What's Cookin' At The Sweatshop? Quilting & Cutting!

Hi, all!


Well, it's been a while since I did an update on The Sweatshop - so there's some catching up to do! First, let's look at the quilts we've been working on.  Thankfully, it's been a little easier the last couple of weeks - a little summer breather, which is nice, since through May we made 75 quilts this year!  Here are the quilts we've made so far in June...

This beautiful quilt was donated to us by Sue - isn't it gorgeous!  I love that block, that looks like curves but is all straight edges.  It is going to a young woman whose father was murdered recently.  She's having a difficult time dealing with it and we hope this will remind her that there are people praying for her and give her some comfort.

This cheerfully colored quilt was made from a top donated to us by Mina, I believe.  It has found a new home in Chicago, with a young woman who is dealing with some pretty serious medical issues.  She received it the day before her surgery and let us know how appreciative she was to have this reminder of all our prayers and good wishes!

The top of this quilt was larger than we usually make so I took a couple rows off the top and added them to some fabric for the back.  Worked out nicely, I think!

This very nice sudoku quilt was pieced by Pam, and is going to a woman in Florida who has just been diagnosed with colon cancer...

... and this quilt, pieced by Deborah, is going to a woman who's just been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect that will require open heart surgery to correct.

This quilt will be going to a woman recently diagnosed with cancer.  As with all of these quilts, we hope that the quilt will remind her that there are many people praying for her, and provide comfort and a reminder that God loves her and has her in His hand!

And then there are the quilts for new babies...

  

Bright and cheerful, pieced by Cindy with donated blocks...

...this beauty pieced by Kathy, using the pattern we will be making with the summer camp kids...

... and this pretty sunshiny quilt, pieced by Deborah.

So those are June's quilts, so far!  We've also been working on quilting tops before they are needed, so we have quilts on hand to give out quickly, and we've also been quilting kids' quilts for New Orleans.  Those will all be shown when they are distributed....

And then last night we had a get together, called "The Five-Pound Smackdown"!  Given the huge amount of scraps we had on hand - the tubs were running over - we decided to have a "girls' night".  

So we pulled out a bunch of chick flicks, grabbed our rotary cutters, and had a race to see who could cut their scraps the fastest.  We put together five pounds of scraps for each person - and believe me, five pounds of scraps is a huge amount!  Three fully stuffed gallon ziploc bags!! 

Even though we were there for several hours, I don't think anyone got through more than one bag - so next time it may be the Two-Pound Smackdown!  

But we had lots of fun and cut a huge amount of scraps - and the tubs will now close again!

So that's what's been going on in The Sweatshop lately!  Thanks again to everyone who helps us out - we couldn't do it without you!!

Hugs!

Sarah