India

A lot has happened since the last time I posted a message. For one, this summer I spent two months in India for an internship. There are no words that can describe my experience accurately, but it was amazing, challenging, rewarding, wonderful and so incredibly interesting.



I have met the most fantastic people and learned so much! It will take a long time to digest all the impressions and things I have seen, but I look back with such fond memories.


If you are interesting in reading a little more about my trip, you can go to the blog I wrote while I was there at http://monsoonlessons-bonnie.blogspot.com/

Two women are applying wax in a process known as double batik.

This gentleman is sitting on a large concrete block with a vat of boiling water to remove the wax from the batiks.

From the train on my way to Kutch.

Cows do indeed walk all over in India!

A textile producer in Kutch.

What language barrier? I met this young man who was deaf and because of sign language, we could communicate.

This textile producer works only with natural dyes and materials. Here he is standing by one of his fantastic indigo baths.

The King's Palace in Kutch. Amazing!!!

On the market in Bhuj, Kutch.

On the market in Bhuj, Kutch.

The Lotus Temple in Delhi.

The Golibar Slum, Mumbai.

The Red Fort in Delhi.

The monsoon coming to Goa.

Fall Quilt

I always wanted to learn how to quilt. So, my first project ever was a king size sampler quilt. Was a lot of work but really rewarding. Some day I will post pictures of that one too.


These pictures are of my second quilt. I decided to make it with batiks and solids in fall colors and add miniature squares of each of the larger blocks.









To get the miniature squares, I just took the measurements of the larger 12" blocks, the measurements of the binding between the squares and then had some "quality time" with my calculator :-). It actually was a lot of fun and really rewarding to see the tiny 4" squares come to life. They fit perfectly in the quilt.

Denim projects

I love taking old jeans and turning them into new projects! These are some of the projects I have made with bits and pieces of old jeans.

First, I salvage the parts of the jeans that are still in good condition. I cut these parts into shapes, often diamond, and sew then all together into a new fabric. That gives me the flexibility to create anything I want to!

My first project was this jacket for my daughter. I made it in 2004 of several of her old jeans. The next project is a school bag. I needed a strong bag for my school that at the same time was organized enough so I could find my cell phone, keys and other little things. I used the same technique as for her jacket and added a liner. The liner was just a simple twill fabric I had found on sale and used for re-upholstering our old van. I had enough left over and added a frilly pattern with the sewing machine. This broke up the big, shiny surface and made it a little more visually interesting. I then added separate pockets for phone, keys and a larger for ID and wallet. As a closure, I fastened a magnetic snap for purses. The shoulder strap is made of longer pieces of denim and I just added some large eyelets for visual interest. I finished the shoulder straps with a clasp I salvaged from an old, worn out leather belt. It worked great!

Already thinking on the next denim projects!






This is the jacket I made for my daughter already five years ago. Obviously, hanging on a hanger does not do any garment any justice!

"Who keeps hanging their stuff on my hook?!"

Ok, I am so tired of hearing this every day. I am sure I am one of the offenders, but I just cannot remember whose hook is whose. So, I named them. I first bought a cheap piece of wood at Hobby Lobby ($0.47). Then I printed out our names in a font that seemed to match the rest of the room (yeah, like our hall way really has a theme going on, ha ha).

I then colored over the back side of the image with a regular pencil and placed that on the piece of wood. After rubbing over the paper with the blunt end of a pen, the pencil-writing transferred to the wood. Now I had something to go by.

Next, you get the wood burning tool out and let it warm up. I went outside with it because I know from a previous time how strong it can smell, just depending on what kind of wood you use.





I had (un)fortunately a little help from my four-legged assistant Max. He felt I really needed some TLC while trying to carefully outline the names.









So, here is the finished results. I suppose I could have gone all out and added a border, but at this point getting the job done is more important than perfecting the job. (My family and friends are right now wondering if I actually posted this).

Fountain

Every year our little town hosts a spectacular fundraiser for the local FCCLA chapter. As the name indicates (Tour of Tables), creatively and tastefully decorated tables set the stage for a morning of fun and wonderful food.


I needed a centerpiece for my table and after searching all over for ideas, I ended up building my own fountain. The design is based on the old style hand pump that was predominantly used on the farms on the East side of the nation.


Building fountain is really easy. A pump does all the work for you, you just need to design a decorative casing. It worked really well for my table and I have since then used it as a fall decoration in my entry way.

The Spirit of Division

As the Christmas season is approaching, I am again reminded of the wonderful old story of Ebenezer Scroodge. He met three spirits who all showed him reality, the truth. Thinking of this story, I couldn't help but to think of the church in general. I guess most people always think that a church is only inhabited by the Holy Spirit, but I fear that some host some also hosts another one. This one actively seeks to divide and conquer. I don't understand what there is to conquer? When I put on my human "thinking cap" I realize that it is a battle for control and a pervert sense of popularity, but I don't understand why? Probably an expression of some unmet, but unbalanced and twisted need that relates to other, deeper issues. The control is never used to build up the Kingdom of God, but merely keep any true efforts down.

Two key strategies are implemented: never talk directly to the person they are griping about, only behind their backs so they cannot defend themselves, and always take a part of the truth and twist the end. There is constantly a strange message of "I am just the victim here, but I just want peace so I will not say anything". This is not the truth! The truth is that if their lies were to come to light, they would be exposed as exactly that, lies. This is a very concerning pattern. People are systematically being sought out and "befriended" and slowly absorbed into this this web of deceit.

This is a perveted spirit and not from God. It may look right initially, but when you shed light on it, it reveals nothing but division.
"By this all men will know that you are My disciples; if you have love for one another". Mark 13:35

Beyond Perfection

I thought that I many years ago had finally learned the lesson of perfection: you have to go beyond perfection, learning to move forward despite imperfection. Unfortunately, I not only lost the paper I wrote about it (computer crashed) but also seem to have lost the lesson learned.

The chains of perfectionism are slowly choking me again and preventing me from what I am capable of. The funny thing with being a perfectionist is that while striving to be perfect, you will avoid making any mistakes and the mistakes is what you learn from and you end up not being perfect.

So, perfect has just become imperfect. Hmm.....