I have finished reading the book by Rich Stearns, The Hole in our Gospel. It has been a long time since I have been moved to get off my backside and do something to change a little corner of the world. As a result of a Guideposts article, hearing Rich speak in person, adopting a little girl from Guana and reading this book, I have made the following decisions:
1. All proceeds (yes, proceeds, not profits) received by Anything But Boring for the new pattern Kit ‘n Kaboodle, available at Spring Market in Salt Lake City, Utah in May 2011 will be donated to Water.org to help provide clean drinking water to communities who do not have it.
2. Even though I tithe my income from my business (that is 10%), I commit to additionally donate equal amounts that I spend on my annual pet care, which is a luxury item in this country. This is usually around $600.00 a year, including food, vet visits and flea treatments and heart worm pills.
3. I also commit to donate equal amounts that I spend on my hair cuts and color, as well as cosmetics and skin care. This should amount to about $600.00 a year, as these things are also luxuries.

It is very easy to sit in my deeply cushioned office chair, typing on my state of the art iMac in temperature regulated air listening to the birds sing outside and think, “What good can I do?” Instead I choose to do what I can, and pray for wisdom and guidance to be able to do more.

If you would like to “do” something too, here are some suggestions taken from the end of the aforementioned book:
1. Buy a world map. Use push pins to mark crisis and pray for those affected.
2. Tune into poverty. Podcasts are available at www.worldvisionreport.org.
3. Sponsor a child. Go to www.worldvision.org/thiog or do a search for “sponsor a child”.
4. Form friendships. Many world cultures are just a neighborhood away in many cites now. Visit ethnic churches in your area to get to know people from other places.
5. Watch a movie. Films are a powerful and influential medium in our culture. Watch movies such as Blood Diamond to learn about child soldiers and the diamond trade; Hotel Rwanda to see courage in the face of genocide;, or Slumdog Millionaire to understand the plight of street children in India. Discussing the movies with others afterward enhances the experience. Go to www.theholeinourgospel.com for a list of other thought-provoking films.

Three friends and I organize drawing classes for Hollis Chatelein once a year. We have completed Drawing I and II, Portraiture, and next year is “The Color Class”. One of our class supplies is a large 3 ring binder. Having spent the last 3 weeks quilting on a quilt for NCQSI 2011, I decided to sew something fun and quick. I found this free pattern from Moda Bakeshop called Funky Quilted Binder Cover by Maria at Passing Down Crazy. (Here is the link to the pattern: http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/04/funky-quilted-binder-cover.html)

The cover needed to be colorful, of course, and I was going to use left over batiks from making purses, cut into squares. When I dug into my scraps, I found something even better. I had little pieces of hand dyed fabric from Lorin Fields (Local Colour Hues localcolourhues@gmail.com). See Blog Post dated 2/3/2010 for the original project made with these lovely fabrics. I cut the already sewn together strips into 2-1/2 inch squares. When I still had little pieces left, I cut them into 1-1/2 inch units. Using an orphan block from a Carol Bryer Fallert class as the center front, I added the smaller pieces as a little border. With black as the large border around this, I then pieces and added the 2-1/2 inch squares as a checker board for the spine and back. It was quilted in simple straight lines. Left over yellow made the pockets for the binders front and back. I even had the binding from a left over project.
This was simple and pretty quick since I had so many of the parts already from other projects.

My friend Sheri and I had a wonderful visit to England! The ladies we met at Sew and So’s in Bungay were so much fun! Rob and Verona took such kind care of us for the afternoon! You can see the photos of the ladies listening intently as I demonstrated how to put together the Two-Hour Tulip Purse. Later we shopped around the cute town and had a snack with Rob and Verona before taking the train back to London.

My friend Sheri and I visited the Quilt Store “Sew & So’s” in Bungay, England a couple weeks ago. I did a demonstration for the lovely group of ladies.