More Block Drive Orphans

You may remember that a few weeks ago I finished a couple of quilts using leftover star blocks from a CiL block drive.   This week's finish is another quilt made from block drive orphans, this time from the Sun & Sea and Lattice block drives.  This took care of the Sun & Sea blocks and all the cutoffs from Lattice. There are still a few more, larger lattice blocks to be used somewhere later.

I had asked folks to send in their corner cut-offs with their lattice blocks, if they wanted.  This flying geese/zig zag pattern is where they wound up ;)  The quilt finished about 58"x74" if I remember correctly.  I love how the bright colors shine!

Covered in Love's quilts are given away in the hospital to patients who are dying or have passed on for the families to take home with them.  Losing a loved one is obviously very hard and having a transitional item like a quilt to take home can help.  One of the chaplains told me the other day about a man he followed up with who told him "I sleep with that quilt every night, because it still smells like my wife."

Remember, the Jan/Feb CiL block drive is still going on if you want to jump in and sew some blocks. You can find it HERE.

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

Listening to... these high school kids covering the opening number from Hamilton and killing it. 

Bold and Bright Lattice Quilts

Happy Friday! School is back in session for me for the summer and I'm currently in the "denial" phase of coping.  This week I did some quilting to procrastinate reading pharmacology and got the first two of April's block drive quilts done.

These two quilts are essentially the same, finishing at a generous 56"x77".  There will still be an odds and ends quilt to come from similar blocks, but I'm still having fun playing with the layout on that one.

One of these quilts got an overall stipple. The backing for this one was a dark purple that showed every stitch so I wanted to use an FMQ design I was confident with!

The other quilt got more elaborate FMQ, with ribbon candy in the strings and flowers in the diamonds.  These were both quilted on my new-to-me FMQ machine, if you missed the Wednesday post go meet Schuyler! This one had a nice bright turquoise backing.

We've gotten some more quilts from the H2H drive in the past couple weeks.  Opening up these packages is so much fun!  Also, kudos to our mail lady who managed to shove 2 whole quilts into our mailbox the other day.  (They weren't damaged, I really mean it. Kudos to her-- saved me a trip to the post office to pick them up!)  Thank you to Carol, Adele, Mina, Jan, Jamie, and Ann whose quilts arrived recently.

The June block drive post went up yesterday so if you want to support Covered in Love this month please sew along!  Remember, Covered in Love gives quilts of comfort to the families of patients who pass away in the hospital. You can find more details on the main page here.  If you want to participate leave a comment (make sure I can see your email address!) or email me at CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com for a mailing address.

Linking to Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

April Lattice Blocks

  Rory has been ever so helpful getting April's Covered in Love blocks laid out on the design wall.  It looks like we will get 2 "regular" arrangement tops out of these plus a third out of the scraps, orphans, and odd-shaped blocks.

Also pictured, my new (to me) free motion machine!! A gift from a local quilter friend.  Formal introduction post coming soon, once I give her a name :)

Of course, you know me, the scraps are the best part! Granted these are other people's scraps, but just as good as home grown.  Currently I have them in a zigzag configuration but there are so many options!

I am in the process of assembling the first top (below) while playing with the design of the other two.

Last week I announced May's block drive design several people have already sent in blocks!  If you want to sew along and support Covered in Love check out the block drive for more information :)

Linking to Oh Scrap! and Design Wall Monday.

String-y Design Wall

Always a happy day to have new scraps on the design wall!  First I put some of the Covered in Love block drive lattice blocks up to see how they look. I'm not sewing these together yet, just playing. I know the lighting's bad, but don't these looks cool?  This is from the April block drive, which is still going on if you would like to contribute!

Next I finished the string color blocks that I was working on yesterday. These are made from Cynthia's Scrap-a-Palooza tutorial.  I did end up adding green as a 4th color way to have enough blocks for a 50"x70" quilt. 

Today I'm hoping to sew together the color block quilt and test drive some blocks for future block drives.  Hope your Monday is productive!

Linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

April Block Drive

Another month, and a new block! Every month I host a block drive here to benefit Covered in Love.  CiL provides comfort quilts to the families of patients who pass away in the hospital where I work.  We are always accepting donations of tops and quilts, of course, but the monthly block drives are a quick and easy way to contribute. Together we have made some beautiful quilts!

Some of last year's CiL quilts

This month's blocks is bold and bright, inspired by the gorgeous spring weather outside! It is slightly more complicated that the past few months' blocks have been, but not too bad.  I'm calling it a string lattice block, based on a design I saw online somewhere.

First sort out some string scraps in pink/orange/yellow colors based on the palette below.

Your strings can be any width and need to be at least 8.5" long.  Sew them together into a column at least 11" tall.  (If you're making several blocks at once you can sew your column taller and then subcut 11" blocks from it).

My column is laying sideways...

These blocks will end up at 8.5"x11", or the size of a page of printer paper, so it may be handy to use a piece of paper to make sure your column is tall and wide enough.

Big enough, but just barely.

Trim your column of strings to 8.5"x11".

NOTE: To make a lattice design I actually need 2 kinds of blocks and the difference is in the next step.  The steps are the same, but either you trim the top left & bottom right corners of the block or you trim the top right & bottom left corners.  These two blocks are mirror images of each other and I need a roughly equal amount of each. Just something to keep in mind as you are making blocks. Don't stress about it.  When I get all the blocks in I will make some extras of whichever I am missing.

In this example I cut off the top left and bottom right corners

On the top left/right corner of your column, measure in 4" and down 5 & 1/8".  Make a pencil mark at both points, then line your ruler up with the marks and make a diagonal cut to remove the corner. 

Here I am about to make the cut on a mirrored block. You can just see my pencil marks where the ruler crosses.

 Flip the block completely over and repeat. 

Cut a rectangle of light neutral fabric, like unbleached muslin or a cream, to 4 & 5/8" x 5 & 7/8".   Cut diagonally corner to corner (NOTE: the angle of this line needs to match the angle of the corners you cut off your big block.)

This block is the mirror image to the one shown in most of the other pics. Notice how the light block is cut on the same diagonal as the big block.

Sew the light colored corners onto the larger block...

...and press.  Go ahead and sew your little string corners together if you want and send them along, I will use them for something!

Here are my two mirrored blocks.  Sorry for the weird colors, it was getting dark, but you get the idea.

I hope the tutorial is clear enough, don't hesitate to comment or email if you have questions.

(Edited to Add: View some finished quilts here)

This block drive runs for a month; try to get your blocks in the mail by the 30th.  Make one block or a bunch, every blocks helps!  Comment (make sure I can see your email address) or email me for the address to send blocks.  And thank you so much to everyone who continues to support Covered in Love!