Make-A-List Monday - Progress, and Another Busy Week!

Hi, all!

After a busy week and weekend, Monday has rolled around again and another week has begun!  And it's August - can you believe it?  This year has seemed both interminable and like it's flying by, both at the same time.  I don't understand that, but I bet many of you feel the same way.

Let's see - last week I had a few things on my list, like making some see-through masks for friends...

These went to a family in Georgia...

...and these were made for my grandkids' school interpreter!

I also had on my list to make and finish a t-shirt quilt for a customer, and I finished that this afternoon!  More pictures to come on Friday, but here's my proof that I finished it!

I had on my list to start cutting and packaging up some blocks for Lilli's annual quilt, and I got two cut out - Ron and Harry....

...and this afternoon, I took some time after finishing the customer quilt and added Ron to the gang...

...and started working on Harry!  Harry's block is more intricate than all except Luna's so far, so I didn't quite get it finished before I had to cook supper, but it should be a quick finish tomorrow morning.

AND I wrote the tutorial for the see-through masks, which you can find here if you are interested.  It is a long and picture-heavy post, but I think it makes them do-able for anyone with some sewing experience!  

The one thing I didn't get to last week was quilting the other customer quilt (it's a quilting job only).  But I did look at it today in preparation and it appears that I'll be able to use width of the fabric for the back, with no seams.  Hooray!!!  And that's the first thing on my list for this week.

Next up will be finishing Harry's block, and cutting out some more of them.  These blocks are so much fun to make - Lorna did a fabulous job with the instructions.  I still have Hagrid, Snape, McGonagall, Hedwig, and Hogwarts to cut out and assemble, so that's plenty to keep me busy this week.

I also need to spend some time looking over the pattern for the dinosaur quilt for Nathanael.  I hope it's as well written and easy as Lorna's patterns!  If time allows, I'll get started cutting out some of these blocks to save for vacation.

I also want to spend some time with each of the grandkids, one on one, this week.  Summer is over, and they will be starting school (albeit at home with distance learning) next week.  So one last fling with each of them is in order!  

Plenty to keep me out of trouble this week, and if I get through all this, I'm sure I can find something else to get into!

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

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - So Many Projects!

Hi, all!

These Mondays just keep rolling around, don't they?  And they seem to come faster and faster!  But it's time to make another list, and boy do I have stuff to put on it!

Last week my one goal was to finish the commission for thirty see-through masks, and I did, just this afternoon.  I delivered them in batches, so I don't have a picture of them all together, but here's a few of them...

And my husband and I put up a new ceiling fan in my studio, this one with a working light (hallelujah!).  I can run it from my phone, and I also hooked it up to Alexa so I can order her around to run it. It's the little things, isn't it?  Who knew we could get so excited about ordering our appliances around!

And while I may not have had much time to do things in the studio other than make masks this week, my grandson was an awesome helper and cleaned off my design wall!  

And all that mask making generated even more see-through mask requests - I'll be making 8-10 more masks this week, for my grandkids' interpreter and for two other families.  I should be able to finish that tomorrow, with a little luck.

Then it'll be time to get started on a commission t-shirt quilt that the fabric just arrived for!  It should be fairly simple, and once again, I hope to finish it this week.  

And if I finish that, I've got another quilting job - a t-shirt quilt made by a grandmother for her granddaughter, and all she needed was the quilting and binding.  Also another fairly simple job that would be nice to finish this week!

Oooh, I almost forgot, I've got to write the tutorial for the see-through face masks, too.  

I'm looking forward, too - we have a vacation scheduled for the end of August, just one month away!  But that means I need to start thinking about what I want to take with me, sewing-wise.  Since I'm working on the Harry Potter quilt, and want to also make this totally adorable dinosaur quilt for Nathanael...

...except in greens, of course!  But both quilts take a lot of cutting, so I may start cutting the blocks and putting the pieces in zip loc bags in preparation for vacation.  That way I can be starting to get ready for vacation AND working on their annual quilts!  

So that's what my week looks like - plenty to keep me busy, plus I get to have some fun time with the grands, too!

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

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? Success!

Hi, all!

Well, it's Friday again, and we all know what that means - it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on!  Are you ready?  Let's go!

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It's been a weird and disjointed week for me, with lots of plans having to be sidelined because of things that came up.  BUT...

....we did finally manage to get the foyer light fixture up!  It's kind of a funny story - we ordered it soon after moving in, but by the time it arrived, the COVID hibernation had begun and we didn't want to call in an electrician.  Well, about a month ago, things started looking better, so we called an electrician who quoted us an exorbitant price to install a light I could put in myself if I only had a tall enough ladder.  Since his quote was more than the cost of the ladder, we decided to go buy one ourselves.  It took three weeks to arrive, but now I finally have a nice fixture in the foyer that matches wonderfully with our furnishings.  The previous light was "shiny" as my youngest granddaughter liked to say (she adored it) but crystals and shiny silver are not my cup of tea!

I also started working on a commission job for my son-in-law - he works for a local audiologist and requested thirty see-through masks for their offices.  Just before I started on his job, I saw a post on Instagram by @chezvies and realized that her mask pattern, with a little tweaking, would work perfectly!

And not only that, but the designer gave me permission to do a tutorial on my blog to share the technique for anyone else who needs it.  So that will be forthcoming in the next week or so.  

I've finished nineteen of the masks, so I've still got eleven to make, but I'm excited that they've worked so well.  It's a little finicky but totally do-able.  I've been making them production line style, so I don't know how long each is taking to make, but I have one more to make in the smaller size, so I'll probably make that one from start to finish and time it just for fun.  And I've learned some tricks in the past few weeks and tries at mask making that I'll share in the tutorial!

So that's been my week so far!  

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 - Back on the Mask-Making Bandwagon!

Hi, all!

Where did the week go?  Seems like time is just flying in these hot days of summer.  I did succeed in getting my Christmas in July post done in time last week (hooray!) but it looks like this will be another busy and single-minded week this week as I work on a big order...

I've got a request to make thirty see-through masks for a local audiologist's office, and hallelujah, I finally found a pattern that I REALLY like for these!  I saw a mask on Instagram designed by @chezvies (Elvira Threeyama) that looked like it could be adapted.  It's called the Trio 3D Face Mask, and the pattern was available on her site for a very reasonable price.  Once I purchased the download, I made some adaptations to add in the vinyl panel, and made a prototype.  Wow!  A well-tailored see-through mask I'm not ashamed to put my name on that fits well and works well!  I'm going to get in touch with Elvira and see if I can do a tutorial on my blog without encroaching on her rights as designer for those of you who also need to make something similar.  Fingers crossed!  I'd like to have these done by the end of the week, so that's going to take up the bulk of my sewing time this week.

Oh, and last week I managed to get three blocks done for Lilli's Harry Potter quilt!  The first two (Dumbledore and Hermione) went really easily, but I chose colors poorly for Luna and had to regroup.  I am very happy with the end result for her now, though!  I don't know if I'll get to another block this week - the masks must take priority - but they are fun to look at up on my design wall!

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

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - It's Christmas in July Week!

Hi, all!

Busy busy busy!  That's what it's been like around here - it seems, once again, that there just aren't enough hours in the day!  I've been working on my project for the Christmas in July blog hop, and of course, I'm running it right down to the wire.  I still have some more pictures to take tomorrow to fill in the post, but it's almost done, hallelujah!

So tonight's post will be very short, since it's almost bedtime and I've been working on the other post all night.  Be sure to come back on Wednesday and see what I worked on all last week!  

This week I'll be finishing up that post and one other small project, and working on a new flower bed/bird feeder sanctuary just outside my patio.  Once that's done, I'll probably start working on one of the grandkids' annual quilts!  I've also got a new t-shirt quilt commission that I need to write an estimate for - can't forget that!  And we just got a new ladder, tall enough so we can reach and replace the foyer light - finally!  So that will be on my list sometime too.

And just because a post isn't a post without a pretty picture, take a look at the fun masks I made for my real estate agent!

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

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - Headed into Deep Summer!

Hi, all!

I hope you had a fun and safe 4th of July weekend!  Ours started out with a Hamilton watch party with the kids on Friday, then continued on Saturday with a (masked) trip to the farmer's market and out to breakfast, then brisket and fresh corn on the cob for supper and then watching the neighborhood fireworks from our front lawn!  All in all, it was a lovely way to celebrate, and we didn't miss the crowds or huge celebration at all.  

And now it's Monday, and time to review last week and look ahead to the new one!  First thing on last week's list was to continue working on the blog hop project, and it's coming along nicely...

This pic was taken after spray basting, then I stay stitched around the whole piece and did some stitch in the ditch on my domestic machine.  Now I've loaded it on the quilt frame and it's ready for some quilt-y love tomorrow.

I was also working on squaring up/blocking the whole cloth piece I will be using for Emmy's annual quilt.  I did that by loading it onto my quilt frame, being sure the the edges were placed at the same place on the two bars.  Then I pulled it taut and spritzed it with water, allowing it to dry in position.  Once it dried, I rolled it up to a new section and repeated the process.  I'm pleased to say that it appears to have squared up nicely!

I didn't take a picture of it, but I've got a large stack of fabrics pulled for Lilli's Harry Potter quilt, AND I managed to find both black and white solids to use in it, despite what appears to be a major shortage around town!

I think I have a plan for Nathanael's quilt, but I also have a back-up idea that will take a lot longer but that I really want to make!  And since I just ordered the pattern, it probably is the way I will go.  Of course, it will be green!

And praise Jesus, I got the pool noodle installed over the attic door frame!  I even tried banging my head on it, and it works really good at bouncing my hard head off without damaging it.  

And it was a mask-making kind of week around my place - a few for a friend who works in a doctor's office, more for a family that realizes they are going to need masks to stay safe these days, and even a couple for a very little guy!

This was the smallest I've ever made a mask, and I was a little worried it would still be too large.  I used my considerable Nana skills to get the little guy to try it on, and I was pleased to see that it fit just fine!

And I tried a new recipe for our Hamilton watch party, originally called Mango Royale, but which I renamed Mango Continental in honor of the day.  I took the original recipe and made it a little bit more keto-friendly - it was a total success!  Basically it's a browned-butter graham cracker crust, topped with a layer of a whipped cream/cream cheese and keto-friendly sweetener mixture. Next comes a layer of mango puree, a sprinkle of graham cracker crumbs, then repeat the whole process.  Totally delicious!!!

And now for this week.  

I need to finish the blog hop project and write a tutorial for it. 

 I'd like to start piecing Lilli's quilt.  I just need to decide which block to start with!  

Now that I've got some head protection in the attic, I need to move some boxes in there so the guest room is not a catch-all for stuff I haven't unpacked yet. 

I want to work in my front flower beds, cleaning out all the weeds and putting down fresh mulch.  It's the wrong time of year to plant flowers, but I can at least get the beds clean and ready for when I can!

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

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - Slowly Getting Back to Normal...

Hi, all!

Last week flew by, didn't it? But I got lots and lots done and I'm finally starting to feel like things are beginning to get back to normal, just a little bit.  Are you starting to feel that way too, or are things still out of whack for you?  

Strange things happened last week - like my missing batting (ordered on May 9th!) finally turning up!

I won't bore you with the whole story, but suffice it to say I won't be ordering again from Joann.com any time soon!  I'm mainly just glad it's finally here - it's for church and we were on the very end of our last bolt of batting.

And not only the batting, but 100 yards of 1/4" elastic that I ordered  way back on May 4th arrived today!  I was totally shocked, but grateful.  

Now to my list from last week.  I needed to mail off the "thank you"s to all the H2H participants, and I'm happy to say I did!

And the new post office is awesome - they actually have a second worker who comes in at noon, which meant that I could do all my packages in one trip rather than spreading it out over several transactions.  

I also finished the t-shirt quilt!  It turned out amazing, and is already in the mail back to my customer.  

I did a couple of other fun things, too, like making a see-through mask for my daughter to use when taking the youngest grands to the dentist.  They can't wear their cochlear implants while the dentist or hygienist are working on them, so it's important that they be able to lip read - hard to do through a face mask!  This one took some creative thinking.  I had a pattern, but it was flat against the face and not very comfortable for speaking (or breathing!)  So I tried again, adding some pleats on each side to make it stand away from the lips.  I rubbed Dawn detergent on the vinyl inside, which worked well to keep it from fogging up.  Nancy said it worked great!

 And... I finished piecing my Moongate postage stamp quilt!  I started this a couple of weeks ago, before I began work on the t-shirt quilt, and after finishing that job, I decided to see if I could knock it out quickly.  This one came together this afternoon as I finished the last 25-patch block!  I can't wait to quilt it, but I've got to figure out a backing first....

And today, Nathanael came while his sisters were at the dentist.  He wanted to sew, so I showed him how to use the sewing machine and away he went!  He's actually very good at it - puts his hands on either side of the needle, just like you're supposed to, and never unthreaded the needle!  

And one more excellent thing happened this past weekend - my husband, who has been learning how to use his smoker for a while now, made an absolutely excellent Boston Butt roast!  This one was the best ever - five hours smoked, then wrapped in foil and put back on the smoker for another four hours.  It was awesome then - but tonight, I carmelized some crushed pineapple and added it to the barbecue meat.  We put it into tortillas with some delicious toppings for burritos de pastor - oh my so good!

And for this week, I'm going to try to find a backing for the Moongate quilt, and maybe get it quilted.  I've also got plans to go to church and work on getting the quilt room cleaned up so we can start meeting in there in the fall.  It's a huge mess at the moment and looks like a bunkhouse for COVID more than anything else!  Tomorrow I'll be pulling out the stuff that needs to go to Goodwill - something we do a couple of times a year with donations that aren't useful for us.  That should clear out a lot of space - we haven't done it in a while!  We'll need to wipe down all the tables and workspaces, and probably the sewing machines too.  And somehow we need to space the tables out more than they are now.  Wish us luck!

And if time allows, I really want to give this a try!  I've never heard of kwandi quilting before this, but it looks like a great way to use up scraps!  I found a tutorial for doing it with machine quilting rather than hand quilting, which is probably what I'll try first.  We'll see how it goes!

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

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - What's Next?

Hi, all!

Welcome to another Monday - it still kind of feels like things are the same as they were, even though restrictions are being eased around here.  We still feel like it's safer to stay in, and Bill will still be working from home, so life isn't going to change much around here.  I'm still trying out new recipes (ramen in the instant pot is the bomb, guys!) and we're having a family night at least once a week with Nancy and the kids.  Some things have changed for the better!

Are you finding something similar in your own life?  It's been a strange couple of months, but wouldn't it be wonderful if we found ways to do things that were better for us as a result?  

OK, that's enough of that.  I do have a few things to share, like a finished quilt...

...a fabric pull for a new quilt...

...and a good start on that quilt!  Love love love working with these beautiful Kate Spain fabrics, supplemented with some Kaffe and Figo fabrics to fill out the pull!

I made a bunch of masks - about twenty-five - but my favorite was this custom mask for my grandson, who has trouble with elastics on his ears because of his cochlear implants.  He has really tiny ears, and there's just not room for the cochlears and the elastic!  So this mask ties on.  I think he likes it!  Of course, it could be because it's green.....

I also cut up a mess of solid scraps, a start on a new quilt I've been ruminating over in my head.  But I need to get a lot more scraps cut up before I can start sewing!

And then there are the non-quilt-y things I did this week, like ...

...finishing another jigsaw puzzle....

...making homemade latkes from the remains of a hash brown casserole that didn't work out so well - but the latkes were EXCELLENT!

And this was an exercise in purchasing power.  There's a story behind it.  My husband went to the grocery store Sunday morning for the first time in about two months, to buy steaks for Mother's Day lunch.  He found the shelves and cases to be very picked over, and had a hard time finding steaks that he liked.  (He did, however, bring home two very good steaks and we had a lovely lunch!) But then he got this great idea that we should buy half a cow and half a pig and put the meat in our freezer.  He started researching and found several places that do it, all at an average of about $10-15 a pound.  I tried to tell him I didn't ever pay that kind of money per pound for meat, but he was adamant.  I finally got him to agree to let me go to the store this morning and see what I could find to fill our freezer before we made any decisions.  And I did have a successful trip - I found steaks, ribs, a Boston butt roast, hamburger, bacon, breakfast sausage, summer sausage, shrimp, pork chops, and two whole chickens!  About 34 pounds of meat, which ended up costing about $2.67 per pound on average.  So I not only filled the freezer, but I made my point - It's much more economical to buy meat when it goes on sale!  So now I have no excuse for not cooking (but did you notice I got him some things he can smoke or grill? I'm no dummy!)

This week I'll be working on that pineapple quilt, quilting some tops for the quilt ministry, cutting more scraps up and probably making some more masks to go in the pickup tub at church.  Definitely enough to keep out of trouble this week!

Oh, and we're doing something a little different for family dinner night - we're having family game night!  Lots of little finger foods to eat and a mess of games to play - should be super fun!

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

Hugs!

Sarah

Make-A-List Monday - Quite a Week!

Hi, all!

Yes, it's Monday.  Or Thatotherday, if you are using the COVID-19 calendar!  And it's been quite a week around here.  Let me share a little bit of what's been going on...

Face masks!  These are going to a local nursing home where the residents are finally going to be able to eat lunch together on Tuesday!

And more face masks!  These don't have a specific purpose (yet) but I'm sure that they will be needed soon.  I've taken to cutting a bunch of 8" squares and keeping them stacked by my sewing machine, so I can work on a few every day.  Elastic stays in a basket on the other side of the machine - and I finally gave in and ordered a 100-yard spool today.  It should be here sometime next week, which is much better than what they were telling us in March, right?

While I'm eating breakfast and lunch, I've taken to working on jigsaw puzzles.  This is the one I finished last week.  Great puzzle, but I really wish I could find that one missing piece!  It was still a lot of fun to put together - very challenging!  I'll start a new one tomorrow.

I also finished piecing the commission t-shirt quilt!  You can see just how huge this quilt is - there's probably another three feet that you can't see on the other side of the top roller.  Tomorrow I will be spray-basting this monster so I can quilt it this week.  

And last night was what made this "quite a week"!  I was up in my studio sewing, with the window open.  As the storm started getting closer, I closed and locked the window, and turned around to go downstairs - and before I could get ten feet away, the lower part of the window blew out of the frame and into the room, along with a LOT of rain and wind!  I managed to get it back in the frame, and my husband came and rescued me, taping a trash bag in the part of the window where we couldn't get the window down.  But it was a hectic ten minutes or so, and I was soaked by the time we were finished.  We were fortunate, though - many people in Middle Tennessee suffered a lot more damage than us.  It was one heck of a storm!  70+ mph wind gusts can do a LOT of damage.

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And this week?  Well, quilting that monster quilt is on my agenda, along with more masks, of course.  Maybe throw a quilt or two on the quilt frame, too.  And tomorrow night, for Cinco de Mayo, we're having the kids and grandkids over for a massive taco feast!  A new puzzle will probably find its way to the dining room table.  It's the last one I have on hand, and they are getting harder to find, so I'll have to work this one slowly until my daughter finishes the 1000 piece Star Wars puzzle she's working on.  First world problems, right?

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

Hugs!

Sarah