Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? What I'm Thankful For….

Hi, all!

It's Friday again, and time to get your whoop whoop on!!  I hope you've emerged from your food coma and have had time to do some sewing on this holiday weekend.  If you're anything like me, you're avoiding the stores like the plague!  

Since it's Thanksgiving weekend, I thought I'd do a little something different for my whoop whoop.  Four years ago this weekend, fifteen women came over to my house for a little sewing…

…where we, total quilting newbies, joined our hearts and hands…

…to create a quilt for a friend who had been diagnosed with cancer…

…that turned out to be the beginning of our quilt ministry!

I'm so thankful for these ladies….

…who have worked together so hard…

…training up the next generation of quilters…

…and even working on some non-quilt-y sewing to help out our local elementary school!

To date, we've given out six hundred fifty-nine quilts in four years.  And truthfully, we could never have done it without the support of a whole bunch of the wonderful folks who read this blog!  Your donations of fabric, blocks, quilt tops and completed quilts have been a very important part of this ministry - because of your contributions, we have never lacked for supplies to make quilts to bring comfort to people in need.  Never once in four years have we had to say that we couldn't provide a quilt because we didn't have the resources to make one - and for that, I am truly thankful!

I have made so many new friends in the past four years - people I may never meet in person, but who are an important part of my life because we care about the same things.  

I think these are all great reasons to whoop it up today!!!

Whoop whoop!!!

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And now it's your turn!

What are you whooping about today?

Share with us - we want to cheer right along with you!

It's more fun with friends!!

The party will stay open until Sunday night - 

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

PS  Be sure to check back in Monday - I'll be sharing another traveling stash giveaway!

Make-A-List Monday - Things to be Thankful For!

Hi, all!

Well, it's Monday again - how did that happen?  LOL!  Anyway, I'm in Richmond this morning, getting ready to head over to my FIL's house to help clean out my MIL's sewing room.  She had quite a stash of fabrics and an even larger stash of quilting books that we need to sort through and find homes for.  I think most of the fabric is spoken for, but I have literally hundreds of quilting books, all in very nice condition, that need homes. If you live in the Richmond area and are interested in hauling them all off (maybe to share with your guild?) please email me and let me know!  Otherwise they may go to the local library or Goodwill.

And even though I'm not at home, it's still Make-A-List Monday, so here's how last week's list went…

1.  Quilt two quilts for the ministry.
Done!  The blocks for both of these quilts were donated by Sharon.  The top quilt was pieced by Joanna and the bottom quilt by Deb. Aren't they gorgeous?

This quilt went to an elderly woman in our church who fell and broke her shoulder and pelvis.

…and this quilt went to a woman in a nursing home with dementia who will be celebrating her 85th birthday today.

2.  Make a dog lead for a friend.
Done, but unfortunately no picture!

3.  Finish the antique quilt repair.
(Cue the Hallelujah Chorus) It's done!!!  Woohoo!!

I'm so happy with the way this turned out!

4.  Sew up the butcher aprons.
Started, but not finished yet.  I'm hoping to finish these before Thanksgiving so I can hand them over to their recipient at Thanksgiving dinner!

5.  Get the house cleaned up for the holidays.
Cleaned!  (Cue that Hallelujah Chorus again!)

6.  Make up my contributions to Thanksgiving Dinner and put in the freezer.
Done!  It's all ready to be pulled out and cooked...

7.  Set up the Christmas tree Friday.
Whew!  The tree is up - that's a big job! Now to decorate it...

8.  Keep up with any other ministry needs that arise.

Done!  Two more quilt needs came up before the end of the week…

This one went to a woman who just had a kidney transplant...

…and this one went to a woman with Stage 4 lymphoma.

So that's the skinny on last week's list.  I'm pretty happy I got so much done.  And here's this week's list…

1.  Help clean out my MIL's sewing room and other stuff in the house.

2.  Make it home despite the incoming winter storm!

3.  Finish those butcher's aprons.

4.  Come up with a Dirty Santa gift for a Christmas party this coming Saturday morning.

5.  Decorate the house for Christmas in anticipation of two Christmas parties there this weekend!

6.  Get supplies for a knitting project/gift idea I want to try out.

7.  Take care of any ministry needs that arise.

Speaking of that winter storm, I hope that all of you are staying safe this week - it's a big travel week, and I know many will be on the road.  Travel safely and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

And be sure to let me know if you are in Richmond and interested in a bunch of quilt books!  

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Restoring The Past

Hi, all!

It's Friday again, and time to get our whoop whoop on!!  I hope you've got something you can share - I know we're getting to that time of year when we're all working on secret projects!  

I'm really happy to be able to say that I have finally finished the antique quilt repair job!!  Here it is in all its glory…

This is a big quilt - and like most antique quilts, it's very heavy!  It was a real workout manipulating it through my sewing machine...

Here's a shot of several of the stars that I repaired.  You can read more about how I did it here….  You can even see how bad it looked  before I started repairing it!

You can see in this shot the dated signature blocks - from 1938!

And this shot is just for fun, 'cause it's pretty!  I love the color of a blue fall sky!!

So that's what I'm whooping about today - I'm so glad to have this finished and off my plate!  My friend will be giving this family treasure to his sister for Christmas.  I sure hope she will enjoy it!

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And one little historical note, since today is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  This picture was made on 11/22/63 in Fort Worth, TX before the motorcade took 

President Kennedy to Dallas…

See the white haired gentleman in the lower center of the picture?  That's my great-grandfather.  He was big in Southern politics in the 1960's and was at a breakfast with President Kennedy the morning of the day he was assassinated.  Kennedy's funeral is the first major thing I remember as a child - I had just turned six, and I remember my father pulled our tv out in the middle of the living room to watch the funeral.  It was a big cabinet TV and my mother had painted it red….  It's funny the things you remember!

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And now it's your turn!

What are you whooping about this week?

Share what you can - we want to whoop along with you!

Sneak peeks and teasers are permitted during the holidays -

We don't want to spoil anyone's Christmas!

The party will remain open until Sunday midnight -

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - Lessons Learned!

Hi, all!

As I write this, there are only 36 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes and 47 seconds until Christmas…..  I've moved beyond stress, and I'm living in that lala land where, as was said in "Shakespeare In Love", strangely enough, it will all turn out well - who knows how?  It's a mystery!  But I have made some headway on some projects and I'll share some of the progress in this post.

First, though, let's see how last week's list went…

1.  Quilt six quilts for ministry needs already on the list.
Done!  Three have already been delivered, and three others are out having the binding put on.  Here's a couple of the quilts…

This quilt went to a woman with breast cancer.

This quilt went to a woman with pancreatic cancer.

2.  Quilt a friend's quilt top.
Done!  And wouldn't you know, this is the only pic I took of it!

3.  Quilt my FIL's quilt.
Done!  And it's not only quilted, the binding is on and it's been washed!  It's all ready to go.

4.  Cut out the butcher aprons.
Done!  All ready to be sewn together.

5.  Cut the replacement pieces for the antique quilt repair and sew the fans together.
Done - this is one thing I'll share a bit more about below.

6.  Make some ruffled pants for Emmy.
Done!  And not only did I make the pants, I also made a matching pinafore.  Emmy is an excellent clothes model - in fact, when I tried it on her for size before I finished it, I had a hard time getting it back off her!  She wouldn't let me have it back until I promised she'd get to wear it later.  Here's the finished product!

So. Stinkin'. Cute!

7.  Piece a baby quilt top for a friend.
I delegated this to another member of the quilt ministry.  I really should do that more often!

8.  Start cleaning the house for the holidays.
Started - it shouldn't be too hard to finish it up this week!

9. Keep up with any new ministry needs that arise.
Done.  We've had two more requests come in that I made backs for - they are ready to be quilted tomorrow.

As promised, here's more about the antique quilt repair.  Well, I must confess that Saturday afternoon, I was totally devastated - I was sure I was going to have to tell my friend that his quilt was beyond repair, because I could not figure out how in the world to make it work.  

This quilt was pieced in 1938 - I know this because some of the signature blocks are dated.  My original plan had been to make a template, cut all the pieces, sew the stars together and then appliqué them by hand to the quilt after cutting the original, damaged pieces out.  The quilt has been used, washed and dried so much that it is very shifty.  And my suspicion is that the pieces were not very uniform in the first place!  The upshot of that is that each five-sided piece of each star was a slightly different shape and size.  NOT conducive to repairing!  

Then I thought I'd pick out the stars and cut each piece individually.  Well, whoever quilted this quilt meant for it to stay quilted forever!  Where it was knotted, I could not get the knot out, no matter how I tried.  And I was afraid that if I went between the layers, I would destroy whatever was holding the quilt together in the first place.

As my husband would tell you, I do not deal well with being told that I can't do something.  Stubborn runs in my family!  But I couldn't see any way that I could get this done before Christmas, and maybe not for months and months if I had to make a template for each star blade.  So I bit the bullet and called my friend.  Now, he is not a quilter.  He doesn't sew.  Which probably makes him very qualified for thinking outside the box!   After I told him I couldn't do it, he started making suggestions - and when he suggested just patching the quilt, an idea began to form in my head.  I told him I'd give it a try.

At first I thought I would place the star blades that I had cut over the ones on the quilt, and raw-edge appliqué each one on.  But when I laid the first blade down, I realized that if I laid a second blade on top of it and stitched where the seam connected the blades on the quilted star, it would be kind of like paper piecing.  So I did that, carefully stitching only the length of the seam on the quilted star, all the way around the circle.  When I got to the last blade, I folded the edge over, pinned it to the first blade, and edge stitched it down.  Then I folded the edges under all the way around the outside and inside of the star and edge stitched them down.

It's not a perfect repair, and it's not as neat as I planned it to be originally, but it will allow my friend to enjoy his quilt without feeling like it will disintegrate when he touches it.  I've got four more stars to replace, and this spot on the border to rebuild…

The sugar sacks that were used for the border are really cool, but I couldn't find any more.  I did find some light pink fabric that has a similar weave.  I'll run it through a bleach wash to see if I can get the color down to something similar to the existing border.  And then I'll put a new binding on it to cover up the tattered edges.  

So now that I've bored you to tears with that (unless you were smart and skimmed over it!), here's my list for this week…

1.  Quilt two quilts for the ministry.

2.  Make a dog lead for a friend.

3.  Finish the antique quilt repair.

4.  Sew up the butcher aprons.

5.  Get the house cleaned up for the holidays.

6.  Make up my contributions to Thanksgiving Dinner and put in the freezer.

7.  Set up the Christmas tree Friday.

8.  Keep up with any other ministry needs that arise.

It's a short week for me - I'll be heading to my FIL's at the end of the week to help clear out his house, then back home just in time for Thanksgiving (which is why I need to freeze my contributions to dinner!)  I may not get all this done, but I hope I at least get the antique quilt finished - it would be so nice to not have that still on my plate when I get back!

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

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? One Christmas Gift Down, a Gazillion More to Go...

Hi, all!

It's Friday again - are you ready to get your whoop whoop on?  I know I am - it's been a good day with a couple of finishes!!!  All the cool weather we've been having has really got me into a craft-y mood and everything is clicking just right!

Today I finished this quilt for my father-in-law.  We're going to visit him the week before Thanksgiving, so I really wanted to take it with us - it will be fun to see his reaction to the quilt in person!

He has just moved into an apartment in a retirement community, and mentioned that his rooms were a little bit chilly.  He has a nice quilt for his bed, but I thought a sofa/lap quilt might be something he would enjoy.

He also loves trains, and I've been hoarding train fabrics for several years now, trying to get enough to make a quilt top.  Unfortunately, adult train prints are few and far between - but I did have enough to make a nice back for this quilt! My husband thinks his dad may decide this is the front…..

And here's one last shot, just because it's pretty!  I love the fall colors in this quilt.  And just for the record, this is a very large disappearing 9-patch pattern - you make five 9-patch blocks with 10" squares, then cut them into fourths and re-arrange them.  It takes 45 10" squares for a quilt that ends up about 56" x 70".  A great pattern for a quick quilt!!

My other finish today was a creche to go in my nativity scene for Christmas.  I wanted something simple but rustic, just to provide a backdrop for my figurines.  So I took a pallet that we had hanging around in the garage and took out enough boards to build this...

This was the first time I tried using pallet wood in a project, even though I've seen lots of cute things on Pinterest.  I learned something really important  - you've REALLY got to want something made out of pallet wood to make it worth all the effort it takes to reclaim the wood!  But the roughness of the boards was perfect for this project - now all it needs is a star on the peak!

So that's what I'm cheering about this week - 

can I get a WHOOP WHOOP??

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And now it's your turn!

What are you doing the happy dance about this week?

Join the party and share - we want to dance along with you -

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

Remember - it doesn't have to be a finish!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight -

Hope to see you there!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - Drama!

Hi, all!

I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful Fall we are having!  Looks like we are in for a taste of winter tonight here in Middle Tennessee, though - they are using the "s" word in the weather forecast!  They say we will have snow showers tomorrow morning between 6 am and 10 am.  How fun is that?  It was too warm today for it to stick, so it will be a pretty sight that we don't have to worry about too much!!  I hope the weather forecasters are right!

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

1.  Make a quilt for a 5-year old boy who needs a heart transplant.

Done!  I found this sweet little I-spy quilt in the stack of "ready-to-quilt" tops and loaded it on Jolene for quilting.  It's so wonderful to have a stack of tops ready - it means we can get quilts in the hands of the people who need them quickly!

2.  Make a quilt for a man with Lou Gehrig's disease.

Done!  This beautiful top was donated by Sharon, and I happened to have exactly the right shade of Kona cotton to add a border to make it a little larger.  

3.  Make a quilt for a teenager dealing with some severe emotional problems.

This request was withdrawn.

4.  Finish the small custom items.

Done!  I made a pair of 'Bama elephants and a first aid kit rollup - here's a pic of the elephants - they're cute!

5.  Make three butcher aprons for a friend.

I didn't get around to making these, but I did buy the fabric and found a great pattern to use!  McCall M5551…

And I got it on sale, for about a buck!  This pattern has everything my friend requested - quite a perk, since I don't have to change a pattern around now!!  These should go together pretty quickly.

6.  Begin repair work on the antique quilt.

Started!  I've prepared the templates I need to cut the replacement pieces; deconstructed the old quilt top preparatory to cut the replacement pieces; and today I picked up the muslin and pink fabric I needed.  The pink is still too dark for my needs but I'm going to try out a technique that Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts talked about last week to bleach down the color.  She tells me she's going to post a tutorial this week!  Woohoo!

7.  Make orphan block challenge kits for our monthly meeting.

Done!  I put together fifteen orphan block sets and the last time I looked, most of them were gone.  Some of the ladies started working on their quilts already - I can't wait to see the quilts that come back!

8.  Make a Christmas table runner.

Done!  I gave this to my eye doctor, since he complained that I hadn't made a quilt for him!

Here it is in all its glory...

…and here's a close-up of the straight line quilting I used.

9.  Keep up with any new quilt ministry needs that arise.

I managed to get one quilt done, for a woman with breast cancer.  But then I ran over a really thick intersection of seams with Jolene and broke a needle - and Jolene decided to become a bit of a drama queen!  Thread broke every six inches or so and nothing I tried would work - so off to the shop she went last Friday!  Thank heavens for Mr. Fred, who appreciates Jolene for the wonderful machine she is - he took good care of her, smoothing out all the burrs caused by the needle break.  I've just put her back on the frame this evening (she's too heavy and bulky for me to get upstairs by myself so I had to wait for my DH to get home) and tomorrow I'll be working her hard trying to get caught up!

In my downtime when I didn't have Jolene to work with, I pieced a quilt top and back for a quilt for my FIL, who has just moved into a retirement community. He mentioned that his apartment is always cool, so I really want to take this early Christmas present to him when we go up to visit the weekend before Thanksgiving.  So I put the downtime to good use!  I'll have pictures of this top on Friday...

And here's what's on tap for this week…

1.  Quilt six quilts for ministry needs already on the list.

2.  Quilt a friend's quilt top.

3.  Quilt my FIL's quilt.

4.  Cut out the butcher aprons.

5.  Cut the replacement pieces for the antique quilt repair and sew the fans together.

6.  Make some ruffled pants for Emmy.

7.  Piece a baby quilt top for a friend.

8.  Start cleaning the house for the holidays.

9. Keep up with any new ministry needs that arise.

The next two weeks are going to be really busy - we are planning to help clear out my FIL's house the week before Thanksgiving, but have to be back here for the holiday because Miss Lilli couldn't imagine Thanksgiving without her Nana and Papa there!  Then the Friday after Thanksgiving we have to get the house decorated for Christmas, because we have two parties at our house over the weekend - my sewing sisters will be coming over on Saturday morning for our annual Christmas party, and then our Sunday School class will be having dinner together on Sunday night.  So I'm trying to get as much stuff done as possible before we leave!  I'm under strict orders not to decorate the house for Christmas before Thanksgiving - a tradition we've honored ever since we got married - but I have special permission to put the (artificial) tree up the day before we go, because it takes so long to put up.  Whew!  That will help…   Lilli loves to help put out all our Christmas decorations, so she'll be coming over to help, too.  I'll take pics!

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

Hugs!

Sarah