Return from the Land Down Under

G'day quilters! I'm back from a nice trip to Australia visiting a friend and seeing the area around Melbourne. Thanks to Louise for doing some fill-in posts while I was gone. I always love how she puts together so many disparate blocks into coordinating quilts.

This week I have several quilts that came in finished from two different quilts. These first two are from Julie W. Firstly a very precise and impressive sampler quilt in a soft color scheme. 

Next Julie sent in this awesome purple quilt. I love the color scheme and how the simple design looks so complex. 

I also love the geometric quilting panto she chose, perfect for the design! 

Next, two quilts by Tina. I should have taken better photos of this one. It's a beautiful applique sampler of different flowers.

These lavender have fun tufted, textured flowers that I tried to get a close up of.

Lastly, another sampler quilt in a soft color scheme from Tina. Samplers are always fun to look at! 

Here's a photo of the famous "Twelve Apostles" rocks. Maybe I'll make a Friday post of some of the best photos from my trip?

More comforting quilts from your blocks

Kat is taking a well-deserved vacation so I'm filling in again this week. Here are a few more recent finishes featuring YOUR orphan blocks! Up first is this classic kitchen sink quilt with a little bit of everything in the mix.

The center block was made by Stephanie M. Isn't this little birdie and his house just so cute? She used this block to teach a class at her guild on how to do starch turned applique. Her applique work is amazing, so I'm sure the class was a success!

Next is this bright, happy piece made with a variety of 9" blocks. I spy crumb blocks, leftovers from a Bonnie Hunter mystery, rail fences, strings, and many more. I added drop shadows to make them pop out and add consistency. 

There were lots of these teensy nine patches that I set with grey fabric into bigger nine patches. So fun!

This quilt used up another group of rather miscellaneous blocks, all around 12". I know some of these blocks were sent in by Jan, Karen and Priscilla. You might remember that the ones across the diagonal were a block drive from a couple years ago. Kat often ends up with a few drive blocks at the end and those work their way into my studio. It's our goal for each and every drive block to end up in a Covered in Love quilt! Sometimes it takes a year or two, though.

This block, which doesn't show in the photo above because it is flipped over the top of Kat's railing, is made from small hand-stitched animal pieces. They came to me as round shapes, so I machine appliqued them onto squares. With only 7 critters, it was a bit of a puzzle to figure out how to arrange them, but I think this works pretty well.

The back of this quilt includes a long skinny pieced panel with roses and text fabrics. I love a good blowsy rose floral fabric, don't you?

No old fashioned roses in this next quilt! This one is modern fabrics, geometric blocks, and a crisp analogous color scheme. I love purple, green and teal together.

These blocks made from wedges are super cool. I think they were cut using a Dresden ruler, then set against various grey backgrounds. I made sure to place them next to the classic Dresden fan block.

Kat sent me a bunch of loooooong strips of fabric, probably trimmings from backings. I had fun piecing some of  them together for a back to this quilt. The one second from the bottom, with flowers and paisleys, is my favorite and I wish I had yards of it.

Speaking of block drives, these should look familiar! Yes, it's the ever popular red, white and blue star block drive. Since there were only ten or so leftover blocks, I added other shapes in the same colors to fill this one out. It still packs plenty of patriotic punch.

And finally, this last quilt uses some pretty "square in a square" blocks that were donated along with a similarly colored charm pack. I used the "Charms on Point" pattern to make the center and added the blocks along the top and bottom. The top row is flipped up over the fence for the photo. Stephanie, the bird house maker, donated the sweet floral yardage for the border. So pretty!

Kat will be back next week and I hope she'll share some photos from her trip to Australia! 

Sibling quilts

Hello, friends! Louise here again to share some of the latest quilts made from your blocks. Today I'm featuring what I call "siblings." Siblings are groups of blocks that were made by the same person, usually the same design and often the same fabric line. They are fun for me to put together into finished quilts.

The photo at the top is a cool modern design made with blocks from our very own Kat! She sent me a big bunch of finished blocks and a few precut bits and pieces that I used to made enough for a nice size lap quilt. I love how the colors glow against the gray background.

The homespun stars marching neatly across this quilt were all cut by Priscilla. She also stitched a bunch of them together and sent them in with all the remaining precisely cut pieces. All I had to do was follow her lead, finishing the rest of the blocks and adding sashing and borders. 

I don't have any of these woven plaids in my stash, so it was a nice change of pace to use Priscilla's to make this dignified and masculine quilt. Thank you, Priscilla!

These red, white and blue churn dash siblings clearly needed to stay together for family harmony. I like the secondary patterns that form between the blocks when they are set without sashing. A fun lighthouse print border gives the whole quilt a jaunty nautical look. 

Here's another more modern example of sibling blocks. The columns are made of blocks that are each two contrasting fabrics. They arrived all together in a ziplock baggie. It was a simple matter to stitch them into long skinny strips and offset the columns in a neutral background. I think the fabric line is from Tula Pink, with glimpses of birds and flowers. 

And finally, these siblings arrived as a VERY tight knit group! Donated by Diane N., most of the blocks were sewn into a long, skinny wall hanging, featuring over a dozen unique machine embroidered designs.

Look at this cool seashell!

Some of the blocks were embroidered onto batting, so they were prequilted.

Others were stitched onto a layer of stabilizer and needed batting. I used scraps of batting and the purple fabric from the back of the wall hanging to piece this together. It was similar to a "quilt as you go" project, with lots of head scratching to make it rectangular!

This butterfly block is one of my favorites, and arrived as a separate "bonus" block. Many thanks to Diane for sending in this unique project!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I feel like every year since 2020 the new year has been a little fraught. You want to say it's going to be a better year than the last but... what if something like 2020 happens to us again? 

Anyway, I am quietly keeping my fingers crossed for a pleasant, uneventful, and healing year for the world.  Speaking of healing, all these quilts of comfort were donated by longtime CiL supporter Mina!

I know many of you will be disappointed, but CiL's block drive will be remaining on hiatus for a while longer. I just have so many blocks and tops that I need to finish here.   You can continue to support Cynthia's new project which has a very similar structure and target demographic to CiL. She tentatively plans to announce a new block drive in March.

I know many of you sent in blue/brown rail fence blocks already (thank you!). Cynthia has finished several quilts from donated blocks already, you can see some of them here. 

Hope you all had a great holiday and I'm wishing you all the best in the New Year! 

Important bird watching to do and Mom moved our stool