Make-A-List Monday - Next Year Already????

Hi, all!

Monday again - the last one of the year!  Are you a "see in the new year no matter what" person, or an "I'm going to bed - see you next year!" person?  I'd love to stay up until the new year, but most of the time I don't make it.  But 34 years ago today, I did make it up to the new year, and got to see my husband-to-be on our wedding day - no bad luck at all, we're still together!  Having a New Year's Day anniversary has been a mixed bag - there have been times when we were living in such a rural community that absolutely no restaurants were open on our anniversary - so we've learned to be flexible about when we celebrate!

Right now, though, I need to recap how last week's list went...

1.  Finish the upholstery project for my friend.

(This is an absolutely "must do" - no more putting it off!)

I'm really happy to say that I finished the two pieces I had already measured and cut - the futon cover and the window seat pad - plus I made two pillows for each.  Forgot to take pictures, though!  I've still got one more part of this project to do, now that I've measured and cut the foam cushions for a chair...

2.  Make a quilt for a 10-year old girl with a tumor on her spine.

Done!  It's in the dryer right now, so I should have pictures this week.  Turned out really pretty!

3.  Finish that wall hanging!

Started, but not finished yet.  Hopefully this week sometime...

And now, for this week...

1.  Cover the cushions for my friend's chair.

2.  Upholster a stool cushion.

3.  Make a messenger bag.

4. Finish the wall hanging from last week.

5.  Quilt my "Orange You Glad" quilt.

6.  And as if I needed another hobby, I'm starting to knit a "Honey Cowl" - it will be interesting to see how this goes!

This post is woefully short of eye candy, since I failed to take any pictures of last week's projects, so I'm going to show you some shots of Emmy's finished quilt...

A little hand quilting...

And a little more - see the stars in the sky?

.... and a shot of the two lovely ladies I get to spend some serious time with this week - they've been with their parents during the holidays!

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

Hugs!

Sarah

PS - if anyone knows why this post is getting so much traffic all of a sudden, can you please let me know?  I'm glad more people are seeing it, but I wonder what suddenly brought it to the forefront! Thanks!

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? A Gift For a Very Special Person

Hi, all!

Have you recovered from the Christmas festivities yet?  We had a fabulous time here with the little girls - it was so much fun to see them enjoying all the fun, food and toys!  And now I can finally share some pretties that were completed in the last couple of weeks!

First of all, I want to show you a quilt our sewing group made for a very special person.  

Kathy is our "champion" on the staff at church, and helps us out in so many ways - delivering quilts, getting us funds when we need them, handling space and supply needs for us, and most importantly, being the "tactful" face of the ministry (tact definitely not being my strong suit!)  She doesn't sew, but has been an integral party of the ministry since we started.  We quite literally could not do what we do without her help.  So we decided to create a "dump and sew" quilt for her, using blocks made by ministry members, combine with orphan blocks donated by some of you lovely bloggers.  

We worked in some words....

And did some fancy quilting...

...and even pieced a pretty back!

Aren't those suns cheerful?  Such a great piece of fabric for a back!

So that's my whoop whoop for the week - a group project by lots of  helping hands in the Piece*Love*Quilt ministry, for one of our own!  It only seemed fair that she get one, since she can't sew one up for herself......

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And now it's your turn!  

What have you been working on this week - 

Or what can you finally reveal now that Christmas 

has come and gone?

Share with  us - we all want to see!

The party will remain open until Sunday night - 

Be there or be square!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Merry Christmas to All....

In the midst of all the fun and rush of Christmas, be sure to take a few quiet minutes to remember the reason for the season....

..... and have a wonderful Christmas, from my house to yours!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - The Finish Line!!

Hi, all!

Well, it's Christmas Eve as I write this, and I'm very happy to say that I'm not sitting at the sewing machine!!  Everything is finished,  wrapped and under the tree - we're all ready for Christmas morning!

Let's see how last week's list went...

1.  Bind the third ministry quilt.

Done!  This was a pretty one...

2.  Quilt Emmy's quilt.

Done!!  I even did a little hand quilting on this...

3.  Quilt the gift quilt.

Done!  I'll tell you more about this quilt on Friday...

4.  Finish piecing another gift quilt.

5.  Quilt that second gift quilt.

Done!  But I can't show pictures of this quilt yet...

6.  Quilt a wall hanging.

I didn't get to this one - but will use it for a slightly later gift need...

7.  Finish Lilli's nightgown.

Done!  But I don't have any pictures yet - I hope she'll try it on for me tomorrow morning so I can get a picture!

In addition to all of those things above, I quilted another ministry quilt for a woman who has just been diagnosed with stage 4 bone cancer.  That quilt was delivered this morning!

And now, for this week's list...

1.  Finish the upholstery project for my friend.

(This is an absolutely "must do" - no more putting it off!)

2.  Make a quilt for a 10-year old girl with a tumor on her spine.

3.  Finish that wall hanging!

That's all I'm going to put on the list for this week, because I've GOT to finish that upholstery project - it's been hanging on for entirely too long!  

And I don't know about you, but I have a feeling there are some fun things under the tree for me - I may have a whole new list of bucket projects after opening packages tomorrow morning!!

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

Hugs, and have a wonderful Christmas!!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Hi, all!

It's starting to feel a bit more like Christmas here - gifts are piling up, the weather is cooling off, and some of the Christmas crafting is finally completed!!

I showed you this teaser on Monday - the top of the appliqued Christmas tree, which shows some detail of the quilting.  This wall hanging is only about 20 x 24, but it took six bobbins to do the quilting!  Whew!!

Here it is in all of its glory - isn't it pretty?  I don't know if you can see it, but there are some crystal snowflakes scattered in the white background...

What seems to be a design feature is actually a desperate attempt to cover up a smudge on the white fabric, but it worked pretty well!

More detail of the quilting and applique...

And one more shot, just for fun!!

The wall hanging was made by this pattern, called Swirled Christmas, that I purchased on Craftsy.  I highly recommend it - it was simple, well written, and helped me make a wonderful Christmas keepsake for my in-laws!

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So that's my whoop whoop for the week!

What are you whooping about?

What has set your heart and feet to dancing this week?

Share with us - we want to cheer you on!!

The linky party will stay open until Sunday at midnight.

Be there or be square!

Hugs and have a very merry Christmas!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - The Home Stretch!

Hi, all!

Well, despite all my efforts to back pedal time, Christmas is rushing towards us!   I hope your Christmas crafting is coming along well, and that you won't have too many late nights in the next week...

Before I have to think about what needs to get done this week, let's look at how I did on last week's list.

1.  Finish the Christmas tree wall hanging.

Done!  Here's a teaser pic - I'll be sharing more of this on Friday!

2.  Bind the two quilt tops I quilted for the ministry.

Done!

3.  Put together another quilt top for a gift.

Done, but I can't show this one yet!

4.  Quilt that top.

Nope.  Still got to do this one...

5.  Wrap more packages!

Done, but there's still a big pile to do!

In my defense, I did also quilt three more ministry quilts, and bind two of them.  I'm hoping that there won't be any more requests this week!

And here's what I'll be working on this week....

1.  Bind the third ministry quilt.

2.  Quilt Emmy's quilt.

3.  Quilt the gift quilt.

4.  Finish piecing another gift quilt.

5.  Quilt that second gift quilt.

6.  Quilt a wall hanging.

7.  Finish Lilli's nightgown.

I thought this was going to be fairly simple this week, as my husband was going to be out of town and I had three nights when I could sew as late as I wanted - but plans changed and he didn't go.  So now I'm going to be scrambling to get all this done before Christmas.  But I'm pretty sure it's do-able - I've just got to make the best of my available sewing time and not waste any time at all!  Bill will be here to help with the girls during the day, and I'm really glad he'll be home and not away, so it will all work out for the best.  I'm looking on it as an early Christmas present!

Now I'm off to work on that binding, but my question is - - - what are you working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Reveal Time!!

Hi, all!

Well, as the Kohl's commercial reminded me this evening there are only twelve shopping sewing days left until Christmas!  Eek!!  But I'm very happy to be able to whoop about two finishes that have been delivered to their new homes....

Here's the first - a really pretty modern quilt based on a design in the most recent Quilty magazine, I think.  It was really easy but I was surely glad I had a design wall!  I had to do some figuring to make it larger - the one in the magazine is only 47" square and this one is 60" square, so it's not an exact copy but it's close.  Minimal straight line quilting finished it off.  This quilt is now living with my husband's boss and his wife!

And this gorgeous quilt is based on this picture of what I believe was a mini-quilt.  It involved a lot of math and finger-crossing that it would work, but I'm so pleased with the result!   It's got lots of my carefully hoarded Grunge fabrics in it, plus some pretty batiks and lots of Kona cotton, in Bone, if I remember correctly.

The color's truer in the first picture, but you can see the miles and miles of straight line quilting in this quilt here.  All of the Kona is straight-line quilted in 1/4 inch lines.  It gives it such great texture - I kept petting it right up until the time I put it in the gift bag!  This quilt was gifted to my husband's assistant, who is pretty amazing - and I know she'll give it a great home!!

So those are my quilt-y whoop whoops this week!  Today I'll be spending the day with this little charmer...

who turns five on Sunday!  Oh, and she had her own whoop whoop today - look what she made!

In case you can't tell, that's a s'more made with two different colors of felt (beige and dark brown) and a cotton ball!  No coaching from me, she came up with this all on her own - cut it out and put it together and handed it to me!  That's my girl!!

Anyway, Lilli and I will be spending the day together today, going to see a movie and a few other special things, while this little mess...

... is having her cochlear implant surgery!  Please say a quick prayer for a successful implant and quick healing, and for calm parents........

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So that's what I'm whooping about this week!

Now it's your turn - what's making you happy today?

Share with us so we can whoop right along with you!

The party will remain open until Sunday night...

Be there or be square!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like....

Hi, all!

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS around here - and beginning to feel like it too, as the temperature outside is about thirty degrees cooler right now than it was last night at this time!  Puts me in the mood to sew, for sure.....

So let's see how I did on last week's list...

1.  Finish quilting the southwestern quilt and bind it.

Done!! Woohoo!!!!!!!  But I still don't have a decent picture - it rained all day today!   Pray for sunshine tomorrow...

2.  Quilt and bind two quilt tops for ministry needs.

Done and delivered!

3.  Applique a wall hanging for my in-laws.

Done!  Now all it needs is the quilting...

Thank heavens for the blanket stitch
on my sewing machine!!

4.  Quilt the wall hanging for my in-laws (added as a separate item because I may not finish the applique - lots of little pieces!)

Not done - I was right, there weren't enough hours in the week!

5.  Wrap packages.

Done! Well, at least started..

These are the packages for our Angel Tree angel - a three-year old girl who loves pink.  Bet you couldn't guess that.... ;-)

Not too bad - plus I quilted two other quilts for the ministry during the week.  The straight line quilting on the southwestern quilt took a lot longer than I thought it would, so I didn't get as much done as I'd like to have on the Christmas tree wall hanging.  But I've still got this week! So let's see what's on the list...

1.  Finish the Christmas tree wall hanging.

2.  Bind the two quilt tops I quilted for the ministry.

3.  Put together another quilt top for a gift.

4.  Quilt that top.

5.  Wrap more packages!

That's enough for this week, because it's destined to be a busy one - this Friday morning, Emmy will be having her cochlear implant surgery.  I'll be keeping Lilli all day, and she'll be spending the night, too.  We'll be making a trip to the Build-A-Bear Workshop for Lilli and Papa to make a bear for Lilli's birthday (an annual tradition!) and probably eating some good chips and mexican food at Chuy's while we're there!  Em's surgery is two days before Lilli's birthday, so she's getting lots of little celebrations spread out over the week around her special day...

And here are some pics of the girls for you - the first are from last Saturday, when we got to keep Emmy while Lilli had some friends over for a birthday celebration...

...and this next picture is the girls watching tv together last week.  Aren't they sweet?

So that's what I've been doing, and what's up for this week.  So now the question is....

What are you working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah