Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? A Useful Tip Worked Out!

Hi, all!

It’s Friday again - are you ready to get your whoop whoop on?  It’s been a busy week here, but I’ve got something fun to share with you!

A few weeks ago, my friend Michele took a class with Kimmy Brunner at the MQX East Quilt Show, and shared some of the tips she learned there on her blog. One of them was how to create channel locks for your long arm machine using rubber bands.  Well, I’ve been trying all kinds of ways to fashion a channel lock for Jolene, so I thought today that I would give the rubber bands a try!

I had this cute little quilt top ready to put on the frame - actually I had it sandwiched up for straight line quilting on my table top machine, but I pinned it to the frame and off we went!  

A small learning curve as I experimented with the best way to advance the rows, but eventually I worked it all out.  It took about 40 minutes to quilt this up, but I have a feeling it will go a bit faster next time. 

I’m thinking about using this technique to quilt Nathanael’s Ladder - what do you think?  I love the texture it gives the quilt!  Even though the lines are fairly close together, it’s still a soft and pliable quilt.

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it’s your turn!

What are you dancing the happy dance about this week?

What’s got you whooping?

Share with us - we want to whoop along with you!

The party will remain open until Sunday midnight - 

and remember, it doesn’t have to be a finish!

Just whatever’s making you happy!

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Lots of Quilting This Week!

Hi, all!

It's Friday again - and time to get your whoop whoop on!  Are you ready to do a little whooping?  I sure am!!  So let's get started...

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This week I quilted this...

...and this...

...and this...

...and this!

I'm really proud of this one...

...really tight stippling in the print pieces,

with some simple template work in the background.

You can see the quilting a little better on the back,

and isn't that a great piece of IKEA fabric?

A new member donated six hand-pieced tops

that she made over 20 years ago, and this is one of them.

So glad I remembered to put Color Catchers in the wash -

they came out denim colored!!  

Fabric has come a long way in 20 years!!

I'm really whooping that the new sewing area works so well, and Jolene (my long arm machine) did a fabulous job on the quilting - not a single glitch in the whole process!!

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So that's what I'm whooping about this week!

What's made you dance the happy dance?

Share, so we can dance along with you!!

The linky party will stay open until Sunday night -

Be there or be square!!

Hugs!

Sarah

We're ready to 

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Lions and Tigers and Templates, oh my!

Hi, all!

It's Friday again - the first one of May, can you believe it?  Time sure flies when you're having fun!  I hope you're ready to get your whoop whoop on!!

Last Friday I had the opportunity to take a class from Kimmy Brunner at the AQS show in Paducah, and it was amazing!!!  The class was titled "Playing With Plastic" and Kimmy taught us how to use templates in long arm quilting.  Now, this has always intimidated me - but after a bit of instruction, I headed over to the machine and created this...

Now, I know it doesn't look like much, but it amazed me how really simple it was - once you know the tricks and aren't afraid to try it!  

So I came home and was dying to try out all I had learned - but only had ministry quilts ready to quilt.  One of them, though, was a man's quilt that really needed straight line quilting - and I thought I'd give it a try on the long arm, using my straight edge template.  (I didn't get my melon templates until yesterday - can't wait to play with them next!)

And here's what I ended up with!

Now granted, it looks a bit better from a distance - it was my first time using the template, remember?  But it worked up fairly quickly and certainly faster than it would have if I'd had to wrestle it through my tabletop machine!

I love the cross-hatching on this quilt - it was the perfect finishing touch.  The charm squares Pam and Deb used on this quilt had loads of texture - homespun, flannel, linen, pintucked - and this quilting didn't interfere with that at all.

And here's one last shot, showing the back - a gorgeous flannel print that we found a bolt of at a yard sale.  All in all, it makes this quilt very cuddly, yet manly!   It has found a new home with a man who was diagnosed several years ago with sinus cancer, and unfortunately the cancer has recurred.  They tell him he will have to be on chemo for the rest of his life....  I sure hope this quilt reminds him that folks are praying for him and his family!

So that's my whoop whoop for the week!!

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And now it's your turn!

What are you whooping about this week?

What has made your heart sing?

Do tell - we want to whoop right along with you!!

The party will remain open until Sunday midnight - 

Be there or be square!

Hugs!

Sarah

PS - Kimmy has a class on Craftsy now - if you're interested in quilting with templates, check it out!

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Marathon Quilting...

Hi, all!!

It's Friday again - are you ready to get your whoop whoop on??  

Summer's winding to a close - can you believe that Labor Day is a week from this coming Monday?  I'll be having surgery the day after Labor Day, so I've been trying to get as much quilting done as possible before then - I won't be able to quilt during September (recup' time) so I want to have some finished quilts on hand for the ministry.  And since I need to do so much quilting, what do you think happened?  Of course - I ran out of batting and it took about two weeks longer than usual to come in!  But it did come in today, and I went on a quilting marathon! No babysitting for me today - my daughter had the youngest granddaughter in tow - so Jolene and I had a day!

Just in case you haven't met, this is Jolene!!

I got up early this morning and, using the batts I pieced together from my batting scraps, quilted three quilts.  Then I found a long but skinny piece of batting and quilted two narrow kids' quilts.  Then I pieced another batt from scraps and quilted another top.  Fortunately, just as I was finishing up that sixth quilt, my LQS owner called to tell me that my two rolls of batting had finally arrived!!  So I jumped in the car, made a quick drive through Chez McD's on the way, and picked up the batting.  

Back home, I loaded up another quilt and just got started on it, when the phone rang again - my new glasses had arrived!  So I hopped back in the car and ran back to town to pick them up.  Headed home again, seeing much better, and finished quilt #7, then loaded and quilted three more!  So here's what I'm whooping about today....

...the results of my quilting marathon!  Ten lovely quilts all ready for someone else to bind!!  (Well, sort of ready - I still need to trim them up, but that will get done tomorrow morning early!)  It's amazing what you can do if you don't have a baby to play with take care of, and basically ignore everything else, including cooking supper.  Kudos to my wonderful hubby, who saw what I had done and took me out to to eat!!!  What a great guy!!

And one more thing I'm whooping about - take a look at my pretty little girls...

Aren't they sweet?  Lilli posed this picture for me - and had to include Bear in the pic!  (He's the greyish-pink blob in the middle - Lilli's constant companion since she was Emmy's size!)  My son-in-law says that Emmy has her "thug" look on - and I remember him describing a picture of Lilli just that way when she was little.  It's so funny how much they resemble each other!  There's no doubt they are sisters!!

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So now it's your turn!!

What are you whooping about this week?

We want to whoop with (and for) you!!

So share your accompishments - 

we all want to see!!

Linky party will stay open until Sunday night!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - Spread Thin But Loving It!!!

Hi, all!

Wow, it's been an exciting week - I've picked up my new long arm and set it up, started working on the new sewing space at church, AND worked on my list from last week!  Let's see how I did...

1.  Border, back and quilt a woman's quilt for the ministry.

Done!  Here's a pic of the second one I did, since I showed the first one several times on the blog last week...

2.  Bind a baby girl quilt for the ministry.

Done - sort of!  Someone donated this beautiful baby quilt to the ministry, all finished, so I pulled it from the stack for this need.  I'm so sorry I don't remember who donated it - if you recognize it, let me know and I'll give proper credit!!

3. Make kits for Wednesday night sewing.

Done - and I handed out all the kits I put together before taking a picture!  Oh well....

4.  Begin the move into the new space at church!!

In progress!  I'll show lots of pics at the bottom of this post.

AND

5.  Take apart my quilting frame and store it....

BECAUSE....

I bought a long arm quilting machine in Paducah!!

Done!  The old frame is stored in the attic, and the new one is partially assembled, just waiting for me to have enough time to put on the leaders and load up something to give it a test run!

She needs a name - got any suggestions?  I thought about Baby (as in "nobody puts Baby in the corner" except she's in the corner!) but so far I'm clueless....

So what's on tap for this week? Here goes...

1.  Put binding on a quilt for a 7-year old boy with a brain tumor.

2.  Keep working on taking stuff down to church and getting it organized in our new space.

3.  Finish setting up my new quilt frame.

4.  Load on a test setup and give it a whirl!

5.   Re-organize my own space when all the ministry stuff is out!

I'm almost afraid to say this out loud, but once that quilt listed above is finished, we are completely caught up on the ministry list (and as soon as I post this, we'll get a load of requests!)  But maybe I can get some of the re-organizing done before we get a list going again....

And now here are some pics of the new space we're working on at church...

This shot is from very early - old floors are still in, room hasn't been painted.

Taken the same day, showing the other walls.

This was on Sunday - new floors are down, the green walls are painted blue, and the fabric storage cubbies are assembled.

This was taken today.  The black space on the left is blackboard paint on the wall for long term lists; the white space is a whiteboard for teaching purposes.  The area in between will be a comfortable seating area.  Quilt frame on the right between windows, and the door is to the left.

We ended up stacking the fabric cubbies, added a metal shelving unit to the right that will hold the quilt tops that are in progress, and the shelving units you can see to the right of the window will hold big tubs of scraps.

See that great big blue panel?  It's going to be our design wall!  It also will have pegboard on the back to store rotary cutters, templates, and other goodies that will hang on hooks.  There's room to store extra chairs behind it, and a locking cabinet for storing machines.

And there's the new quilting frame we bought for the church - it's a Grace frame and it's partially disassembled - I've got to figure out how to get it back together because the ladies are standing in line waiting to learn how to use it!

So it's coming along nicely - I've still got a bunch of stuff to bring from my house - boxes of donations that need to be processed and more scraps to be cut up, comfortable chairs and a cabinet and a microwave - oh my!!   I'm going to have so much room in my house!!  I actually might have to - - - gasp! - - - clean up!!

So that's what I'm busy with this week!  And now the question is - - -what are you working on?

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I get a Whoop-Whoop?? Sometimes You Gotta Just Hold Your Mouth Right...

Hi, all!


Wow, it's Friday again!  Where does the week go?  Seems like it was just Monday - - - and here it is, time to show off the week's accomplishments again.  I can't wait to see what each of you have been up to this week!!

First of all, this beautiful top was pieced by my friend Kathy - her contribution to the Great American Jelly Roll Race quilts that we made for the quilt ministry.

I am very happy to say that I finally got this quilt finished - I started having problems with my Juki, Tillie, as I was almost finished machine quilting this beauty.  About twelve inches from the end, she started skipping stitches like mad!  And of course, on the quilt frame, it's almost impossible to troubleshoot - so with the help of my lovely niece, we got it off without taking the quilt off.   In comes my favorite "house call" repair man, who manages to fix it so it will sew straight, but not on the curves.  He recommended me to a local commercial repair shop, who worked on it Wednesday morning and returned it to me in good shape.  I put it back on the frame this morning, and lo and behold, it was skipping again!  Took it off, cut the quilt off the frame, and did some trouble shooting on my own - turns out my embroidery foot had broken!  So I think I've got the problem fixed, but my FMQ skills off the frame have sadly deteriorated - it looks ok where I finished it, but not as nice as I would like.  But I think it turned out ok!  


Take a look at the backing of this quilt....

Isn't that perfect?  Someone donated a whole bolt of this aloha shirt print, the same day the top came to me to be quilted.  You couldn't ask for a better match!  This quilt is going to a young man who was recently in a terrible motorcycle accident, and is going to be in treatment for injuries to his legs for a long time.  


I still need to do the hand stitching on the binding, but that's tonight's task - hopefully I can find a good movie to keep me occupied while I do it!  So this will really be a Friday Finish!  I promise!

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On another quick note, my friend Ann over at Renegade Quilter is very close to having 100 followers!  She has a great blog that I get a lot of inspiration from - if you've never checked it out before, I highly recommend it!  PLUS - she's planning to have a giveaway when she hits 100 followers - how's that for an incentive to check her out?  (Plus she's a HUGE Dave Matthews Band fan...)

So jump over to her blog and see if it's not right up your alley -

Help her get to 100 followers!!

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So now it's your turn - what have you been working on this week?  What are you excited about completing, or starting, or just having fun with?  Share!!  We all want to be inspired by your craftiness!  Remember, you have until Saturday night at midnight to link up!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Toddlerless Tuesday #24! Functioning internet is wonderful....

Hi, all!


I'm experiencing the best internet connection I've had in two weeks, and I can't think of anything I'd rather do than post a new blog post!!  

I had a moderately productive day today - this quilt went on the frame this morning and I put the binding on it (the machine sewing part) right after Lilli went home.  I'll be doing the hand sewing on it tonight so it can be delivered tomorrow night.  It will be going to an older gentleman who has been traveling with our youth group on mission trips for years to cook for them.  He's battling cancer and the young people wanted a quilt for him.  They signed the back and it's so sweet to read their well wishes for him.  I'll post pictures of the finished quilt later this week.  (FYI, the top of this quilt was pieced by my friend Diane, who blogs here.  It's so nice to have local blog friends!!

And here's a reminder to check out the upcoming Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge here!  Signups will start this Sunday - I hope to see you there!  And please help spread the word this week - you can grab the blog button in my side bar.  There will be a giveaway for the beginning of the challenge, chosen from the people that sign up, and a giveaway at the end of the challenge, chosen from the finished quilts.  Posting the blog button or blogging about the challenge this week can get you an extra entry!


Did you have a good day?


Later!


Sarah


PS  Be sure to check out the giveaway going on over at DomestiCass's blog - it's her first and it's a good one!!


And Julie over at Jaybird Quilts is having a giveaway, too!

Make-A-List Monday #39! Can I take my sewing machine outside?

Hi, all!

It's Monday again - I hope you had a good and restful/productive weekend (whichever tickles your fancy...) and are ready to start a new week!  Our weather here has been amazing - spring in Tennessee is something special - and the first few days of the week are supposed to be really nice. I want to move my sewing out onto the deck!

Despite all the handicaps of last week (a toddler at home, feeling her 3-year old oats, and a visiting niece with project in hand) I did pretty well on my list...

1.  Quilt the sports quilt for the quilt ministry.

Done!  I've taken this quilt to church already, so that it can be delivered to the recipient.

2.  Quilt an I-Spy quilt for the quilt ministry.

Done!  I've got the binding cut out to put on today. The picture's down below...

3.  Help my niece make a quilt that she wants to give as a gift.

Done!  This came out so cute, I think I'm going to have to make another, and maybe write a tutorial for it!  You can read a little more about it here.

4.  Cut more five-inch squares for D9Ps.

Done!  But I don't have pics, because they've already gone out in...

5.  Put together kits for D9Ps.

...the kits I put together for the D9P blocks!  

Our quilt ministry ladies really stepped up to the plate this week!  We met to sew together the past two Saturdays and I currently have about ten D9P quilts in various stages of construction - but all the basic blocks have been sewn together.  This will put us ahead of the game, at least for a little while!  Hallelujah!!  And - - - I quilted three quilts on the quilting frame yesterday afternoon!  Whew!!

The I-Spy quilt is the one on the right...

And now, for this week's list.....

1.  Clean up the sewing room!

2.  Bind the three quilts that were quilted on Sunday.

3.  Work on the Brown Bag Challenge quilt due 4/1/11.

4.  Organize undesignated quilts in progress.

5.  Finish organization project for keeping track of designated quilts in progress.

I've got some more quilt flimsies ready to be quilted, but I get to travel with my hubby this week a little bit (to Paducah, folks - hold me back!) so I don't know if I'll get around to them or not, since Lilli's not in preschool still this week.  But I think I can get the rest of this list taken care of!

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

Later!

Sarah