Modern Relief - Week 1

If you haven't checked out Modern Relief - Japan yet, you NEED to!  The first set of quilts is being revealed today, so get your booty over there, check out some of the beautiful quilts up for grabs, and buy some raffle tickets!

Quilting for a Cause

We've all seen the devastation in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami, and I'm sure we've all wanted to help in some way or another.  What about donating money (proceeds going to Mercy Corps), with the possibility of winning a quilt?  I've briefly mentioned it before, but Modern Relief - Japan will have a raffle for quilts starting April 4.  Every Monday until May 16, Modern Relief will reveal 10 quilts that you could have a chance of winning for a donation as low as $10.

The week my quilt is up I'll give more details about it, but for now, just a picture.

2011 To Do List - Check In!

Elizabeth, over at Don't Call Me Betsy, is doing a little check up to see how we're all doing with our 2011 goals.  Here's what I posted, way back in January, as my To Do List for 2011, with the progress next to it.

*Christmas Quilt
*Nathaniel's Quilt - DONE!

*Daiquiri's Baby Quilt - WIP

*Emily's Baby Quilt
*Kendall's Quilt - WIP
*Cami's Quilt - WIP
*Birdie Stitches BOM - WIP (January's block done)

*Christmas Tree Skirt
*Join a Bee - DONE!  (May is the first month, and that's mine!)

I didn't blog about this, but I'm also doing a "Pay It Forward 2011" for some Facebook friends, so here's the progress on that...

*Marybeth's Mug Rug - DONE!

*Marchelle's Camera Strap
*Trina's Apron
*Something for Kelly J.
*Allison's Mug Rug

Ummmm, yeah.  Doesn't look like I've done that much.  But I have done alot that's not on my to-do list, so that counts for something, right?  And I've added some things, too, which probably isn't a good thing. 

I mentioned it before, but I made a quilt for Modern Relief - Japan.  I actually finished that last night, and will be blogging about that later, but here's a sneak peak...

I also want to make Easter dresses for my girls.  Since this one has a very definite timeline (less than a month) that's the next thing I'm going to work on, as soon as my machine gets back from the doctor.  Which, by the way, I dropped it off this morning, and my oldest daughter cried.  She thinks I'm never getting it back!  That's either very weird or very sweet.

Yesterday

Yesterday was an interesting day here in SoCal.  It rained pretty much all day long.  It doesn't rain here very often, and when it does, it definitely doesn't rain all day.  So that was part of the unusualness (is that a word?).

That was okay, though, because there's something so nice about quilting on a rainy day.  So that's what I did.  I'll write more about this later, but I was working on a quilt that I'll be putting up for auction for Modern Relief - Japan.

Then around 5-something last night, the lights flickered, went out, then came on again.  Then a few minutes later, they flickered, went out, and didn't come back on.  Until this morning!  

So most of my night looked like this

Which meant I had to dig out my 3 storage boxes full of candles and candle holders.  I used to be a really big candle person, but I don't really use candles anymore for a few reasons...

1) Candles and toddlers don't mix,

2) We strangely don't have any shelves or ledges in our living room, which is where we spend most of our time, so the only place to put candles is on our end tables, which kind of goes back to my first reason,

and

3) As far as keeping my house smelling nice, I'm slightly obsessed with Wallflowers from Bath & Body Works, and I have 4 throughout my house all the time. 

But after last night, I realized I had forgotten how nice candlelight is.  They still don't mix with toddlers, so back into storage they go.

Oh yeah, and I also lost signal for my cell phone, and since we don't have a landline, I felt completely cut off from the rest of the world.  And with my husband not home (he was coming back in town during all of this), that left me a little freaked out.

He finally made it home, and that's how I found out that pretty much all of my little piece of LA (San Pedro) was without power.  He said it was a pretty weird thing driving home in total darkness! 

I was also awakened around 4 am this morning to the sound of hail pelting our bedroom window, and then thunder and lightening a little after that.  Storms like this are rare around these parts!

So I didn't get quite as much quilting done as I had hoped, but I'm hoping to finish it up this week.