More Goodies

Happy Friday, Kat here! Louise has been soooo helpful stepping in to create some Friday posts here at the end of summer when I got a little bogged down with life.  We'll still be alternating a little bit for a while. I know you all like to hear from her!  

Tina C sent in these first couple quilts, including this amazing sampler with a mix of techniques to make different image blocks. She also made this blue-green pixel quilt during the May-June block drive.

I'm happy to share that CiL has expanded into a 3rd hospital! This one is smaller and probably won't go through as many quilts, but they were thrilled to have them to share with the patients who do pass there. 

This very large Swoon quilt was sent in without a return address or name if anyone can claim it! 

Our newest hospital has an interesting history. It was originally a military camp, training base and POW camp around the time of WWI/WWII.  After the wars it was converted into a convalescent camp to isolate and treat those with TB in the miliary tents and barracks.  Ultimately it became a "chest hospital" with permanent buildings and a focus on TB and other respiratory diseases.  Today it is a full-service hospital, still with a focus on diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis, TB, COPD, and Legionnaires. 

Carol E sent in this simple, striking quilt that will be great for a male. It would also make a cool block for a block drive next time I'm feeling up for a simpler one. 

This next quilt with the Route 66 novelty fabric was sent in by Kelley. The really cool thing about this one is how much it resembles one I made before.  Back in 2015, I had pulled the same fabric from a remnant bin, I'm sure.  Kelley and I chose the same way to approach the quilt, choosing read-as-solid coordinates and making a simple patchwork. Amazing how similar two quilts can be completely by coincidence! 

I went on a couple trips recently and on one of them I acquired a new tattoo. I've been thinking about this one for a while and I love how it came out! 

Fudge likes it too.  Top to bottom the blocks are Storm at Sea, Dutchman's Puzzle, and Lonestar. 

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1000 so far! The September/October block drive is live 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 

More from Cynthia

This week we are featuring more lovely quilts by Cynthia of Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework. First up is this scrappy piece of her own design. She has donated all of these to comfort families through Covered in Love.

These churn dashes in a rainbow of colors are so fun!

She also donated these happy, spinning pinwheels. The blocks, set on point, alternate with a pretty floral that extends into the border to make the pinwheels float. Classic!

In addition to putting together her own blocks, Cynthia also helps us by laying out and finishing blocks from our bimonthly block drives. These next four pieces are from the last red, white and blue star block drive. 

The first two she set with sashing. She carefully chose stars with darker backgrounds to contrast against the light sashing in this one. 

And for the red sashing piece, she selected stars with white backgrounds. Very clever and effective!

In this close up you can see the very fun star motif quilting, too. Cynthia blogged about these two sashed quilts here if you'd like to see more photos, including the backings.

In this next quilt, Cynthia was able to use an odd number of blocks by staggering the columns. The flag fabric at the ends of every other column was donated to Covered in Love. In her post about the offset blocks, she said, "I really liked how staggering the blocks made all those stars look like they were floating." I love this idea!

And finally, she designed this neat medallion quilt. Writing about going through the box of blocks and fabric that Kat sent her here, Cynthia said, "Two things I noticed in my supplies was that there were a lot of friendship star blocks with white backgrounds.  There was also a piece of a great flag fabric.  I instantly had an idea and I just had to decide what stars I would use for the center.  I spied these red stars someone made, and I instantly started sewing." Do you find it interesting to read about other quilter's design process and how they get inspired? If so, you should definitely check out her blog.

Many thanks to Cynthia for all her lovely donations!

 

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1000 so far! The September/October block drive is live 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 

I get by with a little help...

...from my friends. Hello! Louise here with some quilts that were started by friends of Covered in Love, and finished by me. These only needed a little help, making my job easy.

First up is this great modern turquoise quilt. Diane N. started this top and made all the cool striped squares with a single fabric cut into triangles. Look at how perfectly the stripes match up. Wow! The original design started out on point and looked like it would finish king size or even bigger. HUGE! It came to me still in pieces, about 3 or 4 diagonal rows, and with extra stripe for the binding. I kind of deconstructed it back into a straight set design and had enough to make both the front and back from the original top. Thanks for your donation, Diane!

The next four tops arrived all pieced and pretty, but just a smidge too small. All I had to do was add a border or two, baste, quilt and bind. This classic, scrappy coin quilt was pieced by Irene. The pretty blue fabric with birds was donated and picks up the burgundy of Irene's sashing. Thank you so much for this sweet top, Irene!

Barb donated several of her lovely churn dash tops, and this is the second one I've finished. Her tops are always nice and flat and square. Thanks, Barb!

A close up of some of the pretty florals she used, and the chicken fabric I put on the back. Regular readers know how much I love a good chicken fabric. Cluck, cluck!

This Trip Around the World top from Frances B. ended at the outer black sashing. I love how she used half square triangles in the corners. I knew a red outer border was the way to go, but had nothing appropriate in my stash until I visited a friend's guild in St. Petersburg, FL. The perfect red plaid was on the give-away table and I nabbed it for Frances' quilt.

This fun fishing lure print makes a great backing, and I hope it appeals to a fly fisherman. Thank you, Frances!

Isn't this an interesting block? I'd never seen it before when I received this top pieced by Jo K. It arrived with the small grey border and I just couldn't decide what to use for the outer border. I pulled about six different fabrics to audition and my husband immediately chose the orange. I call him my "color consultant" and he's rarely wrong! Thanks to Jo for the fun top.

This soft and lovely quilt was donated as a group of blocks. Kat usually lets me know who donated the blocks, but I think these were anonymous. If you recognize them, leave a comment so we can thank you!

All the blocks were pieced from the same floral fabric, using the four-patch kaleidoscope technique. Here's a tutorial if you're interested. It makes all unique blocks that completely coordinate with each other. I only needed to add the sashing and borders for a pretty finish. Easy!

And speaking of easy, Julie S. sure made things easy for me with this donation! She had carefully cut each pair of triangles and pinned them together, plus included a photo of the pattern that inspired her. I had several peaceful days of happily stitching the blocks together, then laying them out, no heavy duty thinking required.

I love all these true blues. Julie has a great sense of color. I quilted all the blue triangles in blue thread and the white ones with white thread. You can hardly tell, though, so maybe I won't do that again, ha! Still, I really enjoyed this piece. Thanks, Julie!

I'll end with this quilt made from blocks and precut fabric from an anonymous donor. She (or he?) included a copy of the "Circus Compass" pattern, from Quilt Now magazine. Once again, all the thinking had been done for me and all I needed to do was keep making blocks! Fortunately, the blocks are huge so I only needed to make a few.  

I added some of my own pale blue and red fabrics plus the outer border. The fabric line is "Jane Austen at Home" by Riley Blake, which is really lovely, high-quality stuff. Soft and sweet!

Many thanks to everyone who donates tops, blocks, fabric, and patterns to Covered in Love. I'm so lucky to work with such a huge variety of raw materials to make these comforting quilts!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1000 so far! The September/October block drive is live 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 

Fall Colors Finishes from Cynthia

This week we are featuring quilts from Cynthia of Quilting is More Fun Than Housework. She laid out and finished four beautiful quilts from last fall's block drive. Let's take a look at these gorgeous pieces.

This one and the one at the top of the post are similar, but the quilting is different. The top one has simple straight and wavy lines.

The second one has a swirling wind kind of motif. So much texture!

In the third quilt, it looks like she chose the blocks that had biggest leaf prints in them. She said, "People sure have some lovely leaf fabrics in their stash!" I agree whole heartedly! 

What a great leaf quilt pattern, too. Perfect for these fabrics, don't you think?

Cynthia said, "For this one, I alternated the direction of the blocks.  This is different than the way the blocks were designed.  I always like to mix it up and see if I can see any alternate patterns emerge."

It looks like a completely different pattern this way, doesn't it? Here's a close up of her pretty quilting, another leafy pantogram. Do you see any of your blocks in Cynthia's quilts? Let us know in the comments.

Many thanks to Cynthia for her hard work on these beautiful pieces. You can see more photos of these quilts, including the backings, on Cynthia's blog: Post #1, Post #2, Post #3, and Post #4. Cynthia also hosts the "Oh, Scrap!" weekly linkup, so make sure you check out the rest of her blog while you're there. Lots of inspiration to be had!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1000 so far! The September/October block drive is live 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 

Pieces from Priscilla

Hello, friends! Louise here to share some beautiful quilts pieced by Priscilla and finished by me. Priscilla is a generous donor, sending in many coordinated blocks and tops. Let's dive in!

This first quilt was donated as a small top, featuring rail fence blocks interspersed with nine patches and friendship stars. All it needed was a small border, so I added a navy blue animal print. Red flannel backing and simple stippling keep it soft and snuggly.

Next we have a vibrant star block quilt, also completely scrappy. Priscilla has a great eye for value so these stars have excellent contrast! There were plenty of blocks to just set them together with no alternate block or sashing. I think of these as stars, but my husband saw the negative space. Do you see light diamonds or dark stars? 

Don't you love a good string quilt? Priscilla made all these blocks and I added a couple borders to bring it up to size. 

I love how any color coordinates with truly scrappy blocks like these, and chose bright  blue to make the little butterflies pop. 

Priscilla sent us a note saying she had received a large amount of fabric from a friend, and would be sewing up some of that for Covered in Love. This pretty blue and cream star top is an example. Such a classic color combination! It was a no-brainer for me to add two coordinating borders to make a nice size quilt. 

And finally, we have this bright drunkards path, also made from her friend's stash fabrics. Priscilla stitched the quarter circle blocks, and I decided on the layout. 

These happy fabrics inspired me to do fancier quilting, so I stitched feather wreaths in the circles, just for fun. Many thanks to Priscilla for being such a generous and consistent donor to Covered in Love!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1000 so far! The September/October block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved.