Pinwheel Drive Wrap Up

Top assembled by Holly M, quilted by Pam M

It's been a little while for this one. The pinwheel drive was in March-April of 2020, at the very beginning of the pandemic! It seems like longer than a year and a half ago. I picked this design because I thought we could use something easy and happy.  

Most of the quilts from this drive were finished quite a while ago, but these 3 tops were still hanging around, looking at me from their shelf.  Pam rescued me and finished them up.

I loved this novelty backing to go with the top! Looks like summer.  I think I had enough for 3 or 4 quilts.

With these three done it finally wraps up the Pinwheel block drive and brings the total to 25 quilts. 

Speaking of block drives, Tammy posted again on her blog about the May/June drive. She is a trooper and approaching 20 quilts!

Sundae also helped with quilt assembly.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 800 so far! The September/October drive is running 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 Sunshine on a Cold Day

It's cold here! I know it isn't as cold as it is some places, but for Texas it's been steadily cold and wet and I've had about enough.  Time for some sweet spring colors with quilts 19-22 of last year's Spring Pinwheel drive. 

These tops were made by Gail and sent in as kits with their backing and bindings. I love the backing fabrics she finds! 

Aren't those old fashioned labels on the backing too cute? 

I quilted these with a cozy stipple and they went up to the hospital with the last batch which put us past 750 total quilts.

I have just a few more of these to finish, 3 I think, and then this block drive will be all wrapped up!

The blocks that have come in for the string drive so far and looking really good! I'm glad so many of you have tried the tutorial and haven't found it too difficult. Sundae has been sleeping on top of the block pile like the Princess and the Pea. 

Thank you for your positive comments on my last post.  I've had a few days in a row off this week which was a welcome break.  

 Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 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

Quilts and 2020 Retrospective

Happy New Year!  We're plugging right along with block drive finishes. These six Spring Pinwheel quilts bring us to 18 from the March/April block drive.

All six of these were assembled and quilted by me with my trademark easy stipple.

I have to give huge props to Gail, Nicki, and Holly who sent in prepped bindings which really helped mew with finishing these quilts.

I love these little Boston Terrier faces!

I really liked this particular backing fabric.

There are still about 7 more of these pinwheel quilts to come.  I love how happy the colors are , definitely one of my favorite blocks we've done in a while!

 On new years it's appropriate to take a moment to look back.  My best estimate (given that the last few block drives haven't been sewn up yet) is that we will produce around 90 quilts from the block drives during 2020.

 Added to that of course were other donated tops, and finished quilts outside of the drives. Louise finished off 25 orphan quilts herself.  162 quilts were delivered to the hospital and we surpassed 700 quilts donated!  150 quilters participated in CiL during 2020, 46 of them for the first time.

Any way you count it, 2020 was a big year for Covered in Love and I'm looking forward to next year!

Apparently Jack and the cats were having a wild party last night while I was asleep.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 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

Thankful for the Helpers

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”― Fred Rogers

Happy Thanksgiving, quilters! I hope you are warm and maybe enjoying some cozier, smaller gathering than usual this year amidst everything that's going on.  This year I'm more thankful than ever for all my helpers! Like Beth T. who sent in this top, and Kathy who quilted it.  The seven quilts in this post bring us to 12 for the March/April block drive.

This top was sent in by Holly and also quilted by Kathy.  As you can tell, I had very golden Fall light the day to took the pictures above.  I know that for Northerners quarantine has gotten harder to deal with as temperatures drop, but for us in the South it has only just become tolerable.  During Summer doing activities outside really wasn't an option, but it's so nice now to be able to take classes, birthday parties, and some community events outside.

Holly also assembled and quilted these block drive blocks into a quilt and quilted it with intersecting lines.  I love the on-point setting.  Since she put them on point she needed to enlarge the backing a bit and did so with neat orphan blocks.

All of us have times in our lives that we couldn't get through without a supportive community, and 2020 has been all of us having those times together, one after another. 

Tammy S. assembled these two quilts from block drive blocks but when it came time to quilt she was struggling with the Covid Malaise.  Feeling low and tired and just in a funk. 

Fortunately, her friends Claudia and Marion jumped in to longarm them with some extra light, poofy batting and this pretty leafy motif while Tammy took some time away.

People helping each other to help me to help other people :) 

Speaking of, Linda D. has recently joined up with CiL and begun assembling and quilting blocks.

She recently upgraded to a long arm and I am only too happy to keep her in top to learn on. I love this design with the multi pointed stars! I have always wanted to piece a design like that. 

The first quilt Linda put together was united by whites with very busy backgrounds.  This second one has yellows all in the same tone and whites with very small dots or similar.

The panto she chose is pretty flowers and leaves, perfect for the Spring-y colors.  Thanks to all you ladies and Happy Thanksgiving to all the CiL family!

Fall weather means cozy sweaters for everyone ;)

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 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

Spinning Pinwheels

Hey everybody, I hope your Labor Day was relaxing and you had a good week. I've got some bright and sunny quilts to show off! The first ones from the March-April block drive. 

 

These were pieced together and quilted by some of CiL's wonderful helpers! The first 3 were done by Beryl in UT.  She likes to use this wavy line quilting that I really like the look of.

 

Yellow and blue is my mom's favorite color scheme and I love how spring-y and bring these quilts look! They're some warm and happy looking. 

 

These next 2 were pieced and quilted by Tammy S. from Kansas who has been helping finish CiL quilts since 2018.  This time she chose a flower panto that worked just perfect!

 

We've passed 20 quilts in long-term storage here, which means it's time for another delivery to the hospital soon. I work next week by maybe Chaplain Perry and I can arrange a breakfast meeting.

 

Things have been rough in the world lately, with politics heating up toward the election and Covid conspiracy theories seeming to be more common and more tolerated.  As a healthcare worker I can tell you that what is most wearing is not the daily work or the ill patients, it's the attitudes of people on Facebook proclaiming masks are more dangerous than the virus.  It's people in Walmart and church, that's what gets exhausting and disheartening.

 

I hadn't been away from my hometown since January, so I got a few days away this week to a quiet lake with a friend.  Took some time to read and get away from social media and refocus.  I hope you can find some time for yourself to do something similar this week.

 

Spotted this strange sight in town last week, an adolescent fox scratching himself on the church lawn! I'm told there are a handful of them living in town who are semi-habituated to being around cars and people.

 

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