Make-A-List Monday - I Can Almost Smell the Beach.....

Hi, all!

I hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend!  Ours was rather rainy, but we still had a great time - got to spend some time with the grandkids, went out on the boat once in between rainy episodes, and went to the movies.  All in all, a fun weekend!  And of course, rain meant that I got to do a good bit of sewing, too....

So let's see how last week's list went...

1.  Make a back for and quilt the second scrappy green quilt top.

Done!  I actually quilted this one today, and while the fancy quilting is done, I still need to do a little bit of ditch-stitching and bind it.  But here's a picture of some of the quilting as a tease - I'll post about this quilt on Friday!

2.  Complete the HSTs for the vacation quilt.

Done!  I don't have a pic of all of them together, but here's enough to give you an idea... I made 624 of these puppies!

3.  Work on the wedding dress quilt project.

Done!  I've got a good start on the pillow, and finally have a handle on what I'm going to do for the quilt.  I had run into a problem with only using the fabric in the dress, adding nothing, but got permission to add a backing fabric, so now it should be a piece of cake!  (After vacation...)

Seed stitching with a 20 weight glossy twisted thread

4.  Work on Nathanael's stocking.

Done!  Well, not done, but at least in progress!  

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

Done!  We gave away three quilts this week...

This one to a man who had surgery for lung cancer...

This one to a sick baby...

And this one to a woman with multiple health issues.

And in addition to the things on my list, I did a little fun sewing...

I made these two cute little pin cushions, which measure about 3" square by 1" thick.  I used the same technique for the 16-patch blocks as I did for my husband's quilt, except with 5" squares instead of 10" squares.  It was super simple!  I wonder how small I can go....

And I also busted into my piggy bank, because the Piggy Bank Challenge has come to an end!  For one year, as part of Val's Piggy Bank Challenge, I've been collecting up my spare change in anticipation of a quilt-y treat.....

It was a LOT of change!!! (As CoinStar kept telling me...)

This was the total I came up with, and actually, CoinStar came up with more - $76.79!  I spent part of my loot on this...

While that looks like a strange thing to purchase as part of a quilt-y splurge, it represents 173 hours and 47 minutes of audio books, which I listen to while I'm working!  When I received an email today saying that they were on sale for $4.95 each, I knew that would be a great thing to spend part of my money on.

I'm going to save the rest of my loot in anticipation of this beautiful new fabric by Amanda Jean Nyberg of Crazy Mom Quilts, which should be available on Connecting Threads in the fall sometime.  I can't wait!!

And I've already started stuffing my pig in anticipation of next year's quilt-y splurge!!

OK, so that's the week that was.  This week is a short week, because we're heading to the beach on Friday, but I still have some things I need to get done...

1.  Finish the quilting on the sibling quilt and bind it.

2.  Get the BlockRockIt set up on the frame at church.

3.  Hand out the signature blocks for the retirement quilt to be signed this week.

4.  Write up an estimate for a commission quilt.

5.  Clean the house so the pet-sitter doesn't run out screaming!

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

That should be more than enough to keep me out of trouble (especially since I'm also babysitting two mornings this week for the grandkids) but if it isn't, I can also cut out the pieces for the wedding dress quilt, now that I know what I'm going to do!

Whew!

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

Hugs!

Sarah