Thursday, August 29, 2024

Jeanine's Tops

Happy Friday, quilters! I have four quilts to show this week that were tops sent in by Jeanine and quilted by our stellar long-armers.  This first one with the batiks was quilted by Doris, who has sent in quilts in the past and recently volunteered to help finish some of our tops. Welcome Doris and THANK YOU!

Doris chose a pretty spiky swirl motif. I also need to call out Loretta who runs my favorite local quilt store, she donated the yardage that backed all of these tops!

This monotone blue top was also quilted by Doris with an ocean waves sort of motif. Very appropriate for a sea-blue quilt. 

CiL is in a really good place currently. Our three main hospitals are distributing are distributing about 5 quilts per week and really loving being able to include our quilts into their grief services.

This top is one of the ones finished by Sundance Quilting. I would call these '70s colors, with the teal and yellow-green. I used a really bright orange tie-dye on the backing.

Last up, this pretty heart quilt was also finished by Sundance. Almost by accident I picked this really pretty, flowy feather panto that worked perfectly.

Both of these last two were trimmed and bound by a local quilter, Bev, who has recently jumped in to help.  Thank you, ladies!

I love when I can share some of the feedback we get from quilt recipients. Here is a sweet note I got recently from a lady whose husband passed.  

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1500 so far! The July-Sept block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved.

 


Thursday, August 22, 2024

Christine & Sundance


Happy Friday, quilters! I've got some simple but beautiful quilts to show this week. Christine sent these tops in quite a while ago (like a year ago, face palm) and they have been patiently waiting their turn for the quilter. 


Because the quilt pattern is so simple I really wanted to show off some special quilting pantos. Note the bumble bee hexies above.


Enter Sundance Quilting! CiL always has a stock of tops needing to be quilted, since that step in the process tends to be our bottle neck. Thanks to some generous donations I had the funds to pay a commercial long-armer to help us catch up.

sailboats, sea stars, and waves

Sundance has been lovely to work with. They are giving us a charity discount, which certainly helps. But even without a discount their prices are great for high quality machine quilting. 


Christine has been a longtime supporter of CiL and I have 4 more of these tops to eventually show plus a few others of hers. 

leaves and swirls

She picked some beautiful coordinating fabrics to make these tops and I know they will be loved in their eventual homes. 


Apologies for the swing pictures. It gets so hard to take pics in the summer when it's 100 degrees and the humidity is fogging up my camera lens. I look like I've had a bath in my clothes by the time I'm done!

Click on the photo to zoom in, this panto of dolphins and waves is my favorite so far of the ones Sundance has done for us.

Thank you to Christine for the tops, Sundance for the quilting, Loretta who donated several bolts of backing fabrics, and of course my faithful photo assistant, Fudge.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1500 so far! The July-Sept block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved.

 


Thursday, August 15, 2024

Mina's Rainy Day Quilts

Happy Friday everyone! Mina has been a major contributor to CiL almost since we began and she's also a fellow Texan. I love to see her quilts turning up at Many Hands Many Hearts now. 

Some years ago, I got to meet her darling parents when they drove up this way to deliver a big load of finished quilts along with some tops.  These 25 finished quilts have been my "rainy day" stash ever since then, waiting for the day I got behind and needed them.

Recently I did need to re-stock one of our hospitals and had no quilts photographed and ready to go. I was able to label, wash, and deliver all of these in just a couple of days. Thank you, Mina for ALL your support over the years!

Fudge was also a big "help".

 Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1500 so far! The July-Sept block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved.

 


Thursday, August 8, 2024

Yet More Tall 9s


Happy Friday, quilters! There are seven more Tall 9s quilts in this post, all quilted by Linda, from the Sept 2021 block drive


We are getting close to the end of the quilts from this drive. I believe with this post we're are 41 finished so far. 


This drive has been my kryptonite over the past three years. Every time I think I've gotten all the blocks and tops sent off to quilters and done I find more! I found three more tops just last month.


But, now I think, as best I can tell, when these last three come back from the quilter I'll be able to make the final post on this drive.


I'm not really complaining! What a crazy blessing it is for CiL to have grown to the point that we can make nearly fifty quilts from a single drive! So many quilters from all over the world have joined in supporting grieving families; I could never have predicted this when I started back in 2015.


(Oh my, I just realized that next year will be our ten year anniversary!)


Enormous thanks to all the quilters who sent in blocks for this drive, and to our dedicated long-arm quilters to have helped me dig out from under them all.


Linda assembled and quilted these quilts from donated blocks. She chose some fun Fall-ish pantos for the quilting. There was also some very nice yardage donated, which I used for backings that you can see on some of these.


The Tall 9s block is one of my favorites because it's so simple, but it can look completely different depending on how it's set. Plus, it's great for showing off novelty fabrics.


Awesome binding on this one, below, with feather panto.


And a spicy backing!


Thanks to everyone who contributed to this drive! Fingers crossed the next time I post about this one will be the wrap up post.


Fudge back up to his old tricks.


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, August 1, 2024

Quilters' quilts


Happy Friday, quilters! This week I have a few quilts to show that were made and sent in by our dedicated long-arm quilters. 


Linda made these first two and sent them in with a return delivery of tops she quilted for us.  I love the pieced backing and the beautiful fabrics.


This quilt, also by Linda, couldn't be more different. From super coordinated and simple to a crazy scrap buster!


Linda has a computerized long-arm machine and I always enjoy seeing what new quilting designs she wants to try out. 


Just come close ups of the beautiful texture. 

Next, this large patriotic quilt came from Wendy.  It is a very large, generous quilt. 


This will be perfect for a veteran's family in the hospital. I love Wendy's quilting with the swirls and lines. 

Obligatory cat photo of the week with Fudge "helping" me trim quilts. Hope you week is good and your summer of coming to a nice end!

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.