I May Have a Scrap Problem... Not Getting Much Better!

Hi, all!

Wow, it has been a week!  I had so many commitments, and so many other things going on, that I didn't get much done on the scrap sewing front.  Boo!

I did, however, get my Gypsy Wife block for this week done!  This block is called Indian Hatchet, and the one on the left is for my GW quilt.  The one on the right is for the Michael Miller Friendship Quilt project, and is made from fabrics provided by Michael Miller Fabrics at QuiltCon.  The fabrics have been sitting on my worktable since February and it feels good to have it done!  The only requirement was that the block be 6.5" unfinished, and since Indian Hatchet was the same size, I just cut out two and sewed them both up together!  This block will go in the mail today.

Then I did some "sew my stash" sewing - I need to make some pillow covers for an upcoming Marketplace, and when I was looking through a drawer, I came upon a charm pack of Halloween fabrics that has been sitting unused for a couple of years.  I cut the charms into 2.5" squares, grabbed some fusible interfacing, and laid out simple patchwork.  Fused the squares onto the interfacing, then folded and sewed.  I love this method, and I've used it a lot for 1.5" squares, but this is the first time I've tried it with larger squares.  It is so fast, and the intersections of the squares are always perfect!  I'll be adding appliqués to these to make some really unique pillow covers, and hopefully they'll be a popular item!  

You can see my tutorial about this technique in this post - just scroll down a ways, because there are several techniques described in the post!  

Oh, and I almost forgot - this quilt went to Stash Builder Box today for this quarter's donation to Project Linus!  I finished it a while ago, but I don't think I ever shared it here.  This was a group effort by my Heart Builders team - we each made a block or two from our scraps, using the Japanese X and Plus block pattern.  Everyone sent them to me and I put them together into this cute quilt! It's a great scrap buster!

So not much scrap sewing, but I hope that will change soon as I get some projects finished and clear the tables a little bit!  Do you hit patches where you have so much "got to" sewing that you can't do any "want to" sewing?

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? Charity Quilts Galore!

Hi, all!

Here it is, Friday again - and you know what that means! It's time to get our whoop whoop on!  Are you ready?  Let's get started...

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This week I designated Wednesday and Thursday as quilting catch-up days, and managed to knock out some things I've needed to finish for a while...

First up was this quilt top which a friend brought me.  It was partly hand sewn, partly machine sewn; the blocks were cut on the bias so they were stretchy; and the sashing didn't reach all the way out to the side edges in places.  And of course, the green was made so long ago, I couldn't find a match for it in my stash or even the stash at church!  So unfortunately the edges of some of the blocks have been cut off to square it up - but I still think it's a fun bright quilt!  My friend's mother-in-law will be coming to live with her - she's the one who pieced it many years ago - and it will go on her bed. 

This quilt was pieced by Joyce Levengood as part of the Heartbuilders program for Stash Builder Box!  Joyce is on my team and she sent it to me for quilting for this quarter's donation to Project Linus.

I finally found a use for those pretty bright lemons that have been in my stash forever!

Joyce also made this cute red and brown quilt, with little monkeys all over it!  I envision this one on a little boy's bed...

And this beautiful quilt, also made by Joyce, looks like it would be perfect for a tween girl to me!  Such beautiful colors...

And this is the final quilt that will be headed to Stash Builder Box this quarter - it's a group effort by the members of Heartbuilders Team Four!  I love the way all of our bright happy blocks work so well together...  This was a fun block to make and I may make one of these quilts for myself sometime!

And finally, I got some happy mail on Thursday - some fun things I picked out as a treat for myself, as ordered by a good friend!

A small Omnigrid cutting and pressing mat, and a Steamfast mini-iron for piecing fun!  And two new books - The Versatile Nine Patch by Joan Ford for new scrappy inspiration, and Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in Ireland, because, hey, two of my favorite things!  I can't wait to see if there are places I recognize in this one.  It's sitting right beside me waiting for me to finish this blogpost and take a look!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop?

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And now it's your turn!

What's making you whoop it up this week?

What's got you dancing 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 - No Rest For the Wicked!

Hi, all!

Monday has rolled around again - and the best kind of summer Monday for me - rainy and comfortable temperatures!   It was a good day for sewing!!

I've got all kinds of new projects coming up, but first, let's see how last week's list went....

1.  Print the photos for the memory quilt.

2.  Assemble the memory quilt.
Done!  And not only printed and assembled, but quilted and bound!!  I'm glad to have this monster finished - it measures 95" square!!

3.  Assemble the SBB Special Project quilt.
Done!  This came out really cute, and I love the way everyone's scrappy blocks play so well together!

4.  Cut out the twins quilts.
Done!  And not only cut out, but I got started on sewing them together today, chain piecing the HSTs.

5.  Finish up the 12DCIJ blog hop stuff - giveaways, updating the tutorials page.
Partly done.  I finished up the giveaways, but I haven't updated the tutorials page yet.

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

Done!  We sent this quilt to a woman with stage 3 colon cancer...

And these five quilts are going to a group that works with women recently released from prison. They will be giving them to the women as they return home.  This is an ongoing project, and we'll be keeping them supplied with quilts.

So all in all, not a bad week at all!  Especially since I've been battling a cold all week - a gift from Emmy.  Bless her little pea-picking heart!  Here's what's on tap for this week...

1.  Work on the twins' quilts.

2.  Enjoy my last week with the littles before they start kindergarten.

3.  Mail off the prizes for the 12 Days of Christmas in July winners.

4.  Update the Tutorials and 12 Days of Christmas in July pages on my blog.

5.  Quilt some charity quilts.

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

I'm also working on a new quilt design for a future Free Spirit Fabric project - something more traditional, with LOTS of pieces - but I think it's going to be really cool!!  This one's really got my crafty mojo running on overdrive.....

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

Hugs!

Sarah

Oh, and just because it's cute, here's a grandkid pic - Emmy lost her first tooth this week!  She proudly announced to her mom that she lost her tooth while she was eating ice cream, and now she is ready for kindergarten!!

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Memories....

Hi, all!

Friday is here again, and you know what that means - it's time to get our whoop whoop on!  Let's get started!

This has been another week of quilting for me - I've mainly been working on quilting some memory quilts made by a friend of mine...

This was the first one.  Made to look like shirts and ties, with collars and everything, so I quilted a fairly tight meander around the ties and collar points to make them stand out.  My friend will put the collar buttons back on before finishing the quilt!

Next up was this quilt - a simpler design, and it got a simpler, larger random meander quilting pattern.  Such a cute way to use ties and shirts!

And then Thursday afternoon this quilt went on the frame.  I wanted the ties to stand out, so I quilted in a tight small meander around them like I did on the first quilt.  I also changed thread colors for the center of the "star" and for the dark borders.  It really turned out nicely!  

This week I also shipped these five quilts to Stash Builder Box to be part of their donation to Camp Hobe in June.  I quilted these as part of their Heartbuilder program - others in the program pieced them.  Aren't they gorgeous?

Also this week, we received our first HelloFresh box!  I wrote all about it in this blogpost if you are interested in reading more - there's a link to get a $40 discount off your first box there too!

And the biggest whoop whoop of all?  We celebrated two years with this little guy this week!!  (And I think we're also celebrating getting a picture of all five of them smiling at the same time...  😄)

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 dance a little happy dance?

Share!  We want to dance right along with you!

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

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? Lots of Quilting Going On...

Hi, all!

Here it is, Friday again!  Where did the week go?  But now that it's over, it's time to get our whoop whoop on - are you ready?  Let's get started!

I've got kind of a mixed bag this week - I've been working on charity quilts this week, doing bindings...

...and doing a LOT of quilting!

Some of those are for Stash Builder Box, and some are for our quilt ministry.  I've got a bunch more to work on this weekend!

Then there were the shopping finds...

60% off coupons at Joann's, and Kona wasn't already on sale!  I got a whole bolt of Snow, and a piece of Charcoal and a piece of Pool too!

And check out this backing material I found for the One Block Wonder quilt - isn't the color perfect?  I couldn't believe when I got it home - the yellow flowers are exactly the same color as the Kona Wasabi I used for the stop border!

And the kiddos and I have been really enjoying the beautiful spring weather this week - do you remember just how much fun a pinwheel can be?  There was a lot of joy and laughter going on in my car!!

So that's what I've been doing all week - 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 dance 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

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Hands2Help - Time for Guest Blogger Kat!!

Hi, all!

It's Sunday, and time for us to welcome another guest blogger for the Hands2Help Challenge!  This week, we will be hearing from Kat Drinkwater, who blogs at Kat & Cat Quilts.  Kat runs one of last year's H2H charities, Covered in Love, and she's going to tell us about her experience with Hands2Help.  I can't wait for you to hear from her, so I'll let you get right to her part - but be sure to stick around all the way to the end of the post to see some of the results of this year's Challenge!!

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Hello! My name is Kat and I run Covered in Love which was one of the charities fortunate enough to benefit from the H2H drive last year.  I wanted to let you know what a blessing H2H was for us and encourage you to keep sewing on your quilts for this year!

To give you just a little bit of background, I started CiL 2 years ago to benefit patients in the hospital where I work.  Our mission is to give quilts to patients who are dying or have died in the hospital to warm up the room and so the families can take them home as a keepsake.  To date over 150 quilts have been given out! 

Quilters from all over the world contribute to CiL, mostly through the block drives hosted on my blog.  I am a full-time Nurse Practitioner student, part-time nurse, and do the majority of the quilting for CiL myself, all of which can get exhausting as you can imagine!  I can't tell you what a relief it was during H2H to get so many quilts that only needed a label to be done!

Quilting Assistant #1

Prior to H2H last year we had been getting by with just enough quilts. As soon as I got them done they were up to the hospital and given away. The 50 quilts we got during last year's H2H drive put us ahead for the first time, and we've stayed ahead ever since!

The infusion of new, completed quilts from quilters like yourselves can give a huge morale boost to a little charity like mine, besides of course allowing us to reach more people.  So keep on sewing as H2H wraps up :)  I got some late quilts last year that missed the H2H deadline, but even if it comes in December you can bet we'll still be glad to see it!

PS - I know Sarah has some link ups here during H2H for you to show off your progress.  I wanted to let you know that I also have a linky every Wednesday for charity related sewing, if you want to link up!

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It makes my heart sing to hear that H2H had a lasting effect on Kat's ministry - I know from personal experience what a relief it is to have quilts ready to go when there is a need, instead of having to finish one in a hurry.  See what you have done?  You guys rock!  

And today I heard from Amanda Kelly, who runs Stash Builder Box, which is the conduit for our donations to Camp Hobe this year.  She sent me this picture.....

...which was what she picked up from her post office box this morning.  She said it was mostly H2H donations...

And these are just some of the quilts they received today!  She says they have a stack of ten already.   In her words, "Camp Hobe is going to have some happy campers come June!"  

Look what you have done!  I am so proud of all of you!!!  You are making a huge difference in the lives of so many - keep up the good work!!

Hugs!

Sarah