May's Tall Nine Patches 3 & 4

Deja vu?  No, just the next (and final) two of May's Tall Nine Patch quilts from the May Covered in Love block drive.  The first two were quilted by Judy, I posted about them a couple weeks ago. These two were quilted by me.

The smaller one is 60" square, the other is 60"x72".  Both of them were quilted with a stipple and bound with pastel blue/grey fabrics.

This color scheme was my favorite that we've done on the block drives in a while. I love love love the soft, soothing blues and yellows with the grey.

Thank you to all the quilters who continue to support CiL, through the block drives.  I love making out the labels as I finish  off each quilt and writing all the names.  I think having the names is also a nice personal connection for the family that ultimately receives the quilt.

It's the end of the month again (how does that keep happening?!) so August's Covered in Love block drive is up.  Big difference from last month's block, these are kind of a wild take on disappearing nine patch.  If you're new around here, the monthly block drive benefit Covered in Love and anyone can participate any month you want making as many or as few blocks as you like. Visit the block drive page for more information.

I hope everyone's weekend is full of sewing and fun!

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

Disappearing Nine Patch Block Drive

How about a nice bold block for August's block drive?  Every month quilt bloggers give Covered in Love a boost through our block drives.  Make a block or two or ten to help us bring comfort quilts to families who have lost loved ones.  This month we're doing a disappearing 9 patch.

Pull black and white fabrics and one accent fabrics per block.  Try to go for true, crisp black and whites, not fabrics with a bunch of grey.  Accent colors are lime green, Caribbean blue, and bright yellow.  I pulled some examples to show you. My lime doesn't look very lime-y, but you get the idea.

Cut (8) 5.5" squares from the black and white fabrics and one from the accent fabric and arrange into a 9 patch with the accent square in the center.

Sew together into a 9 patch.

Subcut the 9 patch in half vertically and horizontally by measuring 2.5" in on the center patch.

Arrange as shown and sew back together.  Blocks should finish at 15" sq. 

(Edited to Add: View some finished quilts here)

Thank you to everyone who sews along and sends in blocks every month.  If you would like to support us by sewing some blocks this month, please do!  You can email me at CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com or leave a comment here for a mailing address.

Baby baby Finishes!

This week's sewing was all about babies!  I have three friends/family having babies around October, and one of them is having twins! So I have no shortage of baby sewing to be done.

I don't know if you have Hancock's Fabrics where you are, but it has been one of my favorite places to shop and is unfortunately going out of business :(  I went by a couple weeks ago and there wasn't much left but I found some things to scoop up on a discount. I got several handfuls of iron-on baby appliques.

I bought plain onesies at WalMart and sewed the appliques onto them, rather than iron. For the twin boys there are two "peas in a pod" ones.

These girly ones are for my cousin.  My friend Libby is also having a baby (gender to be a surprise) but since she is a quilter I thought she might have more fun with the appliques herself.  Rather than apply them to anything I dropped a few in the mail earlier this week.

The twins will almost certainly come early, and more than likely spend a little time in the NICU so I made up four of these reversible preemie NICU smocks for them.  (Pattern free from Everything Your Mama Made & More.)  With any luck they will never need them and they'll be donated to the NICU unused, but just in case we're ready. 

(same 4 gowns on their reverse side)

These function on the same principle as a hospital gown: they can be quickly put on and taken off and allow for various tubes and whatnot to be passed through, but it gives the parents the comfort of seeing the baby in clothes.

Finally, I sewed up this cute sleeping bunny baby lovey I saw on Quilting Stories.  The backing of the patchwork is a plush minky for baby to snuggle with and the bunny's face is flannel.  Embroidering the facial features was the hardest part for me, but after some ripping and restitching I managed to make 2 eyes that look mostly alike.

Baby sewing is so much fun. I sew mostly for the other end of life these days, and I love that too! But there's just something about sewing for a new baby. I guess there is a certain symmetry to it.

Happy Friday! Don't forget the Covered in Love July block drive is going on now.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

May's Tall Nine Patches 1 & 2

I love our monthly block drives.  Selfishly I love getting to come up with block designs and colors schemes and see them come to fruition.  More than that, though, and more importantly, I love how it represents the online community and quilters in general. I love that strangers come together, month after month, to make quilts to bless people they won't ever meet. 

These are the first two of the "tall nine patch" quilts from May's block drive.  One quilt, the one that got the all-over flowers quilting came as a finished top from Amanda in Louisiana.  The other was a blend of blocks sent in by contributors.

I have two more of these tops ready to be basted and quilted. These first two were quilted by the wonderful Judy at Quilt Paradigm, who never ceases to amaze me with her creativity, skill, and generosity.

Thank you to everyone who contributed blocks to the May block drive: Summer, Teri, Linda, Rosemarie, Susan, Johanna, Valerie, Barbara, Nancy K., Janet, Nancy R., Elena, Ann, Louise, Amanda, Jannette, Molly and Tammy.  

These two quilts have been labeled and added to the staging area for Covered in Love. For anyone interested, this month's block drive is up now. We're making red, white, and blue star blocks in any pattern you like.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer.  You think it's going to be a relaxing break, but somehow things always seem to get busy in the summer.  It's a good busy, though; vacations and visits with friends, trying to squeeze inbetween school and work.

Things are busy but good here.  Rey continues to charm us. Once her various parasites and malnutrition cleared up her personality really blossomed. She has the best purr and is completely nonchalant about Rory's disdain for her.

Wishing you sunshine, quilting time, and purring cats :)

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

Sunday Morning in Sober Tones

Frequent Covered in Love contributor Amanda from Louisiana sent along a jelly roll of Moda "Remembrance" a month or so ago.  During my sew day a while back I started turning these into blocks for the titular "Sunday Morning" quilt from Amanda Jean and Cheryl Arkison's Sunday Morning Quilts. Now I'm finishing them into a top. It's kind of interesting to see the modern design is such not-modern fabrics.

The top was a tad small without borders; fortunately I found the perfect matching plaid fabric in my stash.  Pretty sure that plaid was a donated fabric, too, but I can't remember who from. I'm thinking I'll put a narrow black border on between the top and the plaid to break it up a bit before I sew it together.  Once this one gets quilted up it will be a donation top for Covered in Love. 

The July block drive is up for those who want to contribute and a few people have already sent their blocks in (thanks Christy, Nancy, and Kathy!)  This time we're making whatever star block takes your fancy in patriotic red, white, and blue.

Linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

The Hipster Wedding Quilt

My friend Veronica is the proud owner of three of my quilts, most recently her wedding quilt which I blogged about here.  When she asked me what it would cost to make a wedding quilt for friends of hers I told her to keep her money and give me the details, because that's the kind of friend she is.

The young married couple are described as like all things "hipster".  I decided on Cotton and Steel fabrics in an oversized flying geese design.  Ironically the quilt wound up the same size (80" sq) and with the same basic blocks (8" HSTs) as V's wedding quilt.

I really wanted to quilt this with vertical lines, but its so time consuming and difficult and you end up with so much fabric shifting.  Instead I did sort of vertical zig zags in each block, to get the same basic effect while being able to work on only one small piece of quilt at a time.

I'm not sure how I wound up with all the background puff balls going in so many different directions. I did try.  Anyway, not stressing about it.

I had saved all the selvedges off the fabric and attached them on the backing under the binding.  It seemed like a hipster-y sort of thing to do and I think it does look cool.  Happily this quilt has now been passed on to its new owners now after a stop at V's house so she could write the label.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

Design Wall Flannel Scraps

Happy July 4th everyone!  I am playing on the design wall with some of the results of last week's sewing extravaganza. I put together the 16 patch and 4 patch blocks for this flannel scrap quilt and today I am laying them out. 

Do you think that one large red square stands out too much?

I am thinking about what size quilt to make.  I have enough blocks to make a 64" x 80" quilt, which would be a generous size for an adult and quite heavy because of the flannel. Some of the fabrics are a little juvenile, so it might make more sense to make child-sized quilts. I could make a 64" square big-kid quilt and a 36" square baby quilt... What do you think?

Sleeping in the human-bed, as she should be

In other news, little Rey continues to settle in. Rory still hisses at her but Rey doesn't even seem to notice. In between the hissing there have been some moments of calm when they were almost playing together.  Rey is very independent and curious and thinks she rules the roost.  Things in her world have changed a lot in the past 2 weeks since she was almost a greasy spot on the side of the road.

Linking to Design Wall Monday.