Star Struck: Round 4

Assembled and quilted by Tammy

Just in time (nearly) to start making more star blocks last year's July/August block drive red white and blue quilts are done. All 20 of them!

quilting close up

Tammy helped finish off some of the last of these. She always picks thematically matched quilting.

Blocks by Gail, assembled and quilted by Tammy

One of the big contributors to last summer's drive was a local quilter named Gail who sent in enough blocks for 6 quilts.

I'm including lots of closeups of this quilt because it's one of my favorites, I love all the blocks with the small, precise piecing!

(Photo bombing courtesy of black dog and fluffy cat).

Isn't that precision piecing to die for?  It's harder to see the quilting on this one but it's a sort of spiky flower or flame pattern.

These final five quilts were all assembled and quilted by me from Gail's blocks.

I think I mentioned before how many people sent in patriotic or R/W/B backings and bindings as well as blocks.  Thank you all!

We put together a beautiful and cohesive set of quilts this year, perfect for veterans and their families.

This one is made from 2" square units (and smaller)!

I don't know where she finds the patience.

Of course I saved my favorite for last, I get the impression these blocks were made from all the itsy bitsy leftovers of all the others.

Even the white parts are pieced from little scraps.  Accordingly, I quilted it with a pretty tight stipple.

Hopefully you can see the white background below it pieced from scraps, some not much bigger than a quarter inch.

There are HSTs and flying geese hidden in here that measure less than half an inch.

Thank you Gail C, Tammy, Kathy, Nicki, Gail H, Cyndy, Linda, Karen, and many others who contributed in various ways to the Stars block drive. You can see the past three rounds of finishes here, here, and here.

Stars Drive By The Numbers:

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The March/April 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

Count the Stars: Round 3

FYI
During the COVID 19 pandemic Covered in Love continues to make quilts to support grieving families when relatives pass away in the hospital. This is something that will, unfortunately, probably become even more necessary in the coming weeks and months. When loved ones pass with limited or no visitation and there can be no funeral or viewing of the body something tangible to hold onto to mark the transition becomes even more important.

We are not, as an organization, sewing masks, gowns, or other personal protective equipment at this time.  Many other organizations are filling that role and so CiL will continue with the mission we have had from the beginning.
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Quarantine sewing continues here! I hope you aren't all going too bored and stir crazy in your homes and you're staying SAFE.  As you can tell from the sunshine in these photos, they weren't taken anytime recently.  It's been raining and raining and raining... quarantine would be less painful if I could wander outside.

Yes, I am still working on wrapping up last year's star drive blocks; I'm nearly done.  Tammy S. has been helping out, she assembled and quilted the top two quilts on this page. You can see her cool star quilting pattern on the picture above.

Tammy added a narrow red sashing to this batch which changed their look completely!

This group of blocks with mostly light backgrounds were sewn up and quilted by me and photographed on a rainy day. 

This bonus quilt top of strings came from Cynthia D. and I added some border blocks from Holly.  I had the perfect backing fabric to go with it, too!

All the remaining star quilts are at the top stage and ready to be quilted one day soon!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The March/April 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

Red, White, and Blue: Batch 2

Yes, the next four quilts from last summer's red, white, and blue star blocks drive are done!  (You can see the first batch here). These 4 were assembled and quilted by me.

Thank you to those of you left nice comments on my last post. It's heartwarming to hear how much participating in CiL means to so many of you.

Here you can see one of the great fabrics I had donated to go with these, featuring fireworks!

This quilt below is a collection of more "old fashioned" looking blocks, mostly with tan or khaki backgrounds.

These were mostly blocks with larger designs.  I especially love the carpenter's star block and the heart flag.

The quilt closet is getting very full so a delivery will be happening in the next few weeks. Thank you to everyone who participated!

You weekly cat-- this is often the view from my bed looking up :)

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The Jan/Feb 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

Oh My Stars 2019: Round 1

Happy New Year everyone! I know I've been MIA for a couple weeks but I'm still here. Luckily Kathy C. came to the rescue with a stack of 5 freshly assembled and quilted star quilts from this summer's drive.

I traveled and had great visits with family in New Mexico and Mississippi over Christmas but then was laid low by some kind of mega-cold. I had planned to spend the days off work between Christmas and New Year sewing, instead I've been sleeping fitfully and coughing my head off :(

I finally started to improve a few days ago and have been knocking items off the to-do list. 

I hope you all had a very Merry and warm Christmas and a Happy New Year.  2019 was a big year full of changes for me and I am anxious to see what 2020 will bring.

As usual, many, many people worked together to make these star quilts possible.  Kathy C. pieced and quilted them.

Nicki donated the binding which I dyed to in a red-white-blue gradient.  So many of you sent in patriotic and red-white-blue backings that I was able to give every single quilt a thematically appropriate background.

And then of course the dozens of quilters who sent in the blocks to make the quilts. We're looking at a total of about 18 quilts to come from this block drive!

Speaking of block drives, the Jan/Feb block drive post will be up this weekend. It's another variation on a string block ;)  I hoped to have the post up before New Year but life happened.

Fudge and Sundae have had no complaints at all about me spending extra time in bed. They take their duties as professional snuggle buddies very seriously :)

Definitely glad I invested in that double-size hammock

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The Nov/Dec drive is going on now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved.  The post for January will be up this weekend.

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

Red White and Stars All Over - {July/August CiL Block Drive}

 Happy 4th of July, everyone! It's time for the 2019 "Oh My Stars!" Covered in Love block drive!  For the past 3 years, every summer quilters make red, white, and blue star blocks for Covered in Love to be finished into quilts for grieving families.

These patriotic quilts are loved by everyone, but especially treasured by the families of veterans.  In the past 3 years we have made 27 warm, cozy star quilts for East Texas families who lost someone. 

If you want to help out with this year's drive here's what you need to know.  Blocks should be:

•  Red, white, and or blue
• Any pattern that you would would consider a star (or stars)
• 12.5" (unfinished)
• In the mail by August 31st

That's it! Anyone can participate and you can make as few or as many blocks as you like. Please email CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com or comment with your email address for the the address to mail blocks. 

Here are some places you might find patterns to get you started:

Delaware Quilts has LOTS of star patterns
Briawna collected some block links when my Bee did stars
Quilters' Cache also has LOTS of stars in this list
35 Star Quilt patterns
Wonky "Confetti Star" free on Craftsy
Paper pieced "Star Seams" free on Craftsy

You can also look at the finishes from previous years for inspiration here, here, and here.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) non profit charity that provides quilts to families who lose a loved one in an East Texas hospital. Since 2015 we have distributed nearly 50 quilts with help from quilters all over the world.  If you have any questions you can learn more on the main page.