First of all, I have a finished Deer / Elk block from the Forest QAL. I think this is my husband's favorite, and I tried to make it resemble our local elk...
I also finished up a ribbon board to use to display some of my fabric postcards at a local art show. I forgot to get a finished picture before dropping it off at the local art center, but I'll try to get one soon. I also have some of my quilts in an upcoming quilt show. I've already helped register quilts, and plan to help hang them later this week! It's one of my favorite week-ends of the year! Thanks to efforts to finish up my quilt tops, I had a record number of finishes this year... something like 11 or 12 in all!
That brings me to my May A Lovely Year of Finishes goal... I will work on what's now my oldest WIP, my "Scrap Attack" quilt that I finished up a year ago!
Finally, and most importantly, I've been thinking a lot about where my clothes come from after the recent devastating garment factory building collapse in Bangladesh. I can't help but think of all of those mostly women, with families of their own who paid the ultimate price for our cheap clothing. I've tried for years to buy clothing made in the USA, or used clothes from thrift stores. I make clothes for me and my family as well, but I can do better. I have a fair number of clothes made in China or, yes, Bangladesh. Over the years, it has been harder and harder to find USA-made clothes. I can find them though, and hope everyone will start looking a little closer, asking questions, and seeking for fair trade clothing.
I've bought clothes from USA made American Apparel, Pointer Brand, and Jody California. Some New Balance shoes are also still made in the USA. I often find USA made clothing in smaller scale stores... ranch and home stores, mom and pop stores, and even larger chain stores like Bi Mart. I've decided to start again making more of my clothes and my family's clothes in the future. Sure, it's easier and less expensive to buy discount clothing in stores, but I can't keep paying the ultimate price of exploitation, and dangerous, even fatal working conditions of these sisters, mothers, wives and daughters..
It got me thinking, too, Becky. Fewer, locally- or at least not sweatshop-made clothes are what we're looking at here. We do a lot of thrifting as well so that's going to continue, too.
ReplyDeleteI know that pattern is call roaring deer, but it looks like a bugeling elk to me! I worked on a wildlife park (with a few elk) for 8 years...so my perception is a bit biased! ;-) Yours turned out wonderful!
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