Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? It's Been a Busy Week!

 

Hi, all!

Wow, Friday sure got here in a hurry, didn't it?  Busy hands keep that clock spinning, it seems.  But Friday means that it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on, so let's get started!

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This week I have been working on finishing up quilts for the high school graduates at our church, something our quilt ministry has done for the past several years.  This year we need twenty-two quilts, so there's been a lot of quilting and binding going on!

I quilted this stack of quilts and took them to church on Sunday so another member could pick them up to bind them.

These three came home with me from church on Tuesday night - the top one may look familiar, as Deb didn't have a chance to bind it, so she brought it with her to work on at church.  It didn't quite get finished, and she was going out of town, so I brought it home to finish binding.  The other two needed binding too, and now they are finished!

Wednesday also saw the preparation of quilt backs and tops for finishing.  It helps to have everything ready to go for the next day!

Thursday was quilting day!  My day started off with this view - a beautiful top all ready to go on the frame.  Two more waited in the wings, and I had binding all planned out for all three quilts.  Could I get them finished in one day?

Yes!  I finished these three quilts, both quilting and binding, on Thursday.  You might recognize the center quilt - it's the easy-peasy nine patch quilt top I made last week.  The two quilts on the left really made a dent in my stash of left-over binding - scrappy binding really rocks!

And here's my stack of finished quilts ready to add to the stacks at church!  I still need to wash the ones on the right - that's probably why the stack seems shorter.  But all six will be going to church with me on Sunday!  I have two more that I may get finished on Friday, in which case I'll need a cart to get them all to the quilt room!

And I've got one more exciting (at least to me!) thing I did this week...

I organized a baking cabinet!  With Lilli doing a good bit of baking in my kitchen, we decided that it would be a lot easier if all of my flours, sugars, and various other baking goodies were located in one cabinet, neatly organized and labeled. We added mixing bowls and measuring cups and a bin of cookie cutters (I'm going to find something more decorative to put those in!) and also swapped some drawers around so that the drawer underneath this cabinet holds the baking utensils, too.  

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 - In and Out!

 

Hi, all!

I feel so much better this week than I did last week, and just a little bit virtuous!  It was a good week for sewing, and I got a lot done.  So let's take a look...

1.  Assemble the golf memory quilt top.

2.  Quilt the golf memory quilt.

Done!  I had so much fun with this pattern, and it's definitely one I'll use again.  I may even use it with regular fabrics!

3.  Quilt at least two high school quilts.

Done - and not just two, but four!  It's just a drop in the bucket, though, for what we need to accomplish in the next few weeks.  I'll still be working on these this week, too.

I also made this top last week, using the Extreme Disappearing 9-Patch pattern, slightly modified to make it twin size.  

This is such a quick and easy quilt!  I've used the pattern in the past and timed it - I can make a quilt going from a stack of 10" squares to a bound, finished quilt in a little over three hours!

So last week went well!  I do feel like I can breathe a sigh of relief, now that the last of the commission jobs I had in hand are finished.  I have a couple of others on the horizon, but so far not in house, so I can work on some other things.  Here's my list for this week....

1.  Quilt at least four more graduation quilts.

2.  Work on the hourglass blocks for my Me Sew Happy quilt.

3.  Finish re-organizing the kitchen.

4.  Work on the front planters.

A word of explanation about that last one - here's a picture of the front of my house as it looks today.

See those two large green bushes in the front?  They were allowed to over-grow in the year the house was on the market before we bought it, and they've reached the point where they can't be trimmed back enough (off the sidewalk) without looking naked.  So we're having them taken out this week.  Then we're going to put a pair of these Ebony and Ivory crepe myrtles on each side of the right hand (garage) window...

...and a pair of Winter Gem boxwoods under the garage window.  I really love that vibrant, glossy green, and I think it will be striking between the deep burgundy leaves of the crepe myrtle! 

It's hard to imagine exactly what it will look like with those bushes gone - they are so large - and I think I will need another bush just to the right of the tall fir tree.  Another pink azalea may go in there, to carry through with the three that are already there.

And FYI, that little domed window above the garage windows?  That's my studio!  I have a great view of the neighborhood from up there!

I also need to do some work on the flower bed on the left side of the house - it needs weeding, then I have an edging to put down, and mulch to add.  I'll post a picture when I finish that - the dutch irises in that bed are just spectacular right now!

So I've got plenty to do to keep me busy this week, both in the studio and outside.  Hopefully it will stop raining enough to get the yard work done, but in the meantime it will give me an opportunity to get the quilting done.  

And guess what you get to do again when you've been vaccinated - hold babies!!!  This little guy was born last year during lockdown, and this was the first time I'd felt comfortable asking a parent if I could hold the baby.  I'm so glad Josiah was my first - he's a pretty happy-go-lucky kid, comfortable with almost anyone!  We had a good time while his dad helped set up tables and chairs for an event at church.  It's nice to see things getting a little bit back to normal again!

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

Hugs!

Sarah

Hands2Help - A Great Tutorial From Guest Blogger Anja!

 

Hi, all!

May!  The lovely month of May has arrived, with beautiful springtime weather to enjoy and the end of this year's Hands2Help Challenge in sight.  Today we have another guest blogger joining us - Anja from Nova Scotia, who blogs at Anja Quilts!  Anja is always creating something beautiful, it seems, and she has a wonderful tutorial for us today.  So now I will turn the blog over to her!

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Thanks to Sarah for hosting another year of Hands2Help and for the opportunity to guest blog.  I'm Anja, and I blog over at Anja Quilts and on Instagram with the same name.

My tutorial continues Sarah's theme of string therapy.  I found a piece of paper in my quilting notebook with some directions, but no indication what the pattern was called or where I found it.  It said to cut strips 14.5-inch long of various widths.  I decided to use 12.5-inch lengths because that's the largest square ruler I had.  Sew strips together to make a 12.5-inch square.

Match two squares together, alternating the orientation of the strips so they are perpendicular.  Sew a 1/4-inch seam around the entire perimeter of the square.

Cut the square diagonally twice to get four sections.

Press each section open to reveal a square.  My note did not say to sew the strips to a foundation, and at this point of the process, I realized that would have been a good idea.  Some of my squares were 8.5 inches, but some were not.  So I trimmed them all down to 8.25 inches.

I ended up making 48 blocks, resulting in a quilt top about 47 x 63 inches.  There are many possibilities to arrange the blocks.

This is a simple way to use up your scraps.

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Oh, how I wish I had known about this technique when I was doing my string tutorials!  This is such a great and simple way to change up string blocks into something really special.  Thanks for sharing with us, Anja!

Next week we will have another guest blogger, and it's also a check-in week.  If you don't have a blog and want to share your progress, please feel free to send them to me at salliesue57 (at) gmail (dot) com and I will add them to a blogpost so others can see your work!

See you next week!

Hugs!

Sarah