Friday, April 30, 2021

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Two Big Finishes!

 

Hi, all!

Here it is, Friday again!  How the weeks do fly by - can you believe it's already the last day of April?  But Fridays are special, because it means it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on - are you ready?  Let's go!

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If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have seen progress shots of these two quilts, but yesterday saw the completion of both and they were shipped off to their owner!


This first quilt is a puzzle style t-shirt quilt, with memorabilia from both her own past and that of her two daughters.


For example, this cute little mermaid once graced a pillow in one daughter's bedroom!


I don't know the story behind it, but this is apparently a favorite shirt!


As you can see, there's a pair of these cute reindeer shirts - one from each daughter.  What a fun way to keep these memories!


And in the corner is the pocket from her fourth grade bowling shirt.  Yes, it's still functional - a perfect spot to stash a cell phone or some M&Ms!


The backing of the quilt is made of some favorite curtains - not what I would have chosen, but she loved the curtains and had to replace them so this was a good way to save the memories!

And now the second quilt....


My customer asked for a memory quilt made of her old golf shirts and gear, but wanted something a little different, softer and a little more feminine.  I immediately thought of a pattern from the book my husband gave me for Valentine's Day, Modern Memory Quilts, and I'm happy to say the quilt is a success!


A few of the hexies had to be cut as whole pieces and appliquéd to the appropriate half-hexie pair, such as this "golfaholic" t-shirt.


How cool is it to have a sweater from the birthplace of golf, St. Andrew's Golf Course in Scotland?


There are even pieces from hats on this shirt.  They were appliquéd onto blank blocks after being deconstructed.


Once again those favorite curtains served as the backing material! I love the wavy edge of a hexagon quilt, and was glad I was able to leave it in place while binding.

And both these quilts are currently making their way to my customer.  Hooray!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up this week?


What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share! We want to dance right along with you,

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

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah


Monday, April 26, 2021

Make-A-List Monday - Where Did My Week Go?

 

Hi, all!

How did it get to be Monday already?  Last week went by so quickly, and I really don't feel like I got much done at all.  So let's see how last week's list went...

1.  Quilt high school ministry quilts (at least two).
I didn't get to this one, as I realized I had a rapidly approaching deadline on the golf memory quilt...

2.  Work on the third set of blocks for the Me Sew Happy quilt.
This one got put to the side, too.

3.  Finish cutting out the blocks for the golf shirt quilt.
I did finish this one - but it took a lot longer than I thought it would.  The blocks are all cut, fused to interfacing, and today I completed the appliqué on the blocks that required it.  Assembly is next!


4.  Pull the kitchen back together after they install my new cooktop on Wednesday.
Done!  I  am so excited to have a finished kitchen - but now I want to re-arrange some of the drawers and cabinets to be more efficient.

5.  Find a few minutes to sew something fun!  My sew-jo is thinking about going on vacation and I need to appease it a little!
There definitely wasn't time for this one and I'm feeling it!

Like I said, the week definitely disappeared on me!  Fussy cutting those half-hexie blocks took a good bit longer than I planned, but it's going to be worth it - here's my planned layout...


So this week the list will be short and sweet....

1.  Assemble the golf memory quilt top.

2.  Quilt the golf memory quilt.

3.  Quilt at least two high school quilts.

I really need to quilt more than two of those high school quilts, but it will be the only thing on my plate once I finish and ship the golf memory quilt.  It needs to be in the hands of my customer by May 9th, so it's got to be my top priority right now.

And on a more pleasant note, take a look at what I found in my yard this morning!


This morning there were only two blooms, but there are about six buds ready to pop - it should be spectacular in about a week!  Spring in Tennessee is a beautiful thing....

So now, I really want to know - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Hands2Help - Come Tour Guest Blogger Pam's Studio!


 Hi, all!

It's hard to believe, but this Sunday marks the halfway point of this year's Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge!  I've already seen so many beautiful quilts heading their way to bring comfort and cheer - thank you all for your enthusiastic participation!

And today, we have a new guest blogger - actually, this is her first experience with blogging, as she doesn't have one of her own.  Pam M. lives and creates in a fabulous little studio in DeLand, Florida.  Take a virtual tour through her studio as she shares about it, and then give her a shout-out in the comments!

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Becoming a guest blogger is a new first for me and I’m quite excited about it.  When I offered to do this, Sarah was interested in my suggestion to blog about my quilting room.  It has evolved over the last 10 years and it’s not only pretty but extremely functional.


First, a little bit about me.  I come from a long line of sewists.  Our mother sewed all of our clothes and we learned to sew from a young age.  I made most of my clothes from age 14 until my husband graduated from law school when I was almost 30.  Life then intervened (grad school, demanding jobs traveling 4-5 nights a week and then children) so the sewing machine lived in the closet for several decades.   


I made my first quilt in 2010, bought my BabyLock Ellisimo Gold in 2011, retired as a CEO in 2013 and have made more than 50 quilts.  I also love to do machine embroidery. Most of my quilts have a block with an embroidered name, monogram or design plus a custom embroidered label detailing the recipient, year, occasion, and my name as the maker.  


Once both kids had left the nest, I started using the smaller bedroom as my studio.  When I found a used Koala Dual Mate cabinet with the Outback, I moved to the bigger room!  I would love more space (not possible in this house!) but I have tweaked this room to be very functional.  I actually have enough space to include one or two quilting friends and every one has cutting space and easy access to the ironing center.  Fun!  




So, let’s start the tour.  The first two pictures are shots of the entire room - from each end of the room.  Four windows provide great light!  The Koala quilting table is huge but wonderful.  The BabyLock Ellisimo has pride of place and is lowered to square up a quilt using the 4’ x 6’ top.  The BabyLock Presto II is in the other machine space and is used to go to classes or when someone needs a machine.  There is a lot of storage in this cabinet in the machine side.  



Under the other side with the “Outback” is more storage space including an Ikea cart with supplies and notions, a printer and various other items that aren’t used as much.   (The top is covered with the Add-A-Mat cutting mats which allow various configurations depending on what needs to be covered. Ordered these from Nancy’s Notions and Jo-Anns.  They are hard to find now.)  



At the north end of the studio is a separate cutting/work table, also covered with the Add-A-Mats.  It has a spinning tool caddy and a rack for most of the rulers.  Additional rulers are hung on the wall with Command hooks or in another ruler rack sitting on top of a small chest.  This table has great lighting!  (Table came from World Market a number of years ago - I'm sure it's no longer available outlook for a work height table with storage space underneath.)




Underneath the cutting table are two shelves that contain my stash - 24 project boxes that each contain a “Quilt In Waiting” (QIW) with all fabric needed for the front and back and a label specifying the planned pattern!  (I know - does anal retentive have a hyphen?)   I have a cork board with all of the QIW shown as a reminder that I have more than 24 QIWs and not to buy more fabric.  (Actually it has controlled me quite a bit in the last 3 years!)  


On the wall to the right of the cutting table is a handy design wall.  It’s a Fons & Porter design wall with the top grommets cut off, turned under, slid on a steel bar and held up with the quilt hanger from the MagnificentQuilt.com on top of styrofoam-like packing boards from sliding glass doors - free at Lowes if they save them!



One of my favorite work areas is the ironing center with the stabilizer cabinet to the right.  The wine cabinet (T.J.Maxx) stores the most frequently used stabilizers in the cubbies.  A few are in the cabinet drawer or the top right drawer of the ironing center.  (Many wine racks will provide you with similar storage.)



The ironing center is one of the most efficient and well-lit workspaces.  It is an IKEA sideboard (no longer available) with a top that is a fabric & batting wrapped thick plywood board - easy to replace the fabric when it gets stained. That board rests on non-skid shelf liner so it doesn’t move around while in use.  It’s 48” wide x 18” deep to make it perfect to iron across the width of fabric.  The hook rack above is where the larger scissors are easy to grab.  The black magnetic bar for small scissors, snips and tweezers is a knife rack from Amazon.  Underneath the ironing board are two shelves with 8 bins (Jo-Anns) that contain larger fabric pieces from completed quilts (I don’t do small pieces!) and some “unassigned” fabric.



A small wall shelf (Hobby Lobby) to the right of the ironing center holds the Best Press, water spritzers, and other pressing tools, etc.   The tall black cabinet to the right (Hobby Lobby) holds an amazing amount of supplies, notions, and tools, with Command hooks on the right side holding the larger embroidery hoops.



The most frequently used hoops are on Command hooks on the side of the tall bookcase right near the Ellisimo.  The book case holds machine manuals, reference books and inspirational magazines and books - along with some family memorabilia.  



The most unusual area for a quilting studio is the martini bar that’s on top of the black IKEA dresser near the door!  The machines are lowered occasionally for a small martini party with friends on top of the large worktable.  I have 4 stools in the room in addition to my BabyLock sewing chair that rises to stool height.  Perfect!



The desk is near the back (south wall) and has wooden file boxes on a low shelf and my embroidery unit underneath stored in an under-bed storage bag.  The extra large closet has a curtain rod above the doors where another design wall can hang if needed.



Inside the closet are more project boxes, stabilizers on bolts or large packages and a large batch of fabrics (hanging on pants hangers) of fabric collected by my late Mother when my parents lived in St. Croix and St. Lucia.  (I owe my sisters a number of quilts, table runners and bed runners made from this fabric!!)  



I must confess that I have spilled over a little bit into the other bedroom.  (Yikes!) Embroidery thread storage is on the backs of the 2 closet doors - my sister calls these the Thread Vaults!   It keeps the thread away from light and the covers on the Hemingworth thread keeps the dust away.  There is also a shelf for batting and another shelf for pillow forms in that closet.  (And I swear that will be all I put in that room!) 


Whew!  I hope you have enjoyed the tour.  I have tried to name sources whenever possible.  I hope that the pictures and comments will inspire you to fine-tune your sewing area for a more enjoyable and functional area.  


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Thank you, Pam, for the fabulous tour through your studio!  Now, I don't know about you, but my own studio is in a constant state of improvement as I find solutions that work better than what I'm currently using.  It's always useful to see what other people have done in their own studios, and Pam has some great ideas.  I can see I need to spend some time on the IKEA website...


Be sure to check back next Sunday for another great guest blogger!  And keep working on those quilts....


Hugs!


Sarah

Friday, April 23, 2021

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Not Much Sewing, But....

 

Hi, all!

Guess what!  It's finally Friday, and of course, that means that it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on!  If your week has been anything like mine, you may have a mixed bag of stuff to whoop about, but it's all good - let's get to whooping!

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As I said, it's been a crazy week around here!

With the installation of this cooktop, we are finally finished with the kitchen renovation!  I'm glad to have all of that behind us, and Lilli and I are having a great time breaking in the new appliances!  Bill enjoys the fruits of our labors, too....



I did manage to get a little bit of work (ok, a lot of work - those fussy cut half-hexies were time-consuming!) done on the memory quilt. Next step? Laying out the quilt top.

And I'm really whooping about this - my adjustable height table arrived!  I don't know for sure if I will leave it in front of this window, but I do love being able to look out the window and enjoy the beautiful sunshine and spring weather!  The adjustable height is really nice, too - it would have made cutting those hexes a lot easier when my back got tired.  I'm really looking forward to the possibilities!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up this week?


What's making you do a little happy dance?

Share! We want to dance right along with you,

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

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah


Monday, April 19, 2021

Make-A-List Monday - Did I Lose My Camera?

 

Hi, all!

Monday has rolled around once again, and as I get ready to prepare this post, I realize that I managed to get through last week without taking many pictures at all!  How depressing - what will I show you this week?  Well, let's see what I can pull together as we look at last week's list...

1.  Cut the blocks for the golf memory quilt.
I have about 2/3 of the blocks cut.  These are a lot trickier to cut, because many of them are fussy cut.  Hopefully I will finish them this week.

2.  Sandwich and quilt the puzzle t-shirt quilt.
Done!  It feels good to have this one finished...


3.  Make the second set of blocks for my "Me Sew Happy" quilt.
Done!  Here is the second set, and a view of what all the blocks I've made so far look like together...



4.  Quilt two high school graduation quilts for the ministry.
Not done (oops).  I didn't have any quilt ministry batting here at the house, and only got it on Saturday.  I'll be working on these this week.

5.  Make some baked goodies with Lilli to break in the new oven.  (These will be used when the quilt ministry ladies finally get back together this weekend for a clean-up day!)
Done!  We had such a fun time baking together - Lilli is really very good at baking, and I learned a lot from her.  Her chocolate chip cookies are the BOMB!

That cookie is about 3" across, and has so much
chocolate it almost falls apart when you pick it up!


We had an excellent meeting day on Saturday - our first since last March!  Nine ladies came and we worked on straightening up our workspace, which has suffered mightily as we have only been dropping in, grabbing or dropping off things, and generally making a mess.  It looks a lot better now, although we need to put in about four more hours to get it back to normal.  But it was so good to get together!

And here's what's on my plate this week...

1.  Quilt high school ministry quilts (at least two).

2.  Work on the third set of blocks for the Me Sew Happy quilt.

3.  Finish cutting out the blocks for the golf shirt quilt.

4.  Pull the kitchen back together after they install my new cooktop on Wednesday.

5.  Find a few minutes to sew something fun!  My sew-jo is thinking about going on vacation and I need to appease it a little!

And now that you know what I will be working on, I have just one question - - - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Hands2Help - Meet Guest Blogger Joy @ The Joyful Quilter


 Hi, all!

Sunday means another Hands2Help post, and this week we are welcoming guest blogger Joy from The Joyful Quilter!  Joy is definitely joyful, and her delightful blog is great evidence of that.  Stop by and visit her - I guarantee you won't be disappointed.  Today she will be sharing a bit of her love for charity quilting and how she worked to meet needs that came to her attention, so I will turn the blog over to her now!

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Welcome to my GUEST BLOGGER post for Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict's 2021 Hand2Help Charity Quilt Challenge!!  I'm still a little shell-shocked that Sarah agreed to have me do a GUEST BLOGGER gig for this year's event.  My name is Joy and I blog at The Joyful Quilter.  I am primarily a scrap quilter, which is why I enjoy Sarah's blog so much.  I own an APQS Millennium longarm quilting machine which I like to keep hopping.  I quilt for myself and for some of my friends, but I also have a heart for charity quilting.


LWR Mission Quilt Drive Project Review...



The project that took on a life of its own...

You may recall the BIG explosion in August 2020 in Beirut, Lebanon.  Jo @ Jo's Country Junction announced it to her readers.  (Scroll down to the bottom of the post.)  Not long after, I jumped into action.  I didn't have any grand plans.  I thought I would offer my readers a chance to get involved, if they so chose.  My goal was to collect enough 10.5" squares to make 4 or 5 quilts to donate.


Who would have guessed where we would be today???

Not I, you can be sure!  The project bloomed beyond my wildest imagination.  To date, blog readers and friends have assembled 20 quilt tops, with more in the making. Between Britt @Britt_Quilts, Louise @ My Quilt Odyssey, and myself, we have quilted 13 of the quilts made for Lutheran World Relief.  That's TRIPLE the number of my original conservative quilt goal.


Would YOU like to see MORE photos???

I thought SEW!!!  :o))






Readers and friends completely blew my conservative estimates out of the water.  (Terrible analogy, I know!)





Thank you to the following contributors:

Nann @ With Strings Attached and Wendy @ The Constant Quilter provided the fabric for many of the quilt tops.  Suzanne in Alaska and Kirsten @ Quilting With Corgis provided a fair amount of backing fabric.  Much of the labor was donated by the Nimble Thimbles family of  Quilt Bees.


Other bloggers, blog readers, and friends donated to our Batting Fund, Shipping Fund, and the General Fund in support of this Mission Quilt Drive.  Thank you to Ruth S., Knittingsuek., Maggie S., Libby @ Life on the Hill, Judy @ Busy Hands are Happy Hands, Alycia @ Alycia Quilts, and Mari @ The Academic Quilter.


Many hands make light work and your (sewing) support has kept me from having a nervous breakdown.  Thank you, again, to Nancy R., Maggie S., Carol K., Britt P., Candy H., Ruth S, Deborah H., Ruth B., Linda H., Sue K., Darlene H., Mari @ The Academic Quilter, Libby @ Life on the Hill, and Paulette @ The Way I Sew It!  Most of these quilters donated fabrics from their own stash to arrive at a quilt top which measured approximately 60 x 80 inches.  Best of all, each of these contributors had a hand in what will ultimately be nearly 2 dozen quilts to provide warmth from the cold and/or shelter from the heat.  That is SIX TIMES the number of quilts that I had originally hoped to create!!  Color me amazed.


Wrapping things up...

With the overwhelming response, our finish date for the project has been a moving target.  Five quilts are currently waiting to be quilted and bound.  Three kits remain to be sewn into quilt tops.  Since the quilters and quilt makers are juggling other responsibilities, I haven't been too concerned with extending the deadline.  At this point, it  seems like aiming for the anniversary is the most reasonable goal.  That means there's still time for YOU to help, if you feel SEW inspired!


How can I help, Joyful???

To find out more about this project, links to the entire story can be found at the DONATIONS tab at the top of my blog.


Thank you for allowing me to share this story of quilters caring for others, Sarah.

Until next time...
Quilt to GIVE!!!

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Thank you, Joy, for the lovely look into your charity quilting life!  It is wonderful to see so many quilters joining hands in yet another endeavor to share quilty hugs!!  

Be sure to come back next week for another guest blogger, and keep working on those quilts!  

Hugs!

Sarah