Quilts for Rock Stars

Sometimes it's fun to sew for the other end of life :) Jack's Basket is my new favorite charity for kid quilts. They welcome new babies with Down Syndrome with a gift basket and encouragement for their parents.

They appreciate baby quilts to add to their baskets and I'm just about to mail off these 6. It's been fun to do some smaller quilts and put old UFOs to good use. The herringbone string blocks, above, were originally intended to be a larger quilt but they've been sitting a looong time.

"Made from 360 tiny pieces. Small things make a huge impact."

I made customized labels for each one. The strings and small squares got similar labels about the big impact of small things.  Hopefully something that will resonate with the parents.

This is the block I asked for from my do. Good Stitches group this month. (Block source) I got into my scraps and cut enough little squares to make a baby quilt and then some.

This guitar has been hanging around a while.

It was the first thing I sewed last year after my eyes recovered enough to make out the lines on a ruler after eye surgery. I had no intentions for it, I was just getting stir crazy to sew!

I paired it with some cool fabrics and made a label that says "Already a rock star!" (With the nerd glasses and the bow ties maybe I should have said "already a hipster singer/songwriter" but that doesn't have the same ring.)

Last, I made 3 of these black and white and bright quilts. I had cut string scraps down to 2.5" for binding, but had way more than I needed. Plus white fabrics aren't ideal for binding.

I sewed them together jelly roll race style with bright scraps in between.  (I also incorporated some of the skinny strings I cut before). Nicki was so generous to give me to permission to use some of the binding she has sent in for CiL.  I had dyed some rainbow and it was so perfect for these quilts. (Besides Nicki's bindings all the rest of the materials for these quilts came from my stash, nothing donated to Covered in Love).

"You are a rainbow in a world of black and white."  A rainbow, and that's the truth!  Can't wait to get these in the mail.


Kitten update: they're doing fantastic and getting ready to go to their long term homes!

Waffles and Fudge end a play session with a nap

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 400 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

"Free" Quilt Round-up

Pieced and quilted by Judy

Happy weekend! Hope yours is going to be a fun one.  I am doing a round up of all the quilts that have come in already finished for Covered in Love recently. These free-to-me quilts that don't require any work beyond a label are such a blessing!

First up are 3 quilts beautifully quilted by Judy. The orange and grey quilt was one of her tops, the other two were ones donated to me that I sent to her to finish.

Hand-pieced by Sandra, quilted by Judy

This hand pieced 16 patch was sent in by Sandra, who frequently donates backing fabrics.  Judy finished it beautifully with orange peel quilting.  I got to see a couple of our quilts go to their forever homes a couple weeks ago in the hospital.  They are a huge comfort to families on some of the worst days of their lives.

Pieced by Theresa, quilted by Judy

This top is the last of the ones Theresa sent me last Fall. Judy's FMQ turned it into a real showpiece. Can you believe she does all this one a regular domestic machine?!

Beth from Vermont contacted me a while back to ask about donating some quilts. She had randomly inherited quilt a bit of fabric from an old Texas Shop-Hop.  Not so useful in Vermont! After donating a couple quilts to Hurricane Harvey victims she was looking for a good opportunity to put the rest to good use.  She generously sent in 2 beautiful finished quilts.

Pieced and quilted by Beth K.

It's hard to make out in the pictures, but almost all the fabrics including the white background have tone-on-tone Texas emblems.  As many of you probably know, Texans are just a little bit proud of our state, so these will be perfect to give away.

Pieced and quilted by Beth K.

Finally, Marianne sent in this pink breast cancer themed quilt made by the Dakota Cabin Quilters.

Sent in by Marianne

Thank you Judy, Theresa, Sandra, Beth, Marianne, and many more! These quilts will be a huge blessing to distressed families.

Covered in Love donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 300 so far! Our block drives are back on track and July/August is the annual "Oh My Stars!" drive.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved.

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

Scraps and Rolls

Happy Friday! Another week, another scrappy quilt! This beautiful scrappy top was sent in by Laura in Tennessee.

The blue is actually flannel, which gives the quilt a nice mix of textures.  I quilted the top with my usual quick stipple.

I love how so many scraps can look so cohesive.  Spot the backward block? Because I just now did ;)  I never fix them.  It makes me think of the Amish "Humility Block" which seems to be a myth, but I like the idea.  Perfection is overrated.

I also have finished this rainbow jelly roll race top that I made a while back.  Amanda had donated a roll of Stonehenge fabrics for Covered in Love and I decided on a simple design to show off the beautiful colors.

I found an awesome panel Sandra had sent in for backing.  I feel sure someone is going to love these quilts :)

Covered in Love donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 300 so far! Our block drives are back on track and July/August is the annual "Oh My Stars!" drive.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved.

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

Skinny Strings Scraps {Tutorial}

(Edited to add: see the finished quilts HERE)

Back in January I cut my string scraps that were less than 2.5" down to a uniform width of 1.5". Since then they've been aging in a couple of large ziploc bags. This weekend I decided the time had come to do something with those scraps!  As many scrap quilts have made I remain amazed by how many quilts can hide in a scrap bin.

Scraps are irresistible to me. Much more so than yardage.  I had an idea in my head for what I wanted to do with these strings and I decided to photograph the process for a tutorial.  I started by sorting out the cool colors, which probably constituted half of the strings. (I *might* have a problem with the color blue... the "warms" pile was pitiful by comparison.)

I sewed the strings together at their short ends to make one looooooong string.

Locate both loose ends, put them rights sides together, and start sewing down one long side toward the middle.  When you reach the middle it will probably be all twisty. Cut it and complete sewing the two strips together.

Press your string pair, then repeat the process. Find both loose ends and start sewing your pairs into a four. Press and repeat, sewing your 4-string string into an 8-string. This takes a long time if you started with a lot of string like I did. The bright side is that every time you fold it in half and sew, it ends up half as long, so as you go it gets easier.

Keep going until you have a long panel 16 strings wide.  I considered stopping at this point and just making a quilt top out of horizontal strings, but I decided to continue with my original plan.  I sub cut the panel into squares, each 16.5" square. I put these up on the design wall alternating directions, this would make a cool quilt, too.

Then I did the same process with my neutral colored strings.  I took the neutral and cool colored squares and turned them into HSTs.

I marked the line with a sharpie and pinned the blocks so they didn't shift while I sewed on either side of the line.

If you put the squares together with their strips running the same way, then in the HST they will turn.  If you put them together with their strips perpendicular then in the HST they will run the same direction.

I chose the first method so the two different colors run at different angles.  With my blocks turned into HSTs the options are limitless... Any layout that can be made with HSTs.  I haven't sewn these together yet, still auditioning layouts to find my favorite. Which do you like best?

Linking to Oh Scrap!

Racing Finishes

I'm on a roll this week.

Wednesday's post had my latest top, a jelly roll race, and today I have 2 more made by Theresa and quilted by me.

The first is this very pretty blue quilt with floral fabrics.  The second reminds me of picnics in summertime with its bright colors and daisies.

I quilted both with a stipple and they crinkled up nicely after a wash.  These are quilts number five and six from the box Theresa sent me for Covered in Love!

Meantime, work continues on assembling and quilting the blocks from the last block drive.  Rory has been quality testing the early finishes.

If you'd like to join in with Covered in Love's mission you can learn more on the main page or check out the block drive.  The current Covered in Love block drive is a cozy patchwork interspersed with pieced blocks. It will run until the new year if you want to help out.  More info here! 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finished or Not Friday