Sept-Oct Covered in Love Block Drive

Hello Quilters! Another month has snuck past us and it's time for the Fall 2021 CiL Block Drive.  For September and October I thought we could reprise an old block drive from 2016 when many of you hadn't joined us yet.

The block is called a "tall nine patch" and you can find the tutorial for it here. Last time we made the blocks in a really light color combination. If you want to see how those quilts came out you can find them here and here. 

This time I think we'll make the blocks in a saturated Fall color palette. Please draw your inspiration from the colors below. 

So that's it, simple.  Follow this tutorial in the color palette above. 

I can't wait to see all your blocks! I have to admit I'm partial to the drives where you can't tell where one block ends and the next begins.

For anyone new to Covered in Love, we run these block drives every two months.  Anyone can participate and make as few or as many blocks as you like. Email CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com for the address and get your blocks in the mail by the end of October.  Our blocks are combined together into quilts to be given to the families of dying patients in East Texas hospitals.  

Sand and Sea (so far)

Happy Friday! Lots of fun quilts to show this week from the May/June block drive.

As may of you probably remember, Tammy guest hosted the May/June block drive. She picked out a large eye-spy blocks in sand and sea colors and has been steadily finishing them into quilts!

There was a great response to this drive and Tammy has been busy! Fortunately she has help from her friends at a charity quilt shop in Leavenworth Kansas.

I really like the different ways they have come up with to arrange the blocks, like this one with the dark-to-light fades of the background colors. 

They have also made tops grouped thematically based around the focus fabric, like animals and seashells.

It looks like this quilt is full of fish! You can find more photos of these quilts and more information about them on Tammy's blog.

This quilts is full of food pictures. Love the pizza and donut blocks!

This quilt is flowers. Thank you to those who sent in backing fabrics and binding to help Tammy with finishing these.  

I wish I had a shop near me like the Leavenworth Assistance Center Quilt Shop.  Where Tammy volunteers. It sounds kind of like a Goodwill for fabrics and sewing stuff and they have longarms and provide donations to various charities. 

The batik blocks came in from the Piotique Quilters Guild of Clay, Center KS. There are a couple of quilting groups and guilds, as well as groups of friends, who often contribute as a group. 

Tammy has so far sent me 11 finished quilts from the blocks that were sent in to her. I know she has more in various stages of completion.

It sounds like she is not close enough to the end yet to start counting the blocks and figuring out how many quilts are left :) Still just plowing through them. She's taking a "gap year" -practice retirement that might become more permanent-  from her job as a Pharmacist. So big congrats on that!

This quilt came in finished, made by Nancy K. and quilted by her friend Jenn.  Cute beachy themed images. 

And this one was Linda D.'s contribution.  I really liked the quilting motif (and the cute llamas)!

Thank you for visiting and supporting CiL :)

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 800 so far! The July/August drive is running 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

So Tired

This great big top is a beautiful, clever mix of pieced blocks and panels by Marianne, long arm quilted by Wendy.  So cheerful!

Happy Friday everyone, I hope you're all well.  To be honest I'm struggling. I'm just wrapping up two weeks of work at the hospital and will have some time off. We're neck deep in another Covid surge here in Texas and it all seems to pointless, knowing that we have safe and effective vaccines that have been available for EIGHT MONTHS.  

Soft pastel stars by Marianne, quilted by Pam

Over 95% of our Covid admissions are unvaccinated and over 99.5% of deaths.  Most of them don't have some crazy conspiracy theory, they just didn't get around to getting vaccinate, didn't think it was important, didn't think it would happen to them.  None of them think it will happen to them.  Most of them are shocked to find out that there is no effective treatment for Covid.  There are things that we do, but not a single one has been shown conclusively to actually improve survival or shorten hospitalization. We try to keep you alive long enough for your body to fight it off, that's it.

Another one of Christy's lovely shirtings tops, quilted by Ray.

I'm just so tired of giving bad news.  I'm tired of hearing nonsense about the vaccine and Covid from Karen on Facebook.  I'm tired of hearing people's last words.  Whereas before it was hard but it felt like we were working toward something, now it feels pointless. We had an opportunity to stamp this out and get it under control and we blew it over politics.

Love the big flowers Ray chose to quilt, sort of look like hibiscus. I had a tropical batik fabric to match that I used to bind the quilt.

I'm grateful to have a work arrangement that allows me to have time off.  Many of the doctors at the hospital are working practically around the clock. And fortunately I have snuggly, furry people at home who have no idea what Covid means.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 800 so far! The July/August drive is running 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

Johanna and the Longarmers

We got some BIG quilts back recently that had been sent out to longarmers.  These tops were all made by Johanna and Tammy quilted this one.

This great big top was quilted by Ray in Florida. I love how I can always identify Johanna's tops by the colors and fabrics.

This slightly more tame to was also quilted by Tammy. Thanks guys! 

We've had a little bit of cat drama around here. Fluffy (who I used to call Rey, but honestly we've only ever called her Fluffy)  went missing for a couple days and came back with a badly broken leg that had to be amputated.

It has been almost 2 weeks since surgery and she's doing really well. She's up walking around the house and jumping onto furniture like usual and her prickly attitude has returned. We're relieved that she's home and safe!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 800 so far! The July/August drive is running 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

Christmas in July-ish

August! How is it possible that another year is passing so fast? Christmas will be here before we know it.  

These four quilts are the last from my UFO finishing bonanza in the late Spring/early Summer.  Sherry M sent in this awesome churn-dash top with the vintage pickup trucks and trees.

This top was definitely a little older, made with some vintage fabrics and turtles were lovingly hand appliqued.  Kathy sent it in on behalf of her mother, Theresa. It came out absolutely adorable after quilting!

Louise J made this top and I found the perfect backing, already the right size, in my stash. I feel like it's a stack and whack design but I'm not sure what the original block would have been?

Edit: Carol E. was able to identify this quilt as Double Sliced Up from a pattern book for layer cakes called Another Slice.

Finally, Amy A. sent in this top that looks like a variation on a scrappy Irish chain. Thank you ladies! 

I had a wonderful, relaxing trip to Santa Fe last week. Met this funny looking guy.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 800 so far! The July/August drive is running 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