UFOs No More

Welcome to the weekend quilters! Friday is my teaching day at the nursing school, it's a great day to end the week.  This week I'm teaching a bunch of 19-year-olds how to given hypodermic injections to hot dogs and oranges so that in just a couple years they can be grown up nurses! I'm crossing my fingers no one cuts themselves this semester ;) Hey, at least I'm not teaching it over Zoom anymore! 

Louise has just shipped back a great big box of finished quilts she made from the UFOs and orphans I sent to her.  I loves this first one with the beautiful Fall colors and this poppy backing. So gorgeous!!

 

This quilt is made from some of the same fabric with a design you might recognize. It was a popular Quarantine Quilt Along  by GE Designs that a lot of people participated in. 

You know it's not often that I can share stories with you of where our quilts go.  This particular quilt, however, I got to help pass on its way to the mother of a woman with COVID. The young woman had to be moved closer to the DFW area due to the intensity of the care she needed and has been there struggling with the complications of this disease for about 2 months.  On top of the distance from home, of course visiting restrictions make it hard for her mother to see her. As she continues to fight for her life we hope this quilt will be a comfort. 

 

The vibrant reds and bold patterns in this quilt were an perfect match for mother and daughter's bright personalities and the young woman's mom sends her love and thanks to all of you who made it possible.

 

This quilt is a design many of you should definitely recognize! Leftover flower blocks from last year's Spring block drive. 

 

I believe these blocks belong to Cindy B. and Johanna?

 

Last quilt, for this week, is this neat scrappy one.  Louise used geisha panels and stacked scraps along with a batik background fabric that looks like bamboo.

The quilt doesn't have batting and has a luscious plush mauve backing.  It's definitely unusual, but I'm sure it will find it's way to the perfect person!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 600 so far! The Sept/Oct 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

Late Blooming Flowers

Spring flowers are blooming in August! The Covered in Love quilts made from the Spring Flower block drive in March/April are done.

Local quilter and part-time saint Kathy took all these blocks and finished them into quilts. 

I had a great stash of flower-themed and spring-colored fabrics to make backings for these quilts thanks to the many of you have sent in yardage.

Kathy grouped the flowers by color group and stippled the quilts.

There were six quilts in the initial batch. Eventually there will be one more with the leftover blocks, so 7 total!

It's broiling hot here in Texas right now, as it usually is this time of year.

As much as I was fed up with the rain last spring it's hard to remember why now. All the plants are dried out and the grass is dead and crunchy.

The rain did give us a spectacular spring bloom.  The Texas wildflowers were exceptional and I think my mom's flower garden was the best it's ever been.

Hopefully these Spring flower quilts will remind some grieving families of better times.

Thanks to everyone who contributed! I literally couldn't do it without you.

Interestingly, this time we had loads of contributors from just a few states, especially NY and TX, and less variety of states sending in blocks.

Pillow hog.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 400 so far! The July/August 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

Spring Block Drive

Hello everyone and welcome to the March/April 2019 block drive to support Covered in Love! Since 2015 Covered in Love has been providing quilts to grieving families in east Texas who lose someone in the hospital. Soon we'll cross the 500 quilt mark, and these block drives are one of the major ways we do that!

The royal purple is showing up really lavender.

Spring is coming, and the never-ending rain we've had promises a exceptional eruption of wildflowers this year. So in honor of spring I chose a bright flower block to bring in the sunshine on dark days.  Scroll ALLLL the way to the bottom of the post for details on contributing to the drive.

This design is based on a traditional blocks I believe is called Hope of Hartford.  We'll be using a spring/easter color scheme based on the image below.  Follow the block tutorial for all the details.

This tutorial makes (2) 12.5" blocks at a time. For each pair of blocks you'll need a light, spring-green background, a yellow for the center, and two shades (light and dark) of a "flower color" (purple, pink, blue, yellow).  Cut the following:

(2) yellow squares 2 7/8" sq

(8) green rectangles 5 3/8" x 2 7/8"

(2) green squares 6.75" sq

(2) light flower color squares 6.75" sq

(4) dark flower color squares 6" sq

On the back of all the flower color squares mark a pencil line diagonally from corner to corner.  Put the 6.75" green and light flower squares right sides together and sew on both sides of the pencil line with a quarter inch seam allowance.

Do this will both sets of 6.75" squares. Cut on the pencil line to make 4 HSTs. Press and trim to 6" square.

Match the HSTs you just created right sides together with the dark flower colored squares, so that the pencil line is perpendicular to the seam in the HST.

Like before, sew a quarter inch on both sides of the pencil line and cut to make 8 HSTs.  Press and trim these to 5 3/8"

You'll notice you have 2 kinds of blocks, mirrored from each other. Divide these, each set makes one block. Now you can layout and finish your blocks. For purposes of clarity I am going to show one at a time. They are the same, just mirrored, but I know it can get confusing so I'll show both.

Here's the layout. First take the rectangles and sew them to the compound HST squares.

Take one of the rectangle pieces and start sewing it onto the yellow square, starting at the matching edge and stopping 1/2" from the edge of the yellow square. 

Now add the next rectangular piece to the long matching edge of the yellow square and the first rectangle.

And add the 3rd rectangle to the new edge.

When you get to the 4th piece you can add it because you left the first seam unfinished.

Sew on the 4th piece, then finish the first seam.

Finally, press. Your block should measure 12.5" square. If it's within 1/4" don't sweat it.

The second block is the same steps, just mirrored.  I'll post the pictures below.

(Edited to Add: View some finished quilts here)

And there you go, (2) 12.5" flower blocks.  You can make a whole rainbow of flowers! Everyone is welcome to contribute as many of as few blocks as they'd like toward the drive.  Get them in the mail by the end of April and I'll finish them into comfort quilts.  You can email CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com to get the mailing address.  I announce a new drive every 2 months, contribute to the ones you like and skip the ones you don't, there's no obligation.  You can check out quilts made from previous block drives here.