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.

Almost since making my first tulip purse, I have wanted to make one in leather. I found a lovely red/maroon shinny finish scrap piece of leather, priced by the pound at the Carolina Fabric Outlet in Swannanoah, NC. It was a long skinny piece and I thought it might be large enough for a Small Long Stemmed Tulip Purse. Here is photo of the long piece folded so you see part of the front and part of the sweded back.

I researched what I would need to stitch into leather. I have a Juki TL98Q which is certainly strong enough and a 930 Bernina, which is also strong enough. I purchased the suggested leather needles from Bernina World of Sewing on Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh. I also purchased a teflon foot for the Bernina, as it was something I have been wanting. The other supplies were powder to dust on the machine so the leather would slide under the foot smoothly and binder clips to hold seams together before sewing. Both of these suggestions were excellent!

I chose to make the Long-Stemmed Tulip in the small version but had to make some allowances. One was to only be sewing two layers of leather at a time. To do that I had to make the back of the flap out of cloth, and cut out a smaller version of the flap and sew it to the lining of the flap to attach the snap. The other change was to make the handle base lining out of cotton as well. I had a maroon fabric in my stash that matched well. Here is a photo of the two materials.

The thread I choose first was a thick 12wt. 100% polyester. I was a gold color, similar to what is used in sewing the side seams of jean fabric. I couldn’t get the tention in either machine to handle the thickness. Instead I chose a 40wt. King Tut quilting thread. It held well when it was backstitched.

It was suggested in the instructions I found to sew with a large stitch so as not to cut the leather, thereby dividing it into two pieces as you sew. (This is the same problem when sewing the clear plastic onto the name badge holder in the Traveler’s Trio pattern, or the luggage tag in the Traveler’s Tote pattern.) I lengthened the stitch to 3, then 5, then settled on 4. The Bernina has a dial that will lengthen the stitch by skipping every other stitch. The 3 setting on it with a skipped stitch looked just right. It is necessary to back stitch or to hand knot the threads when the sewing is finished with leather.

As recommended, I did practice with the needles and thread in both machines before deciding I was ready to try making the purse. Here are the pieces cut out, ready to sew!

In order not to sew more than 2 layers together of leather at at time, I had to modify the pieces as shown here. The back of the purse has a template pocket. For the part attached to the purse, I cut away the seam allowance and sewed it to a piece of the lining. The inside pockets I made of leather on the outside and lining for the inside of the pocket.

Here is the finished purse. It is not perfect, but if you use the galloping horse rule, I think I will enjoy it very much!