Cat Pictures Friday

 

More Beauties

Is it hot where you are? Because it's gotten really hot here. Summer has arrived with a bang. Patricia B. sent in these beauties this week! 

I really like the fountain pen border on this one. You can see some of Patricia's previous quilts here. 

I hope you're all doing well going into the summer and looking forward to fun camping and bbq's and that sort of thing.

I came across a quilty blog recently I want to share with you.  Melva did a block series based on letters she found in her grandparents belongings.  

This is a link to the introduction and index post with, there are links at the bottom to the block posts. Her grandparents were famers in Colorado who hosted German POWs on their farm during WWII as workers. 

Many of the Germans became close to the family and after the war wrote them letters about conditions in post-war Germany which are fascinating. Everything about it is interesting, really. 

These last two quilts are tops by Patricia, quilted by Linda.

There are 20 letters, along with block patterns if you're interested, and Melva includes extra information and historical details. 

If you've got some down time go take a look and read some of the letters! 

If you enjoy it, please let me know.  And let me know what you think of these beautiful quilts! Isn't this applique awesome?  These last two were large tops and I sent them off to Linda and her long arm to be finished. 

I got a couple of nice 'thank you' cards from the hospital last week, one from a patient's wife and one from the chaplain's group. Your quilts continue to make a difference and bless East Texans in difficult times!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1000 so far! The May/June block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

So much variety in your orphan tops and blocks!

 

Welcome to another post featuring YOUR orphan blocks and tops! Louise here, filling in the words to go with Kat's mighty fine photos. With everything Kat has on her plate, I'm so grateful that she takes the time to make these quilts shine in their school pictures. 

The first quilt features a garden theme. The four sections look like they were sewn together by the 

same person and were perhaps meant to be small wall hangings. Such pretty little panels! 

I added a neutral background to combine them into a single lap sized piece and put more garden themed fabric on the back. Easy, wonky Baptist fan quilting adds to the coziness.

Using a similar technique, I combined these five panels of blocks. I call orphan block groups like this "chunks." That means the blocks were already sewn together, but aren't big enough to make an entire quilt even with big borders. They often can serve as center medallions. This batch of chunks shared a similar vibe so I pieced them together on a black background so they would float. 

On the back, I used some fishing themed scraps, including trout, boats, fishing reels and a panel. Perhaps an avid fisherman will end up with this quilt.

Frances B. donated these sweet nine patches. What is it about quilt blocks with tiny piecing that just makes them so darned cute? This top only needed a few borders to come up to the perfect size for Covered In Love. 

I added this beautiful large scale butterfly print to top and bottom. It was also donated, and too pretty to waste, so I used every last scrap of it on the back as well.

This quilt is made almost entirely with blocks donated by Priscilla and Jan. Purple and green are one of my favorite color combos!

The embroidered purple butterflies in the center were an eBay find. I have no talent for embroidery, so it's a real treat to play with this kind of stitching. If you have orphaned embroidered pieces, don't hesitate to donate them to CiL.  

Quilting around embroidery is a little challenging, so I outlined the motifs and stippled in between. The rest of the quilt has swirly quilting and the overall texture is pretty yummy!

Don't you love house quilts? It took a village to make this Village quilt! Marianne got the ball rolling by making the center neighborhood of super cute houses and trees. 

Instead of adding simple borders, I added 4" and 5" blocks in autumnal colors. I had a big variety of blocks in the orphan bin and they play nicely together. I'm guessing at least five other quilters have their hands in this piece. 

And no neighborhood is complete without some friendly dogs! The dog park is around the corner on the back. I'm sorry they are standing on their heads but Blogger wouldn't let me flip them over. Bad Blogger, no biscuit.

Here's a more modern quilt that also represents several makers. I recognize Jan's blocks. Do you see any of yours? I selected blocks with orange, green and navy and set them in the navy sashing. What to use for a border, though? Hmm, I think I saw a cream fabric with some sort of design in those same colors, lurking in the back of a drawer. What was that design?

 Ah yes! Chickens! Who doesn't love a good chicken fabric? I think they add whimsy to any quilt.

And yes, I had lots more chicken fabric for the backing, too. I might have a chicken fabric problem.

Here's a lovely churn dash piece, donated by Barb. She actually sent in two, so you'll see the other one next time. Each block features floral fabrics in purple, pink, yellow and green. 

I had a nice Asian-inspired hot pink fabric with metallic accents, and used that for the border and backing. A pale yellow binding makes a nice frame for this pretty quilt. Thanks, Barb!

Wowsers, look at all those kite shaped blocks! What a labor of love this top was for the maker.  I love the high contrast in each block, which makes the overall star pattern bold and striking.

Each of the dark pieces is tiny, finishing at 1/2". Thank you, talented and patient person who made this small top! To bring it up to size, I added an inner off white border and then strips of scrappy triangles. The triangles were donated already sewn together, and I like how they echo the acute angle of the kite shapes. 

More triangles and triangular light houses on the back. This piece was a challenge to quilt because of how many seams came together at each star point. I chose a type of orange peel shape that avoided sewing over the thickest parts; after washing, it all softened up nicely.

Here's a modern beauty: spinning stars on navy background, donated by Priscilla. Isn't this an eye catching design? Priscilla did such a great job placing the darker colors on the outside with the pale blue in the center. It must have taken a lot of planning to get right! 

I only needed to add a wider border and bind in same navy to make it "float." I'm so glad the extra navy fabric arrived with the top so it all matches perfectly.

And finally, here is a small quilt, suitable for the NICU. Each of the nine blocks features a wonky center with a cute cat print, surrounded crazy-quilt style with coordinating scrappy fabrics. Such a fun design!

Check out that kitty face! I wanted this piece to have tons of quilting texture, so I went with much tighter swirls than I normally do. The resulting crinkle is very satisfying! A bold striped binding finished it up.

Whew! That was a long post! Thanks for sticking with me to the end, and thanks for all your donations. I'd love it if you'd leave a comment and share which quilt is your favorite. I get a big kick out of how varied our tastes can be. It also helps me when I have doubts about a piece I'm working on and pushes me to move further out of the color comfort zone we all can fall into.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1000 so far! The May/June block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

May/June CiL Block Drive

Hello Quilters! It's the beginning of Summer and time for the May/June CiL Block Drive.  We're going to be doing a fun block that I saw around the internet recently, it originated with sushi.farmer on instagram. 

photo by JessicaQuilter

This is called the "Scrappy Pixel" block and we are making a version inspired by JessicaQuilter with only one color on each side of the midline. This will be one to get into your scrap bins for! The photo above is of 4 blocks put together and I have made a template below to help you with arranging your blocks. 

Each block is made from (36) 2.5" squares. Start by laying out 6 dark (basically black) squares down the midline. Then place 2 very light squares into the two empty corners and (2) more low volume (but not quite as light) squares onto the diagonal in each corner.  From there sort the scraps of your two chosen colors into three categories based on saturation from dark to pastel.  These are arranged with darks nearest the middle and lights close to the corner squares. 

You can assemble the blocks by sewing together strips and then columns, or by sewing together nine patches and then joining those. However you like and find convenient is fine. 

The finished blocks should measure 12.5" (unfinished).

I can't wait to see all your blocks! I have to admit I'm partial to the drives where you can't tell where one block ends and the next begins.

For anyone new to Covered in Love, we run these block drives every two months and have been since 2015. Anyone can participate and make as few or as many blocks as you like. Email CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com for the address and get your blocks in the mail by the end of June.  Our blocks are combined together into quilts to be given to the families of dying patients in East Texas hospitals to bring comfort in a dark time.

Wonderful Wendy

Today's post is a celebration of Wendy! A wonderful quilter with a longarm who has been volunteering to finish tops for Covered in Love for a while now. 

This purple twist top was made by Kathy B and quilted by Wendy. The two shades of purple work really effectively together. 

Wendy also sends in bonus quilts from time to time, like this patriotic quilt with a simple but very effective pattern.

This batik sampler quilt was made by a friend of Wendy's and hitched a ride in a box that was heading this way. 

Gorgeous beachy ocean batik colors and ripple pattern quilting.  It's almost summer and beach time again! 

Julie K sent in this Scrappy Trips top in cool jewel tones and Wendy quilted it with a swirly, loopy design.  

This top is called "Beveled Blocks" and also came from Julie K, so I include it here.  Since it was smaller I actually quilted this one myself.  

Thank you Wendy!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1000 so far! During March/April we are supporting the Hands2Help Challenge instead of our normal block drive.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday