Blood Drop Quilt -- SCRAPPED!

Okay, the title of this post is a tad morbid, but I promise that it's not gross at all.  I actually designed this quilt myself (WHAAAAT??!) to be a visual representation of the transformation that happens in God's eyes when we decide to accept His free gift of salvation that was purchased through His Son's sacrifice on the cross so long ago. 

It's essentially a wholecloth quilt with a tad of applique.  I did a little collage applique by randomly fusing little pieces of red scraps into the shape of a drop of blood. 

As you can see, the rest of the top is simply white.  This will be would have been a smaller quilt--I simply cut yardage off of the bolt and didn't bother doing any piecing, so it'll only be 44" wide.

The thought occurred to me to piece a colorwash-type background that showed a progression of dark to white, but I thought that wouldn't accurately depict the transformation that occurs--it's all or nothing, there is nothing in between. 

I basted this using Dritz basting spray, which I'm not a huge fan of.  I think I'll ditch the spray altogether and just stick (hehe) to my usual method of safety pins next time. 

I meant to post this WIP update several weeks ago, but with my energy as sapped as it has been (read: I go to bed when Lil Schep goes down), there hasn't been much actual progress, and I've lost my will to finish this project.  The quilt top was finished back in October of 2016, and I only just recently got it out to quilt it out of guilt.  Earlier this week, I ripped it out from under the presser foot and tossed it in a heap on the sewing room floor.  Mind you, that did make me feel bad, given the significance of this quilt, so I think I'll just fold it up nicely and tuck it away and hide it until the urge to quilt it returns. 

I have a few more guilt-laden WIPs that I simply need to scrap.  Anyone else with me?  Maybe I'll muster up the courage to ditch them all.  If I do, I'll share it with y'all.  Until next time, God Bless. 

When I'm Not Sewing...

Well, as of late, I've been falling asleep as soon as I get Lil'Schep down for the night, but I've also got a few other things going on.  Right now, I've been focused on getting this little nerd educated:

We are blessed to have grandma providing his care during the day, and she agreed to follow a curriculum for him during these vital preschool years.  After some research and a bit of personal experience with it, we opted to purchase the A Beka Book curriculum for our son:

Lousy picture quality, but I was excited to get this special delivery!

There really aren't many books involved yet, so it's chock full of coloring/painting pages and arts and crafts aimed at teaching them letters, shapes, numbers, and vocabulary.  Overall, I'm really happy with it, and the customer service I received from them has been great. 

I spent a few evenings laminating smaller flash cards on my little Scotch thermal laminator. 

Once again, shoddy photo quality, but these are the Bible curriculum pages that I cut out and laminated.

If you want my opinion on this machine, it gets the job done.  Of course, I wish you could laminate something larger than an 8.5" x 11", but that's what the library is for!  A local library will laminate posters for $0.75/linear foot on their 24" laminator, so I'm saving my dollars to take a stack of roughly 100 posters to them sometime next month.  Before y'all ask, I have seen the YouTube videos of thrifty moms self-laminating posters at home, but given the investment that these posters represent, I'll stick with the professionals this time.  I obviously have no qualms about laminating stuff at home, but I'll save that for replaceable items. 

Along these lines, grandma has been going over the weather with our little guy everyday, so I made her some magnets they can use on their board:

I cut these out on my Cricut, and laminated them with the same Scotch machine I mentioned earlier. 

I spy my new Cricut in the background!

I stuck some Scotch magnetic tape on the back, and voila! 

Whaddya know?  A bolt of MM Glitz?  Perhaps I'm using it in BabySchep's nursery???

Durable magnets!  I'm looking forward to using this technique for other learning tools for our kids. 

As a working mom, I often feel guilt that I cannot be there for my little boy (soon to be two!), but finding the energy to use my God-given crafty abilities to enhance his education does warm my heart.  When the time comes, I think I will live for working on school projects with them!  I'm just starting to learn how all you crafty mommas out there feel!  Well, until next time, God Bless!