Awesome Mother's Day Gift? Yes Please!!

This is the latest special I'm doing for my new business Shorts For Life. 

Check it out, leave a comment, and spread the word!!

Porter's First Birthday

We had so much fun at Porter's first birthday last week. Can you believe that he's a year old?! I can't. Here are some photos from the party. They're just iPhone photos so just ignore the blurriness.

Free first birthday cake from Macy's

We love our baby so much! He is the light of our life and makes us so happy every day! 

A Glance at Porter's First Year

All Hands On Deck!

Look at all these beautiful blankets that have been dropped off at my apartment this last week!

And I even had more dropped off later that day.

We are getting closer and closer to our goal but we need All Hands On Deck.

Here are some ideas to get involved.

1. Tell you church leaders about our project and get your congregations involved

2. Go to your local fabrics stores 

to find out about fleece and cotton deals. 

You can also tell them about our goal and have them spread the word to their customers.

3. Get you kids' schools involved! 

My Sixth grade class made a bunch of blankets for the 911 victim families and it was so fun! I still have my friends form way back then talk about it.

Kids LOVE helping others, especially through crafts.

4. Winter Cleaning

Get out those boxes and bins of fabric you've got stuffed in your closet and use

all your scraps to make a cute and comfy quilt. 

Nowadays anything goes, so get those scraps out, patch them together, and send them our way.

5. Blog, email, facebook, tweet, and pin about us.

Help us get the word out by using the amazing power of social networking!

6. And last but not least: Donations!

We've had a lot of people who didn't have time to make blankets,  

but still wanted to help.

so they sent us money and we got all the stuff, or they bought

and donated brand new blankets from local stores.

There are so many ways to help this cause. 

We've still got two whole weeks to go!

Let's do it!

Happy Monday!

More Blanket Ideas

I love Ucreate. It's such a great blog with cute crafts and everything DIY.

Here are a couple of great blanket ideas from their blog.

Ucreate


Don't forget that we are looking for all styles and sizes of blankets and beanies. If you don't really know where to start, just follow some of our links we've put up or just go down to your local fabric store and tell them about what we're doing. I'm sure they can help you out with the stuff you'll need.

This is such a great opportunity for families and friends to do something good in our crazy world. Please take advantage of the holiday season and help us give a little something to our fellow americans.

We've already had 3 beautiful blankets brought in!! Lets keep 'em coming!


Happy Wednesday! (wow already wednesday?)

They Need Our Help!

Some people ask, "Why are you sending blankets? By the time they get there everything will be rebuilt."

Sometimes it's hard to realize exactly how much damage was done by the storm. These families need help, love, and comfort.

Here's a video with pictures of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.

Don't just stand by! Do something.

Comfort Sandy's Kids

Hey everybody this is a special post so listen up!!

Ever since Hurricane Sandy my family has been trying to figure out a way to help all of those people who've lost homes, family, power, or belongings. I'm always scared to send money off to random charities and since it's really hard to fly back east and physically help out we've come up with a BRILLIANT plan. So if you are in the same boat as me, LISTEN UP because this is for you!!!

So here are some tutorials to help you as you help others! 

We made our own plus found a bunch of links to other quilting and crafty blogs in case you want to get really crazy. 

Remember, we would love all kinds of blankets, including big ones, small ones, quilted, tied, or fleece. Anything to help our fellow americans stay warm and feel your love. *But please no used blankets or beanies, only homemade or newly purchased. 

Blankets range from 54x60 for the fleece and 54x36 for cotton

Blankets can cost from $10 - $20 depending on where you get your fabric. 

The fleece I just bought at JoAnn’s fabrics was 50% off @ 12.99/yd. so I paid just at $10 per blanket.

My cotton blankets are made from fabric purchased at Wal-Mart they have lots of 

cute fun prints at very reasonable prices. 

Fleece Blankets

1½ yds. Fleece

Make sure your edges are all nice and straight.  Cutting off all rough edges and salvages. 

Now you can choose a couple ways to tie your sides. You can cut and tie all 4 sides of your 

blanket, or you can choose to only cut and tie 2 ends.

Begin by cutting 4 inch fringe about 1 inch thick on each side you plan on tying. 

Options: tie each individual fringe by itself like in this picture.

Or: tie two pieces of fringe together in a square knot. 

(right over left and left over right – 

so that when it is washed the knot will stay.)

We like both ways.  You can also find great tutorials on how 

to sew 2 pieces of fleece together to make a thicker blanket.

                                                                                                                                     

Super Easy Cotton Tied Blankets

1 ½ yd. cotton print

1 ½ yd. cotton solid

crib size batting

yarn

Quilting needle

Wash and dry fabric (to prevent shrinking after blanket is made.)

On a flat surface, lay down the fabric you chose for the back of the blanket with the right side up.  

Next layer on top of that your top layer of fabric with right side down.

On top of that, lay out your batting, pin all three layers together (see picture above).

Trim all three layers so your edges are all straight and even.  

You can use a straight edge and rotary blade if you have one.

Sew all three layers together leaving a 5 inch opening on one side.  Remove pins.

Turn blanket inside out.  

Your batting should be in between your fabric now with the right sides of your fabric facing out.  

Be sure to push out each corner from inside so you have nice defined corners.  

Press with an iron.

Sew up your 5 inch opening carefully on the machine or by hand. 

Be sure your fabric is tucked inside along that seam.

Time to tie your quilt!

 Begin by marking your quilt with a 5x5 template. (I cheat and usually just stitch according to the pattern on the print.) The purposes of the ties are to keep the fabric together and the batting in place. 

In the blanket shown, we tied in the middle of every other fish, skipped two rows of fish and started again.  Use your best judgment and just make if fun, cute and consistent.

Thread your quilting needle with about a yard of yarn, pulling your yarn through until both ends of the yarn are even.  Make a small stitch at your first marking, making sure you go all the way through both fabrics.  Pull your yarn completely through until you have 3 inches left on the end. 

 Next there are several ways you can tie your yarn.  

The most important part is that you make a square knot at each mark. 

Here are two ways to tie:

1) Continue on stitching your yarn through each mark, making sure your 3 inch end stays secure and doesn’t get pulled through.  When you get to the end of your yarn, cut in between each mark, and tie at each stich point the yarn in a square knot. 

2) Tie as you go: after each stitch cut your yarn, tie your square knot and continue on.

3)    There is also a method to tie before you cut your yarn, but it is hard to explain.  If you would like to know how, send us an email and we’ll help walk you through it! J

Finish up: look at each tie and make sure it looks nice and clean. 

Check the back side of the fabric to make sure it also looks nice and clean leaving no 

crazy yarn pieces back there.  Trim each tie to about 1 inch long.

Voila! – you have a fun and warm blanket to send to a Sandy family 

and everyone gets to be warm inside!

Go to these great links to get some more ideas and inspiration!

For blankets

Imperfect Homemaking

Tip Junkie

U-create

Exploring Womenhood

Quilting In The Rain

Quilting In The Rain 2

Connecting Threads

Mary Quilts

See Kate Sew

Honey Bear Lane

If you want to make beanies go here.

Fleece Beanies

Knitted had with a Loom 

Free Hat Patterns

Info. about us: In 2001 we started Comfort the Kids, and with the help of several hundreds of amazing people delivered over 2500 handmade red white and blue blankets to children who lost family members in the twin towers on 9/11. To keep the fun going, we delivered over 500 blankets to victims of some of the California wildfires in 2003, and in 2006 sent over 500 blankets to Houston, Texas to a children's burn unit affected by hurricane Katrina.  As a family we are grateful for the blessings in our lives and feel it a privilege to share those blessings with those suffering.  Please join us and share your warmth and love with the families that are bracing for a very cold winter on the east coast. Please give a blanket, so you AND those who bundle up in your blanket will feel some comfort, warmth and peace this cold winter season.