A Whole New World!

I'm very excited about my most recent quilt finish. It's been a long time in the making because I was waiting for a few key elements for quilting: 1. Inspiration, and 2. A ruler base for my long arm. ;)

In late June I had the very unique opportunity to spend the day with Angela Walters and a few other VERY exceptionally talented long armers in Denver. The airlines almost didn't let it happen, but Angela persevered, and made it to Denver, and we just really tried to suck as much information out of Angela's brain as conceivably possible in a 6 hour span of time. ;o)

 (Susan (front right) made each of us these little placemats, it wasn't part of our class)

One of the take-aways for me (of MANY) was how to use a ruler for quilting. I have a few quilt tops that are awaiting quilting inspiration, but I only really have one that was right for using the ruler base. (It's basically an acrylic add-on, similar to an acrylic extension table for your domestic sewing machine.)

(this isn't me practicing with a ruler, obviously, but it's the best picture of me and my BFF, Angela!) ;o)

So after that amazing "mountain top" experience, I seriously debated buying a ruler base for my long arm. It was $100, and I just wasn't sure it would be worth it, you know? I spend SO much money on stuff that I don't need or end up using (Hello, Accuquilt Go cutter!), but I decided to take the plunge on this one.

The Shape Shifters quilt that the {Faith Circle} of the Do. Good Stitches bee made in April was perfect for ruler-guided quilting. The problem? I needed to piece the top!! There were a few blocks that I had to re-make because they were trimmed wrong, but it really is an amazingly easy set of blocks to make. (You can find the tutorial HERE) Once I got the top pieced and the backing selected, it was time to get to work!

And WORK it was!! Man alive. Practicing on Susan's long arm for a few minutes was NOTHING like actually doing the quilting on my own quilt, on my own machine. The first block took for. eh. ver. Forever. Or at least four hours, which felt like forever! 

                                           

But then I figured out how to stream-line the process a bit, and eventually got to where each block was taking me about 30 minutes. All in all, though, I believe I spent about 20 hours quilting this quilt.

Totally worth it, yes, but goodness gracious! My arms ached, my legs ached, my back ached...Ruler-guided quilting is not for the weak, that's for sure!

                                                   

Now it's bound, and I'm going to put on the label, and take it to Restore Innocence so they can give it to a girl rescued from sex trafficking.

Here are a couple of pictures of the secondary design of the blocks, and the quilting in each.

  

And one more glamour shot for good measure. ;o)

                                                

Shape Shifters ~ A Tutorial

Have you ever come across a quilt block and thought, "Man! I wish I had thought of that!" 

Well that happened to me last week when I saw blocks that my friend, Liberty, is making for a charity bee.  I knew my turn with the {Faith Circle} of the Do. Good Stitches bee was coming up, and I needed something quick and easy. (I'm all about quick and easy for these quilts. We give our quilts to Restore Innocence, and these girls wouldn't know a Swoon block from a butcher block, so as long as it's beautiful, why complicate it, right?)

Anyway, Liberty pointed me to this tutorial, and I started to play. Man, I wish I had thought of that!  So, giving credit where credit is due, there are 3 Dudes in Arizona that came up with this method of making a quilt block. I, however, tweaked it a smidge to make my vision come to fruition. :o)

After playing around with color options, I decided to go fresh and nautical with a yellow, white, navy combination. Delicious! Since yellows are tricky to match, to say the least, I decided to send half of the yellow that all of my bee mates will need, and they can match the other half from their stash.  Hopefully that will allow for some cohesion among the scrappiness of the quilt.

You will not believe how utterly simple this is. Prepare to be shocked. :o)

Note: This tutorial is for each member of the Faith Circle to create 8 blocks for April's quilt, not for the entire quilt. :o)

Fabric Requirements (for 8 blocks) 

• 1 strip mid-to-dark blue (but not navy!) 2 1/2" by WOF
• 2 strips Kona White (mailed to you with the yellow) 2 1/2" by WOF
• 2 strips yellow (please use the yellow I'm mailing to you as a guide, please choose a warm yellow (no green tones) 2 1/2" by WOF 

Sewing Instructions

1. Sew the strips together along the long edge as follows: yellow to white to blue to white to yellow. Use a scant 1/4" seam, and try to sew the strips so that they don't warp or bow.
2. Press the seams to the darker fabrics
3. Square off the left side of the strip set, then measure 10 1/2" over, and cut perpendicular to your seams to make a 10 1/2" square. Repeat 3 more times to make 4 squares.

     4. Rotate two of the squares so the stripes are vertical, leaving two with horizontal stripes (as above)

     5. Place the vertical blocks on top of the horizontal blocks, and secure around all four sides using pins

         or glue. You know how I feel about my glue basting! :o)

     6. Sew around all 4 sides using a scant 1/4" seam, as seen below.

     7. Take your two sewn-on-all-sides blocks to the cutting mat and get a long ruler and your rotary
         cutter.
     8. Placing the ruler across the diagonal from one corner to the opposite corner, cut through both
         layers.

     9. Rotate your ruler to the opposite set of corners, and cut across the other diagonal from corner to
         corner again. Open up the cuts and find beautiful, triangular blocks! Voila!
    10. Press the seams to the yellow (center strip), and you are finished!

I see you!

Thank you, Faith Circle, for always being willing to make beautiful quilts for the girls rescued from human trafficking and supported by Restore Innocence.

Again, this method was devised by the guys in Arizona, I just played with the colors so it would look like eyeballs...just kidding. :o)  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! And if you make a quilt using this technique, let me know!

Hope Takes Flight ~ Double the pleasure. :)

I've finished Hope Takes Flight 4 and 5.

I've made this quilt five times now! Yes, four of them look very similar, whatever.

One ~ butterflies made by {Faith Circle} members

Two - at QuiltCon 2013 ~ butterflies made by {Faith Circle} members

Three ~ made with Scrumptious by Bonnie and Camille

Four ~ made from one Kona Classics charm pack

and Five ~ made from Artisan Batiks: Geoscapes 4 by Lunn Studios for Robert Kaufman

I kept the making of these last two under wraps since December because Robert Kaufman asked me to write the pattern for this quilt using the Classics charm pack and Artisan Batiks. I said "Are you sure you want me to do this twice?" They said "Yep. We're sure! Get busy, Melissa!"  (I was honestly confused about it for a long time!)

But twice I did! One in solids (= my comfort zone) and one in batiks (=not far from my comfort zone). This collection of batiks from Lunn Studios is really pretty. I love how each butterfly moves more than in the solids quilt. Plus, Nichole at Robert Kaufman told me that there has been a lot of research done lately that shows that batiks are selling really well with more modern quilt patterns. Who knew, right? :)

And NOW, I am pleased to tell you that the patterns are available for free on the Robert Kaufman website! Yeppers, F. R. double E. Free!!  Here is the link for the solids pattern, and here is the link for the batik pattern.

I want to make this one more time, using only two colors (well, three, if you include the black for the bodies!) like my friend Aunt Spicy did. I'll be sure to post it if I ever get around to it! :)

Also...and I would be remiss if I didn't say this...I want to thank YOU for being so encouraging and excited about this pattern from the very beginning! The first and second quilts were made in late 2012 by the members of the {Faith Circle} of the Do.Good Stitches bee, and donated to Restore Innocence for a girl rescued from human trafficking. The response that I got from finishing those two quilts was just overwhelming! Without that, I never in a million years would have considered writing up the pattern (and making it three more times, hah!). And the continued nagging follow-up from a couple of lovely friends really spurred me on to finish the pattern. And then, when I was asked by Robert Kaufman to make these last two for them, to post free on their website, I thought that was the perfect ending to the story.

And while that story is wrapping up, I've got lots more "stories" in my head that will become patterns one day. :)  I just need to find the time!

I hope you have a wonderful week, and thanks again for being so supportive. I most certainly couldn't do this alone. :)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 29/52

I'm this close to finishing my do.Good Stitches quilt. I finally pieced the back the other day and spent less than 2 hours quilting it - and that includes thread and bobbin changes! Stippling is the way to go when you need a fast finish!

All that's left is the label, really. Last night I finished the binding -- it was magical!!! I used Susie's Magic Binding technique, demonstrated here on my friend Marti's blog. I stink stink stink at machine binding, so I wanted to try this, thinking maybe this will work and it won't look like something the dog rolled in!  And it does! It does! It DOES!!

Here is a picture of the purdy mitered corner...

And here you can see the front and the back. Honestly, this is the closest-thing-to-perfect my machine binding has EVER looked!!

I'll put a label on it this week, and take it to Restore Innocence.  They were very appreciative the last time I took them some quilts, and I know they are so happy to bless the girls with these quilts. :)

And then I'll put my sewing machine away. I've got a lot going on this weekend, and sewing isn't going to be a part of it. :(  But then next week, I will put on a brave face and make Janice's paper-pieced blocks for our Bee Happy bee. I'm only marginally better at paper piecing than I am at machine binding!  

And I've designed a few quilts that I am SUPER eager to make! Aunt Spicy is my partner in crime on these, and keeps encouraging me to make more! What a friend, right?!? And I loved getting back to the long arm. It seems I'm prolific at the first and last steps of the quilting process, but I'm a slow turtle at actually MAKING the quilts! I need to get faster. I have two baby quilts to make, and only know the gender of one of them. If the unknown is a boy, then I'll give my Huckleberry quilt I made when Latifah Saafir was here in May. If it's a girl, I'll do something quick and easy and double the recipe. ;-)

I am linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced. Go check out the linky party. There's some beautiful stuff being made!

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 16/52

So this is still in progress. :)  I have most of the rows sashed together -- just a couple more to go, then I have to sash the sides. Then prepare the backing (Spot On Wide in Chartreuse by Robert Kaufman) and the binding, and I'll be ready to quilt it!

I'm pretty excited about the way I am going to quilt it, but I'm going to keep you in the dark in case it goes bad and I have to default to loops. :)  Loops will still be fabulous, I love loops, but this new way? Pretty cool.

I'm also waiting on one more set of blocks for this little gem for the Faith Circle of the of the do.Good Stitches bee. I think this is my ideal layout - I'm calling it Wonky Zigs. :)  (I'll use the Spot On in Aqua for the back of this)

And I finished my April blocks for Anita in the Faith Circle. Simple, yet stunning.

I have to say that my circle seems to really embrace the idea that simple CAN BE better when it comes to making quilts. We haven't made any complicated quilts and complicated blocks in a while (8 hours for a Swoon block, anyone???)  And I really, really appreciate that.  We all know that these quilts are going to be an amazing blessing for the girls that receive them (they are donated to Restore Innocence, an organization that partners with the FBI and helps girls rescued from human/sex trafficking).  Those girls don't know an Ohio Star from a Wonky Star from a WhirlyGig. They just know that these quilts represent unconditional love...something most of them have never felt. (I could go on talking about Restore Innocence for days...)

And I am REALLY excited to have these books! C&T Publishing had a sale a week, or so, ago, and I chose these. I wanna drop everything and just eat these books up! Just flipping through One Line at a Time got me all fired up to try some new quilting techniques.

So, that's me! What I'm working on! How about you? Did you link up with Lee of Freshly Pieced?

Hope Takes Flight 2.0

Yay! It's completely finished! I'll be taking this quilt to FedEx to send it to QuiltCon today. Whew!

Bound, labeled, sleeved, pressed, de-linted (eww!).

It's (mostly) identical to the first, but here's a picture of this one anyway.

The butterflies were made with Mrs Schmenkman's tutorial by the {Faith} Circle of the do.Good Stitches bee. We are giving our quilts to Restore Innocence, an organization that rescues girls from human trafficking (= sex slavery).

The rainbow represents God's mercy, and His covenant with His people that He will never leave us. The butterflies represent being given a second chance. These girls need to know that God will not leave them, and that they have a second chance. (We all need to know that!) The black satin ribbon binding is Restore Innocence's "brand" or logo. The ribbon is for innocence (little girls love to wear ribbons), but the black is for how dark and disgusting and evil this HIDDEN crime is.

 

It's going on right under your nose. That van in front of you on the highway? Maybe he's driving a few girls to a "date"... The girl in line behind you at the grocery store that won't make eye contact? Maybe she's buying diapers for her baby that was born into this slavery. The billboard advertising a "massage and spa" at the truck stop???

THESE ARE LITTLE GIRLS!!!

I'll repost this from last year, but the facts remain the same.

(Provided by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center 2011)

Click HERE for Restore Innocence's Facebook page.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and her Finish It Up Friday linky party. I'm glad to be finished so I can make my January bee blocks! :)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 6/52 ~ Eating Elephants

You know that old saying, "How do you eat an elephant?" Answer: "One bite at a time."

That's how I feel about my quilt for QuiltCon. I'm slowly working through all the stages to get it ready to send, but it is a SLOW process around here. I don't really get to work on it during the day, so after the kids are in bed, then I can start. But who is functional and efficient at 8:00 at night? Not me!! I'm slow. And slow. Or even slower. :)

So I do what I can, when I can. And I'm down to the last two steps. I sewed the label on this morning, only to realize that what I thought was the lower left-hand corner was really the upper right-hand corner...exactly where the sleeve should go!

Oops!

I am pleased to announce that ripping out ladder stitches is much easier than ripping out any other kind of stitches I've ever ripped. :)

During naptime I was able to make a drawstring bag. It's not fancy, but I like it. And it was free.

So tonight I'm going to put on the sleeve, and tomorrow I'll attach the label, and I'll be done!

Done, I tell ya! And the next time I'll see the quilt, we'll both be in Austin at QuiltCon! :)

Which, by the way, the Modern Quilt Guild has asked all attendees to link up with a post with a little information about me! 

According to the meme you might have seen on Instagram lately, we are to post our picture, and then post 5 things you might not know about me.

Here's me last September.

And here are 5 things you might not know about me:

1. I've never been drunk. And no, I don't have to have this experience! 
2. I don't really like to eat, and have no "comfort food" when I'm upset. 
3. I have a thing about $$. I always have more than enough, but I still feel poor sometimes. 
4. I LOVE good pens. And loathe bad ones. I'm kind of a snob about them. 
5. Long before I even WANTED kids, I knew I would have 2 girls, and had their names picked out about 5 years in advance. Good thing no one stole their names!

 And in case I'll see you at QuiltCon, but you don't normally read my blog, here are some other tidbits:

1. I have a 4 year old daughter (Mookie), a 2 year old daughter (Sprout), and a 9 month old son (Buzz, or Rocket Man), and I've been married for 13 1/2 years to Dave.
2. I am the president of the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild, and we meet (usually) south of Denver in a little town called Monument. We are about to celebrate our 2nd birthday, and it's been quite a fun ride. The guild is made up of some really incredible women, and I am always inspired and energized after a guild meeting.
3. I learned to sew in 1997, in Mrs Wadsworth's 3rd period Home Ec class. It was my first year teaching, and 3rd period was my off period, so I learned to sew alongside my students. :)  

Good enough.  Now...WiPs! :)

Like I said, I'm almost finished with Hope Takes Flight 2.0. I'll be boxing her up on Friday so she can get to Austin in time. :)

Then I have to sew my bee blocks!! I'm SO behind, it's shameful!! :-(

But one thing I do want to share with you is a fun little finish. Sorta. It's a finish of finishes.

I made a calendar of quilts!  This is only a few of the pictures, but I think it's a really fun way to remember what quilts I've made or been a part of making.

Maybe next year I'll have a calendar of quilts I made in 2013! Hah! (Not at the rate I'm going!)

Hope you have a great week!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced's WiP Wednesday link-up.



And, of course, the MQG QuiltCon link up! :)

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 4/52

My first WiP Wednesday post for 2013 -- even though we've already had 3 others! Whoops! I really enjoyed trying to post every week last year, and hate that I've already missed the first three. It's just that I'm...

BUSY!

You are too, I know that. And I appreciate you reading about my life and how I spend my time! I want to blog more often, but I just can't bring myself to sit down at the computer and tap out anything that seems valuable and worth your time! So, I guess I'll do what I can, when I can, and maybe come up with a bit more.

Plus, when I have quiet time, I don't necessarily want to be typing! I want to be sleeping. Or sewing. Or folding laundry. Okay. Haha. Not really. I don't want to be folding laundry. I want it folded and put away, I just don't want to be the one to do it! :)

But anyway, this is about works in progress. All I've been working on is this:

 

And this: 

And when I can, we do some of this:

 

And this:

(In case you can't tell, Buzz loved his first time on the swings. He laughed and laughed and laughed some more.)

I'm almost done with the top of the Hope Takes Flight (take 2) quilt. I just have to put on the borders, then sew 2 pieces of the backing together, and then it's ready for quilting! And, no. I'm not doing it (all) at home. I can't. I won't!!

My plan is to quilt the swirls in the butterflies on the long arm and do some long basting stitches in the white, then bring it home and quilt the straight lines in the white on my home machine. That part didn't take long, once I got it all figured out. :) 

My other WiP is going to be on-going. I've jumped on the Project Life bandwagon. Have you heard of it? It's a simplified method of memory keeping. I don't call it scrapbooking, because it isn't what we usually think of when we say "scrapbooking". While it is a book of memories, it's not a book of carefully designed and cropped and embellished pages. If you're on Pinterest or Instagram or Flickr, search under Project Life, and you'll find a TON of images of people's pages. And the blog post that pushed me over the edge was written by my friend, Traci. You can see her ADORABLE family over here.

While I have purchased some things, I scored all of this off of CraigsList today:

The binder isn't a Project Life product, but since I don't know what I want my overall book to look like, I thought a practically free binder would be a good thing to have. :)  For $30, I got a new box of assorted page protectors, a pack of 6x12 sleeves, and the binder.

I can already tell that being a Lifer is going to be a good thing. Just going back and logging what we have done for the past 23 days of 2013 has been great! There are SO many things I would have forgotten!!

And I really hope to record the REAL elements of life. And include ME!! You know how we mamas are. All the pictures have the kids, but none of the mama. All the stories are about the kids, but not the mama. In 3 years - or 30 - I want us to be able to look at this and see that I was doing things, too. That I was having fun, or that I wore the same sweatshirt for 3 days in a row, or whatever. I want my children to know what life was REALLY like for us. I have no memories like this of, or from, my mother, and I wish I did. And I know my kids wish I did!! Mookie, my 4 year old, asks about my mom a lot (calls her my "first mom"), and I have very little to show her. And as the years go on, I won't be able to show her much about my life as a child, either.

And I want that to end. Now.

I want pictures of windy days at the park:

Love the hair, Sprout!

And silly faces:

Buzz. Loves to make noise. Guess it's a fitting name, then, eh?

And the backyard picnic in 68 degree weather, 2 feet from unmelted snow (Colorado weather is so confusing!)

 

So. My WiPs. One I'm almost finished with, and one I'm just beginning.

Hope you have a great, and crafty, week!  I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for her regularly scheduled WiP Wednesday linky party.

WIDRN => What I'm Doing Right Now

I'm on InstaGram. Are you? I'm mtnmel if you want to find me there. I mostly post pictures of the kids, and what little sewing I seem to do. I'm really loving IG.

So I took the popular hashtag #widrn for this post. :)

So, what AM I doing right now??  Not what I'm supposed to be doing, that's for sure! :)

I need to be working on the agenda for the Front Range MQG leadership meeting on Saturday, but with Cinderella playing in the background, I can't really think. :-/

I need to be working on my Madrona Road challenge. I figured out what I'm going to do, and I'm quite excited about it. :)  It's a little bit modern, a little bit traditional. I'll do a little hand quilting, and a little machine quilting. We're doing a secret pillow swap, and it's possible my partner reads my blog, so I can't say anything more, but I promise to post pictures of my progress...once I actually start!! :)

And somehow...

SOMEHOW...

I neglected to tell you something very important...

Remember my Butterflies and Rainbows quilt, Hope Takes Flight? Well, I decided to enter it into QuiltCon in the Bee category, and while I think they're mistaken, the judges chose the quilt for the contest!

IT'S GOING TO AUSTIN!!!

I'M GOING TO AUSTIN!!!

Now, you might be a bit confused, thinking "I thought she gave the quilt to Restore Innocence already?" And you'd be right!  BUT...

I'm making another one. :)  When I first asked the Faith circle of the do.Good Stitches bee for butterfly blocks, I had a different design in mind. Once the blocks started coming, I realized that I couldn't handle that design (too too much going on), so I redesigned it using only half the blocks. So I always knew I was going to make two quilts, I just didn't expect that one would be selected to go to QuiltCon! :)  The second one will be identical, so nothing to worry about there. :) 

Can you tell the difference?

Obviously the second one is the first one. Or, uh...the one on the right is the first one... :) You know what I mean.  But they look pretty similar, no?

So, anyway...I'm frantically making the second quilt now. And I swear, I will NOT have the same quilting problems that I had with the first. I can't. I just can't. Lightning doesn't strike the same place twice, right? :)  Plus, I'm going to long arm this one, if I can.

My children seem to be foiling my plans, though and needing me when I should be sewing. Sheesh! :)

And so, #widrn? I'm trying to figure out how to get that done without me actually having to sew it. Or maybe I'll figure out how to clone myself first.

Once I finish that, I've got 4 bee blocks to make, and a Sugar Block Club block to make. I'm using polka dots. Are you in The Club, too? Amy is such a sweetie, I'm glad to be a part of this block-of-the-month club.

Gotta run. It's time to feed the cuties. Hope you're having a great week!

{WiP} Wednesday ~ 49/52

After I finally finished all the little niggley bits of the quilt, I had to take a break from the sewing machine. You understand, I'm sure. :-)

I forgot to show you the label last week:

(Hope Takes Flight ~ the label)

I took that picture last night as it was about to get bundled up into a Christmas stocking. Restore Innocence and the Human Trafficking Task Force had a "stuff the stocking" night, and I joined about 50 volunteers from the community, from various churches, some law enforcement, and even an FBI agent to take 205 blankets and stockings and fill them up with candy and nail polish and socks and mittens and stuffed animals.

(205 Christmas Stockings)

It was a sight to behold. About 110 of the blankets were tied fleece blankets, and my church made a large portion of those, and the other 95(ish) were purchased for this event.

We heard on the news yesterday that police busted a sex trafficking ring in Colorado Springs, and that teenage girls (15-17 years old) had been recruited and forced into this for the past couple of years. The thing that really got me was that they arrested a few WOMEN, too!! Like, I can see men doing this to girls, but WOMEN?????? Oh, that made me mad!

Anyway, it just brings home the reality and the depravity even more.

These will be shared all across the country, so it's quite possible that a young lady in YOUR town will receive one of these bundled blessings. :-)

One of the board members for Restore Innocence mentioned a girl she was working with who had never had a Christmas. She'd never opened a stocking stuffed with sweets and socks and treats for her. She'd never received a gift from someone she didn't know. She'd never known simple joy on Christmas morning, but this year was going to be different for her because of these.

(Hoppy and Hope)

I don't know who will receive our quilt, but all along I've trusted that God will get it into the hands of a young girl who needs the love and the warmth and the HOPE most of all.

Other than that, I've been making more Infinity Scarves and bee blocks. And I've got to make some coffee cup cozies for Mookie's teachers, and the girls are making Christmas ornaments out of Crayola Model Magic (which are TOO CUTE, by the way!)...

(Every tree needs a polka dotted butterfly on their Christmas tree!)

No rest for the weary!

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for this week's WiP Wednesday party.

Hope Takes Flight (and a giveaway)

(alternative title: Quilting Insanity)

This is a long post, but it's a good story, so I do hope you'll read it. It's not about me -- it's about a quilt and a young girl.

As a quilter in the {Faith} circle of very popular do.Good Stitches bee, I have the opportunity, 2-3 times a year, to ask for blocks from my bee mates, and make the quilt I have designed. So back in August, I asked the associate pastor at our church if he knew of any needs within the church. He said "No, but Restore Innocence is doing a blanket drive for Christmas. Maybe you could make one for them?"  I'd heard of Restore Innocence, but didn't know much, so I went to their website. And commenced to having my heart broken, over and over again.

I want to just paste every word from their website here so you'll really see for yourselves!! I won't do that, but I will post a few tidbits:

There's this one:

“In the United States, children are subjected to human trafficking in many different sectors. Examples include prostitution on the streets or in a private residence, club, hotel, spa, or massage parlor; online commercial sexual exploitation; exotic dancing/stripping; agricultural, factory, or meatpacking work; construction; domestic labor in a home; restaurant/bar work; illegal drug trade; door-to-door sales, street peddling, or begging; or hair, nail, and beauty salons. Family members, acquaintances, pimps, employers, smugglers, and strangers traffic children
.”  -U.S. Department of Health and Human Services  {emphasis by Melissa}

 Or this:

An estimated 2.5 million children worldwide, the majority of them girls, are sexually exploited in the multibillion dollar commercial sex industry – UNICEF

 Or this:

Investigators and researchers estimate the average predator in the U.S. can make more than $200,000 a year off one young girl. – NBC Report by Teri William

It. Is. Disgusting.

I honestly can't believe this is happening right under our noses. I mean, we think sex trafficking, and sex slavery happens in places like Thailand. Or Amsterdam. Not here in America! But, it is. And actually, I can believe it. There are some seriously sick people out there. And those are just the ones using the girls...the ones doing the abusing? I hope there's a special hot place in Hell for them.

I copied this from someone on Instagram, but the details were provided by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center 2011.

(I'm gonna let those figures sink in for a sec)

These poor, poor, innocent little girls and young women.

So back to Restore Innocence. They are based in Colorado Springs because human trafficking happens here, but they work with Police and FBI Victims Assistance teams all around the US. So when there is a sting, and a young girl is rescued from the sex trade (read: slavery), they often have very little more than the clothes on their backs. And their clothes are often confiscated as evidence against the sicko pimp. Restore Innocence send Restoration Bags to the VA teams, who are then equipped to offer something to these girls. Something of their own.

Often, the girls that are taken into human trafficking didn't have much of a home to run away from, so it's not like they've got anywhere to go back to...and I highly doubt it would be a supportive and encouraging environment committed to helping the girl heal, physically and emotionally! (Can you imagine?)

So Restore Innocence has been working towards opening The Cinderella House - a place where rescued girls can come and live for a while, and get them the counseling and the assistance they need until they are able to move into a stable environment...whatever that may be. They have the house, and are in the final stages of opening it. :)

Anywho...

Back to do.Good Stitches. :)

When it was my turn, I decided to have the bee make butterfly blocks like we did last March, using Mrs Schmenkman's tutorial.  I asked for 8 blocks, one of each "rainbow" color, with white background and a black "body". My plan was to make one quilt, with all the butterflies pieced together. Like this:

To me, the butterflies represent being made into a new creation, a second chance, a chance these girls need. The rainbow represents God's covenant with Man after The Flood that He will never leave us. The black body represents the the black ribbon that Restore Innocence uses as their logo. The binding is black satin ribbon, for that same reason. They use the black ribbon because a ribbon represents innocence and youth, something these girls have been robbed of. And the color of the ribbon, black, represents what a dark, dark world human trafficking is.  All along, my plan was to quilt with swirls, to symbolize wind currents of the butterflies taking flight.

So when the blocks started coming in, and I threw them up on my design wall, a new plan emerged. Not only did I have a new, fun, modern design, I also would have enough butterflies for 2 quilts!  Because, really, why make one when you can make 2? (Or 5?) Right? :)

Even though I've rearranged some blocks, this design stuck. All the way to the bitter, bitter end.

While I can now say that I am finished, I can not say that this has been easy. This quilt has been fraught with challenges. Oy.

For those of you who follow me on Instagram and Facebook, thank you for walking this journey with me. I am sooooooo glad I had that support when things were difficult, and the next difficult thing happened, and the next difficult thing happened, and the next difficult thing happened. Hah!

The piecing went along fine. (the craft room is still a wreck, so I moved Sewing Ops to the dining room...and the entry to the living room became my design wall...) :)

t was once I started quilting that things got ugly. I always spray baste, but I used Dritz spray baste for the first time, and I'm pretty sure it will be the last. I know some people LOVE Dritz, and that's all they use, and maybe I got a bad can, but it literally took me 2 weeks to quilt this simple quilt.

I immediately had problems with the thread shredding. I changed thread. 3 (expensive) brands. I changed needles. 3 brands. I changed the bobbin 4 times. I moved my sewing machine. I flipped the quilt around.

 

I don't know if you can see it up there, but somehow, the thread shredded and half of it came out of the eye of the needle. Only half...the other half was still threaded and still making stitches. Very weak stitches.

And then I thought I had it all sorted, but MAN was I tired (this was Day 2 of what became a never-ending saga!)

 

Then, on Day 3 (and by "day" I really mean "night), not only was the thread shredding, but it started skipping stitches, too!! Grrrr!  So I took it into the shop. They tried EVERYthing. And they couldn't get it to happen again on anything other than my quilt.  So I determined to simply sew till it shredded or skipped, stop, and start over again. There wasn't anything else I could do!

 

LOOK at that shredding! Ugh.

 

And then my needle bent and broke. I've broken needles before, but never bent it like that! It's like I was trying to sew through Teflon, or something!

But eventually I finished the free-motion quilted swirls in the middle, and it was time to quilt the white. I had originally planned to swirl the whole thing, but since it took me a full week to quilt 1/3 of the quilt, I figured I needed to put away the free motion foot, and just get it finished!!

Wow. Straight-line quilting is deceptively time-consuming! And very physically challenging!  So, that took me another 3 nights.  And when I was finally done with the quilting...

 

I had over 100 thread tails to bury. Yes, I know there are easier ways to stop and start than to pull out the threads and tie a knot, but because of the skipping and shredding, I had to be able to rip out the stitches, and you can't do that if you stitch a bunch in one place before you start quilting.

That took me another tiring evening. But the hard part was DONE!! Now to bind it with the black satin blanket binding, and call it DONE! :)

This is a close-up of the quilting.

 And here is the finished quilt!! Hallelujah!!  I named it Hope Takes Flight.

This is, of course, my sweet little Rocket Man, photobombing the picture in his slow, I'm-gonna-roll-till-I-get-there way. :)

Honestly. Two WEEKS!!! To quilt this thing!! Working on it for 3-4 hours a day/night!  Thankfully, I have very tame children and I could sew some during the day, too, but most of it was done at night.

I had more than a few people ask why I kept at it. Why I didn't just put it aside, buy some fleece and tie a quilt for Restore Innocence's blanket drive.  But I couldn't.

I couldn't give up on a quilt that we were making specifically for a young, precious, girl whose innocence has been stolen from her. I couldn't give up on a quilt that will bring her warmth. I couldn't give up on a quilt that will comfort her. I couldn't give up on a quilt that we have prayed over. I couldn't give up on a quilt that will remind her that God has not forgotten her. A quilt that will remind her that she has been rescued and has been given a second chance. A quilt that will scream to her heart that God loves her. A quilt that will whisper in her ear that God is with her. A quilt that will sing in her soul that she matters.

I couldn't give up making a quilt for someone who everyone else has given up on.

And now...for those of you who waded through all of that... :)  I'm linking up with Sew, Mama, Sew for their biannual Giveaway Day, and one lucky person will win a charm pack of Mama Said Sew from Sweetwater, a lovely Colorado family,

AND one generously donated membership to Amy Gibson's Sugar Block Club! Another Colorado beauty. 

Heck, I might even throw in some Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory scrumptiousness.

I'm sticking with the natives over here! :)

The giveaway is now closed. I will announce the winner on the blog on Sunday (or sooner) December 9th. Thanks to everyone for the comments! :)

So about the giveaway...Please leave me one comment telling me what kinds of things you like to sew. And if you don't sew, tell me what your favorite creative outlet is. I will close the contest on Friday, December 7th at 5pm PST, and will do a random drawing. Then I will email the winner and announce it on my blog on Sunday the 9th. (By the way, I'm definitely willing to send internationally!)

If you want to win, you better be sure your blogger profile is not a "no-reply blogger"!! I can't find you otherwise. :) 

Good luck...and please visit Restore Innocence's page...I think our eyes need to be opened to this. Seriously -- thank you for reading this. Seriously. :)