This week has been a crochet heavy week and I’m sorry about that since the challenge has been primarily about paper and paint. I’ve been working against some pre-Nepal trip deadlines so I’ve been using a lot of time crocheting to get things done before I go and in preparation of teaching the ladies in Nepal. I promise to get back to the paper and paint soon! Or, you know, more like in December.

Day 265: progress report.

Day 266: Weaving in end threads.

Day 267: Working on my travel journal.

Day 268: While working on the edging for the blankie, Anwyn has decided she likes it very much.

Day 269: Starting the last row of a crochet project I’ve worked on longer than any previous crochet project.

Day 270: I’m finished! I’m finished!

Days 271 & 272: Nepal project prep.

Thoughts on this week:
I have 100 days left on this challenge. Becky asked me this week if I’d do it again next year. When I answered I didn’t know, she and Stephen both encouraged me to continue. I still don’t know. I’m wondering if I should do it again but change it somehow. Of course, there’s something to be said for don’t fix what isn’t broken. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts and suggestions.

I’ll be traveling (you might have heard something about a trip to Nepal) in November. Not sure how much daily work I’ll be doing during that time or during Thanksgiving week. Either way, that extends the last leg of the challenge well into the new year. Still processing what I think about that. If it matters or not about whether I do it again next year.

I do know it has been an incredibly fulfilling and fun year. I’ve got so many memories wrapped up in these daily pieces of art. An unexpected bonus to what started out as training exercise. I can say I appreciate all of your encouragement and comments on the stuff I’ve made. Art is so personal and subjective. So I am especially appreciative of all of the positive things people have said.

Day 258: Morning meditation on Hope, Peace, and Love. One to go.

Day 258b: It’s a good day! I’m finished!

Day 259: Working in my tiny art journal again feels good.

Day 260: Faith, Hope and Love.

Day 261: Watching the paint dry on the cover of my mini Smash Book. Gonna use it as my journal in Nepal.

Day 262: Beginning assembly of the granny square blankie.

Day 263: Outermost squares are tied on, not sewed to the middle yet. This is how much I’ve done since last night.

Day 264: Race to the end! I’ve got 10 squares to make and I’ll have all the squares for the boarder.

Swayambhu, or in English, The Monkey Temple in Kathmandu.

As most of you remember, I went to Pokhara, Nepal in December last year to help train women as sewing instructors. I’m so excited to be getting to go back this year!

I’ll be leaving in just a few short weeks to start the nearly 30 hours of flying to get there. Once I make it to Kathmandu, I’ll take a bus through the Himalayan Mountains for 6 hours to the town of Pokhara. It’s a good sized town with a beautiful lake and a tourist village that we jokingly named the Gatlinburg of Nepal.

This is Machapuchare, or in English, Fish Tail Mountain near Pokhara. It is sacred to the goddess Shiva so no climbing allowed.

Once we arrive in Pokhara we will meet with our host, Sangte (pronounced Son-TAY). She will be our translator for the week. She is a remarkable woman. Indian by birth, she and her husband felt called to minister to the Tibetan refugees in Nepal so they packed up and moved from India to Pokhara. She and her husband have cared for Tibetan refugee children over the past 10 years. Sometimes she has as many as eight children and teens living with her! She decided that another way to help would be to open sewing schools for women to learn job skills.

It is said that to be born a woman in Nepal you had to have been very bad in a previous life. Girls receive little education and are expected to quit school when they marry. Several of the women we worked with last year worked as seamstresses but also dug gravel and sand out of the river to sell to supplement their income. Sangte’s sewing schools are helping change that. By training women as seamstresses and then allowing them to purchase a sewing machine through a micro-lending program, women are able to start their own businesses in their village to make clothing and household items to sell.

I can’t explain how humbled and excited I am to be a part of this project.

Here is our group from last year!

Many of you asked how you could help. If you are inclined to contribute, you can do so in a variety of ways. The group I work with is Global Women. You can donate on that website and please specify that it is for Nepal. You can also help me with supplies I’ll be taking with me. I need: women’s vitamins, calcium, small tubes of toothpaste, yarn, crochet hooks in sizes 5 and 6mm, scissors (Nepalese scissors are very poor quality), sandwich and gallon sized ziplock bags, gum, candy, hand lotion, band aids, or neosporin. I also need fun things to go in a grab bag the ladies can pull from. Fun things like hair ties, nail polish, scarves, necklaces, note pads and pens are things we had in the grab bag last year. If you don’t have time to purchase those items but still want to help you can pass me some cash and let me know what you’d like for me to purchase. You can also paypal me under my name.

Lastly, I will ask you to pray, send good thoughts, light a candle or do your special dance for me and the team traveling to Nepal and for the ladies we will work with during the two weeks. I don’t talk much about my religion here but I will say this: I feel very strongly that God has called me to this place to spend time with these ladies and tell them they are loved and cared for by a community that is on the other side of the world. That they matter and are important to God and to me.

Thank you. It means a lot to me that many of you supported my trip last year and I appreciate what you have done and are continuing to do for this trip.

Day 251: Starting on Peace. Kinda a lake of paint at the moment.

Day 252: Hebrew in pink for Joy Week.

Day 253: Sneak peek of the panels in the sanctuary. (Got words & stained glass shapes drawn on all of them today!)

Day 254: @Obajoo came over and helped me paint today. We got SO much done! So pleased!

Day 255: Blankie is big enough now that it’s starting to be hot work, especially in the car.

Day 256: Painted for a couple of hours tonight. Getting there.

Day 257: Picked up the blankie that’s been on pause & realized I’m much closer to finishing than I thought.

Day 244: got the purple background done on Hope. Cut shapes for the stained glass. (1 of 4)

Day 245: one corner with solo cup for scale.

Day 246: progress report.

Day 247: I’ve got 20 inches of 55 inches made. It’s starting to look like a blanket.

Day 248: Gluing things down.

Day 249: Working on logo for the Naomi Center in Bucharest, Romania. No art to show off yet, though!
Day 250: More work on the logo for sewing school in Bucharest. Will be sure to post the idea the client chooses at the end.