Beautiful donated tops

Hello, friends! Louise here to share some really lovely tops that were donated to Covered in Love recently. I quilted and bound them and now they are ready to comfort families. First up is this bright, modern quilt pieced by Christine. The black centers of each block are a fun confetti design.

Next is this cute disappearing nine patch by Donna. Have you ever tried this block design? I've made several myself and it's so versatile. 

For the back, I used this blue floral that was also donated. Zingy!

Next is this all-batik bargello pieced by Priscilla. I love how it curves and swoops!

This one also got a donated backing in a neat stripe that coordinates so well with the front. They were made for each other!

Priscilla also sent in this fun top, in similar fabrics to the bargello. I love the basketweave shape that appears from these blocks. 

Can you see how the blocks are made? It's very similar to the Colorworks pattern, but made with pieced centers. Lovely! 

Is red your favorite color? If so, this might be your favorite quilt. Jan pieced this eye-catching top with scores of different red fabrics. What a great idea for using 2.5" squares....hint, hint!

I used this red and white fabric for both the backing and binding, and believe it or not used orange thread for the quilting. It blends right in to all the reds and doesn't read as orange at all. 

 

And last but not least, here's a bright and sweet quilt pieced by Jo K. Simple squares with one snowballed corner, but it looks fancy.

I was inspired to do a bit of free motion quilting that shows up nicely in the white diamonds created by the snowballed corners.

Many thanks to Jo, Jan, Priscilla, Donna and Christine for sending in these super tops!

Wishing for Fall

Wishing for Fall and admiring these fall-colored quilts! There were a couple of mornings this past week when I went out the door for work that it actually felt cool.

These tops were made by Gail and kitted up with complimentary backings and bindings to make them quick to finish. These are from the Tall 9s block drive.

Linda took it from there and did a lovely job with coordinating FMQ patterns on her long arm.

Gail actually lives very near me, and she's contributed finished tops to MANY of CiL's drives. She has meticulous piecing and great color combos.

Things are proceeding apace here. I recently delivered quilt restocks to several of our hospitals.

Just today I got 5 complete quilts in the mail and got them labeled.

Thank you so for your continued support! 

Isn't this sunflower FMQ with the backing just perfect?

On the home front, the kitties are restless. I'm trying once again to put Sundae on a diet. I noticed she's gotten too chubby to clean her bottom and I've had to break out the wet wipes a few times. The indignity!

She's 14lb and Fudge is about 8lb. The last time I tried to restrict their food, within a week she gained half a pound and he lost half a pound. 

I needed a way for him to always have access to food while limiting hers, so I finally bit the bullet and got a SureFeed SurePet bowl. It recognizes Fudge's collar and opens only for him.

They both share access to a bowl of wet food where I dole out measured amounts, but Fudge always has his dry food of he gets hungry. Sundae's doing pretty well so far, but she's definitely given that locked bowl a thorough investigation.

I'll be weighing her weekly to see if we're making any progress, wish us luck!

 Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Happy Colors

Happy Friday everyone! This week I'm showing off some quilts sent in by Karen P. The fabrics and colors in these are stunning. So bright and saturated.  This first quilt is a simple design to really show off the pretty fabrics and a textured rainbow backing.

The backings Karen found are especially colorful and pretty, I wish I knew what fabric line some of these are from.

This quilt looks more sedate, but in person the orange poppies really pop out. This quilt is probably about 60"x50", but most of the others are very large, 70" square or so.

Another crisp, modern, bright quilt with a fun background. All of these are quilted with a tight, neat stipple that makes them cozy and soft. 

Be sure to click on these pictures and view them full size so you can see the saturated, watercolor fabrics up close. Thank you to Karen for sharing these treasures with CiL!

I'm wrapping up 2 weeks of work so this is a very happy Friday for me. Last break I started working on this bear pattern by Janet Fogg and I'm hoping to make some more progress on it. 

Swimming under a waterfall, the eponymous Fall Creek Falls in Tennessee. Too cold for me!

Linking to Finished or Not Friday

With Love, To Long-armers

Another Friday, some more finishes! Courtesy of CiL's devoted long arm quilters. 

These were all assembled from blocks donated during the Jan 2022 block drive. The first 5 were assembled and quilted by Linda. I got some close ups to show off the cool pantos she used. 

I'm really excited because I met a local long-armer last week who wants to help us out! After talking about things she asked me to bring her the rest of the string tops I have on hand! 

It was really a fortuitous meeting. After getting my haircut I decided to visit my local quilt shop to show the owner photos of the mariners compass quilt I just finished. She helped me pick out some of the fabrics. 

While there another quilter was shopping with her grandaughters and I recognized the girls' names as my coworkers kids. I already knew my coworker's mother-in-law was a quilter, so I made the connection and went to introduce myself.

Turns out Dee has a computerized long-arm and is eager to help out, as well as have tops to practice free motioning on. What a boon for both of us! 

I took her some tops last Sunday and we had a nice visit in her studio. Always fun to visit with other quilters in person and talk shop. 

I know block drives have been on hold for a long time and many of you are eager to get back to it. I feel like I'm finally starting to get ahead of the situation here at home base and can see us having a block drive again before tooo much longer. 

This 6th quilt was assembled by me and quilted by another hard-working long arm quilter, Wendy!

String quilts are always a big hit with our patient families, and I can't wait to get these up to the hospital. Thanks everyone who contributed to these, tell me if you spot one of your blocks!

 Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Tina's Quilts

Happy Friday! Three finished quilts to show this week courtesy of Tina C. It's still hot as blazes in Texas, and I know a lot of the rest of the country is in the same boat. I can't wait for us to start cooling down in the Fall.

This first quilt has amazing tiny piecing.  It's a Jen Kingwell pattern, "Long Time Gone." Most of the fabrics are shot cottons or peppered cottons and they are sooo soft. 

I took a bunch of close-up pictures with my hand so you can appreciate the precise piecing.  I also really love the rich autumnal colors. 

These next two quilts are in a very different but equally pretty color palette of corals. 

This quilt is made from blocks in the "What is Love" Quilt-A-Long earlier this year. They are all interesting, modern blocks. 

I thought this broken heart block was especially interesting. 

This last quilt proved very hard to photograph. As you can see, I gave up on the idea of catching the sun in the right position (and preferably not 100 degrees) to take photos outside and just did my best inside. 

There is definitely more contrast in real life and the coral solid with the floral is a nice soft combination. 

Sundae showing off her yoga moves. I tried some pilates the other day and got sore in muscles I didn't know I had...

Linking to Finished or Not Friday