Skirts for Sewing Seeds and a Little Fabric Shopping
I managed to sneak out for a little alone time this morning to a little local quilt shop. It was so quiet, and it had such a lovely selection of fabrics. I wanted to spend all day. I came home with this really sweet Moda Dinosaur print.
I’m doing a Toddler Clothing Swap with an online friend this month. She has a 2-year-old daughter who loves dresses, dinosaurs and purple, so I matched up the dinosaur print with the purple and green dots. I’m going to turn them into a dress with matching bloomers. I’m thinking I’ll add a ruffle at the bottom, too, just to add to the girly-ness.
I also thought I’d share these two skirts that I whipped up before we left Texas for The Sewing Seeds Project. These will travel to Costa Rica this summer where I pray that they’ll be a blessing to the little girls who receive them.
You can read more about the project and how you can contribute, too, by clicking here.
Summer Support Trip 2009 – Waldo & St. Augustine
I’ve gotten a bit behind on updating the last few days. We spent a nice relaxing day at our hotel in tiny Waldo, Florida on Thursday. I drove out and picked up my baby sister, Cassie, and my three nieces, and we all hung out all the hotel pool for the afternoon (with permission from the hotel, of course).
Allie (my niece), Allen, Samantha, Kristen (my niece) and Cassie (my sister)–aren’t they a beautiful bunch?
I love this picture! I think it’s such a beautiful illustration of the pure trust that a little boy has in his daddy.
Ray spent much of his time launching Allen and Sean up out of the water so that they could do backflips.
After swimming, we all drove over to my mom’s house for dinner.
On Friday morning, we packed up the car again and headed east to St. Augustine Beach where we met with some friends for lunch and fun at Splash Park.
Saturday morning, we set off to our final destination for this trip: Melbourne, Florida. We’ll be visiting here with our home church, Calvary Chapel Melbourne, for about two weeks. It looks like it’ll be a busy time, and we’re really excited about all that we have planned!
Traveling Umbrella Girls – Update 1
The Umbrella Girls are coming along nicely!
Having a bit of sewing experience, I thought I could figure out how to do the hand applique/embroidery stitches on my own. Ha! That was definitely not the case. I was so thankful for the Wi-Fi at our hotel and the great tutorials that I found online. When I first got started, I thought it was really slow and tedious, but after the first couple of blocks, I really began to enjoy it. Now I’m thinking that I can really understand why people enjoy doing hand embroidery so much.
Here’s a picture of me working on one of the girls on the front porch at Florida Black Bear Cabin.
Summer Support Trip 2009 – OHB & A Little R&R
We had a wonderful time sharing with Orange Heights Baptist Church in Orange Heights, Florida, last night. It’s been about four years since we were there last, and I think everyone enjoyed the update to what we’ve been doing. What an amazing group of believers!
Before coming here, we spent two nights at the Florida Black Bear Cabin in Wellborn. We had planned our little side trip there for some rest and relaxation, and time to just enjoy each other. When we arrived, we were amazed at what a beautiful cabin it is. The pictures on their website really don’t even do justice to how welcoming and comfortable it is. It was the perfect setting for a few days of peace and quiet. (I wish we could have stayed a week!)
We played hours of “Speed Scrabble”. Allen and Ray played badminton, and Allen worked on his badminton serve nearly the whole time we were there. We curled up inside and read books that we’d brought with us and books and magazines that were on shelves throughout the cabin. We ate yummy food, including chicken, zucchini and bread that Ray cooked on the grill our last night there.
We picked blueberries from the bushes right next to the cabin.
And, we made blueberry muffins to snack on.
We checked out some cool bugs, including some really pretty spiders and skins that had been left behind by locusts.
I gave Samantha some cross-stitch lessons, and she picked it up really quickly! She should have a completed project to show off soon.
And, Ray and Sean built a campfire so we could roast marshmallows and have s’mores.
We are definitely planning to come back here again!
Update on My Stepdad
Thanks so much for praying. Things went really well with his heart cath. They were able to put a stent in to relieve the blockage. He’ll spend tonight in the hospital and should be able to go home tomorrow!
Prayer Request for My Stepdad
We’re enjoying our relaxing stay at the Black Bear Cabin in Wellborn, Florida. I’ll post some pictures of the fun tomorrow morning. We’ll be driving down to Gainesville tomorrow. I just heard from my mom that my stepdad is going into the hospital there tomorrow morning for a heart catheterization. He’s been having chest pains, and his doctor believes that there is a blockage that needs to be cleared. Our prayer is that the doctors will be able to put in a splent during the heart cath tomorrow, and that he’ll be able to go home on Thursday. Please join us in praying for this procedure.
I will update tomorrow afternoon, or as soon as I know anything more.
Traveling Umbrella Girls
If you know me well, then you know that I can’t stand to be idle for very long. When we travel by car, I really enjoy having something to keep my hands busy. My mom recently let me bring home an umbrella girl quilt that my grandmother made when I was a little girl. I remember how much I loved it then. The primitive, handmade look that it has to it really appeals to me. I have wanted to make a quilt just for me for a long time, so I thought I’d try to recreate this one with my own flair. Since all of the umbrella girl pieces are hand appliqued, it’s a perfect traveling project.
The original umbrella girls:
My new blocks and applique pieces all cut out:
I’ll update with my progress as we go. My goal is to finish all 24 squares by the time we get home.
Summer 2009 Support Trip – Biloxi, Mississippi
We had a lovely lunch today with our friends, Michael and Deborah. One of the things that I love about support trips is that it gives us the opportunity to share about GFA, and that is an amazing way to renew my own enthusiasm.
After lunch, we went for a drive down the beach and stopped for a few hours at a local carnival. We all had a great time! We haven’t been to a carnival in a long time, so I was surprised at how many rides Samantha and Allen were brave enough to ride. Of course, it helped that big brother, Sean, encouraged them and rode on the big scary ones with them, too.
This picture should give you a chuckle. Ray stopped to show Jamie the bubbles, and Jamie started punching them. Apparently he thought he was under attack!
We’ll drive out of here tomorrow morning towards Florida where we have a cabin rented for two nights of rest and relaxation. On Wednesday we’ll be in Orange Heights, Florida, speaking at Orange Heights Baptist.
Summer 2009 Support Trip: And . . We’re Off!
Ray and I are on the road today with Sean, Samantha, Allen and Jamie, headed out on our annual support trip. We serve as full-time staff missionaries with Gospel for Asia at their U. S. home office in Carrollton, Texas. GFA does not take out a percentage of donations received for administration, instead, 100% of all donations go to the area where they are designated. As staff members, we raise our own prayer and financial support. Our list of supporters includes churches, family and friends. Each year, we travel to visit with our supporters, to encourage and pray with them, and, prayerfully, to add new supporters to our team.
We’re heading into Biloxi, Mississippi tonight, where we’ll visit supporters tomorrow. Then, we’ll drive into Florida, where we’ll spend the remainder of our trip, before returning to Texas the last week of June.
As we left the Dallas area yesterday, we noticed that the fields of wheat along the sides of the road were “ripe to harvest”. It was a beautiful reminder of why God called us to serve in full-time ministry, supporting native missionaries in the field, and it was a great encouragement as we set out on this trip.
When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Matthew 9:36-38
If you’d like to know more about GFA, stop in at www.gfa.org and request the free book, Revolution in World Missions. I pray that it will be a huge blessing to you!
A Last Minute Kilting Project
Yep, I said, “kilting”, and not “quilting”.
I love to sew, and I love a challenge, so when I received an email last Tuesday asking if I could find time to sew up a kilt before the weekend retreat, I jumped right on it. Rather than actually using the pattern that I was given, I just measured my husband and looked at the pictures on the front of the pattern, and made things up as I went along. The kilt needed to be adjustable because it was to be used for a “pole-throwing contest” by multiple contestants, so it’s fastened with Velcro (actually it’s Aplix because that’s what I had on hand).
Front:
Back:
Modeled by my champion pole-throwing husband, Ray:
Ray’s winning pole throw:
