Sewing for Good Sunday

And then they were done.

Despite my broken sewing machine, a replacement back-up old machine of mine borrowed off my daughter that was extremely frustrating and time consuming to quilt with, I am DONE.

Twelve quilts done for the four female and eight male residents at the assisted living center.

I even made quilt labels for them.

While I enjoy my Sewing for Good Sundays, I've made 24 26 quilts for others this year out of the goodness of my heart with no expectation of anything in return. (Although an occasional thank you would have been nice.) I'm a bit tired right now and need to take a little break before I start any other new charity quilting projects.

So as excited as I was to start my Sewing for Good Sundays I'm now just as excited to stop for a bit.
Happy Sunday!

Sewing for Good Sunday

While I haven't been posting on my Sewing for Good Sundays these last few weeks, I most certainly have been busy. I'm working on quilts for the assisted living center where our neighbor's wife is living, with my plan being to give one to every single resident there. That many quilts creates quite the mess. Fabric and backings and scraps and thread have been spread all over the place. But now I have five pieced and their backings added, and have one of them completely quilted. Good enough for a picture.

I still have umpteen more to go, and most likely another big mess of fabrics/threads/backing/scraps spread out all over the sewing room as well.

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Sewing for Good Sunday

After a bit of a break I've decided to start on my next round of projects. Today's quilt took more than a couple days to put together but it is ready to head out the door. Where is it going? To the nurse who works with our neighbor in the care center. I got the word she liked green and green it is.

Sewing for Good Sunday

Well, that wraps up my quilts for the Quilts for Kids Organization. Before they go, I had to take one last picture of them all together. From start to finish it took me longer than anticipated, but they are now heading out the door. (The shipping cost just about knocked me over. Yikes.)

I'm going to skip Sewing for Good Sundays during the month of May (need to give these arthritic hands a rest) but I'll start back up in June with another round of Sewing for Good projects.

Sewing for Good Sunday

I'm getting closer to jumping for joy. All the batting has been trimmed off, the quilt top edges are straightened up, and the backing is the right size for me to use as a binding. Yep, on all 12 quilts for the Quilts for Kids charity. All that is left is turning that backing into a binding and stitching it down. Whew, it's been a long process.

Sewing for Good Sunday

I really like the stitching with variegated thread. I need to use the thread more often. But I won't on this round of charity quilts. Why? Because quilting of all 12 quilts is now DONE. Yahoo! Next up, trimming the edges and trimming the excess batting. Yeah, another ugh step coming up.

Sewing for Good Sunday

Got more quilting done on the charity quilts. While I think I need more practice on my outlining, it'll do just fine.

Sewing for Good Sunday

If I keep this pace up I might just have all these quilts done by the end of next month.

Okay, I guess that doesn't sound all that impressive - 12 kids quilts in four months? I should be able to go faster than that!

Sewing for Good Sunday

Despite that:
*I'm in the middle of a rheumatoid arthritis flare up and can barely get out of bed and dressed.
*My back is throwing fits and won't allow me to sit for an extended period of time.
*Both knee replacements won't let me stand for an extended period of time.
*The screws in both my shoulders - especially the shoulder that got roughed up during the transatlantic cruise - are bugging me and drastically reducing my movement.
*I've been fighting a migraine for the last few days.
*I'm having to work hard to cough up whatever gunk is in my one working lung.
*The inflammation in my thumb is pressing against a nerve and make it twitch incessantly.

I still have plugged along and now have all 12 charity quilts basted. And even got another one quilted.

Here's hoping for better days so I can get more sewing done. But that day isn't today.

Sewing for Good Sunday

Despite hubby getting in the way a few times, I made some pretty good progress on the charity quilts today.

As you know, when we travel we are away for extended periods of times. Like months at a time. But when we're home, we're home. We don't go anywhere and we don't do anything outside the house. We don't go out to dinner, we don't go to shows, and we certainly don't do anything exciting. We go to the grocery store every couple of weeks, the drugstore once a month, doctor appointments here and there, and occasionally venture out to the thrift store. In fact, we drive so little that I am still on the same tank of gas from when we filled up after our last trip. That fill-up was on Christmas Eve. Almost three months on the same tank is a record for us, I think.

So when I told hubby this morning that if he could find a coupon for a restaurant near his Monday appointment, he got pretty excited. Started searching the coupon flyers we received in the mail, even. (Him looking at coupons? Had to be a first.) But he spread them right on top of the quilts I was basting. (Maybe it was my fault for doing my basting on the kitchen counter, but gee whiz. Couldn't he do that at his chair? Didn't he see I had fabric and batting and quilt tops all spread out there?)

After more than one prodding, he finally moved along with his pack of coupons. He found one, then disappeared to go cut it out. And was gone a long time. I know it was a long time because I was getting close to cussing him out. Why? Because before he left he put his dang coffee grounds right next to the other area I was using for fabric and batting. Seriously, who puts coffee grounds this close to batting and fabric?

Despite those hiccups - and time wasters - I still basted four quilts. And I got all four quilted. 

I was able to follow the lines on the John Deere quilt and did some double lines on the pink one.

On another one I was able to not follow lines and still make it work. (This is the back.)

And again worked late into the night and neglected to get a picture of the fourth one. A productive Sewing for Good Sunday before our first restaurant meal of the year on Monday.

Sewing for a Good Sunday

Yikes. Here it is 11:00 at night and I just realized I didn't report the progress on the quilts for the Quilts for Kids organization for today's Sewing for Good Sunday.

I got three of the quilts basted and two of those three completely quilted. Woo hoo! But the biggest excitement for me came about because I was too lazy to change the lead color in my marking pencil. I really needed to mark some squares in something besides white.  As I was contemplating the work it would take in dealing with those teeny tiny pieces of lead, it occurred to me.

Painters tape.

Yep, it works great as a template you can use without marking. It's the first time I used it but definitely won't be the last.

Sewing for Good Sunday

Choose fabrics for charity quilt tops. Check.
Sew blocks from those fabrics. Check.
Piece together 12 quilt tops for the Quilts for Kids organization. Check.
Choose backing fabrics for those 12 quilt tops. Check.
Cut backing fabrics to size. Check.
Cut batting for 12 quilts. Check.

Productive Sewing for Good Sundays. Check.

Sewing for Good Sunday

Backings have been chosen!

Next up, cut enough batting for 12 quilts. Thank goodness I buy it by the huge roll.

Sewing for Good Sunday

Okay, okay, I know, I know. It's time to transition.

I finished two more quilt tops today for the Quilts for Kids Organization.

I then counted my stack. 12.

12 quilt tops pieced since the first Sewing for Good Sunday on January 6!

Yep, it's time to transition out of the piecing stage and onto the picking out the backing and cutting the batting and basting the quilt together stages. I have to be honest, these upcoming steps are probably the ones I dislike the most.

Let's see how many I get basted next Sunday. Ugh.

Sewing for Good Sunday

Here we go with another Sewing for Good Sunday. Although since today is Superbowl Sunday it should technically be .... tax day for me.

Usually I spend Superbowl Sunday holed up with tax forms and paperwork. It is one of the few days of the year when hubby is occupied enough where he doesn't step away from the TV to bug me about anything. (As opposed to every other day of the year when he still watches TV all day but also bugs me ever so often.)

But knowing today would be Sewing for Good Sunday I did the taxes earlier this week. Late at night when he was half asleep watching some who-knows-what program on TV.

So that left me with today for making for quilt tops for the Quilts for Kids Organization. Two more done:

and another set of blocks completed. 

At some point I need to stop piecing tops together and start the quilting process. But that day isn't today and I suspect won't be next week, either. Soon, though. 

(You know, after I take the pictures and put them on here I then sometimes realize I really don't like the way they look. They looked great while I was working on them, but stepping away at the end changes my thoughts on my work. Ugh.)

Sewing for Good Sunday

I have to confess.

Sewing for Good Sundays are turning into Sewing for Good Sundays and Mondays and Tuesdays and even Sewing for Good Wednesdays. Once I get started I just can't stop sewing!

Today I finished piecing together three more quilts tops for the Quilts for Kids organization.

Add those to these others I put together this month:

And I now have eight quilt tops done. And I'm not finished yet. I used up some of the scraps to make scrappy blocks:

I'm also working on some other blocks (not pictured). Whew. I just might be sorry I'm doing so many tops at once. While I can just zip through putting them together, once I hit the cutting batting and backing stage and then the quilting stage things will slow way down. And I'll probably feel more like the turtle than the rabbit.