Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? The Moody Blues....

Hi, all!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here, how about where you are?  I am loving all the sweet Christmas commercials (Publix made me cry AGAIN this year!) and the excitement on the faces of all the kids in the stores!  And to add to the excitement, here it is, Friday again, and time for us to get our whoop whoop on!  Let's get started...

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Today I'm ready to unveil the second of my grandkids' annual quilts!  This one is for Lilliana, who will be turning twelve on Monday (HOW DID THAT HAPPEN???)  Here's a picture of my beautiful girl...

...who, because she is eleven and a "tween", tends to look like the next picture more often than the one above!

Moody seems to be the watchword with tween girls, and that inspired the name of her annual quilt this year - meet The Moody Blues!

Lilli's favorite color is blue, and when I saw Christina Cameli's pattern "Sea of Serenity" from her book Wedge Quilt Workshop, I knew it would be perfect for a quilt for Lilli.

I added in the pop of yellow because, after all, she does smile occasionally!!  And that smile is like a ray of sunshine (and keeps coming more and more frequently as she gets closer to twelve...)

I had a beautiful linen duvet cover that I cannibalized to make the back for this quilt, so it's lovely and soft and promises to get softer over time.  The giant acanthus pattern also feels very modern in the dark gray and white!

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 - Making Progress!

Hi, all!

Wow, has it been a week!  We're back to scorching temperatures here in Tennessee again, so there's plenty of time for sewing, thankfully!  I am so. ready. for. fall - how about you?  Well, until it gets here, let's see how last week's list went...

1.  Quilt the baby quilt.

Done, and delivered!

2.  Quilt a vintage top for a customer.

Also done and delivered!

3.  Make progress on each of the annual quilts.

Definitely progress made!  Five drama llamas are complete...

...the moody blues quilt is making great strides...

...penguins are on parade...

...and I found a great back for this quilt today!

4.  Make progress on the Birch Bark quilt.

Progress made!  I have finished assembling one half of the quilt top - this piece is 60" x 100"!  I'll be working on the next half soon.

5.  Make progress on the three My Small World quilts. 

(Yes, I've lost my mind!)

Done!  I've made more blocks than these, but I'll share those on Wednesday...

Blues for Lilli...

Rainbow and fussy cut for Emmy...

And, of course, greens for Nathanael!

6.  Start working on the t-shirt commission quilt if the customer returns the deconstructed t-shirts.

And this is why I got so much done this week - she still hasn't brought the deconstructed shirts back to me!

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

Done!  Not so many this week...

This quilt went to a woman just diagnosed with stage 3 cancer...

...and this one went to a gentleman injured in an ATV accident.

I also, in a complete state of lunacy, decided to jump into the Pine Hollow Patchwork Forest Quilt Along, hosted by Amy of Diary of a Quilter!  Here's the fabric I've pulled for my version...

So as you can see, it was a busy and productive week!  I kind of like the "make progress" directive I put on my board last week - it seems to be less oppressive and a lot more fun!

And here's what I have on my plate for this week...

1.  Make progress on the annual quilts - just Emmy's and Lilli's this week, though.

2.  Make progress on the My Small World quilts.

3.  Make progress on the Birch Bark quilt.

4.  Make progress on the Pine Hollow Patchwork Forest Quilt Along! (In the future, to be referred to as the Patchwork Forest Q/A to save my poor fingers!)

5.  Make some flannel receiving blankets for a local NICU.

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

So another busy week on tap, but at least I won't be tempted to spend too much time outside - at least until it cools off this weekend.  And I'm having so much fun "making progress"!

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

Hugs!

Sarah

I May Have a Scrap Problem... But Not A Stash Problem!

Hi, all!

It occurred to me this week that (a) it is only slightly more than four months until Christmas (!!!!) and (b) I had not yet thought about what I was doing for my grandkids' annual quilts this year (!!!!!!!!).  For those of you who may not know, I make each of my three grandkids a quilt for Christmas that reflects in some way what they were like or what they liked that year, with a fun label that tells a little bit about them, their likes, and sometimes something funny they did that year.  It serves as kind of a yearbook for them, and I love the thought of their own kids reading the labels someday and learning about their parents when they were little. 

So - time to get to work!  Emmy was the easiest - at seven, she is a total drama queen this year.  

I had seen Wendy's wonderful "drama llama" and knew that it would make a wonderful quilt!  Off to Sew Fresh Quilts with her fabulous selection of pieced animal quilts, and I picked up the pattern.  Then I went to the stash, and pulled these fabrics...

...which are ever so much prettier and "dramatic" in person!  This is going to be a fun quilt to make, once I get through the detailed cutting instructions.  

Nathanael's quilt took a bit more research.  He always loves the color green, but he has several green quilts, so I wanted to do something a little bit different.  Then I remembered Penguin...

...Nathanael's best buddy!  He carries Penguin with him almost everywhere, and I've had to sew his flippers on several times.  So I started looking for a pieced penguin pattern.  As luck would have it, Elizabeth Hartman had an adorable version, and my stash yielded loads of cute penguin body fabrics!

I guess it pays to hoard black and white fabrics for years and years!

Lilli was a little bit more of a conundrum.  She's in her moody tween stage and doesn't seem to like much of anything lately - this picture is pretty indicative of her mood lately....

But - - - she still likes the color blue, and I still like to make her quilts, so I started looking for a pattern that would work with fabrics I had on hand.  I looked through my Pinterest boards, and didn't see anything that sparked my fancy - and then I remembered my Wedge Play Workshop book by Christina Cameli!  There are a bunch of quilts I want to make in that book, and while I didn't settle on the one I remembered when I thought of the book, I did find one that I loved....

...AND I found beautiful fabrics (after many many changes in the pull) to make it with!  I had originally settled on a slightly different array, but when my daughter realized it was for Lilli, she suggested removing the purples (apparently Lilli is NOT fond of purple these days) and adding back in a couple of prints I had pulled out.  I'm happy with this pull and think it will be a fun and beautiful quilt!

So - no scrappy sewing, but I am at least playing in my stash and preparing to use up fabric!  What have you been working on this week?  Are you also getting into Christmas mode?

Hugs!

Sarah

I May Have A Scrap Problem - June Results and July Goals!

Hi, all!

It seems that June just flew by, doesn't it?  So much going on with the beginning of summer, and that definitely made a difference in my time for working with scraps - but I did make some progress!  I'll show you the small progress first, though...

This was my June goal.  And this was scrap tub "B"...

Oh my goodness was that tub packed full of stuff!  I pressed and cut, pressed and folded, stashed away fabric in color-sorted tubs, and this is where it stood at the end of the month...

So I made a good dent in it, but still didn't manage to clear it out.  So for July, I'm going to continue working on tub B, but with a couple of clear projects in mind.  My granddaughter has requested a scrappy blue quilt as her annual quilt this year (because "Nana, you KNOW blue is my color!") and there were a lot of blues in this tub.  I will probably gather up 2.5" squares for that project.  And I'm thinking this might be a great place to find pieces for a scrappy version of Jamie Elfert's Summer Wedding quilt.  

So that will be my goal for July - finish up that dratted tub and collect pieces for two quilts.  Because I am DETERMINED to clean out that tub!!

And now for my big result - I finally finished the denim crescent quilt!!!!

I debated many ways to quilt this top, but in the end I decided just to quilt wavy lines across the quilt, about an inch or so apart.  The backing, which you can see here, is a piece I picked up in IKEA in Calgary.  Rather appropriate for the 4th of July, isn't it?  

Here you can see it hanging from a rung of my new quilt ladder!  I'm a little excited about both of these things....

Here you can see the texture of the quilting - I really like the way this looks!  I decided not to use batting on this one, because it was already so heavy.  I put a layer of white flannel between the front and back to minimize the feel of the seams in the denim, which were pretty bulky.

This shot really show off the ombre shading of the denim, achieved by sorting out my denim jeans scraps by color, then arranging them with the lightest on the top and the darkest on the bottom.  For those of you interested, the pattern is by Christina Cameli and can be found in her new book, Wedge Quilt Workshop.  

So that was my June, at least as far as the scraps went!  I'm glad to have finished the denim quilt, and look forward to using it, and I'll be very happy to get to the bottom of Scrap Tub "B"! 

Have you been working on your scraps too?  Link up below to show off what you've done this month.  I'm really enjoying seeing your creations on Instagram and other social media!

Hugs!

Sarah

PS - if you missed it, be sure to check out this post to see a preview of this year's 12 Days of Christmas in July quilt-along quilt.  We have a new sponsor this year - BlocLoc - and they are offering 10% off for my readers from now until July 15th with the code JULY25TH (put it in the Special Instructions field).  You'll want a BlocLoc half square triangle ruler for this quilt if you don't already have one!

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? Marathoning, Fun, and a Big Score!

Hi, all!

Friday certainly got here fast this week, didn't it?  But now that it's here, we know what to do - it's time to get our whoop whoop on!!  So let's get started!

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If you've been watching my feed on Instagram, you know that I've been on a marathon of quilting for the past two weeks. 

 Last week I quilted ten quilts, and this week I quilted nine, all of which are going to our church's graduating high school seniors.  

Here's just a few of the quilts we've made - lots of scrappy quilts, which feels very satisfying - even though it's not made a dent in the scrap bins!

Such a wide variety of quilts you can make with scraps!  Rita really went to town making them, and I've gotten lots of great ideas from her...

The bottom quilt there was made using salesman's shirting samples that we were given many years ago - they sure make a pretty quilt!

I think this triangle quilt is my favorite, though - a great way to use up strings out of the overflowing string bin!

But not only did I get all that quilting done, I had some time to work on my Wedge Play quilt!

I got all the arcs sewn down to the denim backing.  Boy was that heavy to maneuver!  I pressed the edges under 1/4" and then top stitched close to the edges. 

It's going to be such a fun quilt!  I'm still trying to decide how to quilt it, but I'm happy to say I've got my backing material already because.....

.....the final thing I'm whooping over this week is the great sale I hit at Joann's!  They had a coupon for 70% off their Keepsake Calico line, and since I needed backs for four quilts, I headed over to see what I could score.  Not only did I find backs for all the quilts, but I picked up some basics I like to keep on hand (the Etch-a-Sketch-ish pieces, 2nd, 3rd and 4th from the top) and ended up getting $200 worth of fabric for just $60!  Let me tell you, I was one happy camper!!

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