Ghost of Quilts Past

Between Thanksgiving and moving house (photos forthcoming!) I've been busy the past couple weeks, fortunately Louise shipped me a couple more orphan quilts I can show you!

What's special about this top quilt is that is made almost entirely of blocks from my personal UFO stash. Strange to see them all arranged and finished like that.

Let's take a walk down memory lane...
Top and bottom row large HSTs - from this wedding quilt I made for a friend of a friend
Second row (minus the donut in the middle) triangle hexagons - from this quilt I made my Grandpa
(Row 2.5 small orange and white flying geese, not from me)
Third row improv pieced low volume fabrics surrounding novelty brights - pretty sure I never blogged these, I was playing with using scraps and thinking about a making it a block drive block
Fourth row interlocking squares - a design I was playing with waaaay back in 2010. You can see my graph paper and see how the block breaks down in this post.
Fifth row scrappy mountain majesties - from this quilt I made from Bonnie Hunter's pattern for CiL

This quilt is a mix of blocks from the Scrappy Susannah block drive in Fall 2017 and Fall Leaves from 2015. The center panel is from a fat quarter stack I was donated; the rest of the fat quarters mostly went into this top.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The Nov/Dec 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

String Drive 2019: Round 6 {Wrap-up}

It's time to wrap up this year's Jan-Feb String Block Drive!  Getting done in mid-November is good time for me. It usually takes basically the entire year to get the strings all quilted!

As always, I have MANY people to thank who donated blocks, tops, backing fabrics, rolls of binding, and their time. The first two quilts in this post, above and below, were pieced and quilted from Mina's blocks by Tammy S.

I love this block drive because it's such a quintessential "quilt" design. When most non-quilters imagine a quilt they think of a scrappy one like these. I love all the different fabrics that hide in the quilts.

I also enjoyed trying a different variation on our usual design this year with the big quarter log cabin blocks. I've got a new design in mind for next year, but you'll just have to wait until January to see it!

All but the last 3 of these quilts have already been delivered to the hospital, on their way to new homes.  This drive produced 28 quilts from 81 quilters! (I wrote 27 on the sheet below, but it's actually 28).

So that wraps up the string scraps for 2019, on to 2020!

Latest house update! Bed is installed. You can see there's storage underneath.

The dresser rolls in and out on casters to access the storage.  I'm hunting for the perfect step ladder to reach my bed and all the high shelves.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The Nov/Dec 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

Handstitched Wonders

Happy Friday, stitchers! Carolyn sent in these extremely large quilt tops a while back and I sent them to Meloney who long armed them.  I just got them back, all ready to go to the hospital for Covered in Love!

These tops were handstitched! They're on the order of 110" x 95", which made them hard to photograph, particularly with the weather we've been having lately. 

These will be a real comfort to some families at the hospital soon.  And with the cold weather we've been having lately they'll be especially nice to have at home to cuddle up with.

Not a very flattering photo, but you can see how large the quilts are!

House update: kitchen shelving is up!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The Nov/Dec 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

More Amazing Orphans

Happy Friday quilters! I've got more of Louise's handiwork to show you this weekend.  She's been assembling orphan blocks and leftovers for Covered in Love and making a series about it on her blog.

If you've been around for a while you may recognize blocks left over from this block drive in 2016. The strip of triangles came from one of these baby quilts.

Louise did a great job matching block tone and designs to make cohesive quilts.  I made all those tiny, wonky geese from one of those 2.5" charm packs and she actually pieced them into strips!

She also does pretty custom FMQ quilting.  I now have a running box of UFOs and orphan blocks being packed to go to Louise's when it gets full.

This quilt is one of my absolute favorites, with the pineapple block in the middle and the yellow binding!

Thank you, Louise, and everyone who has sent in blocks and UFOs to CiL! Every block and project eventually finds its home :)  Speaking of homes, here is the latest picture of mine with a fresh coat of paint!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The Nov/Dec 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

Nov/Dec Covered in Love Block Drive

Quilters, welcome to the last Covered in Love block drive of 2019! For anyone who is newer around here, CiL runs block drives every 2 months to make quilts that be given to families in the hospital grieving the loss of a loved one.

I know the holidays are a busy time of the year when it's harder to commit time to these kind of charity drives. That's ok! For those of you who can still participate I picked a simple scrap buster block in winter colors.

Design-Seeds "Holiday Tones"

Start by pulling scraps in the color palette above. (Sea foam green, navy blue, true blue, light icy blues, and snowy off whites, plus some greys.)  You can see my fabrics below; I had more blues than the other colors.  Use what you have in your stash, that's what will make the quilts unique.

From your scraps cut 2.5", 4.5" and 6.5" squares. I basically cut the largest square I can from each scrap. After you have a good handful of squares begin playing with the arrangement to make a 12.5" block.

The simplest block you could make would by (4) 6.5" squares, the block with the most pieces would by a 36-patch made from 2.5" squares. I'm ok with a few of those, but I think the most interesting blocks will be the ones made from a mix of sizes arranged in different ways.

As you can see, there are lots of ways to arrange and rearrange various sizes of scraps. After you cut some scraps and start playing with them you'll be able to figure out if it would by helpful to cut one or two more of a particular size.

Anyone can participate in this drive and you can make as few or as many blocks as you like. Just follow the tutorial and get them in the mail by the end of December. Email CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com for the mailing address.  Thank you to the many of you who participate in the block drives on a regular basis; Covered in Love is on track for 65 quilts from the first 4 block drives this year!

Scrappy Gold

Happy Halloween! This week I have three quilts to show you that were sent to my by Erin. You may remember her first two quilts from this post.

Erin sent in 5 scrappy tops along with backings and bindings and I've just finished quilting them all. Thank you Erin! 

These will be going along with a big delivery for Covered in Love up to the hospital this week.

I hope your Halloween was fun and you had enough candy to go around!

If you want to make a few blocks for the Sept/Oct block drive you still can, just get them in the mail in next couple weeks! Be on the look out for a new block drive announcement later this weekend or Monday for the Nov/Dec drive.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The September/October 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

Louise's Quilty Orphans

Happy Fall, Y'all! The cool weather has finally arrived!  This week's quilts come courtesy of Louise, who you might remember from this post took on several boxes of UFOs and orphan blocks from Covered in Love to finish.

Louise has now sent back 10 quilts for CiL made from orphans and UFOs and she's putting together a great series on her blog about how to effectively use assorted blocks and abandoned projects.  (I'm about 80% sure the snowball blocks in the quilt above came from Priscilla). 

This quilt was made from shirting blocks that came from Holly's husband's shirts.  I love the cozy masculine feel. You can find more pictures of all these quilts on Louise's blog along with her commentary.  Giving Orphans a Home #1, and Giving Orphans a Home #2. 

I really like this quilt Louise put together from a bunch of assorted blocks.  You can spot some leftovers from the Hunter's Star block drive and a couple from this baby quilt I made years ago.  I think the yellow and aqua block in the top row may have been one I considered for a block drive and decided against.

Louise did really pretty custom quilting to accentuate the blocks.  Thank you Louise! Everyone make sure you go visit her blog if you haven't yet and read her posts about working with these orphan blocks.

I know it's been a long time since I showed you a house update. It's moving along at a fast pace now! I have water and electricity and they started painting yesterday.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The September/October 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