Friday, November 30, 2012

From Rags To Christmas

A number of weeks ago I took a road trip through a winter storm down unfrequented Manitoba highways, headed for Boissevain/Killarney. My daughter was playing in a volleyball tournament there, so I wanted to make sure she was well equipped with juice boxes, sandwiches from Subway, and all around moral support. Fortunately for me, I have a dear friend in the area, and I managed to avoid the sketchy prairie hotel room and lounge around in her country mansion instead.
When the time came for us to attempt the snow covered drive home, Rosa gave me a parting gift: a box full of goodies that she'd culled from her attic. Among the treasures was an old quilt- beautifully hand stitched, softly aged to near perfection, and hopelessly frayed to smithereens all along its edges.
I decided to bypass the stage of hoarding it in my stacks for a few billion years and set straight to cutting it into stocking-esque shapes. I'd made a few of this type of stocking last year at the request of a friend, and she's been badgering me endlessly about putting some together for the project. The time was now.
Fortunately, I'd also been hoarding chennille bedspreads and baby blankets for the past millenium, and this provided the perfect pallet to showcase some of it.
Once my bernina had eaten up the first entire quilt, my latent "Edward Scissorhands" arose and I chopped up another beautiful quilt that I'd gotten as a gift for my fortieth birthday.

And then with suggestions that maybe not everyone was wild about hint of pink for their husbands and sons ( picky, picky), I found the perfect use for this quilt: a marvelous piece made out of recycled wool bits, flannel, and corduroy.

I'm pleased to report this morning, that so far, the damaged quilt that Rose gifted me those weeks ago has generated $96.00 for charity! I love garbage that way.

(Here's me, this morning all cozy in a thrifted cardigan, cup of coffee, calculator, ipad, notes, and kitty cat. Talking to all of you. ;) Have a perfectly marvelous day).

(stockings available here:http://www.etsy.com/shop/joycebaglady4darfur?ref=si_shop )

 

8 comments:

Heidi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Heidi said...

Hi Joyce,
Would you be willing to make more stockings for me? I need 3 of the "boyish" ones & then 2 girly ones. I think it would just take 2 more boyish ones than you have on Etsy...unless some of them have sold already. I'm interested in "Vixen", "Comet" & then 3 similar to "Rudolph". Let me know if that would be doable.
Thanks:)
Heidi

Hutt-Write Voice said...

I always enjoy coming here and seeing your new creations. Keep up the good work! You are making a difference!

joyce said...

Heidi, can you send me your e-mail address?
It's very doable, yes!
(re-joyce(at)live(dot)ca

joyce said...

Thank you Linda for not giving up on me. It's challenging to write the blog posts, work the job, maintain the Etsy shop, ship, etc.... And often the blog is left fallow for longer than I'd like.
But I always have a nice time when I get back here!

Unknown said...

Joyce,
I almost ordered some stockings through paypal then decided I could save the shipping charges and get directly from you. I'm interested in the Old Quilt E, Prancer and the one that is displayed to the left right in the middle if it's still available. Let me know, Brenda

brenda said...

Not the chenille but the one with the buttons on top.
Brenda

joyce said...

ok, yes that all works, except that the last one you want is sold. I have roughly a billion more socks cut out and am hitting my machine tonight to get some more done. Then we'll get you set up for sock #3, thanks!