Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Summer Sunshine!

 

Hi, all!

Hooray, it's Friday!  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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A couple of weeks ago, I finished a quilt!  But because other things were going on (H2H, maybe?) I didn't have a chance to really share it with you.  But tonight as I sit under this lovely summer weight quilt I decided it was time to show it off!

I made this as part of an Instagram quilt-along held by These Clever Hands (@thesecleverhands) using her pattern Me Sew Happy.

This beautiful quilt used so many of my favorite bright scraps!  And truly scraps - I dug through the pieces I had already cut that were the right size, then hit the scrap bins for the other pieces I needed.  

I found pieces in my scrap bin that I didn't remember I had - like a square from the backing of the very first ministry quilt we made, pieces from clothing and quilts I've made for my grandkids, bits and bobs from other quilts that I remembered as I put this one together.  It was quite a walk down memory lane!

When I got ready to quilt it - on the spur of the moment - I wondered if I had anything appropriate to back it in my stash.  I went to look and found the perfect fabric - but is there enough?  YES!  There was just the right amount for the back of the quilt.  Hooray!

Then after quilting I looked at it and thought, "Wow, a striped rainbow binding would be perfect for this quilt!"  Went to check in the stash, and amazingly I found just the right binding fabric - and just the right amount of it for this quilt!  I must have been living right!

And one last shot, just because it's an awfully pretty quilt!  Oh, one more thing - I tried a silk blend batt for this quilt and I really like it!  It felt like a cotton batt while I was quilting it, but after washing, it has a beautiful soft drape and it's very light.  I definitely would use it again in summer weight quilts.

And in other news....

...this represents two good days of work by my granddaughter Lilli and me!  Five bags full of H2H thank you gifts are ready to go to the post office!  I guess I know where I'll be spending some quality time now...

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

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Some "Me" Sewing!

 

Hi, all!

Another beautiful spring week has gone by, and it's Friday again!!  That means it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on - are you ready?  Let's go!

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This week I finished up the last binding on the last graduation quilt, which meant that I got to do some "me" sewing!  

My "Me Sew Happy" quilt, which I started as part of a quilt-along, had been languishing away on the design wall, because I had not had any time to work on the large and small hourglass blocks.  So it was the first thing I tackled!  I pulled some honest to gosh scraps out of my bins....

...which I used to make the four small and four large hourglass blocks required to finish the quilt!

Isn't it pretty?  I love all the bright saturated colors...

...and even more, the fun of finding pretty pieces from past projects!  There's even a piece in this quilt from the very first quilt requested by our pastor for a sick church member.  I was surprised to see that piece in my scrap bin - I would have thought it would be gone long ago - but then I started looking at other pieces and remembering the quilts they came from.  So much fun!

And once I got that top sewn together, I decided I'd better start pulling my next vacation quilt together - we go back to the beach in less than a month!  

So yesterday I broke into the Kate Spain fat quarter stash, pulled a bunch of beautiful teals, blues, and light greens, and cut them into strips.  I've already started sewing together strip sets which will be cross-cut to make 5-square strips for another postage stamp quilt.  This will become a new king-size summer quilt for my own bed (which means I'll be able to take the Christmas quilt off finally!)

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?

In recognition of National Talk Like Yoda Day!

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 - It's Getting Hot 'Round Here!

 

Hi, all!

We've had quite a change here since last week, when I was wondering if it was really May due to the 40 degree mornings we were experiencing. This week we will have our first 90 degree day of the year!  Oh well, such is life in Tennessee!  

Last week was a busy one, with much of my time spent working in the yard.  Let's see how the list went!

1.  Work on the front planters.

We made SO much progress with this project!  First up was this back corner, where we pulled out the English ivy that was running rampant.

I put in hostas where the English ivy used to be (after digging out the roots of the plants - whew!) and mulched the whole corner.  Moved some daffodil bulbs so they will be more clustered and less spread out next spring.  Added a bird feeder as a bribe/thank you to the mama bird in the tree for not attacking me while I was working back there!

Then my husband dug the holes so I could plant the boxwoods and crepe myrtles in the long part of the planter, and helped me spread the mulch.  Then he posed to help show it all off!

You can see the plants better here - and there's a new azalea right there in the foreground, too!

All those new plants look tiny now, but I'm hopeful in a year we'll look back on this picture and remark on the size difference!  And just for reference here's what it looked like before we started...

I'm not going to miss those two big bushes at all!

2.  Put binding on the last two graduation quilts.

Done (although I don't have pictures!)

3.  Work out the final details on my design for the 12 Days of Christmas in July quilt-along quilt.

In progress.  I have a design all worked out, but ran into a copyright issue that I'm trying to clear up.  Fingers crossed!

4.  Assemble the blocks I made on vacation into a quilt top.

I didn't get to this, as another project came up (more about that below).

5.   Straighten up the studio and clean up the remains of this spring's projects!

I did get a good bit of the mess cleaned up, although I then messed it up a bit more with another project that I still need to clean up.

6.  Put together one (or maybe two!) non-blogger update posts for H2H.  I've had so many emails with beautiful pictures, it may take two posts just to get them all in!

Thanks to Adobe Spark, I managed to combine many of the pictures into collages so that it ended up being only one post. But so many beautiful quilts!  Quilters are really generous people!

So that's how the list went.  But some things cropped up that weren't on the list this week....

...like this quilting and binding commission...

...and the next set of blocks in my Me Sew Happy quilt - see the large hourglass blocks?  And I've got the pieces cut for the small hourglass blocks too, all ready for finishing.  And a pile of scraps sorted by color to but back in the bins...

And I even did a little bit of cooking, making this great baked feta cheese pasta that's all the rage on TikTok these days.  I've linked a version of the recipe for you, but I also added mozzarella cheese pearls about halfway through the baking time.  Yummy!!  Also, I only had a pint of cherry tomatoes, and a container of feta cheese crumbles instead of a block, but for the two of us, it was just right.  

So a busy week, and a productive one!  Let's see what's on tap for this week now....

1.  Have a baking day with Lilli.

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

3.  Put away the sorted scraps.

4.  Plant some colorful annuals in the front planters.

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

That's enough to keep me out of trouble, I think!  I'm looking forward to our baking day - we are going to make these decadent looking desserts...

Of course, with my nearly-professional-baker granddaughter, we won't be using pre-packaged cookie dough and a brownie mix - she'll make them from scratch!  I can't wait to see how they turn out...

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

Hugs!

Sarah

I May Have a Scrap Problem - But "Me Sew Happy"!

 

Hi, all!

It's been a while since I wrote a post for Scrappy Wednesday!  It's just been so busy, and I didn't really have anything special to share - but I've joined in the Me Sew Happy quilt-along and now I do!  

Way back in February, this gorgeous quilt caught my eye on Instagram.  Imagine my excitement when I found out there was going to be a quilt-along!  So when it opened up on April 1st, I ordered my pattern and started digging through my scraps.

Look at all those beautiful bright fabrics!  I was fortunate enough to have a BUNCH of squares already pre-cut to 2.5", so I sorted through them until I found enough to make these four blocks....

For a week, these pretties graced my design wall all by themselves. Then it was time for the second block - a bit quicker this time, made even quicker by the fact that I also had 5" squares pre-cut in my scrap stash.  With a few minutes of trimming down to the right size, I had exactly what I needed for these blocks.

These worked up really quickly this morning - chain piecing is the bomb!  And now my design wall looks like this...

It's only half of the blocks for this quilt - there are still two sizes of hourglass blocks to make - but you can already see just how bright and cheerful it's going to be!  

And now I wonder what it would look like in low volume fabrics.....

Hugs!

Sarah