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Thursday, March 10, 2022

Your donations, ready to go!


Hello, friends! Louise here to share another batch of quilts made from your donated orphan blocks, tops, and fabric. The variety of what passes through my hands on the way to comfort families never ceases to delight me! Let's jump right in with these neutral hexagons, made by Julie S. Isn't this soft and soothing? Julie's top was just a smidge small when it arrived. She had already bordered it with scrappy 3" neutral squares and rectangles, so I pulled a few more from my stash and just added another round to bring it up to size. 


I quilted it by filling each hexagon with either a wishbone or swirl motif. My husband calls the latter the Eye of Sauron! You can see that best in the darker caramel colored block above. The overall effect is just soft and subtle and I really enjoyed finishing this piece.


This bright checkerboard was pieced by Frances B, using mostly polka dot fabrics. She donated it as long strips plus extra color squares. I ripped a few seams to get all the rows the same length and added enough of my own white squares to fill in the few needed for a nice size. I quilted it with an eccentric orange peel that is super forgiving and fun to do.  Any color binding would have worked with all this color but I chose ha-cha-cha hot pink!


Aren't these scrappy hexagons fun? Priscilla pieced all these blocks, using a pattern called "Around the Block" by Bonnie Hunter. Each center square requires a partial seam. This donation also showed up as long rows and I only needed to sew them together into the finished top. Priscilla even carefully labeled each row, one through nine, left end and right end, although I think I might have reversed one. Oops!  And once again, I could have chosen any color for the binding, so bright blue stepped up to the plate. Gotta love scrappy!


This bright I-spy color block quilt was super fun to put together. It's made of 120 different little 6" blocks that were clearly pieced by the same person. Shout out in the comments if that person is you!  Each little block has a solid color background that surrounds either a friendship star, house or square. 



Most have fussy cut centers, so fun! I decided to group these darling little blocks into groups of four with the same or similar backgrounds, to give the quilt a color block look. Then I quilted each four block patch in a back-and-forth motif with thread in the same color as the solid. Lots of thread changes, but I enjoyed using so much of my thread collection. The quilting gives lots of yummy texture for super cuddliness!


The final two quilts were donated as fabric, not blocks or tops. It's a nice change of pace for me to sew some from start to finish sometimes. This one was a kit donated with all the fabric and the printed pattern called "Antelope Canyon." It was neat to see the secondary pattern of interlocking circles appear when the four quadrants were finally sewn together. It's a big 74"x74" beast, which is really the upper limit of what I can handle on my domestic sewing machine. 


I made this modified rail fence design from two donated jelly rolls. The blues and greens are from a Jo Morton fabric line, and I supplemented them with another jelly roll of creams for a masculine feeling quilt. 


I had a big chunk of dark brown with holly leaves for the back, and pieced it with a nice donated panel featuring game birds. I love putting panels on the backs of quilts as a little surprise for the recipient!

Do you have a favorite in this batch? Are you called more to the brights or the neutrals? Share your thoughts in the comments, and once again, thank you for the opportunity to work with so many lovely donations!

21 comments:

  1. Normally I am the bright and rainbow person, but in this batch, I pick the Hexagons and the "Antelope Canyon" :) Beautiful quilts - all of them! xo

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  2. Really nice finishes. I think my favorite is the quilt with neutral hexagons. Always fun to see what you are able to make or put together.

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  3. These quilts are all wonderful! My favorites tend to be the bright, scrappy ones. I think the I-Spy is my very favorite. But I must admit Antelope Canyon is so intriguing.

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  4. I really like Antelope Canyon for being so unusual. But my heart was stolen by those bright scrappy darlings! It’s good to see that you are still sewing and quilting for CIL. xo

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  5. The neutral hexagons are my favorite — such a calming quilt!

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  6. Wow, it was so fun to see the variety of quilts. The bright Eye Spy quilt is a very fun finish. I love the groupings and color blocking. If I had to choose a favorite to snuggle up with, it would be the neutral hexagon quilt because it looks so soft and inviting. Thanks for sharing all your quilt finishes, Louise!

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  7. All of them are just wonderful! Love the soft warmth of the hexagons, yet the same palette in Antelope Canyon is bold. Thanks for sharing!

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  8. How can one pick a favorite in this beautiful batch of quilts, they are all wonderful!! Fun hearing from you again Louise:)

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  9. Hey Louise! So good to hear from you again! Love seeing what magic you make with what you get for CIL quilts. My favorites are the bright ones but Antelope Canyon is quite striking and modern looking!!!!! Great job as always!!!!!!

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  10. Antelope Canyon! WHAT A COOL DESIGN!! I stared and stared it to figure out how they did it. YOu know I am usually a bright lover but this one was the winner for me in this round. I also loved what you did with "color blocking the stars together. Great idea!

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  11. I love them all. But Antelope Canyon steals the show!!!

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  12. I like them all, but I'm drawn to the I Spy with all that color! Antelope Canyon is a big quilt! Kudos to you for wrestling that on your domestic!

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  13. My quilts are generally in the bright spectrum, but Antelope Canyon really drew me in. So good to see you are still as productive as always. Thanks for all you do for CiL.
    Pat

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  14. I'm a big fan of color, but I absolutely LOVE those two neutral quilts!!!

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  15. Antelope Canyon is an exciting design, as you know the more colour the better for me but I do particularly like this particular pattern and the colours.

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  16. Gorgeous quilts, so cleverly put together. Love the 6" squares and the quilting really works well.

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  17. Gorgeous quilts and my favourite would be the little 6" blocks. The quilting works really well.

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  18. Hi Louise...it's great to see more of your fabulous quilts for CiL. I really like the unique I-Spy quilt. Looks like you've been really busy lately. I'm so happy that you were able to finish these quilts for Kat & I know she will appreciate each one. You rock!

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  19. The modern quilt is my favorite. You do excellent work and I'm so pleased you share it with us, your fans.

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  20. How fun to see the hexagon quilt finished!!

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  21. So good to see you here! What a wonderful bunch of quilts. I especially like the I Spy quilt, and I love Antelope Canyon! I made it with Asian fabrics and it turned out beautifully. Looks like you've been having fun with these.

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