Jolly Ruby and Halloween

I've finished a few things that I want to let you know about.

First of all, the embroidered Halloween table runner sold right away, and I'm so happy that it went to a loving home.  Sounds as though it's a rescue cat or something, doesn't it, but I do get sentimental about some of the quilts I make.  I wish I had time to make another one, but that will have to wait until next year, I think.

As soon as I'd finished the embroidered piece, I began making this Halloween snowball quilt.  I finished stitching the binding this morning and have it listed for sale in my Etsy shop, Jolly Ruby.

This quilt is the largest I've offered in the shop--it's 60 by 66 inches--so I don't know how it will go over. I think it's perfect for a table quilt or for snuggling under on a chilly night.  It's the first time I've made a snowball quilt and it went together very quickly. No problem matching seam lines or anything.  I saved the triangles I cut off the snowball blocks and pieced them together in a long string of HST and put them in the border between 2 strips of candy corn fabric. That took a lot of time, but I'm glad I did it--gives the quilt a little something extra, I think.  I realized that I'd made a mistake in sewing those little HSTs together, but since it was a consistent error, I decided to leave it as is and call it a pattern!  That's what I've been told--if it's one error, it's a mistake; if it's multiple errors, its a pattern,  and that works for me!

I have enough of the assorted Halloween fabrics left over to make a table runner or two so I hope to get them made up and in the shop ASAP.  So that's what I'm doing the next several days.  

I'm quite proud of the Jolly Ruby shop and the even limited success I've had with it. Since I'm the only one making quilts for the shop, it necessarily doesn't have a large variety of items in there at any one time.  The reason I began this Etsy shop is two-fold. One, I wanted to have an outlet for the quilts I want to keep making and two, I wanted to set up the Jolly Ruby Fund which is used to help people with disabilities when unexpected expenses arise.  

 My career for 25+ years before I retired a year ago, was helping adults with disabilities access the benefits they were entitled to, such as Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.  Most people who are disabled (and 40 % of Americans will be disabled at some time in their working lives) get cash benefits ranging from about $800 to $1200 per month.  Not a lot of money, but they make it work.  When unexpected financial needs arise, these folks usually don't have the cash in savings that's needed. In fact, on some programs (SSI, Medicaid) an individual can have no more that $2000 in assets, and it's difficult to save any money when your monthly check is only $800!  

I ran into many situations where a person with a disability needed a few hundred dollars to meet a one-time unexpected crisis.  For example, the electricity goes out for a few days and all the food in the refrigerator spoils. Unless the person has extra money, it's pretty hard to replace that lost food and hang on until the next month.  Another situation I ran into is the person who had a part-time job and needed some car repairs in order to keep his transportation--and his job! And there are many other situations like this.  

Anyway, I thought the Jolly Ruby Fund might be a way to help out in these kinds of situations, so that's what my Etsy shop is about. Every sale that's made goes entirely to the Jolly Ruby Fund so I figure, its a win-win-win.  The buyer gets a lovely quilted item, the Jolly Ruby Fund get replenished, and I get to continue making quilts.  

Sorry to go on so much about Jolly Ruby, but it's a cause that I'm quite passionate about.  If you would share this information with others that you know who are interested in quilted items and/or want to help people with disabilities, I would greatly appreciate it. Here's the link again:  Jolly Ruby

Now, I have to spend the afternoon in the garden, clearing it of weeds and leftover vegetable stuff. Fortunately, it's a beautiful Autumn day here in Wisconsin, and I'm afraid I'll have to get out the sunblock again!  Wherever you are, I hope your Sunday afternoon is a grand as mine is.