Fast finishes from friends

Hello, friends! Louise here again with a couple more quilts made with YOUR orphan blocks and donated projects. I love having a stash of blocks in a variety of sizes, styles and colors. That way, when a great central panel like this handsome horse falls into my lap, I can surround it with just the right combination. These all came from my "autumnal colors" box, featuring browns, golds, reds, and oranges. A few hints of blue highlight the mountain stream the horse is splashing through, too.

On the other extreme from muted autumnals comes this vibrant piece! Wow! Whoever stitched this cool improv applique top has a fantastic color sense. Purples, coral, blues...I love it!

I decided to pick up the spring green and purple elements for the borders, and ended with black to contain the exuberance and frame it up. Since all I had to do was add borders, quilt, and bind, this piece came together speedy-quick. I hope it makes someone smile. 

Thank you again to the many hands that sew up and donate raw materials for these Covered in Love quilts. I couldn't do my part without you!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1700 so far! The Summer 2026 block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday

 

Little quilts from big hearts

 

Hello, friends! Louise here with more quilts made with your orphan blocks and donations. Last week Kat shared some beautiful finishes from the potato chip block drive. Those were larger Covered in Love quilts for adults. There were just a few drive blocks left that she sent to me, and I made this much smaller piece for the neonatal unit. 

This little quilt used some orphan four- and nine-patch blocks in bright colors with white backgrounds. I surrounded a nice panel of fish and water fowl for a quick finish.

Here's a close up of the quilting. This curved hook shape is my go-to free motion motif. I find it very quick and simple to do, and it gives great texture.

Here's a "jelly roll race" style piece, but instead of 2.5" strips, the maker used 1.5" strips. It arrived as one big chunk, but it was just a bit wonky and hard to make rectangular. I sliced it into five columns, flipped every other one, and sashed it with bright blue. This allowed me to ease the irregularities out and I think it turned out pretty nice in that scrap-happy way.

This super cool circle came to me raw edged, so I carefully turned a hem along the outer radius and machine appliqued it to a neutral background. 

The fabrics are gorgeous, especially the purple floral with golden accents. The final piece reminds me of the Big Blue Marble photo of Earth from space!

This orphan project showed up as about 8 finished blocks with birdhouse fabric as the large focal squares. There were also bits and bobs of the blender fabrics and background white. I remembered I had a VERY similar birdhouse fabric in my stash, so I sewed up enough more blocks to make a baby sized quilt. Can you tell there are two different focal fabrics? 

Finally, how about a little zing? High contrast magenta, teal and goldenrod were donated already sewn into strip sets, so I cut them into rail fence blocks. I laid them out in this stairstep design and found some psychedelic trees for a border. A very similar yellow binding ties it all together, easy peasy!

Many thanks to everyone who sends in orphan blocks and spare parts. I love using them as the raw materials for Covered in Love quilts.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1700 so far! The Winter 2026 block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday

Big Panel Fun

Hello again, friends! Louise here to share more Covered in Love quilts made from YOUR orphan blocks. This batch features panels that were donated from a local quilt shop in Kat's area.

The first two small quilts use these super sweet 18" square panels with flowers, rainboots, and rollerskates. Do you recognize the English paper pieced hexagons made by Bev? These are the last two of her blocks.

Next is a column quilt in springy colors. The panels are small and vertical, and such pretty flowers!

Here's a close up of two panels. I added fifteen 8" blocks in blues and purples to the mix. Most of these were donated as half square triangles that I put together into various classic blocks like Broken Dishes and Pinwheels.

These darling puppies only needed top and bottom rows of softly colored blocks to make a snuggly baby quilt. 

This big autumnal quilt uses strips from a single fabric between each row. I think this type of fabric product is usually used for borders, but I didn't have quite enough yardage for that. 

The design of grasses and ferns is just lovely, and I enjoyed finding blocks to play nicely with it.

This rather Egyptian looking panel has been sitting in my stash for ages. When a donation of pretty batik and warmly colored HSTs showed up, the panel popped into my mind as a good match. It's a simple design that I hope will provide comfort.

And finally, my favorite of the bunch is this wild lighthouse panel. I've been boating for a long time, but I've never seen an orange and turquoise lighthouse! I love it! It's a bit of a fever dream. Fortunately, my stash of orphan block from y'all can handle ANY color combo.

And since the lighthouse is lurid, extra-long wiener dogs in the same colors are a logical backing right? I thought so. Thank you again for all your donations. These orphan block quilts are powered by the many creative hands of our little community.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1700 so far! The Winter 2026 block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

  Linking to Finished or Not Friday