Make-A-List Monday - A Productive Fourth!

Hi, all!

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday weekend - we did here in middle Tennessee!  Unbelievable weather - Thursday and Friday we had highs in the low 80's!  And very little humidity, so it felt fabulous - and totally not like summer in Tennessee.  It was a good thing, though - because my husband was working on a very special project for our granddaughters.  A little Christmas in July…

 

He built this from CAD plans and a pile of lumber and swing set supplies!  It is an early Christmas present, since Emmy is unable to play on regular playgrounds - plastic slides cause static electricity, which will zap the programming on her cochlear implants.  This way both girls can play at the same time, and Nathanael will be able to play too when he comes home!  Lots of activities - regular swings, a tire swing, a rings-and-trapeze bar, a sandbox, a fort with ladder and a rock climbing wall!  Heck, I want to go play on it!  Am I married to a great guy, or what?

And while all this was going on, I was working on my own little Christmas in July - putting together the giveaway/raffle for Nathanael's Ladder, the quilt I made to help in my daughter's adoption fundraising efforts.  

If you haven't already read about this giveaway, please click here - I hope you'll join in the fun and help us #bringNathanaelhome!  And if we get enough donations, I will be throwing in one or two more quilts (depending on the levels reached).  There are also ways to enter even if you don't feel like you can make a donation, such as sharing about the giveaway on your own blog.  Check it out!

With that said, I didn't get everything done on my list last week - so let's see exactly how it went...

1.  Work on a table topper for a special event.

The top is pieced, but still needs quilting and binding. I used this tutorial, which was so quick and easy - I can see making more of these in my future!

2.  Work on those outfits for the girls!

Nope.  I did look at the fabric occasionally!

3.  Quilt at least two more quilts for the high school mission team to take for Hurricane Sandy survivors.

Nope.  I'll show what I worked on instead below.

4.  Keep up with any new quilt ministry needs.

Done!  We sent this quilt to a woman with bone marrow cancer…

Charm Pack Cherry, pieced by Deb!

…and another went to a teenager who was in a bad car accident; she will be in the hospital for a while.  

This one was pieced and tied by Mary Ann!

5.  Do some cleaning and organizing in my sewing studio..

Well, I did do some cleaning - about five minutes worth - before I got distracted by some pretty fabric that was just itching to be sewed up into something!  Does that count?

And as to what I was working on instead of quilts for Hurricane Sandy survivors (by the way, thanks in part to the wonderful folks who participated in H2H this year, we already have more than 60 quilts ready to go - and it's only July!)…

…I quilted this top, which will be added to the Christmas in July giveaway if donations exceed $500.  I'm calling it A Quick Trick Block Stack, thanks to Dr. Seuss and Fox in Socks.  As I was quilting it, the lines to that book kept going through my mind.

"First I'll make a quick trick brick stack.

Then I'll make a quick trick block stack."

And then I had a request from a friend to proof a couple of her new quilt patterns.  One of them really appealed to me (well, okay, both of them, but I've only had time to work on one!) and I cut out all the pieces for it.  I'm busily working on putting it together so that it can be the quilt we give away if donations for the giveaway top $1000!  I need to check with my friend to see if it's ok to post progress pictures, but I'll show you as soon as I can!

Fortunately it's been an easy month for ministry quilts, and since God doesn't seem to mind me working on other things right now (when He does, I know it - needles break, thread shreds, things just generally go wrong!) I've been enjoying a little semi-personal sewing!  I'm really hoping we'll need to use all three quilts and I'm even up for making another one if things go that well!

So what's on tap for this week?

1.  Finish the potential giveaway quilt I'm working on right now.

2.  Print labels and attach them to the H2H quilts for Hurricane Sandy survivors.

3.  Finish the table topper.

4.  Quilt at least two more quilts for Hurricane Sandy survivors.

5.  Work on outfits for the girls.

6. Keep up with any quilt ministry needs that arise.

This may be an ambitious list, because I'm playing chauffeur to Lilli this week as she goes to preschool day camp at my church, plus I have community group sewing on Thursday morning and ministry group sewing on Saturday morning - but it's all good!  I'm sure that everything that needs to get done will!

Another thing that's on my radar is some scrap sewing - because this year I WILL participate in my friend Shannon's Scrap Quilt Challenge!  I hope you'll join in too - you can read more about it here or on the Facebook page here!   I bet you've got some scraps lying around, too - wouldn't you like to turn them into a nice quilt or two?

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

Hugs!

Sarah

Linking up with Eva at Bambisyr med sin Quiltgladje!  Don't ask me what it means - just go check out her new linky party - Show and Tell Monday!!!