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. 

Summer Sunshine in the Fall

Remember waaaay back in June when the block drive made bright blue and yellow "sun and sea" blocks?  At long last I have two finished quilts from that drive to show!

I made 2 layout versions of the diamond weave design, one with the small HSTs toward the center of the block making flying geese and one with the larger HSTs to the center.  One also got a gray sashing while the other did not.  Do you have a favorite?

Both quilts were stippled with a light gray thread and bound with blue scraps from my string box.

Both quilts turned out differently than I expected. It's amazing how many different patterns can come out of the same blocks depending on how you look at it.

Thank you to everyone who donated blocks toward these in June! If you don't see yours here don't worry, the extra blocks that didn't add up to another quilt have gone into the "leftovers" drawer. I think I see a block drive row-by-row style quilt coming out of that drawer soon.

These two quilts will be added to Covered in Love's stash.  CiL gifts quilts to the families of patients who pass away at an East Texas hospital so they can have something to carry home from the hospital and hang on to.  If you would like to contribute to CiL consider participating in October's block drive, going on now!

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts Friday Finishes.

A Temporary Absence

The first quilt top from June's Covered in Love block drive is together.  This one I put together in the same way the original pattern showed, the next one I'm going to "invert" the blocks as I had on previous design walls.

I wanted to let you know the blog's going to be quiet for the rest of the month.  I'm going on a trip, followed by 2 weeks of almost solid work in order to make some money before the semester starts.  Normally I save up some posts and schedule them for while I am out of town, but I'm afraid I'm all out of ahead-of-time posts. 

Don't worry, CiL will continue to gather blocks and quilts this month and the chaplains will still be passing them out at the hospital. Remember, August's block drive is underway now if you want to participate. I'll be back in September ready to hit the ground running!

Linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Sun and Sea Design Wall

This month's Covered in Love block drive is a pretty blue and yellow block I'm calling Sun and Sea.  Quite a few block have come in but there is still lots of time left in June if anyone wants to contribute more blocks!  I haven't started putting these together yet but I have been playing with arranging them.

I think I like this arrangement best, which is sort of the inverse of the original layout, with some to-be-determined sashing in between.  Probably each quilt will be square, with 9 of these large blocks... We'll see.  At this point I am still just enjoying playing with them.  Last week and the weekend were very busy for me so I am looking forward to some relaxed  sewing time this week.

Sun and Sea {June CiL Block Drive}

Summer time is already here in Texas, and soon to be upon the rest of the country. What does summer make you think of? Sunshine, beaches, popsicles, sand castles and ocean waves.  Being a red-head, I'm all-but allergic to sun.  Summer means a lot of going around wrapped up like a mummy, but even I am not immune to the draw of the beach.

In honor of summer this month's Covered in Love block drive is one I'm calling "Sun and Sea".  The proper name is this block is Diamond Weave and it was designed by Maureen for Janome using fabric from her own lines!

You can find the tutorial for the block at Janome's project center.  Everywhere that she talks about using red or coral we're using yellow instead, for the blues use "true blues", that is, not aqua or teal but regular blue. You can make these with just a couple of fabrics or make them scrappy.  Her instructions are great, so there's no need for me to reinvent the wheel.  Although...

As it stands the cutting instructions make 1.78 blocks.  If you will cut 2 additional 4.5" squares, one each of yellow and blue, and use the same instructions as for the larger HSTs to make them into (2) 4" HSTs you will have enough for 2 whole blocks.

(Edited to Add: View some finished quilts here)

I'm not sure if any of you watch "Gold Rush" on the Discovery Channel. We're occasional watchers and recently caught the memorial episode for one of the show's old-timers who passed away at 96.  Suspecting that his time was growing short he was peaceful. In one scene, on his birthday, he sings this song by Terry Jacks,  (you can see the scene here, about 1 minute in)

Goodbye my friend it's hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
With the flowers everywhere
I wish that we could both be there

Sometimes it's like that. The sun is shining and life is going on everywhere and it's hard for those that have to leave, but even harder for those left behind.  That's why we make quilts, to comfort the loved ones left behind.  If you would like more details about Covered in Love check out the main page and if you would like to support us by making blocks this month you can make as few or many as you like.  Comment (make sure I can contact you) or email me at CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com for a mailing address.

You can also check out some of out past block drive quilts here.