Sibling block quilts, featuring Priscilla

Hello! Louise here to share some quilts made from blocks donated by Covered in Love supporters. Today I'm focusing on what I call "sibling" blocks, which are groups of blocks in the same design. They are often donated by the same person in coordinating fabrics. 

This first quilt is made with lovely autumnal log cabin blocks sewn by Priscilla. She sent enough to make several quilts and this is the first.

How about this fun zig-zaggy chevron quilt? These are also Priscilla's blocks.

I backed them with this bird fabric that I've been holding onto for at least 8 years. The binding was donated all ironed up and ready to go, too.

Priscialla also donated these pretty stars, in some of the same autumnal fabrics as the log cabins.

I put these cat faces on the back. Their stare is a little less intense in person!

This is the fourth quilt from Priscilla's blocks. I'm not sure what this block is called, but I like it. Something about the scrappy cream backgrounds is just so comforting.

Do you recognize these hexagons in this pretty fabric? These are the leftovers from the kaleidoscope quilt that Christine sent in. Her generous donation of all the coordinating fabrics made two complete quilts. Thanks, Christine!

Sometimes I don't have quite enough sibling blocks on hand to make a complete quilt, so I look for a "good friend" block to make up the difference. These eight diamond shaped blocks are a neat design! I'm not sure, but they might also be Priscilla's work.

This on-point patchwork block was just the friend the blocks needed. Such tiny pieces! A border of chicken fabric rounds this one out.

Sometimes the sibling blocks that Kat sends to me are left over from block drives. Did you take part in this one? I love the green and gray together. 

Someone donated this shamrock fabric and it's the perfect backing.

Here's another one with "special friends" to help. I knew I wanted to put the two John Deere fabric blocks into the same quilt, and when this batch of seven siblings showed up, a match was made!

And last but not least, here is a lovely batch of sibling blocks in purple, reds and blue solids. The floral panels can shine with this symmetrical column layout and I was happy to give them a quilt of their own.

Many thanks to Priscilla, Christine, and everyone else who donated blocks to Covered in Love!

Rays of Sunshine

Louise here, eager to share this lovely batch of quilts. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, because there are TONS of photos today! All these quilts were pieced by the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild and finished by Charlotte K. While you zoom in and have your mind boggled by Charlotte's amazing quilting, I'll tell you more about Sunshine. 

Sunshine is a completely "remote" guild, meeting online using the MeWe.com social media site. MeWe is a bit like Facebook, but smaller and more intimate. Members, or "Sunnies" sew up quilts for charity and share their finishes online. Recently, the guild selected Covered in Love as one of the three charities they support.

About once a year, Sunshine also has an in-person retreat, moving around the country to make it accessible to as many members as possible. East coast, west coast, midwest, south...they've had some diverse retreat locations. The 2023 retreat was in Flat Rock, NC, and all these quilt tops were assembled there.

The guild selects a block or two for members to stitch up in advance of the retreat and mail in to the retreat coordinator. Then the blocks are put together on retreat weekend in a flurry of sewing and camaraderie. Lots of good food, good fun, and local activities are thrown in for good measure. Retreat attendance isn't required, of course, but those who attend report having a most excellent time!

This year's retreat blocks were snowballs and the big blocks in the quilt photo above. Isn't that a neat block? A different local guild donated a huge batch of nine patches. And a handful of Ohio Star blocks were made to honor the memory of a beloved Sunnie, Carol.

After the retreat, the tops were distributed among the members to baste, quilt and bind. The finishes were done by both folks who attended the retreat and other, more remote members. What an amazing group effort! Charlotte, a very active and talented member, finished this big group and her quilting is fantastic!

I joined the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild a number of years ago, and I just love being part of this group. They are the most upbeat, positive, supportive group of quilters you'll ever meet on the internet. 

Membership is open to any quilter, beginner or advanced. I invite you to join, especially if you enjoy charity sewing! The group shares photos, tips and tricks, free patterns...anything quilt related. If you decide to click this link to join, you'll be prompted to set up a MeWe account. I've never had any problems with MeWe, no spam, etc. It's easy to use either on your phone or home computer.

Many thanks to Charlotte and the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild for these wonderful quilts! They are sure to bring comfort to the families that are supported by Covered in Love.

Quilting Friends

Fellow Texans Nancy K. and Jenn occasionally team up to help CiL finish block drive quilts. Nancy put together these stars from the 2021 "Oh My Stars" drive and Jenn did the quilting on her long arm. I really like the layout Nancy chose. 

If you look closely you can see that the quilting panto has stars and swirls in it.

Nancy also put together these Tall 9 blocks and Jenn quilted it with an organic curvy panto.  Perfect colors for this time of year. With recent drop offs we are rapidly approaching 1500 quilts donated in the East Texas area thanks you all of you!

Happy Fall from my doofy little orange man and me!

Linking to Finished or Not Friday

A Mystery Quilt

Happy Friday, quilters! The weather here is divine! Texas is enjoying our one month of Fall per year. Just as well I can leave my windows open since my AC/heat is broken again.

This first quilt was sent in quite a while back anonymously and I never have found out who it came from.  It's very pretty and I love the birds in the quilting. Do any of you recognize this one? 

Next up, two tops Jeanine sent in with backings and even batting that I was able to quickly finish up.  Both of them have scrappy fabrics that will be great for a man.

The kitties always enjoy the boxes that get shipped here and this one in particular has been getting heavy use, along with the crinkly packing paper. We're rapidly approaching my favorite time of the year and I feel refreshed and renewed. Wishing the same for all of you!  

Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Orphan block quilts for comfort

Hello, friends! Louise here with more of the great orphan blocks that you've donated. First we have Priscilla's fun crumb blocks. 

I sashed them in purple and added a townhouse border print. One of the great things about super scrappy blocks like this is that any color works for sashing. Why not choose purple?

This next quilt was made with these lovely, low contrast sampler blocks sent in by an anonymous donor.

The colors are so soft and pretty! I added darker sashing and borders to make the blocks stand out. I was tickled to find just the right pale pink in my stash for the cornerstones.

The third quilt is the "Texas Twister" pattern in blue, yellow and pink. The fabrics arrived on my doorstep all cut out into the wonky "twister" shapes so it was just a matter of stitching them all together.

The center squares are reproductions of vintage hankies with Texas maps on them. So fun! And I think the background fabric is Texas bluebells?

The original pattern was intended to be much larger, so I used all the extra precut fabrics on the back.

And finally, here's a bold red, white and black quilt. It started with the group of blocks in the lower left. They were created and donated by Kelly and arrived all sewn together. 

The remaining blocks were clearly part of a block of the month kit and arrived partially finished. The kit included fabrics for different sizes of blocks, so I added borders to bring them all up to the same size. I think they play nicely with Kelly's section.

Many thanks to Kelly, Priscilla, and everyone else who donated these super blocks! Linking up to Finished or Not Friday.

Pretty Quilt and Pretty Cats

Often when Linda returns a box of block-drive quilts she has long-armed she will include at least one of her own quilts. I especially loved the creative quilting on this one. 

This border is awesome, with the curves intersecting the straight lines and the tiny feathers in the green border. 

Linda does all this with programming on a computerized machine. It's not the same as free motion but still very impressive to me. 

I wanted to remind everyone that Cynthia has a block drive going right now with bright kids blocks. I am thinking that CiL might have a block drive in January. Don't hold me to that, but fingers crossed. 

It's still pretty hot here, in the 90s during the day, but it's finally cooling off at night and I can sleep with my windows open. It's starting to smell like Fall. I did visit Portland a couple weeks ago and the weather was wonderful. 

I thought you would like to see some updates on Mama Squeaky's kittens who were born in the spring.  

The two female kittens went together to one of my coworkers and I get regular updates. They are farm cats and much loved by her children.

Here is a photo of one of the boy kittens, the wild little man who was half white/half orange. As you can see he's settled right in with his new kitty family. 

Linking to Finished or Not Friday