Recognizing Generous Crafters and Other Stuff......

The Sew, Mama, Sew blog writes today about recognizing those crafters who do charitable work and asks for nominations. I've participated in a joint effort or two, and follow the work of a very talented artist who has encouraged many of us to do just that. They're going to gift 15 of the nominees, and I would love for her to be one of them, but more than that I just wanted to publicly acknowledge her generosity. This is what I wrote:

I'd like to nominate Victoria of the Bumblebeans blog. (http://bumblebeans.blogspot.com/) She has organized some "block gather" projects for quilts that she assembled, quilted, and donated. She issued the call to action on her blog, sent out fabrics to be used in the blocks, and encouraged us along every step in the process. She also set up a separate blog for one of the projects (http://sisboompow.blogspot.com/) so we could see each others blocks as they were sent in before being assembled, and for us to talk about our process. It was an incredible amount of work, done joyfully.

Since I'm writing about V, I swiped the photo of that fabric you see from her blog. I hope she doesn't mind, but it is a direct link to my first ever sewing memory. When I was about 7 or 8, after watching my mom turn out clothing, home decor, and upholstery from her skilled hands and sewing machine...I too wanted to sew. Mostly for my dolls, but the very first thing I made were pillow cases for my mom on Mother's day. My Godmother showed me how to make them on the sewing machine at her house and the fabric you see there in that picture is the fabric I remember using. Now it may not have been exactly like that, but it was yellow and it was roses and it was a border print. I can't describe how accomplished I felt and it was the start of a long relationship for me and the machine.

I'm sewing blocks today.