Starting off this week......

....I have two projects in the works so far this week.

The first up is this commission - repairing this vintage Sun Bonnet Sue quilt.

The friend this is for has 4 dogs, and one of them gets very nervous during storms and fireworks.   And when she does then she 'digs'.   This time she dug a hole in this quilt.

 Two holes were the result of the digging....all the way through the quilt.

I've put a piece of batting underneath the holes and have appliqued a piece of muslin over them on the back (yes, by hand).

Next up is digging thru the stash to see if I can find a solid that is similar in color to the hat that was there.   Plan is to cut one out that is just a little larger and then hand-applique it on and  do the embellishing to match what's already there.








Second project I'm working on this week is putting together 12 UFO blocks that were made by people in my Sunshine quilt group.  I've had the blocks for at  least 3 yrs, so it's time to use them.     This will go to one of Sunshine's groups when finished.


Gratitudes:

1. For the encouragement from actually finding a job I could submit for....now for the patience to wait till I hear back on it and for God to work in the situation if that is his will.

2. For the blessing of friends who take GC's that were paid forward to them and then give them to me as a blessing.

Hands 2 Help 2019

I finished up the last of three quilts for the 2019 Hands 2 Help challenge this week.   All of them will be going to Jack's Basket which is a group that gives a basket of goodies to families who have a baby with Down's Syndrome.  More can be read about the organization by clicking here.

This is the first quilt finished, and it started with blocks I made to test out new quilt designs yrs ago.

This was the second quilt finished.  The center was pieced from orphan blocks that I had picked up in a scrap bag from a quilt store at some point.   All other fabrics in the top were either from remnants and my novelties.

Backing for the quilt was from two remnants that had been in the stash.

And the third and final quilt for this year.  Orphan blocks and an orphan strip set formed the basis for this quilt.   Black was a remnant, and the backing below came from my novelty stash.


Gratitudes:
1. That the storm this week did not bring severe weather with the 24 hrs of constant rain.

2. For the gift of being able to bless others through my quilting

Hands 2 Help 2018

I forgot to post earlier, but I sent off two quilts for Hands 2 Help about a month ago. 

 First quilt was the quilt I made from rows gotten in last years row-by-row shop hop. 

 Second was this quilt that I made from flannel scraps for the most part.   Two pieces of flannel yardage were used for the borders (the floral and the blue).  this finished out at 50" square.

Backing for the flannel quilt was a piece of 60" wide flannel that had been in my stash for years.

Both quilts have gone to the Little Lambs group in Utah. 


Gratitudes:

1. That little quilts such as these can be used to bless others.

2. for the rain that is predicted for today and tomorrow.

RWB Sampler finished

Finished the scrappy sampler this evening.    It finished at 60" wide by 72" long.  No border going onto this one.

It will be shipped off to American Heroes sometime this week with the quilt top shown below that I finished last year and never shipped off.








Gratitudes:

1. for having the time to look at my budget to figure out the best offer that I can do on the house I looked at this past Friday.

2. For sales of the wallets slowly growing.   Now with the Lords help to get it to grow more.

Hands 2 Help Quilt

My quilt is off to Em's Scrapbag for a cancer patient.

The quilt is 73" square, with a focus fabric featuring Iris which is my favorite flows.  Dark green and purple were used to border the iris squares.

It was a quilt done quite a few yrs ago....ok, I honestly am not sure how many yrs.   But I do know that after washing it after the quilting was finished and the binding on, I just stuck it in a tote and never used it.  Am glad to have it out of tote and on it's way to someone that will use it as it was meant to be used.


Gratitudes:

1. For the opportunity to be able to share a 'warm hug' with a person who I'll never know.

2. For the healing (bone growing to fill in around the implant) that is happening in my jaw....even tho the pain is still there.

Weekend Progress

Made some progress this weekend in spite of all that was going on.

First up where the 7 swan blocks that I completed the stitching on - pinks and purple ones.   I'm working on them in color order based on what tote I need to get the thread out of.  

I then was able to get the last 8 prepped swans fused down and ready for stitching.

I then got the borders onto a quilt for sunshine quilts.  The blocks were part of a challenge that had been made with some of my fabric by a gal in Sunshine for me to put together.  And yes, the borders were deliberately made asymmetrical.  =)  The new machine was used to sew the last two borders onto the quilt and I think I've finally figured out the stitch length and tension for the straight stitch....well at least for this quilt.  lol

I had 3 more blocks (well, 4 but one has gone missing) with the fish fabric in them that I set together for the center part of another quilt.  Don't have a picture of it to show here tho.

Gratitudes:
1. Good traffic this morning on the way to work.

2. Feedback on business cards was helpful and they are now on order.

Hands 2 Help

Because I know that God has richly blessed me, I try to share those blessings in various ways.  One of the ways I do is in the quilt tops that I make and send off to Sunshine Quilts and American Hero Quilts.

This year I've also signed up to make a quilt for Hands 2 Help.  You can read more about it here.

I've oodles of quilt tops that have been done forever w/o homes to go to.   I've pulled this one that I think will make up into a lovely quilt for Em's Scrap Bag.   they give quilts to people going thru chemo.  And having been there - done that twice now this is something that I can identify with.

I haven't got a clue how long I've had this made, but I do know it started with the border print fabric and grew from there.

I hope to start the quilting in the next week or two.

Gratitudes:
1. No rain this weekend when I made my drive to Austin

2. Found the fabrics for the row I'm designing.

Scraps.....

What does a person do when they have leftovers from a project and they don't want them back in their stash?   Well if you're me, you start cutting them up into the biggest sized squares you can for a quick donation quilt.    For the flannel scraps left from the memory quilt that was 12" and 8 1/2" squares.   Some quick piecing with the leftover grey backing flannel and the white I'd used on the front and I have enough squares for a donation quilt.     Now to debate on what color border to add to it.....leaning towards the the blue of the elephants, but could also go with a grey, tan or the chartruese.   Whatever I choose will be from my stash because I don't want to buy anything for this one.

Gratitudes:

1 - Beautiful, Spring weather here so far this week!

2 - For being able to make a large payment on one of the bills with the last of the stipend payment for being a club advisor this year and the no-interest transfer that will allow me to save over $1000 in paying it off.

Preprinted panels and quilts

One of the things that I'm trying to do this year is to use up the preprinted fabric panels that have been in my stash for 10 or more years.   Most of these were originally meant to be used for pillows.    But that hasn't happened for me.

The cat panels that I blogged about over the weekend are easy enough to use for a kid's quilt.   And I have more of the cats that have the leaf border to use up (have yardage of that one).   But I'm not sure what to do with two of the panels that i have.    I want to do donation quilts with these, and know that the chicken panel would work for an adult.   So that one isn't a problem and I've already got an idea of what I want to do with it.

However, the pig panel at the top is one that I'm not sure about.   I was thinking a kids quilt for donation, but not sure that would be appropriate or not.  

What do you all think about these two panels?

Gratitudes:
1. School is back in session today with only a two-hr delay this morning.
2. For having been able to make a lot of headway in getting my paperwork organized for my taxes yesterday.