What's Cookin' At The Sweatshop?

Hi, all!


I hope summer is treating you well so far!  It's been as hot as all get out here (yes, that's a southern saying and I have no idea what it means!) so it's been easy to stay inside and sew.  We've been making kits for summer camp, and finally tonight got the last one made, so we're all ready for the kids (I hope!)  


We've been fortunate that there haven't been as many quilt requests this week, which gave us time to get those kits done and finish up some more tops and backs.  Here are the quilts we've made this week...

This beautiful quilt was pieced by Melissa and found a good home with a woman who is going through a difficult recovery from surgery.  Hopefully it will remind her of the ever present love of God even in difficult times!


The next quilt has kind of a cute story.  We received the embroidered blocks shown below from Sharon, and Cindy just fell in love with them....

She loved the farm aspect - actually I think it was the horse block that really caught her eye - and decided to use them to make a baby quilt.  Lots of scrappy strips later, here's what she came up with...

front...

...and back!

That cute little Debbie Mumm print on the back has been languishing in the stash for a couple of years now, but was just perfect for this quilt, with its cheerful cows and pigs!  This quilt will be going to a baby boy soon to be born at our church.

So that's all the quilts we've distributed this week.  I did finish four quilts that will be going to New Orleans in the fall...

These four tops were sent to us by Katie of Swim Bike Quilt!  Thanks, Katie!!

So that's our week at The Sweatshop!!  Thanks again to everyone who helps make our work possible - we couldn't do it without you!!

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And now, I'd like to let you know about a call for help I received this week.  You may have heard about the wildfires in Colorado, but less well publicized have been the wildfires in Utah.  

Julie of Having Fun Quilting lives in the area very near the wildfires and wants to give quilts to the families that have lost their homes as a result of the fire.  You can read more about this ongoing situation here - she actually was evacuated yesterday because the fires were threatening her town, but today they got to return to their homes.  The fire is only 15% contained, so it's still a continuing danger to the people that live there.  Anyway, Julie's requesting help from the blogging community, in the form of finished quilts, quilt tops, blocks, fabric or cash - anything you can send to help out.  If you leave a comment on her blog, she'll send you her address.  I hope you'll be able to help her!

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And Beth of Love Laugh Quilt has started a new blog aimed at people who give away their quilts for charitable causes.  When I read this post, I immediately thought, "What a great idea!"  So I headed over to the new blog, Quilts Are For Giving, and signed up to join in the fun!  You can be added on as a contributor if you'd like, so you can write a post about your charity quilts, or you can join in a linky party that will be starting up on Tuesdays in July.  Or both!!  Come join the fun and be inspired! 

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And don't forget to join in the 100 Quilts for Kids challenge - Katie has a great summer planned, with lots of guest bloggers joining in a blog hop with ideas for your quilts (I'll be one of them, here on July 9th!) so it should be lots of fun!  You can read more about the challenge here!!  It runs from June 15th until October 15th.

Hugs!

Sarah