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

Friendly quilts

Hello, friends! Louise here with some more quilts made from your orphan blocks and scraps. Let's jump right in with this bright batik beauty.

This one has been marinating in my stash for while, and I can't recall if it showed up as blocks, rows, or even a finished top. All I know is the fabrics are gorgeous! Someone donated this fun stripe with celestial motifs that just seemed destined to be the backing.

This small quilt is made of 9-patches and snowball blocks. The turquoise, 30's style fabrics were donated as long strips that made piecing the patches simple.

The coral floral added a nice touch and a new color to the mix. This is one of those quilts that I think looks better up close because of the low contrast between the blocks. 

 

This neutral quilt is made entirely from 3.5" and 4.5" squares cut from scraps. The fabrics were all donated to Covered in Love over the years and many were used as sashings and backgrounds. I sewed the 3.5" squares into 16-patches, and the 4.5" ones into 9-patches. The math works out to 12" finished blocks which I alternated in the layout. I love that it gives a sort of higgeldy-piggeldy random look and yet it's actually quite structured.

Finally, this bright and happy quilt is designed around the four corner blocks. They are small panels in saturated bright colors, so I chose various orphan blocks in that same palette to join in the fun. With no borders or sashing, this one is a riot of color. It's fun for me to explore these different ways to lay out a quilt, and I hope you had fun seeing them, too.

PS from Kat, these are the products of my card weaving class! It was a 3-week class for 2 hours on Saturdays and a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to taking more classes there.

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

Priscilla's Tops

Happy Friday, quilters! This week I have tops by Priscilla and quilted by three different quilters. This first one was quilted by me, I think the colors are really fun.

Next up, a HUGE disappearing nine patch quilted by Doris. This one is a really show-stopper. The colors are so coordinated it doesn't even look like a scrap quilt until you look close. 

Lastly, a jelly-roll-race style top quilted by Linda.  I like the effect of having the dark strips in the middle with the light ones on the outside.

Spring cleaning is in full effect here. I'm working on putting up wire mesh to block the birds from being about to get into the porch. No more breakfast a la Fudge. 

The first batch of Spring baby birds have been hatched in the roof of my carport and are chirping their little hearts out. 

I've been taking a card/tablet weaving class at our local league of the arts and really enjoying it. Hope you all are well!

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

Candlewicking

Welcome, friends! Louise here. Today I have a quilt made from blocks embroidered by Moira's Mom to share.

Moira is a member of my quilt guild, an online-only group called Sunshine.  

Moira sent me eight blocks made with an embroidery technique called "candlewicking."

I learned from wikipedia that

"Candlewicking, or candlewick is a form of whitework embroidery that traditionally uses an unbleached cotton thread on a piece of unbleached muslin. It gets its name from the nature of the soft spun cotton thread, which was braided then used to form the wick for candles. Motifs are created using a variety of traditional embroidery stitches as well as a tufted stitch. Subject matter is usually taken from nature—flowers, insects, pine trees, and so on, Other traditional motifs resemble Pennsylvania Dutch or Colonial American designs.Modern designs include colored floss embroidery with the traditional white on white stitching."

Moira's Mom's designs all include this off-white stitching, often in the form of french knots.

Some of the blocks were also printed with this pretty blue background, making the central designs really pop. 

I knew I would need to carefully quilt around all the stitching, so I decided to also add flanged borders around each block to frame them. Flanges also require a lot of tip-toeing around. In for a penny, in for a pound! I set the blocks in simple pale blue background to let them really shine.

Here is the finished quilt, full of softness and crinkles after a good wash and dry. I loved working with these special blocks. Many thanks to both Moira and her Mom for sharing them with Covered in Love!

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