Saturday, June 7, 2014

Making Progress

Things are moving right along in my life these days.  I've finished the quilting projects that were waiting for some attention and I've assembled some hand stitching and embroidery to work on this week.

There have been contributions to the Jolly Ruby Fund indiegogo campaign that I posted about earlier but here's a little recap.  Jolly Ruby is my way to make a difference in the lives of adults with disabilities who need a little temporary financial help.  Over the course of my career, I came across too many people who just need a hundred dollars or so to keep their lives on an even course, but there was no place to get that money. So I set up the Jolly Ruby Fund and decided to use money generated by sales from my Etsy shop to help these people.  While sales have been okay, there is a greater need than I expected so I began a 60 day fundraising campaign at Indiegogo.  You can check it out here to learn more about Jolly Ruby--and to make a contribution if you like.

Thirdly, progress has been made in social justice. Yesterday, a Federal judge declared that Wisconsin's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional!  Already, I have friends who will be getting married on Monday morning after years of partnership. Good for them!

Fourthly, progress is made on our vacation at the lake. I leave in an hour and have to get packed up, so that's enough for this post.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

What I've been working on lately

Yesterday, I decided I was ready to re-open my Etsy store here so I stocked it with items both new and made in the last couple of years. "Why not show them on my blog?" I said to myself, so here are some of the new items in the shop.  

I made two table runners similar in design. The first one is a pastel peach with yellow green leaves and a dark green stem. I machine appliqued the flowers and leaves, quilted an outline of the flower in the center space and stippled all around to make the outlined things puff out.  


The second table runner is quilted pretty much the same way but on this one, I used a red fabric to make the outer tulip petals and used the peach fabric for the middle petal.


I also had a few of these pincushions that I'd made up and decided to put them in the shop as well.  They're all the same--4" square--but with different fabrics and buttons.  I love how they feel all stuffed up with ground walnut shells!




While I always like to keep the shop open, I sometimes run out of items and the time to replenish the stock so that's when the shop closes.  I know, I should be more diligent about that but sometimes life just interferes, ya know?

I really wanted to get the shop back up and running for launch date of the Indiegogo campaign I'm starting to help fund the Jolly Ruby Fund.  Some of you will have received an email from me already explaining what it's all about, but for those who haven't, you can go to the campaign website here and find out more.

The Jolly Ruby Fund is my way of continuing to provide service to adults with disabilities when they have no where else to turn for a little temporary financial assistance.  Every dollar I get from sales at the Jolly Ruby store goes to the fund and now I decided to try a "crowd fund" approach at www.indiegogo.com  to get a stronger base for the Fund.  If you want to make a contribution, I would be so pleased.  If you would share this campaign news with your friends and families, please do so. The more people who know about this venture, the better.

In my 25+ years advocating for adults with disabilities, I was never able to locate any government fund or private charity in the country which would fill this gap in service, so when I retired 3 years ago, I decided on the Jolly Ruby Fund idea, using my love of quilting to generate the needed dollars.

Why do I call it "Jolly Ruby?" you ask. I took the first 2 letters from my siblings names and mine too, and they spell out JaLe RuBa.  I slurred the letters until they came out "Jolly Ruby."  All of my siblings have passed on--two from lymphoma and one from complications of diabetes--so I try to honor them by using their names in this charitable effort.

That's all for today.  Got to do some cleaning and gardening.