Beth, Holly, Linda

Happy Friday, quilters! Sorry I missed last week, I took a trip to Santa Fe. I've got some great quilts to show you this week. This first one is a pattern called "Squared Up" by Cotton and Joy in Northcott Stonehenge fabrics. Beth made the top and Linda quilted it.

It's a lovely simple pattern, but so striking!

Next another top by by Beth, in much more her usual color scheme. This one's smaller so I quilted it on my midarm. 

Next, Holly made two tops in the GE Quilts "Stella" pattern with beautiful batik fabrics.

I did the quilting on these with a simple stipple.

I don't know what happened with this quilt. The camera just didn't like it. I took photos 3 separate times and they all came out the same 

The colors are a lovely bright blue and turquoise with bright white, same as the pink/coral one.

Thanks, ladies!

  Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1600 so far! The Jan-March block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday

String Quilts 11-15

Happy Friday, Quilters! This week I have five more string quilts to show off. These were sent in during the Jan 2022 string quilt drive.  All 5 of these were donated as completed tops and Linda quilted them beautifully on her long arm. 

These first 2 quilts with the black sashing were sent in by Beth T. and Linda used awesome custom quilting on them. 

The quilts are complimentary but beautifully different. The second quilt with the white thread has different quilted pantos in each string square. 

I couldn't get pictures of everything, but I tried to get some good ones. 

Next, Tish sent in this top with a much more controlled color palette. I love how different the same block can look, and aqua and red are a great color combination. 

I also finally got to use this great, cute animal backing someone donated! 

Beth and Holly are real-life neighbors and friends and often sew together. Holly sent in this pretty string top with lots of saturated tones.

Linda chose a cool panto with interlocking flowers to show it off. 

Speaking of more controlled color schemes, Elana sent in this beauty. It's super scrappy and bright. 

Linda quilted chains of feathers down the colored strips. Thank you to Elana, Tish, Holly, Beth, and quilter Linda! You guys keep us going. 

Fudge has recently developed an annoying habit of blocking my machine while I'm sewing in order to get my attention. It's a good thing he's so darn cute. 

I had to break out the big guns to keep his little paws away from the needle. No kitty can resist a box!

 Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Longarmers to the rescue

Hello! This week I have a couple of tops completed by Covered in Love's devoted long-arm quilters. First this pretty, sweet top was sent in by Holly and quilted by Linda. There are lots of strawberries in the fabric and it makes me think of the strawberry shortcake dolls from years ago.

This quilt is a very generous size, so I was very grateful to be able to send it to a longarmer instead of wrestling with it on my machine.

Next is a top by Becky.  Some of you may remember that Becky drove to meet me and dropped of a whole bunch of tops kitted up with backing and bindings.

This large top was sent to Mel in south Texas. Meloney had a rough bout with Covid and I'm so glad she's back on her quilting feet. 

The wavy lines of quilting are perfect to complement the super geometric plus designs. Thanks ladies! 

Fudge has achieved maximum coziness.

Thankful for the Helpers

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”― Fred Rogers

Happy Thanksgiving, quilters! I hope you are warm and maybe enjoying some cozier, smaller gathering than usual this year amidst everything that's going on.  This year I'm more thankful than ever for all my helpers! Like Beth T. who sent in this top, and Kathy who quilted it.  The seven quilts in this post bring us to 12 for the March/April block drive.

This top was sent in by Holly and also quilted by Kathy.  As you can tell, I had very golden Fall light the day to took the pictures above.  I know that for Northerners quarantine has gotten harder to deal with as temperatures drop, but for us in the South it has only just become tolerable.  During Summer doing activities outside really wasn't an option, but it's so nice now to be able to take classes, birthday parties, and some community events outside.

Holly also assembled and quilted these block drive blocks into a quilt and quilted it with intersecting lines.  I love the on-point setting.  Since she put them on point she needed to enlarge the backing a bit and did so with neat orphan blocks.

All of us have times in our lives that we couldn't get through without a supportive community, and 2020 has been all of us having those times together, one after another. 

Tammy S. assembled these two quilts from block drive blocks but when it came time to quilt she was struggling with the Covid Malaise.  Feeling low and tired and just in a funk. 

Fortunately, her friends Claudia and Marion jumped in to longarm them with some extra light, poofy batting and this pretty leafy motif while Tammy took some time away.

People helping each other to help me to help other people :) 

Speaking of, Linda D. has recently joined up with CiL and begun assembling and quilting blocks.

She recently upgraded to a long arm and I am only too happy to keep her in top to learn on. I love this design with the multi pointed stars! I have always wanted to piece a design like that. 

The first quilt Linda put together was united by whites with very busy backgrounds.  This second one has yellows all in the same tone and whites with very small dots or similar.

The panto she chose is pretty flowers and leaves, perfect for the Spring-y colors.  Thanks to all you ladies and Happy Thanksgiving to all the CiL family!

Fall weather means cozy sweaters for everyone ;)

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! The Nov/Dec drive is going on 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

UFOs Finished for CiL

Kathy broke out of quarantine this week to return these quilts to me! She took the tops that various quilters sent in and finished them into beautiful, cuddly quilts for CiL.

These hand-pieced lonestars were sent in by Holly and I added the slim flower borders. It made such a sweet little quilt!

This quilt with the pretty, bright yellow and red flower fabrics came from Johanna.  I made a pieced backing from yellow and flower-themed fabrics to match.

This cute, almost vintage-looking nine patch top came from Julie W.  She donated a group of tops I posted about before here.

Karen made this quilt and I found flannel to back it with.  I thought it looked modern, but my mom thinks it looks vintage, so I guess it depends on your opinion ;)

Finally, this scrappy pineapple beaut was pieced by Pam.

It has so much movement and life!

Thank you ladies who contributed the tops, as well as the backing and binding that went into these quilts. And thanks to the several of you who have contacted me about volunteering to help assemble and quilt for CiL-- It really helps to keep us moving forward!

A mother vulture is raising chicks in a courtyard at the hospital. They are getting their big feathers now.

Covered in Love's usual every-two-month block drive is on hiatus for the months of May-June. You can see a post here with talking about it and some suggested ways to fill the CiL sized hole in your month!

Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday.