Thursday, July 25, 2024

Anonymous Quilts


Happy Friday, quilters! All three of the quilts in this post were sent in anonymously, I'm not sure if that was on purpose or a mistake. So if you see one of your tops here please claim it!

This patriotic top was sent to long-armer Mel to finish and she used a great meandering star design. I really like the creative layout and use of the blocks.


These next two tops I believe came in together, also without names. They were sent to be quilted by long-armer Wendy. Both are very generously sized and Wendy did an great job choosing quilting designs. 

Thanks so much to our CiL quilters! Please claim these quilt tops if you send any of them in so I can thank you properly. 

Photo from a family beach trip to Orange Beach, Alabama in June. One evening there was a full moon and I enjoyed a lovely moon-lit walk on the beach. Ideal way for a redhead to enjoy the beach!

 Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1400 so far! The July-Sept block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved.

 


Thursday, July 18, 2024

Tina's Quilts

Happy Friday, quilters! Couple quilts to show you this week sent in by Tina C., one of CiL's loyal supporters. Tina sends in finished quilts every few months and they are some of my favorite boxes to open.  

This first one is from a Quilt Along by Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket Quilts. I really like the combination of applique and traditional piecing and the way it shows up against the white background. 

Next up, a simple but so effective batik jelly roll quilt in ocean-y shades.  The best part of this one is the awesome sea-animals panto in the quilting. I have included a couple of photos so you can hopefully see it.

Crabs, starfish, octopus, and seahorses! So perfect.

It's unbearably hot here but we are finding a few minutes to spend on the porch in the evenings. Fudge spends the most time out there, Sundae says it's too hot for a fat girl in a fur coat!

  Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1400 so far! The July-Sept block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved.

 


Thursday, July 11, 2024

Rainbow Bargelllo

Happy Friday, quilters! I have a personal quilt to show off this week. I made this pretty bargello from the pattern "The Restless Wind" by Quilting Jays on etsy. This might be the first time I've ever followed a pattern exactly (well, minus the border) in my entire quilting life!

The pattern called for 18 different shades of fabric and I knew that I wanted a color range from maroon through dark green. I owe many thanks to my local quilt shop owner who helped me choose and arrange the colors.

Like most bargellos The pattern calls for sewing strip sets and then cutting slices off of them in various widths. The pattern was very easy to follow with several handy charts and once I got going it came together very quickly.

I had to quilt it with curving lines following the illusion of curves in the top. I thought this was going to be really difficult but it actually wasn't. I free motioned it on my mid-arm machine using color matching thread. 

Needless to say, I'm thrilled with how this quilt came out and I can't wait to gift it!

 Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1400 so far! The July-Sept block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved.

 




Tuesday, July 2, 2024

"Family Ties" CiL Block Drive

Hello quilters! It's time for a new Covered in Love block drive. We run these block drives every three months to create quilts for dying patients in Texas hospitals.  Anyone can participate and you can make as few or as many blocks as you like.  If you need the address to send blocks please email CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com.  This drive will run July-September. Now, onto the actual block!

This time around we will be doing a version of the free "Family Ties" pattern from Riley Blake. I just resized it to make a 12" block.  We will be using the color scheme from the palette below from Design Seeds. The "darks" are aqua, true blue, navy, red, maroon, light red (but not pink), and the "lights" are very light sky blue, light grey, and you can add white.  You can see an example of a quilt my do. good stitches circle made from this same color scheme a few years ago here (it's the second one down).

For each block you will need to cut (4) 7.5" squares, (2) light and (2) dark, plus (4) 2.5" squares, (2) light and (2) dark.  These measurements give you extra so you can trim down to size later. (There are only 2 light squares in my photo, it should be 4, that was a mistake). Remember that you can flip over fabrics and use the back side to make them lighter.

Mark a diagonal line on the back of your large light squares, match each one with a dark square, and sew 1/4" on both sides of the line. Cut apart and press to make (4) half square triangles (aka HSTs), square these up to 6.5".  Also cut all the small squares diagonally.

Trim a triangle off the corners on the outside of the HSTs by aligning the 45 degree line on your ruler with the side of the block and placing the corner of the block where the 1" line and 45 degree line intersect.  Then sew one of the triangles from the small squares into place, sewing a dark triangle onto the light side of the HST and vice versa. Press the seams (I recommend pressing open) and trim again to 6.5".

If you're making more than one block you can shuffle around the sub-units to create more variety. Arrange (4) 6.5" blocks with the dark small triangles toward the center, so it makes a light-colored ring, and sew together.  I did adjust the measurements after I made my block to make the small triangles even smaller, so don't be surprised if yours looks a little different from mine.


The block should finish at 12.5" square. Since it has bias edges all along the outside please do sew a line of stay stitching, with a long stitch length, 1/8" from the edge all around. It will help them keep their shape until they are sewn into the final quilt.


And that's it! I hope this will be a fun block for you.  It's a take on our usual summer red-white-and-blue drive with a more narrow color scheme. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the blocks you make! If you want to see previous CiL drives and the quilts we've made together click here


Obligatory cat photos. Mom's dog put a hole in his lambchop toy and I brought it over to repair. Fudge was surprisingly into it.