Make-A-List Monday - Pretty Good, Considering!

Hi, all!

It's Monday again - almost July - where has the year gone?  Summer is flying by too fast to catch!  Last week was way busier than I thought it would be, so I didn't get everything done, but I did make good start, considering! Let's see how it went...

1.  Finish the door prize quilt top.
Done!  I just love how this turned out - here are some pics!

Look at that texture!

And the back is made from some great
fabric I picked up at IKEA!

2.  Quilt at least two quilts for the high school mission team to take to Hurricane Sandy survivors.
Done!  The first was one sent for Hands2Help by Ann X from Latvia, and the second is a Rita orphan block special, I think!  Rita quilted the last one - another of her orphan block specials.  its deserves a big whoop whoop - she quilted about fifteen quilts on the mid-arm at church while I was on vacation!  

3.  Keep up with all ministry needs that arise.

Done!  This beautiful quilt went to a gentleman who had some pretty serious complications from gall bladder surgery.

Don't you just love my photography assistant?
She has such a sense of humor...

4.  Buy or order fabrics for the girls' annual quilts.
Sort of.  I have the focus fabric for both quilts, and I have a general idea of what I want to do for the rest of the fabrics, just have to find them!

5.  Make outfits for the girls using this pattern.

Isn't that adorable?  And it has sizes for both Emmy and Lilli!
Nope.  I have the fabric for both outfits, but haven't gone any further than that.  

6.  Score some storage items for the quilt room at church at IKEA!  We scored this great new storage for the quilt room - there's actually two sets like that, with one knee hole and three doored cabinets - and I need some storage bins to put in them to make them most useful.  We'd like to get rid of the scrap bins that sit on top, but need new storage that fits in the cabinets to hold those fabrics.

Done! I got a big pile of those wire baskets you can see in the left shelf area, and some big cardboard banker's boxes that fit in the cabinets below.  I've eliminated many of those tubs on the top already but there's plenty more organizing to do!!  No pictures yet, though…  I forgot!

So, not too bad for a week that disappeared on me!  And here's what I'm going to be working on this week…

1.  Work on a table topper for a special event.

2.  Work on those outfits for the girls!

3.  Quilt at least two more quilts for the high school mission team to take for Hurricane Sandy survivors.

4.  Keep up with any new quilt ministry needs.

5.  Do some cleaning and organizing in my sewing studio..

I'm going to stop there, because I think that may be all I can get accomplished this week - it's another weird week with the holiday and my husband off work for a couple of days.  So I'm going to try a more reasonable list.

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

Hugs!

Sarah

What's Cookin' At The Sweatshop - In Our New Space!

Hi, all!


It's been a very busy week at The Sweatshop as we moved into our new space at church!  Exciting times - and everyone's so happy to be  in the space with all our stuff!

Look at all those smiling faces!!

And now it's time to show you the quilts that we've delivered this week...

This pretty quilt, pieced by Sharon, was given to a woman who had back surgery this week.  I love all those houses - some of the windows even have cats sitting in them!

This quilt, made with string blocks pieced by Sharon, is now comforting a woman who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.  There's even some breast cancer ribbon fabric in these blocks....

This bright, cheerful quilt, made by Connie, is going to a 7 year old boy who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.  Hopefully he will find that the happy frogs and the bright colors make him smile!

This quilt, given to us by an anonymous donor, is going to a man who is in the hospital being monitored for a brain aneurysm.  We hope that the bright cheerful colors of this beautiful apple core quilt help keep his spirits up while he waits!

And this pretty little embroidered quilt is for a newborn baby girl in our church! This is a beautiful little quilt that was donated to us, and I apologize - I cannot remember who sent it!  If you sent it, let me know and I'll give credit where credit is due...

So that's what we've been working on this week!  Thanks to all of you who help support this ministry in so many ways - you are greatly appreciated, and an important part of what we do!!

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