Star Quilts and the May-June Block Drive

Details about the May-June block drive at the bottom of the post.

It's getting a little closer to summer time everyday and I have more red, white, and blue stars quilts to share.  These always remind me of July and summer BBQs.  

These first four quilts were tops made by Gail and quilt by Linda on her longarm.  I visited Chaplain Perry at the hospital today and he again mentioned that the red, white, and blue or patriotic quilts are usually the ones that first grab people when they look at available quilts. 

These past 2 months, while I directed you all toward the H2H drive and helpers like Cynthia , Pam, and Linda have been working on past block drives, I have been focused on getting donated tops finished.  

The best I can tell I have quilted 35 tops into finished quilts in the past 2 months! I still have a few more tops to go, but I'm way more than halfway to clearing out my shelves.  

Since I'm on a roll finishing tops and I'd like to get the January string quilts done, too, I asked a volunteer who has helped to finish block drive quilts before if she'd like to be a block drive angel for May-June.

(These last 3 star quilts were pieced and quilted by Cynthia from Quilting is More Fun Than Housework using blocks from the block drive. You can read her posts about them and see more pictures here and here.)

Tammy from Travelin' Sew I was gracious enough to take on the challenge of guest-hosting the May-June block drive for Covered in Love! You can see some of the quilts Tammy has previously quilted for us at this link.  

Tammy has chosen a large eye-spy block in calming sand and sea colors, which you can see on her blog.  

In case anyone is new here, we run block drives every couple months where anyone can participate and sew as many or as few blocks as you like! Finished blocks are combined into quilts which are given to patients with terminal illness and their families.  All the quilts in the post came from the 2020 July-August drive.

Please leave a comment on Tammy's blog or email me at CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com to get the address to mail blocks for this block drive.  It's a different place than usual since we are sending them to Tammy's house. You should be sending to a Kansas address, not a Texas one (although if any stray blocks find their way here I'll pop them in a box and redirect them, no problem!)

My quilt Quality Controllers have been working overtime.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! During May/June Tammy is hosting our block drive on her blog.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

UFOs No More

I've been on a roll finishing tops recently.  Thanks to H2H for helping to bring in quilts while I take a break from block drives.  This quilt top came from Barb C., she calls it Scrappy Blue Clamshell Tessellation and said the pattern came from Royal Quilt Designs.

This next quilt with the Kaffe fabrics also came from Barb but it couldn't be more different.  Both of these have been gifted to parents who lost their adult son.  

Barb called this one the Kaffe Fassett Garden Quilt. The 9 Patch & Hourglass pattern came from Missouri Quilt Co. 

These next two tops came from Jan at The Colorful Fabriholic. I was able to supplement the crappy shady-day pics with some close ups on the swing.  

That's Paddington Bear, right, on the focal fabric?  A lot of the others are tone on tones with great textures and I love the mellow colors.  

Both of Jan's quilts had some of my favorite color combos.  I love these skinny strings. I think this might be the last of the tops from the last batch Jan sent me? There might honestly still be some buried around here but I'm going to find them!

The spring and the spring flowers are so beautiful here and I captured some of them with fabric dyeing a couple weeks ago, as I teased you with before.  I did make a post about this whole process and these here and I listed them in my Etsy shop :)

 

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! During March/April we are supporting the Hands2Help Challenge instead of our normal block drive.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

Cyanotype Sun Dyeing (Etsy)

A post on Tuesday! How odd! Not to alarm you, but I just wanted to share the results of my latest dyeing experiment.  I made 3 sets of onesies using flowers and plants from the Texas spring bloom and Sun Reactive Dye.  I've put them in my Etsy shop if anyone would like one (or two!)

You can see in this image how the dyeing process works.  I work inside in low-light conditions, similar to developing photos, to apply to dye and place the botanicals where I want them. The dye goes on completely clear.  A pane of glass helps hold everything in places while it is exposed to the sunlight for ten minutes outside.  

Where the dye is exposed to sunlight it "activates", fading slowly from clear to tan to purple and into a deep indigo.  Wherever the sunlight is blocked the dye remains invisible and is able to be washed out with a special detergent.  Using objects that are taller or more 3-dimensional can create shades  with different degrees of blue-ness.

This is a really fun method of dyeing. I like all the variables that the "natural" elements bring.  If a cloud passes over while I'm exposing the blue may come out lighter, or later in the day when the sun moves fast the edges of the image become less distinct.

For some of the more delicate images, like these pink flowers, I placed them down with tweezers.  The cats were *way* too helpful with this as you can imagine.  The presence of plants inside the house was too much for them to pass up.  

If any of you would like one of these for your family or as a gift I made 12 in a variety of sizes and they are listed for sale in my Etsy shop.  (FYI - Sales from Etsy don't support CiL (except indirectly, as they support me)).  I have ordered some more dye and looking forward to playing more soon!

Spring Has Sprung

Yes, it's officially definitely Spring time here in Texas! Those infamous April showers are in full effect. This is the time of year when Texas gets about 80% of our rain for the whole year.

I've been on a quest to make serious progress on all the quilt tops that have been donated to CiL. These three with the beautiful spring colors and patterns came from Christine! Maybe someone can recognize the fabric line with the cute bees and geometric patterns?

Obviously I was struggling to take these pictures, but with 20+ quilts piling up pictures had to happen somehow.  Honestly pictures have been a struggle ever since a bad storm took out the tree that shaded my good spot on the wood pile.  I haven't found a satisfactory alternative yet. 

So many of you sent in fabrics when I asked for help with background yardage last Summer. Thank you so much to everyone who did and continues to! I have used a lot recently with finishing so many donated tops. More often than not I have the perfect backing to match each top!

I love this sweet little sampler quilt, and Christine included binding for her tops too, making them even easier to finish.

We did get one sunny day last week, unfortunately blinding sunlight is just as bad or worse for photography as overcast.  It's perfect however for Sun Dyeing so I captured some of the spring flowers in cyanotype. More pictures of these coming later! 

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! During March/April we are supporting the Hands2Help Challenge instead of our normal block drive.  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 and Friends

Hello quilting friends and Happy Easter, Happy Spring, etc.  I recently sent Louise a great big box (nearly 50lbs) of UFOs and other goodies, and she has already returned 4 quilts

This neutral top from Meg was in the box since it called for fancy quilting and Louise is much better at that than I am!  

The top has piecing, applique, and other techniques to create texture with tone-on-tone fabrics.  It was hard to take pictures of but it's a stunner in real life!

Louise added a thin flange of golden brown fabric and a neutral checked border.  Her custom quilting on all the blocks really shows them off. 

(I took lots of close ups since it pretty much just looks white in the big picture.)

This basket of flowers right in the middle of the quilt, with the ribbon handle and yoyo flowers, is a showpiece.

Louise hasn't posted on her blog yet about Meg's quilt, so be sure to keep an eye out there for her comments about finishing it.  

These other three quilts Louise posted about HERE.  The first one used up some leftover blocks from a past block drive.  

Next, two quilts that use a bunch of blocks from Priscilla, one more masculine and one feminine.  

I've been very busy here finishing up donating tops and turning them into quilts.  I tend to work in cycles. Several weeks ago I made a bunch of backings, and now I'm quilting quilting quilting.  So, more to come soon!

Sundae, displaying her innate talent for sitting on top of the tallest quilting pile in the house. 

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! During March/April we are supporting the Hands2Help Challenge instead of our normal block drive.  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 String Quilts

Three more string quilts to show you this week! I got these done and needed to get them photographed in time to take them up to the hospital last week. Unfortunately that meant photos on a cold windy day! Sorry you can't quite see the entire quilts, one row was folded over.  

I really really love the color combo in this first quilt. It was inspired by a set of about 10 blocks set in with blues, brows, coppers, and maroon.  I pulled complimentary blocks to match and make an entire tops out of them.

Next, this one has pink and light brown stripes.  And last, a vibrant rainbow quilt! I will definitely be making more quilts with a rainbow palette because I LOVE how this one looks. 

The sun is out bright this week, flowers are blooming and bees are buzzing, and we've started the annual cycle of planting the garden.  

The kitties are enjoying baking themselves in front of the windows in the warm sunshine :)

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! During March/April we are supporting the Hands2Help Challenge instead of our normal block drive.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday