Messenger bag for my sister-in-law, Mandy. I have to say that I was insanely fortunate to marry into the family I did, Brian's parents and sister are all really amazing people. Mandy and her husband Robert and their kids (Noah, Riley, Lily, Gabriel and Aiden) have been in missionary training for the past 7 years. This fall, they will be leaving for Senegal, to work as church planters in a tribal setting.
Now, I'mma gon get a bit serious here for a minute, which, not standard for me, but I promise we will soon be back to cat photos and craftastrophes. I met Mandy and Robert and the kids right before they started down their path to be missionaries, and it has been an extraordinarily inspiring and beautiful journey. When I met them, I wasn't even a Christian, but regardless of one's religious convictions, you really have to respect people who believe SO strongly in something that they will sacrifice an easy and comfortable life for it, despite numerous challenges. It can't be easy leaving all of your friends and family to begin YEARS of schooling that will then lead to YEARS of being overseas, all the while having to find support and also deal with those who don't understand what you're doing-- but I'm sure it's exponentially harder when you are a family of seven. Watching how God has always provided for their family, sometimes in bizarre and completely unexpected ways has really been awesome. In my opinion, they are doing the most important work that there is, and it is difficult and beautiful work. Like I said, I was blessed to have been made a part of this family, and am really excited to see them again this summer before they leave for West Africa.
A few notes on the bag-- As far as I can tell, Mandy carries boulders in her messenger bags. This is a replacement for another I had made her, hopefully it will prove tougher than its predecessor, which came back to me looking as if it had lost the war. There is SO MUCH THREAD in this bag's innards, as well as LAYERS of interfacing and roughly 40 pockets. I'm hoping that now that they are out of school, this bag will not have to deal with the roughly 700 books that the other one had to carry. The fabric is a wax block print that I got in a local African grocery store, and it is lovely stuff.
If you are curious about Mandy, Robert and the kids' travels, you can
follow their blog here.
So, I work at a quilt fabric store. We have a lot of classes, and starting this summer we will have one more: Improv Studio! And, fr some reason, they are letting me "teach" it. Quotation marks because I would consider myself to be more of a facilitator than a teacher- I'm sure that some of the people who will participate will be more accomplished sewers than I am. The basic structure will be a brief presentation (Powerpoint! Woot?) of some images of whatever the theme of the month is. Since improv isn't about patterns, but inspiration, I think it's a good place to start. This will be followed by a demo of the technique, and then SEWING TIME!
I'm kinda jazzed about it, and if you're local and interested, you can sign up on at Harper's, by phone, and eventually it will be up on the website. It will be the third Tuesday of every month, from 6-9, and the cost is $20 per session. This is the ticker-tape quilt I did as a sample, as that will be one of our first sessions. I'm kind of in love with the technique, because it's pretty much a color study and a puzzle all in one, and also pretty quick and simple. AND, I finally have a use for the itty bitty scraps I used to throw away!
