Make-A-List Monday - The Big Double Nickel!

Hi, all!

Well, it's Monday and I'm back in Tennessee after a whirlwind trip to East Texas for a family wedding.  I'm so glad to be back - Texas ain't got nothin' on Tennessee in the fall!  I couldn't figure out what looked so strange in Texas until I realized that the leaves hadn't turned color there....  The wedding was fun, but there truly is no place like home!

Another reason I'm glad to be here - today's my "double-nickel" birthday!!  It's been a quiet day - we'll go out to dinner tomorrow night with the kids to celebrate - but a good birthday nonetheless!

Enough about that, though - let's see how I did on last week's list...

1.  Quilt a woman's quilt for the quilt ministry.

Done!

2.  Put labels on some anonymously donated quilts.

Done!  All three have new homes already!

3.  Bind my friend Christy's quilt.

Done!  It came out amazingly well, especially considering 
it's her very first quilt!!  

4.   Quilt and bind a commission quilt.

Done!  This one's ready to go in the mail!! I'll show more pics of this one at a later date, after the wind dies down so I can take some!

5.  Finish cleaning up the boxes from the great junkroom clean-up.

Almost done - just a couple more to go...

6.  Quilt a second woman's quilt for the ministry.

Done!

So all in all, I did better than I thought I'd be able to do! And now for this week's list...

1.  Make a back for Lilli's Christmas (gift) quilt.

2.  Quilt that quilt while I have time without her here!

3.  Finish cleaning up the junkroom boxes.

4.  Get all the learning and craft stuff together for Lilli.

5.  Sew up a back for Emmy's Christmas (gift) quilt.

6.  Make some more dump-and-sew blocks if time permits.

So far this week, we haven't had any quilts requested through the quilt ministry, so I'm making the most of my time and working on Christmas presents!  It's coming up so fast, isn't it?

And Lilli will start staying with me again next Monday - we're going to have so much fun!  Learning and cooking and of course, sewing!!  I'll probably be sharing a lot of our adventures in crafting in the near future....

And speaking of sharing and blogging, I'm coming up on my 500th blog post - and you know what that means!  A giveaway!!  So be on the lookout - it should be in the next week or two!

So now the question is - - - what are you working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? A Flurry of Quilts...

Hi, all!

Friday rolls around again - and what a Friday! It's not only Whoop Whoop Friday, it's also the beginning of the Blogger's Quilt Festival AND Quilt Market!  Now, if you, like me, can't go to Quilt Market, Blogger's Quilt Festival is the next best thing.  And if you've never participated before, there's no time like the present!  Hop over here to get more info....

And now, here's what I'm whooping about this week...

These two beautiful quilts were sent by our friend A.D. (anonymous donor) and already have found new homes...

...and this pretty quilt was quilted and given away, too!

And last but not least...

I finished the quilting and binding on this pretty quilt.  For those of you who have been following along on my blog, this is Christy's first quilt, which she had on the quilt frame at church when her aneurysm burst.  It was almost finished but needed a little repair work, as she had some problems with excess fabric as she reached the bottom of the quilt.  As I've said before, washing and drying cures a multitude of problems with a quilt - even though I still had some ripples and extra fabric when I finished the quilting, it was almost undetectable once it was washed and dried!  

Didn't Christy do a beautiful job with this one?  

Hard to believe it is her first quilt!

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And now it's your turn!

What are you whooping about this week?

Share with all of us -

We want to whoop along with you!!

The linky party will close on Sunday at midnight...

Be there or be square!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Blogger's Quilt Festival Time! Scraps of Love....

Hi, all!

Well, it's that time again - Blogger's Quilt Festival!!  Lots of beautiful quilts with wonderful stories - and a great distraction from the fact that Quilt Market is going on!  If you've never participated in the Blogger's Quilt Festival, you should give it a try - you can read about it here.  It's a wonderful experience!

This year I want to tell you about a quilt that I've blogged about a lot in recent days - but it has such great stories related to it that I can't resist sharing it one more time!  So for those of you who have already read about this quilt, I apologize.  For those of you who are first time visitors to my blog, thank you for coming and I hope you'll come back soon and often!  

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Our church has a growing quilt ministry that started about three years ago from very humble beginnings.  We call our ministry Piece*Love*Quilt, and we've made and given away almost 400 quilts since we started.   

I've got a special quilt to share with you all today - made for Christy, one of our quilt ministry members, who had a brain aneurysm rupture a few weeks ago.  

The word blocks were donated by Sharon...

Christy is a new member - she had just joined a few months ago, and after making her first quilt for herself (she was afraid it wouldn't be good enough to give away!), she made six baby quilt tops and started on a quilt for a friend.  

The monkey fabric came from the first baby quilt Christy made...

And the red striped fabric above is left over from a dress I made
for my daughter about 20 years ago!

Then suddenly she suffered a ruptured aneurysm and has been in the hospital ever since.  She is still sedated and they are unsure of the extent of the damage.   Right now, it looks like she will be in long term care and rehab....

Lots of the ministry members joined in making blocks for this quilt - it was the first experience for many of them with dump-and-sew blocks, but it went well!  

In fact, the block on the right above was the first block a new member had ever made, and actually the first thing she ever sewed!  She was so excited....

And this block has the best story - one of the ladies in the group was making it at home before leaving on a trip, and her daughter was helping her pull fabrics.  When KatieBeth brought the princess fabric over, Deb said, "Honey, this quilt is for a grown-up lady - and that's a little girl fabric."  KatieBeth responded, "Well, she's a princess too, isn't she?"  As Deb said, how could she tell her not to put it in after that?

There are pieces of fabric in this quilt from many of the quilts we've made for the ministry, and many hands had a part in the making of it.  Our hope is that it will remind Christy of how many people are praying for her and cheering her on as she recovers from this devastating event in her life.  

Thanks for letting me share this special quilt with you.  I hope you'll join us in praying for Christy - she'll need a lot of prayer over the coming months......

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And now, by the numbers...

Quilt Measurements:  68" x 90"

Special Techniques:  Dump & Sew Improv Piecing

Quilted by: Me and Jolene, my long arm machine!

Best Category:  Favorite Group/Bee Quilt --or--

Favorite Scrap Quilt!

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Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope, if this is your first time here, you'll stop by and join us for Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Fridays - a great time to share what you've been working on each week!  

Hugs!

Sarah

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Make-A-List Monday - Time to Get Back To Work!

Hi, all!

Monday again - how do they come so fast?  We had a great time in the Smoky Mountains this past weekend - lots of fun time with our granddaughters, daughter, son-in-law, and niece!!  Good food...

....a little shopping... 

If I'd known the front looked that good, I probably
wouldn't have made that silly face at my hubby!!

....some swimming....

...and beautiful leaves to peep at!!  But now it's time to get back to work - because Christmas is how many weeks away?  Nine!!!!!!!

But first, let's see how I did on last week's list...

1.  Quilt the last baby quilt on hand.

Done!  

2.  Bind both baby quilts.

Done!  One of these already has a home...

3.  Finish the quilting on a friend's quilt.  Quick job, only about 12 inches left to quilt after reloading it on the machine.

Done!   But I don't have a picture yet...

4.  Clean up the house so the house sitter doesn't 

run away in terror!

Done!  I think she had a good time - 

she loves our movie collection!!

5.  Finish sorting through the few boxes left from the great junk room clean-up.

Started but not finished - I'm hoping to get through 

the rest of them this week.

6.  Keep working on Emmy's Christmas stocking.

Done!  Look at how it's progressed....

At the last update...

And today!

Now let's see what I need to work on this week...

1.  Quilt a woman's quilt for the quilt ministry.

2.  Put labels on some anonymously donated quilts.

3.  Bind my friend Christy's quilt.

4.   Quilt and bind a commission quilt.

5.  Finish cleaning up the boxes from the great junkroom clean-up.

6.  Quilt a second woman's quilt for the ministry.

That's a good start - there's probably more I could add to the list, but I'll start with this.

So now the question is - - - what are you working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Scraps of Love

Hi, all!

It's Friday again - are you ready to get your whoop whoop on?  I'm currently whooping it up in Gatlinburg, TN with my family - a long weekend to play, shop and enjoy the beautiful fall colors in the Great Smoky Mountains!  I didn't get a whole lot of sewing done this week, but I want to share a post I also put up on the Quilts Are For Giving blog - so if you've already read it there, I apologize for repeating myself....

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I've got a special quilt to share with you all today - made for one of our quilt ministry members, who had a brain aneurysm rupture last week.  

The word blocks were donated by Sharon...

Christy is a new member - she had just joined a couple of months ago, and after making her first quilt for herself (she was afraid it wouldn't be good enough to give away!), she made six baby quilt tops and started on a quilt for a friend.  

The monkey fabric came from the first baby quilt Christy made...

And the red striped fabric above is left over from a dress I made
for my daughter about 20 years ago!

Then suddenly, last Monday, she suffered a ruptured aneurysm and has been in the hospital ever since.  She is still sedated and they are unsure of the extent of the damage.  

Lots of the ministry members joined in making blocks for this quilt - it was the first experience for many of them with dump-and-sew blocks, but it went well!  

In fact, the block on the right above was the first block a new member had ever made, and actually the first thing she ever sewed!  She was so excited....

And this block has the best story - one of the ladies in the group was making it at home before leaving on a trip, and her daughter was helping her pull fabrics.  When KatieBeth brought the princess fabric over, Deb said, "Honey, this quilt is for a grown-up lady - and that's a little girl fabric."  KatieBeth responded, "Well, she's a princess too, isn't she?"  As Deb said, how could she tell her not to put it in after that?

There are pieces of fabric in this quilt from many of the quilts we've made for the ministry, and many hands had a part in the making of it.  Our hope is that it will remind Christy of how many people are praying for her and cheering her on as she recovers from this horrible event in her life.  

Thanks for letting me share this special quilt with you.  I hope you'll join us in praying for Christy - she'll need a lot of prayer over the coming months......

*%*%*%*%*%*%*

So now it's your turn!

What have you been working on this week?

What's made you dance a happy dance?

Share - we want to boogie along with you!!

The linky party will stay open until Sunday night...

Be there or be square!!

Hugs!

Sarah