From A & K - Celebration

Last June we decided it was high time to take our near constant photo texting up a notch, so we bit the bullet and started this little blog together. Nothing too big or fancy, just a tiny nook in this colossal space we call the web where we could share our passion for making stuff with each other and with any like minded folk who happened by. Little did we know that starting this space would make living more than 2,000 km apart feel like we live next door or that this blog would add so much creative fuel to our sewing.

We have both recently been fortunate enough to have been touched by the generosity and kindness of others. Amanda through her epic ride, and Kelsey through the outpouring of selflessness that has seized the city of Calgary in the wake of the flood. In the hopes that we can share a kernel of this with one of you, we decided it was time to pay it forward with a small celebration of our own.

After much deliberation, we've pulled together a collection of some favourite crafty things that we'd like to send to one lucky reader. To enter our little giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment. You can mention a favourite project or favourite post from the past year or even a well wish if you'd prefer.

For those who have been along for the ride, you may recognize many of these things from our posts. We have:

1. A Kwik Klip for pin basting
2. Magic Bobbin Winders to help perfect your quilting stitches
3. A Supreme Slider to make your free motion quilting a little easier
4. Clover Quick Clips (Amanda is totally obsessed)
5. Liberty!!! in book form
6. Three Charm packs (enough to make a Smitten quilt, if you're so inclined)

And just to sweeten the pot a little more, we'll throw in a digital copy of Rachel's Smitten pattern and this:

You know, just to shove you down the rabbit hole (you can thank us later). We'll close the comments on Friday July 5, 2013 at 11:00 p.m. EST and then randomly pick a winner shortly thereafter.

Thank you for a fantastic first year!

From K - A City with a Big Heart

If you've been watching the news, you may have heard about severe flash flooding that has swept the southern half of the province of Alberta, and that hit my city hard last week. It came on seemingly without warning, at 3 pm I received an email from my company out of the blue, telling folks to make their way home as 3 communities close to our office building were under mandatory evacuation. In the 2 hours it took me to pack up and head home, that number went from 3 communities to 21. In total roughly 100,000 people were displaced in a two hour time frame.

 

In the above photo you can see an entire neighborhood underwater (the flooded river runs along the downtown core, nearly 1km from the hilltop that I took this photo from.
 

This post isn't about the flooding though, it's about the heartbeat that keeps this city going. Since all of downtown was evacuated, I spent most of the past week volunteering my time to help clean up affected communities. The City of Calgary put out a call for 600 volunteers one day and within 20 minutes 4000 of us showed up. I was just 1 of nearly 1/4 of a million people who threw on rain boots that day to help family, friends, and more often than not, complete strangers.
 

One of the houses that I helped clean up had water nearly 5 feet above ground. The photo below shows a prominent line on the garage and fence where muddy waters rose to.
 

 

I'm not sure what anonymous Calgarian wrote this sentiment, but my eyes were wet after reading it:

"Today I discovered the meaning of community. It is the ability to ask for help, and not have one or two people meekly offer, but to have an abundant amount of people to come forward and insist on helping. It is working elbow to elbow with strangers who arrived, not knowing anyone from areas as far as an hour away so they could help people in need (especially Eric from Cranston - that man was a machine). It was Peter's Drive-Thru doing not one, not two, but three food runs. Providing free burgers, fries, onion rings and delicious milkshakes. It was gutting a basement, hearing "do you need some fireman down there" and having a group of CFD join you and moments later having a group of Edmonton firefighters jump in too. It is working in a strangers basement and bumping into people you know. Because that's what Calgary does. It is having the Calgary Police Force come by handing out cold water and granola bars. It was the couple who showed up with cookies and casserole for a group of strangers and hand feeding us the cookies because our hands were in no condition to be near food. It was finishing with one house, and automatically moving to the next one. Let's clean this city up!"  - unnamed Calgarian

 

The 101st Calgary Stampede (sometimes referred to as the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth) is slotted to begin a week from today and many Calgarians were quick to unofficially change the 2013 motto to "Come Hell or High Water". T-shirts to support flood victims with this motto are selling for $20 a piece, with proceeds from each t-shirt sale being donated to the Canadian Red Cross Alberta Floods Fund. I picked up a few myself from here.
 

I could go on for days sharing stories about the kindness of perfect strangers that I've expereienced both first hand and that I have heard from close friends. I could never be more proud than I am right now of the city that I choose to call home. People always talk about how Calgary is a big city with a small town feel, and this past week has surely solidified that thought. While my heart is heavy with the grief of many, it's also boasting with pride, for I know that that our city has an irreplaceable sense of community that will let us get through this together.

I love this city.

From A - The Gentle Art of GSD

I managed to finish my very long bike ride. It took almost 11 hours of riding over 2 days to get it done. The bad news was that at the end of day 1, I looked like this:

This didn't bode well for day 2. Although it was a bit of a rough start, the good news was that at the finish line I was able to pull it together enough to look like this:

It was such a fantastic and inspiring weekend. The ride was difficult and we really had to push ourselves to make it across that finish line. The rain held off and we were amazed at the kindness of the other participants and volunteers. We heard so many amazing and touching stories that I spent more than a few of the minutes on my bike in tears over the weekend.

For me, finishing one big goal usually generates enough momentum that I am able to finish another. This means that finishing usually begets more finishing. I have always called this interesting quirk the art of getting sh*#/stuff done or GSD.

In this case, the high of finishing my ride was somehow enough to spur me into heading to the storage locker across town where much of my fabric is being stored until the end of "the move" and digging out my long unfinished Smitten quilt.

I spent an afternoon squaring up the top and making a backing before boxing it up and sending it out to be quilted by a long arm quilter. Here's a little preview before it left.

It's the first quilt that I've sent to be quilted and I am pumped. This bad boy has been dragging towards finished for long enough that I am more than happy to pass the torch. Rarely has a trip to the post office been so satisfying.

Up next: that baby bonnet.