Count the Stars: Round 3

FYI
During the COVID 19 pandemic Covered in Love continues to make quilts to support grieving families when relatives pass away in the hospital. This is something that will, unfortunately, probably become even more necessary in the coming weeks and months. When loved ones pass with limited or no visitation and there can be no funeral or viewing of the body something tangible to hold onto to mark the transition becomes even more important.

We are not, as an organization, sewing masks, gowns, or other personal protective equipment at this time.  Many other organizations are filling that role and so CiL will continue with the mission we have had from the beginning. 
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Quarantine sewing continues here! I hope you aren't all going too bored and stir crazy in your homes and you're staying SAFE.  As you can tell from the sunshine in these photos, they weren't taken anytime recently.  It's been raining and raining and raining... quarantine would be less painful if I could wander outside.

Yes, I am still working on wrapping up last year's star drive blocks; I'm nearly done.  Tammy S. has been helping out, she assembled and quilted the top two quilts on this page. You can see her cool star quilting pattern on the picture above.

Tammy added a narrow red sashing to this batch which changed their look completely!

This group of blocks with mostly light backgrounds were sewn up and quilted by me and photographed on a rainy day. 

This bonus quilt top of strings came from Cynthia D. and I added some border blocks from Holly.  I had the perfect backing fabric to go with it, too!

All the remaining star quilts are at the top stage and ready to be quilted one day soon!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The March/April drive is going on 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

Angel Quilts from Florida

Well, how strange things have become in just the past few weeks! Like most people I have been staying home a lot, taking advantage of the time to get lots of cat snuggles in and lots of sewing done.  However, I didn't sew these quilts.

Isn't that scrappy trips around the world quilt stunning? And it's so large, too! All the quilts on this post were sent in by Erin from Florida. You may remember that Erin previously sent in 5 tops I blogged about finishing here and here.

These Erin sent in finished. I love the quilting motifs she chose and the rounded corners that they all have.  Isn't this wild crazy quilt with the stars something else? 

This purple quilt is the only small-ish one. It's going to go for a special purpose, which you'll hear more about later. Really simple, but I love how the fabric pattern is used so effectively.

Another crazy quilt; these are all such cozy, bright, comfy quilts!

I love the large flower pattern in the quilting on this one.

It's not often that I can tell you the story of where a particular quilt ends up, between hospital privacy regulation and me not working on the distribution end of things.  For this particular one (which happens to be my favorite of the five) I can tell you a little bit. 

The number of quilts CiL has given out for the deaths of children is probably in the single digits.  However, this quilts was given to a single mom whose 8-year-old daughter died very suddenly only a couple weeks after being diagnosed with cancer.  The size, colors, and pattern made it the perfect quilt to match that mom and child at that time, and Erin had just sent it in a month or so before.

Just one story, among many that we'll probably never know, about how your collaborative efforts have helped families to heal after loss.  Thank you :)

I wanted to let you know that if you send in blocks or anything to me you probably won't get a confirmation email for longer than usual.  All CiL mail is currently being allowed to "age" for a couple of weeks due to the amount of time that viruses can live on surfaces. 

I hope you're all doing well and not going too stir crazy.  Stay home as much as possible, stay safe! This will eventually pass and be long behind us.

Assembling Ikea furniture with cats is an extreme sport

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The March/April drive is going on 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

In Memoriam

This weekend's post starts off with some sad news. Last month the online quilting community suddenly lost a great charity supporter and very special quilter when Paula B. passed away after a brief illness.  Paula contributed to multiple charities, including sending in 5 quilt tops to Covered in Love over the past couple years.

This top was sent in anonymously

Besides blocks drives, the other major source of quilts for CiL is quilters who send in quilt tops ready to be quilted, bound, and delivered to the hospital. 

Paula B. was an exceptional quilter with an eye for color and design. She also had a passion for special people, you can ready her obituary here. In honor of her memory several members of the quilt-y community are organizing a Quilt Donation Blog Hop for early May.

This top sent in anonymously

For the blog hop quilters are asked to make a quilt to donate to any charity that is close to their heart in memory of Paula. 

This top sent in from Jan O.

Be sure to check out Kate's blog for details so you have time to plan if you want to participate.  There's plenty of time to make a baby quilt for an organization like Jack's Basket or a local NICU or foster agency between now and then. 

Paula represents so many unique and wonderful individuals I've met in the quilting community.  Interesting, smart, generous people who want to help others.  I was honored to to have "met" her and I hope many of you will participate in the blog hop in her honor.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The March/April drive is going on 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

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Hello and happy March! We made it through the first long cold months of the year.  This week I have  3 quilts that Louise sent back to Covered in Love. Louise is a CiL board member and she's also taken on the role of UFO and orphan block wrangler.

I'm calling this one a kitchen sink quilt, since it combines so many different orphan blocks. Many of them have diagonal elements which ties them all together. 

This very structured quilt was made with a beautiful fat quarter stack of metallic fabrics using this free pattern.

I tried to take close ups so you can see how pretty and detailed the fabrics are.

Lastly, another different style of kitchen sink quilt bringing together a variety of UFO blocks, all with black and grey tones. Thank you, Louise, the UFO whisperer!

I keep a running box of orphan blocks and UFOs and orphans for Louise and ship it when it gets full. Sundae does her part by keeping things well compressed as I add layers ;)

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The March/April drive is going on 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

March-April CiL Block Drive

Hello quilters! Welcome to the 2020 March-April Block Drive for Covered in Love! If you are new to CiL or the block drives scroll to the end of this post for more information.

For the Spring months I chose an easy, fun rail fence block that makes blue and yellow pin wheels.  We have done this color scheme before (see the picture below) with true blues and yellows.

So, on to the tutorial! First step, choose 3 fabrics in a true blue, bright true yellow, and low volume or white fabric.

For each block you need (4) strips of each color cut to 6.5" long x 2.5" wide. 

Sew the sets of strips together into 4 rail fence blocks with blue and yellow on the outsides and white sandwiched in the middle.

Then arrange the 4 rail fence blocks as shown with a blue pin wheel in the middle and sew them into a 12.5" block.  Done!

Covered in Love makes quilts to cover patients who pass away at a Texas hospital and comfort the families.  Anyone can contribute to these drives and make as few blocks or as many as they like. The current drive runs March through April, so blocks should be in the mail by the end of April.  Email CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com if you need the address to mail blocks.

Thank you to all of you who have contributed to drives in the past and make our mission possible. We will soon surpass 600 quilts delivered to mourning families!

Christine's Quilts

Late post going up today, sorry about that! I had to be up super early the past 2 days with my nursing students for their first clinical days and Friday snuck up on me.
 

These 6 quilt tops came to me from Christine in Florida for Covered in Love and I finished them recently.

Christine sent me all of her tops kitted up with backings and binding to match, perfectly ready to go!

This scrappy top, above, was the one that became my inspiration for my scrap buster string top. You can see the tutorial I uploaded for that here.

I really loved these two large, earthy colored batik quilts.  These 6 quilts already went to the hospital and will be finding their forever homes soon. 

Further down the page there's another quilt with partial seams made with beautiful Christmas fabrics.  While I was delivering this last batch Chaplain Perry told me a sweet story.

Months back we had sent up a Christmas quilt. I remember writing on here about how I hoped it would wind up with the perfect family.  Perry said they held on to it for quite a while before finally taking it to a family, kind of on impulse. 

The family was thrilled! And told them how the patient had loved Christmas and always hosted it at her house for her large family.  We continue to be amazed how the perfect quilt seems to find its way to each family!

Love these fabrics!

Happy weekend and Stay Warm!  You can look for the next blog drive post Sunday or Monday. 

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The Jan/Feb drive is going on 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