Make-A-List Monday - Things are Popping!

 Hi, all!

Welcome to the first week of summer!  We had a great holiday weekend, full of food and movies and fun with the kids and grandkids - the best of times!  I hope yours was great as well.

I also had a really good week last week, something I realized as I started to go through my to-do list for this post....

1.  Cross-cut the strip sets into 5-square strips, then pack them up for vacation.

Done!  I can't wait to start on this quilt, but I have other projects that have to be finished before we leave, so it will have to wait.

2.  Make a back for the Me Sew Happy quilt.

Done!  And not only the back, but the whole quilt is finished!  It's amazing what you can do when you have air conditioning...

3.  Assemble the blocks from my last vacation quilt.

Done!  I managed to squeak this one in this afternoon, but it's assembled!

4.  Plant a rose bush and some day lilies in the front planters.

Done!  It's a beautiful Lady in Red rose bush...

...and I don't know the name of these lilies, but they sure are pretty!

5.  Plant two new butterfly bushes in the back planter.

Done!  I got a great deal on these two bushes at the farmer's market - now to see if I can keep them alive!

6.  Finish a ministry top by putting sashing between a stack of orphan blocks.

Done, sort of!  We had a very unexpected death in our church this week, and I subbed in this family size quilt as my ministry project this week.  It's actually completely finished, but it was so large I couldn't find a way to get a picture of the whole thing when it was done.

7.  Do some H2H administration work with my granddaughter.

Done!  Lilli came over and worked with me for a few hours getting all the giveaway goodies organized and ready for next week.  She's getting so big and grown up - I can't decide whether to be happy or sad about that!  But she's lots of fun to spend time with, and a good helper!

See what I mean?  It was a VERY productive week, even though I had to deal with AC repairs in the middle.  Let's hope this week can be as productive - here's what's on tap for me....

1.  Meet with a woman about a quilt for a little girl with cancer.

2.  Get as much done as humanly possible on that quilt this week!

3.  Work on a special blogpost for Scrappy Wednesdays.

4.  Keep up with the counts for Hands2Help as people link up their beautiful quilts this week!

It looks like a short list, but I have to try to get that quilt made this week.  The little girl is starting her treatments on the 21st, right after we leave for vacation, so it needs to be done by then.  And Hands2Help is winding down, with thank you goodies to be mailed out, so if I can get it finished or nearly so this week, the stars will have aligned!  If I manage to get all this done, I've got some quilt backs to make and a lot of cleaning to do in the studio - so I don't think I'll have any time to get in trouble!

One note about the Hands2Help stuff - I sent out an email this week to all the people who are signed up with a form to fill out.  IF YOU DIDN'T RECEIVE THE EMAIL even though you signed up, please email me directly at salliesue57 (at) gmail (dot) com.  I've had a couple of emails bounce back to me, so something is wrong with the addresses I have on file for those.

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

Hugs!

Sarah

Hands2Help - Time to Show Off Your Quilts!

 

Hi, all!

Can you believe it? We've finally reached the end of this year's Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge!  I'm so excited to see all the quilts that have been sent off to provide comfort to people all over the world - you are all so amazing to have been a part of this huge effort!!

Just a quick note about this post - I'll be sharing pictures of some quilts that have been sent to me over the past couple of weeks since the last check-in date, and some "housekeeping" items at the end of the post, then you'll find the linky party at the very end.  So take a few minutes to look at some beautiful and inspiring quilts, take note of some important updates, then link up your own quilts if you are on social media.

Let's get started!

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As I said, I've been receiving emails with pictures of beautiful quilts for so long - it's like Christmas in my in-box!  Here are the ones that came in since the last check-in date...

Barb N sent these; one for a Hometown Hero and three for Little Lambs

Carol W. sent this one to Little Lambs

These three were made by Dar S. and were sent to Covered in Love and local charities

Debbie H. made this beautiful heart quilt for a local charity

Duffy M. sent these fun quilts to Little Lambs

Elizabeth W. sent two quilts to Quilty Hugs and one to Little Lambs

Heidee L. made this scrappy wonder for Quilty Hugs!

Jeanine C. made these bright and cheerful quilts for Little Lambs and Project Linus

Joan D. sent these two fun quilts to Quilty Hugs!

Jodi M. sent these two quilts to Little Lambs!

Karen C. sent two quilts to Covered in Love, one to Quilty Hugs, and two to Little Lambs

Kathy B. sent these sweet quilts to Little Lambs!

Kathy D. sent these bright and cheerful quilts to Little Lambs also!

This quilt was made by Kathy W. for her Hometown Hero!

Kris J. sent this quilt to Little Lambs

Linda M. sent these quilts to Victoria Quilts Canada and MCC!

Linda S. made this quilt for a young child at Little Lambs!

Marsha P. sent these quilts to Covered in Love and Little Lambs

Stephanie D. from Australia made these beauties for local charities

Suzanne C. gave the beautiful gray and yellow quilt to her Hometown Hero,
and sent the other four quilts to Little Lambs!

Jane S. sent quilts to Covered in Love and Little Lambs...

Kathy M. sent this beauty to Quilty Hugs...

And Teresa C. sent these fun sunny quilts to Little Lambs!

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What a wonderful array of quilt-y comfort!  It's amazing to see the beauty and variety of quilts that evidence so much compassion on the part of the givers.  Good work!!

And now for the housekeeping part.  I'm going to send out an email to everyone on the sign-up list with a link to a Google Form.  The form requests your full name, and asks if you completed the Challenge this year.  If you are working on quilts but haven't finished them yet, choose "not yet" on that question.  I know you will send them off in good time!  The next questions deal with the number of quilts you made for each charity.  Each of those are required fields, so if you made no quilts for a charity, just type in "none" or "n/a".  If you gave quilts to a local charity, list the number in the last question.

The purpose of this form is so that I hopefully won't miss anyone who participated in the Challenge!  I'm always worried that in checking all the links and Instagram and Flickr, etc., I will miss someone's submission somewhere along the line, and I want to be sure that everyone is counted.  You are all so amazing!  If you don't see it in your email box, please check your spam folder - my email address is salliesue57 (at) gmail (dot) com.   (It may be sent to spam because it's sent to so many people in a blind cc.)

And now it's time for you to link up!  (The linky party will stay open until Friday 6/4 at midnight CST.)  Show off your beautiful quilts in a blogpost or Instagram post or Flickr picture.  We all want to see them!  And if you are a non-blogger and have pictures to share of quilts that I haven't already posted, feel free to send them to me and I'll share them in another post later this week.

I'm excited to see just how many quilts are donated this year - I have a feeling it's going to be a banner year!  Be sure to come back next week for the final numbers!

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? In My Non-Quilting Hours...

 

Hi, all!

It's been a busy week, and a beautiful one here, too!  But now it's Friday, and not only Friday, but the beginning of a holiday weekend in the States - and that's a big whoop whoop all on its own!  So now it's time for us all to get our whoop whoop on. I hope you're ready - let's get started!

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As I said, it's been busy around here!  The temperature skyrocketed this week, and as usually happens, that's when I found out that the AC upstairs in my studio was NOT working.  That made me change my sewing plans for gardening (early in the morning, obviously!) so I headed to the plant nursery in search of a big, bad, thorny rose bush that the bunnies wouldn't find tasty.  And boy did I find one!

Look at that beautiful bush!  So many buds on it, too - it should really explode with color very soon.  Here's a close-up picture of the roses...

The rose is called Lady in Red and the roses really look like a flamenco dancer's skirt - gorgeous ruffly deep red petals.  I'm so happy I found this one!  

I also found a couple of gorgeous lilies to add to the front planter for a pop of color!

And then in the backyard, under the bird/squirrel feeders, I added a couple of butterfly bushes that I picked up at the farmer's market on the square in Murfreesboro.  They seemed like well-established bushes and cost about half of what they were priced everywhere else!  Keep your fingers crossed that I can't kill them off....

I also planted the hydrangea that my daughter and her family gave me for Mother's Day in that planter.  I love sitting out on the back porch and watching the birds and seeing all the beautiful plants growing!

I got a new weed puller, too - this handy dandy gadget pops dandelions right out of the ground, root and all, and doesn't require me to bend over or get down on hands and knees to get them out!  I'm going to have so much fun pulling all those boogers out!

I'm also whooping about this - Lilli and I worked really hard early one morning in the studio (yes, in the heat!) to organize the giveaway goodies for Hands2Help.  She is excellent help (especially when she's getting paid) and a great organizer!  So we worked very fast to get done before it got unbearable upstairs, and now we are ready for the end of this year's Hands2Help Challenge.  Hooray!

And I did get one quilt on (and off) the frame this week - a very large "family" quilt that will go to a couple whose son was killed in a motorcycle crash last weekend.

Oh, and here's one more thing we can all whoop about - if you need to ship quilts or other donations to Little Lambs Foundation of Utah, you can go to GiveBackBox.com (there's a link in last Sunday's post) and use the promotional code MAY to get a second label for 50% off!   The offer is good until 5/31, so get your labels quick!

A very busy week, and one I feel really good about....

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

Make-A-List Monday - Fun In The Sun!

 

Hi, all!

Well, it officially feels like summer now - the kids are finished with school, the days are long, and the sun is hot!  We're expecting a bit of a cool-down this weekend, and some rain, which is welcome for all my new plants.  I've been watering every day and they are doing well, but it will be nice for God to take on a bit of the chore!  So now that you know a little bit of what I've been doing this week, let's see how the rest of the list went...

1.  Have a baking day with Lilli.

Done - and we had a ball!  We made a seriously decadent dessert with Lilli's great chocolate chip cookie dough and a new-found brownie recipe.  Throw an Oreo or Reese's cup between a layer of chocolate chip cookie dough and brownie batter, bake and YUMMY!!

2.  Make the small hourglass blocks for my Me Sew Happy quilt and assemble the top.

Done!  And I am seriously loving this quilt!

3.  Put away the sorted scraps.

Done - although I don't have a picture! I promise I did it, though!

4.  Plant some colorful annuals in the front planters.

This is kind of in progress.  I replanted some that I took out before the lawn guys came and took out the big bushes, and I picked up some more today but need to plant them early in the morning while it's still cool!  So they will go in later this week.

5.  Start preparing a project for vacation (in one month!)

Done!  I have finished sewing this beautiful stack into strip sets, all ready to be cut into five-square strips.

A good week, and I had so much fun working on a new project!  Here's my list for this week...

1.  Cross-cut the strip sets into 5-square strips, then pack them up for vacation.

2.  Make a back for the Me Sew Happy quilt.

3.  Assemble the blocks from my last vacation quilt.

4.  Plant a rose bush and some day lilies in the front planters.

5.  Plant two new butterfly bushes in the back planter.

6.  Finish a ministry top by putting sashing between a stack of orphan blocks.

7.  Do some H2H administration work with my granddaughter.

I'm looking forward to working with Lilli to get the H2H thank-you gifts all organized and ready to be distributed!  She is an excellent organizer and a hard worker, both of which will come in handy.  And she needs to earn some spending money for a special project - she is planning to work through a season of The Great British Baking Show, making all the recipes and the challenges.  But her mom says that she needs to start buying some of her own supplies, so I get a minion for the summer!  Fortunately, while she may be a moody teenager at home, she is usually good company with me, so we will have a great time this summer.

So now only one question remains - - - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Hands2Help - Recognizing our Hometown Heroes!

 

Hi, all!

The end of May is fast approaching, and with it the end of this year's Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge!  But this week we are going to pause for a few minutes and recognize our Hometown Heroes!

My challenge to you was simple - find someone who has inspired you during this time of pandemic and let them know that they are seen, valued, and appreciated with the gift of a quilt.  Our guest blogger Carole provided us with another option as she presented a tutorial for these wonderful pillows...

...which would be a perfect gift to let someone know that you appreciate them!  We've already seen a few Hometown Heroes quilts pop up in the monthly updates, and I'll be sharing some of those with you later this week.  But today it's my turn to share what I did to fulfill the Hometown Heroes challenge!

All through 2020, as we were locked down and stuck at home, I realized that things for our quilt ministry were going to change as a result.  It became much harder for the ministry to function, as we couldn't get together to sew and didn't have contact with church members who routinely asked for quilts for people they came in contact with during normal times.  Many ministries and charities had similar problems, and many shut down or ceased operations during 2020 as a result.

But a bright spot in every day was seeing posts from Little Lambs Foundation of Utah.  Despite the pandemic, Stefanee and Ted held everything together and maintained a thriving ministry, providing backpacks and comfort items to foster children, holding drive-through diaper distribution days, and encouraging people to volunteer at home. Here's just a sample of their posts from last year...

Their sustained efforts to care for the most vulnerable in their community is heartwarming and inspiring, and I spend every day hoping to have the same heart that they do.  And it occurred to me that so many times we fail to really see people like Stefanee and Ted; the hours that they put into organizing and maintaining such a ministry, and even more hours that they spend worrying whether it can be sustained during trying times.  

Every time I thought about my Hometown Hero quilt, these two came to mind.  In dealing with my own quilt ministry, I have found that often I am led to a specific quilt or person, and when I follow that leading it is almost always a good choice, even though it might not appear to be on the surface.  So I follow those leadings when they come.  Because of that, I decided to send this quilt to Stefanee and Ted with a note thanking them for their hard work over the past year and for being such an inspiration to me personally.

I do love this quilt!  It reminds me of sunshine, warmth and joy, happiness overflowing - much as I feel when I see posts from Little Lambs!  So this is one for those people who bring us joy unknowingly during dark times - Hometown Heroes!

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And now, some exciting news for those of you who still have quilts to send to Little Lambs Foundation!  They have signed up for a program called Give Back Box, which allows you to pay $15 to ship up to 70 pounds of donations to them via UPS - a great deal any way you look at it.  Click on this link to be taken to the site and correct location to order a shipping label for Little Lambs.  It's quick and easy and once you've paid, you can print out the label right away.  Stuff your box full (up to 70 pounds), take it to a UPS drop off site and you're good to go! And just a reminder - they take things other than quilts, too, so if you've got room in your box for more things, you might consider adding some of the other items on their list of requested items!  I usually try to send some school supplies when Staples has their great back-to-school sales, but they also need diapers, baby washcloths, pacifiers, and other assorted paraphernalia (new items only, please).  You can see the list on the page for Give Back Box.

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And now it's your turn!  Share the story of your own Hometown Hero in the comments below, and if you are able to link up to a blogpost or instagram post, you can share pictures too!  Because I want everyone to have a chance to share, I'll leave this linky party open until Friday, June 4th.  Be sure to take some time to visit some of the links, too, and learn of the wonderful people who have kept us all going during this pandemic!

Next week its the final link-up party for Hands2Help, and I can't wait to see all the quilts that have been created!  I've seen so many beautiful quilts already, but know that there are many more out there. Keep up the good work!!

Hugs!

Sarah