Pastel Hugs from Lori

Happy Friday, quilters! I hope this weekend finds you all well. I have more quilts from Lori to show.

The ones in this post have a lighter palette and some really pretty fabrics, which I did my best to photograph.

We've started eating garden cucumbers this week, although the tomatoes remain stubbornly green. In another week we'll have more than we can eat. 

The second batch of Spring baby birds in my carport have flown the coop and a third mama bird is scoping out a nest site. 

I'm taking a 4-week wheel thrown pottery class at the local league to the arts and really enjoy it. This week we trimmed the bowls and cups we had thrown in the first two weeks and I managed to carve through the bottom of two of mine. Always humbling to start a new hobby.

I think the quilt above, with the gray and solid strips, is my favorite of this batch. This last one does funny things to my eyes, although it's not as bad in real life as in the photos.

These fabrics are really vibrant and I love how trippy the design looks. Thank you Lori!

If you are interested in more of my day-to-day (cats, quilts, books I'm reading, garden) you can follow me on Instagram @katandcat775.

Some sewing for a personal project this week

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1700 so far! The Winter 2026 block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Cactus Quilt

Happy Friday, quilters! I've been meaning for a while to you show off this non -CiL quilt I made for a friend. You know I don't make many personal quilts these days.

This is for a friend who love succulents. I started with a focal fabric with the cactus pattern, then chose solid fabrics to pull colors from time patterned fabric.  For quilting I did vertical stripes to echo the ridges on cactuses. 

 

It felt like a the triangles I cut should have made a bigger quilt! I guess that's always the case.

Spring is springing here. We have green tomatoes and tiny cucumbers growing but not ready to pick yet. I know soon enough we'll have more than we can possibly eat 

For the backing I used this fabric panel with some ombre fabric. I really like all the colors in the succulent blooms.  I'm happy to say that the quilt was well received and is already being enjoyed. 

Orange boys being orange. That's Stuart on the ground and Fudge climbing.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1700 so far! The Winter 2026 block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Big Panel Fun

Hello again, friends! Louise here to share more Covered in Love quilts made from YOUR orphan blocks. This batch features panels that were donated from a local quilt shop in Kat's area.

The first two small quilts use these super sweet 18" square panels with flowers, rainboots, and rollerskates. Do you recognize the English paper pieced hexagons made by Bev? These are the last two of her blocks.

Next is a column quilt in springy colors. The panels are small and vertical, and such pretty flowers!

Here's a close up of two panels. I added fifteen 8" blocks in blues and purples to the mix. Most of these were donated as half square triangles that I put together into various classic blocks like Broken Dishes and Pinwheels.

These darling puppies only needed top and bottom rows of softly colored blocks to make a snuggly baby quilt. 

This big autumnal quilt uses strips from a single fabric between each row. I think this type of fabric product is usually used for borders, but I didn't have quite enough yardage for that. 

The design of grasses and ferns is just lovely, and I enjoyed finding blocks to play nicely with it.

This rather Egyptian looking panel has been sitting in my stash for ages. When a donation of pretty batik and warmly colored HSTs showed up, the panel popped into my mind as a good match. It's a simple design that I hope will provide comfort.

And finally, my favorite of the bunch is this wild lighthouse panel. I've been boating for a long time, but I've never seen an orange and turquoise lighthouse! I love it! It's a bit of a fever dream. Fortunately, my stash of orphan block from y'all can handle ANY color combo.

And since the lighthouse is lurid, extra-long wiener dogs in the same colors are a logical backing right? I thought so. Thank you again for all your donations. These orphan block quilts are powered by the many creative hands of our little community.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1700 so far! The Winter 2026 block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Edna & Jeanie

Happy Friday, quilters! I have 4 beautiful quilts sent in by CiL supporters this week. Edna J sent in these first two. She always rounds off the corners of her quilts and I love that. 

This cool looking scrap quilt is actually a deceptively simple design, just alternating 9 patches of squares and HSTs. She did simple and very effective quilting with straight lines that echo the seam lines. 

Next up, a patriotic design with alternating squares and quarter-square triangles. Again, she did lovely straight-line quilting. I wish I did more straight lining! Free motion is so much faster and easier once you get the hang of it that I just don't have the patience for straight lining any more. 

Jeanie sent in these next two tops. This first one reminds me of a Hudson Bay blanket because of its color scheme.

 I love the striped binding she pieced together for it and, again, the straight-line quilting. 

Lastly, Jeanie also sent in this very cool top with a complex design to show off some pretty fabrics. I love how it looks almost woven. 

Things are good here. I am looking forward to our first tomatoes of the season and making plans for some summer travel. Staying busy as always. 

One cat towers on the porch finally passed beyond saving and I recycled some of the pieces to build the cats a new climbing structure. I think they approve.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1700 so far! The Winter 2026 block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Patriotic Orphan Blocks

Hooray for the Red, White and Blue! Louise here with a quick post to share an orphan block quilt. Patriotic quilts are very popular with veterans, so I'm always happy to put one together.

The two flag blocks are the centerpiece of this quilt, and I added other blocks to make coherent rows. This photo shows the loose Baptist fan quilting motif I used.

Someone kind donated the border triangles already sewn into long strips which made finishing the top easy peasy. Many thanks to everyone who sends in donations of blocks, scraps, and yardage! 

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1700 so far! The Winter 2026 block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Lori's Quilts

Happy Friday, quilters! I've got even more quilts from Lori this week. This time she included a note in the box with her email address so we could get to know each other a bit!

Lori is a fellow Texan who, like many of you I imagine, finds herself making more quilts than her friends and family have room for.

She's happy to have found an organization that can make use of her surplus quilts, and we're very happy she found us!

I have broken her two boxes of quilts up into three posts, loosely organized by color and style. I think in this post my favorite is the herringbone at the top, but it's a close thing with this interesting twirled strips pattern.

This very bright quilt has some gorgeous fabrics in it. Does anyone recognize what line they are from?

I hope you all are having a good spring. Our vegetables are in the ground and A new mother bird is sitting on eggs in the top of my carport. 

Stuart is still with me. He especially likes when I hang out in his room in the evenings so he can get some quality snuggle time in. Remember, if you live anywhere within a few hours of East Texas he is available for adoption!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1700 so far! The Winter 2026 block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday