Annual String Fling + Giveaway!!

Keep reading to the bottom of the post for details on the GIVEAWAY!

Third time's the charm? Well in this case the first two times were pretty great.  We've done foundation pieced string blocks for a Covered in Love block drive for the past two years and everyone seems to really enjoy it, so I thought I'd make it a tradition! I did nudge it from October to the Jan/Feb slot so it would be opposite our other staple, the summer red/white/blue stars drive, but now it's here to stay.

These string blocks are 10.5" unfinished and super easy to make.  It's a great way to burn up some scraps.  You can find the step-by-step tutorial HERE.  This block drive is a color/theme free-for-all. Anything goes for these fun scrap quilts. In 2015 we made 8 of these quilts and in 2016 we made 8 more, so 16 total so far. This drive will run from now until the end of February.

Feel free to jump right into the block drive, whether you're new or have done a lot before.  Every 2 months I host a block drive to benefit Covered in Love.  We make quilts for grieving families in the hospital.  You can make as many or as few blocks as you like and sewing in this block drive doesn't commit you future drives, you can pick and chose the ones you like or have time for.  Just leave a comment or email CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com for a mailing address.

Covered in Love began in April 2015 and to date we've given out over 260 quilts to mourning families in the hospital.  I meant to do a giveaway for the 200-quilt milestone but it got past me so instead we're having a joint (almost) "3 Year Anniversary/300 Quilts" celebration giveaway!

(Christmas on top, Spring on the bottom)

This giveaway is open to anyone, you don't have to have participated with CiL before.  For everyone who sends in blocks to the Jan/Feb block drive you'll receive one entry per block and at the end I'll draw two winners.

Christmas jelly roll

Spring jelly roll

I've got two jelly rolls to giveaway, one is Christmas themed and one in Spring-y fabrics.  In the top-down photo you can see the colors. Click the photos to see them larger.  I know Christmas just happened but let's be honest, it takes most of us at least a year to make a quilt.

These CiL milestones and this giveaway are a celebration of YOU the volunteers.  Thank you soooooo much, I literally couldn't have done it without all of your help!

Quilting from the Heart

Judy from Arizona has been quilting tops for Covered in Love for a couple years now.  She's the kind of quilt who enjoys the actual quilting more than the piecing (I'm the opposite) so this has been a match made in heaven.

Judy takes her time and puts her heart into every top she quilts and boy, does she knock it out of the park! Every one of her quilts is a showpiece.

This mini, scrappy log cabin was sent in by Priscilla.  Each cabin is just under 5", the logs are 0.75" wide.  I was so impressed by the time and effort it that went into making all those tiny cabins, I decided to send it out to Arizona.

Judy went to town on this top with columns of feathers and narrow, straight line quilting.  

To top it off, I had a beautiful backing to match courtesy of Sandra.

The second quilt that came back from Judy was one I pieced from a WIP given to me a long time ago by DeeDee. 

The project had the makings of lots of little red flowers. I must have thought at first they were poinsettias, seeing that red and green, because I had it labeled for a long time as "Christmas WIP." 

Eventually I decided to call them tulips and set them in a "garden".  I thought Judy might have fun filling in all the blank space with free motioning :)

"Tip Toe Through the Tulips..." and past the frogs and birds and turtles.  The animals were pieced based on tutorials from the Elephant Parade QAL.

This one had a great backing too, more birds!

Every Covered in Love quilt is gifted to a family mourning the loss of a loved one. I'm so glad that so many quilters put their heart and soul into our quilts! Stay warm and Happy New Year!

If you'd like to join in with Covered in Love's mission you can learn more on the main page or check out the block drive.  The current Covered in Love block drive is a cozy patchwork interspersed with pieced blocks. It will run until the new year if you want to help out.  More info here!

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finished or Not Friday

Susannah in the Fall, Part I

The first four Scrappy Susannah block quilts from Covered in Love's Sept/Oct block drive are done!

This block drive used a tutorial by Andy at A Bright Corner in a Fall color scheme and you all made it CiL's biggest block drive to date, both in number of quilters and blocks sent in.  I'm anticipating 13 finished quilts, so that would be our biggest set of quilts from a drive as well!

These first two were pieced and quilted by Kathy C., who I am fortunate enough to know in person!
She did a nice diagonal grid on both. I think the diagonal really sets off the design.  These finished at 60"x72" and Kathy found the perfect fall-colored binding in her stash and they are so cozy and perfect.

I worked a shift the other day and one of the house supervisors saw me and came over to talk about the quilts. She said on a night shift recently an ICU nurse called her and asked her to open the chaplain's office and get a quilt out for a dying patient.  Later she came by to check on the patient and family and said it looked very nice and was touching. I love hearing stories like that, it makes my heart smile :)

She asked the usual questions like, Do you make all the quilts? Who helps you? You don't know them in person? and Why do they want to make quilts for us?  It's hard to explain the internet quilting community to someone who hasn't experienced it! All I can say is, I have a lot of help, and they are awesome!

These next two quilts were pieced by me and quilted by Meloney from South Texas on her longarm. She did a pretty leaf design on the first on and a stipple-spiral on the second.

I ended up setting several of the quilts from this drive on point using this method. These quilts finish at something like 69" square and I love the look it creates.

There will be plenty more of these quilts to come, thanks to so many of you who participated in this block drive! I love this color scheme and I can't wait to get more of these cuddly quilts finished.

I hope you're all looking forward to a very Merry Christmas. Stay warm and enjoy your family and friends!

If you'd like to join in with Covered in Love's mission you can learn more on the main page or check out the block drive.  The current Covered in Love block drive is a cozy patchwork interspersed with pieced blocks. It will run until the new year if you want to help out.  More info here!

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finished or Not Friday

Moo-berry {Sew Some Love}

Welcome to the Sew Some Love linkup!  Please link-up any post about a project you're sewing for charity.

Hey y'all. Christmas is less than a week away. Do you have your shopping done? More importantly, do you have your sewing project-gifts done? Yeah, me either.

I've been working on Christmas gifts and some finishes for CiL, but nothing I can show you right now. Instead, here are some cute photos of my boyfriend's new cat.

He's a two-year-old blue tabby from the animal shelter and we named him Moo.

Moo is the sweetest boy! He loves to be with his people, be carried, sleep on the bed, and nap on the desk while boyfriend is working.  He wrestles without ever using his claws or teeth and plays with his toys like a wild man.

From shelter cat to spoiled house-cat in just a month and I don't know who is happier about it, him or us :) Adopt, don't shop!

Covered in Love has been so blessed by donations from quilters, I want you all to see what each other have going on!  For purposes of the linky, I'm going to define "charity" really generally.  If you're sewing a quilt for you co-worker's mom with cancer or your friend's uncle who lost his home, that totally counts!  Anything you're sewing out of the goodness of your heart for someone outside you immediate circle of family and friends.

An InLinkz Link-up

Some Quilt Charities:
Books and a Blanket - quilts for needy children in central Texas, promoting literacy
Covered in Love - quilts for mourning families
Jack's Basket - celebrating babies born with Down Syndrome
Kennel Quilts - small quilts for animals in need
Margaret's Hope Chest - several programs for children and adults
My Very Own Blanket - quilts for children in foster care
Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project - quilts auctioned to raise money for cancer research
Project Linus - quilts for children in the hospital
Quilts Beyond Borders -  quilts for poor children around the world
Quilts for Kids - quilts for abused and ill children
Quilts of Valor - quilts for veterans
Threading Hope - children and families in poverty and war torn countries
Victoria's Quilts - quilts for cancer patients
Wrap-a-Smile - quilts for children treated for cleft palate on medical missions
Wrap Them in Love - quilts for children

If you know of any that need added to the list let me know!

From Canada, with Love

From no quilts to show last week to a quilting boom this week! First up are two pretty tops made by Jannette in Canada and quilted by my.  Jannette sent in 6 tops for Covered in Love a while ago so there will be more of her pretty quilts to come soon.

This very pretty jewel-toned quilt might be my favorite from the batch; I especially like the narrow border. It's about 55x70", a perfect size.

I quilted it with a stipple. Many of you have donated backing fabrics, so I haven't had to buy backings in quite a while. Thanks! Both these quilts got backings from a generous quilter named Sandra who must have a beautiful stash.

This second top of Jannette's could be a Christmas quilt, depending on the binding, backing, and quilting decisions. I chose to use non-holiday fabrics to make it more flexible.

Both these quilts got a solid black binding courtesy of Nicki who sent two large rolls of prepped binding.

I thought this grizzly bear fabric was a nice compliment to the green in the top and would be appreciated by a man.  It takes a village to keep CiL going, thanks to Jannette, Sandra, Nicki, and all the rest of you!

Moo kitty says, "Stay warm and sleep tight!"

If you'd like to join in with Covered in Love's mission you can learn more on the main page or check out the block drive.  The current Covered in Love block drive is a cozy patchwork interspersed with pieced blocks. It will run until the new year if you want to help out.  More info here!

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finished or Not Friday

Sew Some Love

Welcome to the Sew Some Love linkup!  Please link-up any post about a project you're sewing for charity.

I'm officially out for Christmas break and sewing to my little heart's content!  I've been chipping away at my stack of Covered in Love tops ready for quilting. Yesterday I finished two, but you'll have to wait until a Friday to see the finished product.

I've also been working on a couple of personal projects. The vast majority of the sewing I do these days is for CiL so it's fun to sew for myself some.  First I got sucked into the Christmas Cottage Quilt-a-Long.  This is coming straight out of the scrap bins, which is my favorite kind of sewing!

Second I'm finally assembling the flying geese top I've been working on for a few months, in a vain hope of having it done by Christmas!

Covered in Love has been so blessed by donations from quilters, I want you all to see what each other have going on!  For purposes of the linky, I'm going to define "charity" really generally.  If you're sewing a quilt for you co-worker's mom with cancer or your friend's uncle who lost his home, that totally counts!  Anything you're sewing out of the goodness of your heart for someone outside you immediate circle of family and friends. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Some Quilt Charities:
Books and a Blanket - quilts for needy children in central Texas, promoting literacy
Covered in Love - quilts for mourning families
Jack's Basket - celebrating babies born with Down Syndrome
Kennel Quilts - small quilts for animals in need
Margaret's Hope Chest - several programs for children and adults
My Very Own Blanket - quilts for children in foster care
Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project - quilts auctioned to raise money for cancer research
Project Linus - quilts for children in the hospital
Quilts Beyond Borders -  quilts for poor children around the world
Quilts for Kids - quilts for abused and ill children
Quilts of Valor - quilts for veterans
Threading Hope - children and families in poverty and war torn countries
Victoria's Quilts - quilts for cancer patients
Wrap-a-Smile - quilts for children treated for cleft palate on medical missions
Wrap Them in Love - quilts for children

If you know of any that need added to the list let me know!

Christmas Gift Idea Round-up

No finishes for me this week. At least none I can show you until after Christmas ;)  Instead I thought I'd do a round-up of some of my favorite Christmas gift ideas and crafts from previous years.  Feel free to share any of your favorites with me in the comments section!

First up, here's a tutorial I posted last year for quick, lined Christmas stockings.  This is a middle-of-the-road stocking that looks really nice but doesn't take too long so you can make a bunch.

Next, here's how I fold my quilts for gifting. It keeps them all bundled up nice and creates a pocket for a card or other goodies.

The best baby bib EVER. Seriously. I've given dozens of these things away and parents love them. It's big enough to cover baby's whole front and ties under their arms so they can't pull it off.  You can purchase the pattern here and see more of my version here. As you can see, I add a pocket to the bottom, which is an  easy modification to the pattern.

Quick, novelty fleece blankets for kiddos are great for gifting.  WOF gives you a 36"x44" blanket with no piecing necessary.

A carpenter's star block done in blue and white can make a snowflake wall hanging or door decoration.  Here's a QAL with 3 different size options for the block and a tutorial to tackle Y seams (or you could make a cheater version with no Y seams).

My favorite holiday fudge recipe. Don't think too hard about the "secret" ingredient, just trust me. This is the tastiest, easiest fudge you've ever had.

Simple machine-applique baby onesies.  I've made tons of these over the years.  Sometimes I buy new plain white onesies and other times I raid Goodwill or a similar store for gently used onesies to fix up. Click on the photo to go to a tutorial and see more examples here and here.

My pillowcase tutorial with a narrow flange.
 

Stuffed dove Christmas ornaments, modified from a Joel Dewberry pincushion pattern.

My go to bag for carrying sewing stuff; I can think of all kinds of hobbyists who might enjoy a bag like this! I think I've made 3.  I use the clear vinyl from packaging (like what a new bed comforter comes inside) to make the clear pockets. Pattern from Atkinson Designs.

I have really enjoyed looking back through the history of my blog to put this post together. Talk about a trip down memory lane! I hope some of these crafty holiday gift ideas inspire you. If you make something based on one of my tutorials I'd love to see it!

Covered in Love if my charity to benefit patients dying in the hospital. If you'd like to join in with Covered in Love's mission you can learn more on the main page or check out the block drive.  The current Covered in Love block drive is a cozy patchwork interspersed with pieced blocks. It will run until the new year if you want to help out.  More info here!

Linking to Finished or Not Friday