This Blog is Carbon Positive

It seemed like the right thing to do.



I have a tweep (someone I follow on Twitter) who told me about the "Plant a Tree" initiative.  This program plants a tree for every blog or site registered in the program.

Why plant a tree?  Because trees use carbon dioxide and replace it with oxygen in the air.

Still not clear?  Think about this:  visiting a blog uses electricity, and making electricity (to power the servers, computers, etc, as well as the cooling systems) discharges carbon dioxide, having an overall negative impact on the environment.  They've figured out that 1 new tree planted for each blog will actually use more carbon dioxide than the blog creates, essentially negating the carbon dioxide effects of the blog on the atmosphere.

I'm not sure how it all works, but I do know enough about science to know that planting a tree is rarely (if ever?) a bad thing.  If my blog is contributing to the mounting carbon dioxide discharge in the world, and I can do something to minimize or even stop contributing all together, then that's a good thing too.

Ixpo will plant a tree for my blog, just because I added the button to my blog, and told you about it!  Cool, eh?

So, this blog is carbon positive!  It just seemed like the right thing to do!

Behind the Scenes

Lots going on around here, in the creations department, but nothing completed yet to show for it!  I am oh-so-close to being finished with another Nativity, and when it's done I'll also unveil another thing I've been working on behind the scenes - my ArtFire shop.


So excited for both of these things, and have several projects scheduled already - hopefully shorter ones that I can crank out pretty quickly.  Plus a few series of posts on some of these projects (like the Grade 3 Class Project Quilt).


I also feel the need to apologize for weird formatting and font issues here on the blog.  I'm sorry if any of the posts are hard to read.  I have NO idea how to fix it, but the first sections of my posts keep coming out in tiny font, so I change it to Large and now it's ENORMOUS.  I can't figure out the coding stuff to know why it's doing it.  A behind the scenes thing I don't get and need to work on sometime.  


Summer is supposed to mean more time, right?   Well, around here, not so much!  HA!  But that's OK.  I'll get some of these things up, front and center, soon, and you'll be able to see what's been going on behind the scenes!

UFOs - quilts that is...

disclaimer: I'm not sure WHY it's happening, but I AM aware that the first section of all of my blog posts is coming up with smaller font than the rest. I can't seem to find the coding or formatting error, and can't fix the problem. I apologize for the smaller print. Still working for a solution! Thanks for your patience! :)


In the world of quilting, a UFO is an Un-Finished Object (or  something like that).

Well, I posted all my UFOs as an entry for a giveaway a while ago, but I have finished a few of those, so I thought I'd update things.

As I went through my collection a few weeks ago, I didn't have as many UFOs as I thought. I have lots of patterns, and LOTS of ideas, but haven't started as many of them as I originally thought I had. That's a good thing. It means that I can maybe actually catch up with these projects...... nah, what what I thinking! LOL!


UFO #1 - Girls of the World

 

part still together

 

parts coming apart and sashing bits removed already

improper sashing

This is a quilt that was done with fabric paint (Tri-Chem if you remember them) by my mother and pieced by my Granny.  The piecing was done improperly (note how the sashing is incorrect), and it they didn't use batting (just an old blanket on the back) and I'm taking it apart to put together again.  (SHH!  Don't tell Mom and Granny, they don't know.) I love the girls, and want it to be properly quilted.


(more projects and lots of pics after the jump)

Read More

Grade 2 Baby Quilt

My youngest son started his school year off with 2 teachers.  His afternoon teacher was having a baby, and meant to work until May before having her baby hopefully late in May.  She ended up having to leave work early for bed rest and had her baby a bit early.  The children in class love this teacher and have missed her VERY much.  Having done a similar project with a grade 1 class a few years ago, I offered to help the class make a quilt as a gift for the teacher and her new daughter.

The children each colored their own block with fabric markers and then I put it all together!

TADA!  The finished product!  A VERY girly, very bright baby quilt! (names smudged for posting the pics here - not just messy coloring!)

A bit of a close up of the quilt

The children are in French Immersion so many of the greetings are in French, which is fun!

The back of the quilt - a nice polka-dotted fabric with a marbled binding.  You can see a bit of the machine quilting here as well - just stitch in the ditch along the blocks and sashes.

I can't wait to give it to the teacher.  She is going to be so surprised... she has no idea we're doing this! :)  I think she'll be pleased!  (If I remember correctly, the last teacher cried when she got her quilt like this!)

side note:  (the first paragraphs in the post are coming out with smaller print and I can't quite figure out why.  It shows FINE in the html of the post editor here in blogger and when I try to change it, it doesn't change anything.  I apologize for the small print.)