Hot and Cold Corners

I recently finished making the quilts from the Nov/Dec Covered in Love block drive, Hot and Cold Corners.  Three beautiful quilts to add to our stash, courtesy of quilters around the country!

All three measure 60"x72".   I quilted them with my signature quick stipple :)

The second and third quilt have a border, as that was the best way to use the blocks. In fact, I used every single one!

I had a little bit of that IKEA fabric with the birds left for the border of one quilt.These two used the wool batting I was gifted and they are so soft and fluffy!

Recently CiL has been working more and more with Southwest Transplant Alliance, the organ donation folks in our area.  Organ donation is so incredibly important, literally saving the lives of thousands of people.  It is a selfless, generous gift to make at such a personally painful time.  Organ donation families are giving to others, at the same time as they are losing something precious themselves.

The organ donation process, from declaration of brain death to decision for donation to removal of organs for transplant, can generally take a couple of days, during which time the deceased patient remains in the ICU and family can stay with them.  Chaplain Robert told me how well the quilts fit in with the whole process -- something small to give back to a family who are giving so much -- and something place over the patient, to honor and humanize them, while everyone waits for the recipients and transplant teams around the country to get in position.

Covered in Love makes quilts of comfort.  The latest CiL block drive will run through April. If you want to help make blocks for grieving families we'd love to have you. More info here!

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Oh Scrap!

Listening to... I know the internet quilting community lost its collective mind the last couple years and all tried to make this insane paper-pieced quilt called Passacagalia.  But did you know Passacaglia is actually a type of music? Ever heard one?

Sew Some Love

Welcome to the Sew Some Love linkup!  Please link-up any post about a project you're sewing for charity.

This week I've been working on finishing up the hot and cold corners tops.  Here's the first one on the wall with a border audition.  Inspector Rory, standing by.

Inspector Rey had enjoyed some lap time. (Plenty more cat pictures on Instagram)

Covered in Love has been so blessed by donations from quilters, I want you all to see what each other have going on!  For purposes of the linky, I'm going to define "charity" really generally.  If you're sewing a quilt for you co-worker's mom with cancer or your friend's uncle who lost his home, that totally counts!  Anything you're sewing out of the goodness of your heart for someone outside you immediate circle of family and friends. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Some Quilt Charities:
Books and a Blanket - quilts for needy children in central Texas, promoting literacy
Covered in Love - quilts for mourning families
Margaret's Hope Chest - several programs for children and adults
My Very Own Blanket - quilts for children in foster care
Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project - quilts auctioned to raise money for cancer research
Project Linus - quilts for children in the hospital
Quilts Beyond Borders -  quilts for poor children around the world
Quilts for Kids - quilts for abused and ill children
Quilts of Valor - quilts for veterans
Threading Hope - children and families in poverty and war torn countries
Victoria's Quilts - quilts for cancer patients
Wrap-a-Smile - quilts for children treated for cleft palate on medical missions
Wrap Them in Love - quilts for children

If you know of any that need added to the list let me know!

Lots to Do

Lots going on around here.  The faded quarter cabin block to Jan/Feb's Covered in Love block drive have been coming in and they look great! I've been experimenting with layouts and really like the one above.  There's still nearly a whole month left on the drive if anyone wants to jump in and contribute!

Nearly all of the blocks from my Nurture circle pals for January's do. Good Stitches bee are here. I have been experimenting with layouts. What do you think of the one above vs below?  They look kinda the same to me, even though they aren't...

Nancy R. gifted me some leftover black/white/bright paper pieced blocks that I've started peeling the papers off.  Going to see what I can do with these.

The actual goal for the week is to get the last of the corner blocks sewn into 2 tops.

Meanwhile, what I should be doing is studying this, but I don't wanna!

There were some great projects linked up to Sew Some Love last week. Remember to come back every Wednesday to check out what folks are sewing and link up any charity sewing you've got going on!

 Linking to Oh Scrap! and Design Wall Monday.

This and That Scraps

There's been lots of activity on my design wall lately.  My body celebrated my return to Texas in right fashion by developing a cold, so I haven't felt up for the hours-long process of basting and quilting tops.  Instead I sewed a few little things, arranged and rearranged the design wall, and put together backings for various tops for when I do feel up to it again (thanks you to Louise, Gail, Nancy, Amanda, and others of you who have generously contributed backing fabrics!)

I put up some of the hot and cold corner blocks to just see how they look and it's even better than I hoped! These won't be sewn together until the last of the stragglers are here. (By the way, if you're looking for the January block drive for CiL it's HERE). I also sewed up several more string herringbone blocks from my 1.5" strings. 

I'm actually running out of the string scraps I'd cut (don't worry, there's more! I just haven't trimmed them yet), so I switched to another old scrap project, these small pinwheels.  I started sewing the fourpatches into chains and putting them on the wall. I'm trying to avoid doing math as much as possible by just building it in place.

After some debate I decided to cut my setting triangles from scraps instead of white fabrics, so I cut 6.5" squares from my scrap piles today.  Cutting a 6.5" square into quarters lets me make setting triangles with no bias stretch on the outside edge.

I sewed up the corners as they are so far with the setting triangles in place.   It's a crappy night-time picture, but what do you think?  I'm a fan of the colored triangles for the edge.  Of course my quilting supervisors have been hard are work.  They're trying not to let on too much, but I think they missed me, too!

By the way, don't miss the 2016 Year in Review post about Covered in Love.

Linking to Oh Scrap! and Design Wall Monday.

Hot and Cold Corners

Happy Halloween quilters!  We are entering America's big holiday season, so I thought for the next block drive we'd run it from now until the end of December.  Most of us are traveling a lot and/or hosting relatives over the holidays and I know that limits sewing time.

The Covered in Love block drives make quilts for the families of patients who pass away at a hospital in Texas.  I run a new drive every month or so and anyone can participate.  This time we're going to be making blocks with flip and sew corners. There are many ways to make these corners, I outline my method below but if you have one that works for you already, go with it!

First off you will need to cut (4) 6.5" squares of white/cream/off -white or otherwise low volume fabrics. You may want to cut these about an 1/8th inch fat to give yourself wiggle room later.

You'll also need (8) small-medium scrap triangles, half in warm colors (red/orange/yellow) and half in cold (green/blue/purple).  The cut offs from making binding are great for this.   I have a whole big ol' jar of scrap triangles I am always looking for ways to use!

To make your flip corners, take one triangle and lay it over the corner of the larger square.  Don't line up the outside (90 degree) corner of the triangle perfectly with the square underneath. Scoot it out just a bit to give yourself wiggle room.

Place a piece of paper or thin cardboard (like a book mark) onto the square and line it up so it just touches the edge of the triangle.

Carefully, without moving the paper, remove the triangle and place on a ruler aligned with the paper.  Extend past the paper by 1/2" inch and cut there.

Oh look, we made another scrap triangle! Suddenly this seems like a self defeating cycle...

Flip the triangle right side down onto the square, center it and sew a quarter inch seam.

Repeat with a warm triangle on the opposite corner, press, and trim back to 6.5" square.

Sew your four squares with the flip corners into a 12.5" block with the cool colors together in the center.

(Edited to Add: View finished quilts here)

If you want to participate in the block drive I'd love to have you! You can make any number of blocks you like.  Email CoveredinLoveTX@gmail.com or leave a comment (make sure I can contact you!) for a mailing address.

Linking to Oh Scrap!