I'm thinking that if I trim the sides up so that all the cars are even and add a small black inner border and then the outer border it should measure out to be twin.  So, I really should line those cars up....right?  I'm thinking that if I don't then I will always wish that I had.  LOL!  I also found some green yardage that I will use for the outer border.  

 A few posts back, I mentioned that I had a can of compressed air that exploded upstairs because it was sooooo hot up there.  Well on and off, I keep hearing something exploding in my sewing room but every time I would go up there I couldn't find anything.  Yesterday during the heat of the day, I was up there getting some thread for a basket block that I was working on and I head the "exploding" sound while I was up there.  I found out what it was all of this time...batteries!  These are the laser lights that I use on my quilting machine.  I have several and lots of batteries.  I usually just throw the batteries in this little container when they get low and need to be changed and keep them because sometimes I have to reuse them.  

 Not sure if you can tell by this photo but if you look close you can see where several of them have exploded.  See why I keep complaining about the heat upstairs??  I would love to be able to stay up there most of the day and sew at times but it is just unbearable up there.  

 Anyway, this will be a busy weekend.  Tomorrow morning we will be going to a yard sale starting in the next county over.  It is an annual yard sale that goes 100+ miles, the first weekend in August. I used to go every year but haven't been able to go for the past few years.  This year I've saved a little back and we are going!!!!  We never make it all of the way through but we always have fun.  My sister is going too but not riding with us, she has to leave early.  I just talked to her on the phone earlier and she said she hadn't slept good for days, just excited about the yard sale!  LOL!  Anyway, I have plans to look for stuff for the house.  Of course, Hunter wants to look for toys and Richard wants to look for tools, since a lot of his were stolen back in May.  He has since replaced several of them  but not all of them.  So Saturday will be a long and tiresome day and then we have Church on Sunday.  I will have to rest up the first of the week!  LOL!


Have a wonderful and Blessed day
Kristie