Make-A-List Tuesday - Because, Holidays!

 

Hi, all!

Am I the only person that gets really off schedule during the holidays? But now that they are mostly over, I have the urge (probably fleeting) to clean up my studio!  So this week will be dedicated to making a little more sense of the mess that is currently my studio.

I do have some "before" shots to share!  

First off, here's what started the cleaning binge - the new Echo Show that my husband gave me for Christmas!  It's small enough to put on my sewing table (if I clear off some other stuff) and keeps my lists, connects my devices, and allows me to stream stuff where I can see it, instead of on the tv behind me!  I have to say I'm getting spoiled being able to just tell Alexa to add something to my shopping list!  

To get the Echo on my table, I had to clear off a bunch of stuff, which I moved onto the carts to the left of my sewing table.  But - they were covered with offcuts of leftover batting, which then moved to....

...my comfy Poang chair!  Well, at least that means I can't sit down for a while and waste time!  But more about that in a bit.  Here's the rest of the studio...

Not too bad, but the piles on the floor and some of the clutter need to go!

This workstation is a disaster and MUST  be cleaned up before the end of the week!

And under the quilt frame, which isn't too bad a mess but could do with a good vacuum and some dusting.

And today I made a start on that pile of batting, which I added to by pulling all the bits out of the cubby by the quilting frame.  Lilli came over to help....

...and her face looks like I feel about making frankenbatting!  Actually, I caught her just before a sneeze, but it is funny looking!  But by the end of the morning, we had sorted out all the pieces that were of similar length in both white and natural, brought a few pieces to the desired length by "frankenbatting" them, and here's the result!

The next step will be to cut the long edges straight and join them together into one long piece of batting.  I'm thinking about rolling it up on the batting roller on my long arm, which has remained unused up to this point.  I'm aiming for 64" wide, which is the perfect size for most of the quilts I make, so when I have a 60" quilt, I can just pull up the batting off the roller and go.  And Lilli made me promise never, EVER, to let it get this out of hand!

And because I am impatient and hate using a slow machine for zigzag, I bought a lot of lightweight fusible interfacing that I'm cutting into 2" wide strips.  Once my batting edges are straight, I butt them up against each other, lay the interfacing over them, and press it down.  Inexpensive batting tape hack, and it works great!

So that's what I'll be working on for the rest of the week - frankenbatting and cleaning up the studio.  Hopefully I'll make some serious headway before my cleaning mojo goes away!

And now, I really need to know - - - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Christmas Can Finally Come....

 

Hi, all!

Well, here it is, folks - the next to the last Friday before Christmas!  But regardless of how close to Christmas it is, it's still a Friday, and we all know what that means - it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on!   Let's go!

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As most of you know by now, I make each of my grandchildren a quilt at Christmas, that usually reflects in some way their interests of the past year.  And I am ECSTATIC to say that all three for this year are finished, labeled, washed, and ready to be wrapped and put under the tree!  

Unfortunately, I was busy today (more on that later) and I didn't get any new pictures, but here are all three of them together.

This is Lilli's "Cookie Monster" quilt - the perfect quilt for her this year, as she is the master of all chocolate chip cookies!

Emmalyn's quilt was a little harder to come up with this year, because her participation in the play interfered with my first idea, which was to incorporate some of her little doodles in her quilt.  She started off providing me with pictures, but they trailed off once rehearsals started and I didn't have enough to complete my first idea.  However, the conjunction of her beach vacation and a bundle of pretty ocean-themed fabrics that came my way combined for a beautiful quilt that reflects her love of all things oceanic.  Her quilt label also reflects on her love this year of "floppy" bacon (yuck!) which I felt it important to commemorate!

And here's Nathanael's Pokemon quilt!  He loves all things Pokemon, so I'm hoping he'll really enjoy this twin-sized quilt on his bed.

Now more about why I didn't have time to take pictures today.  At the end of each semester, Lilli has a couple of mid-term tests each day, early in the morning, and then she can go home for the day if she wants.  She asked me last week if I could pick her up, offering to bake Christmas cookies with me if I did. Well, I'm not going to pass up an offer like that!  So today I picked her up at 11:30 and we got started baking - we made cream cheese cookies, white chocolate cranberry blondies, and brigadeiros.  Brigadeiros are a traditional Brazilian treat, consisting of a fudge center rolled in chocolate jimmies.  And now we have a funny story about them!

Well, I only bought one large jar of chocolate jimmies, and we ran out before we ran out of filling.  Raiding the pantry, we found several partial bottles of rainbow colored sprinkles that we keep on hand for ice cream, so Lilli mixed them into the remaining chocolate jimmies.  As she rolled the next brigadeiro, she said, "I guess these will be the gay brigadeiros!"  That child has a wicked sense of humor!  We've been chuckling over that one all evening....

And speaking of Lilli, here's a huge whoop whoop - she turns sixteen on Saturday!  It's hard to believe how much she's grown up since her first appearance on my blog back in January of 2010....

So - - - can we 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? Finally Gifted!

 

Hi, all!

Well, here it is, 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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Many of you know that I was out of commission and out of the blogging world for most of the year in 2022.  During that time I undertook a pretty major handwork project.  Hexies seemed like just the ticket for something small and portable to take with me and work on in my chair, so I put together a small kit and started.  

At first, I intended to make a quilt - but after the first day, I thought it might just end up being a pillow cover!  Slow handwork is not my sweet spot, unfortunately.  But as time went on and the project grew, I fell in love with the process.  And when it was all finished, I ended up with a beautiful quilt top.  I appliquéd it to some vintage linen borders, and it sat on my "to be quilted" rack someday.

One day as I saw it sitting there, though, I realized that it needed a special home.  While I was out of commission, I worried about the quilt ministry and was afraid that it would dwindle away if I wasn't able to keep shepherding it along.  I asked my good friend Piper, who was a faithful member of the group, if she could help keep it going.  And Piper, God bless her, jumped right in and now has the group running so much better than I ever did!  

So of course, this quilt needed to go to Piper!  With a plan in view, I jumped into quilting it, doing diagonal lines through two axes of the hexies for a diamond grid.  The backing comes from a linen duvet I found on sale long ago and saved for the perfect quilt backing.

All in all, I really enjoyed making this quilt, even though all the handwork was a little tedious.  I may make another one for myself this year!

So - - - can we 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