Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Hello and happy March! We made it through the first long cold months of the year.  This week I have  3 quilts that Louise sent back to Covered in Love. Louise is a CiL board member and she's also taken on the role of UFO and orphan block wrangler.

I'm calling this one a kitchen sink quilt, since it combines so many different orphan blocks. Many of them have diagonal elements which ties them all together. 

This very structured quilt was made with a beautiful fat quarter stack of metallic fabrics using this free pattern.

I tried to take close ups so you can see how pretty and detailed the fabrics are.

Lastly, another different style of kitchen sink quilt bringing together a variety of UFO blocks, all with black and grey tones. Thank you, Louise, the UFO whisperer!

I keep a running box of orphan blocks and UFOs and orphans for Louise and ship it when it gets full. Sundae does her part by keeping things well compressed as I add layers ;)

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 so far! The March/April 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

March-April CiL Block Drive

Hello quilters! Welcome to the 2020 March-April Block Drive for Covered in Love! If you are new to CiL or the block drives scroll to the end of this post for more information.

For the Spring months I chose an easy, fun rail fence block that makes blue and yellow pin wheels.  We have done this color scheme before (see the picture below) with true blues and yellows.

So, on to the tutorial! First step, choose 3 fabrics in a true blue, bright true yellow, and low volume or white fabric.

For each block you need (4) strips of each color cut to 6.5" long x 2.5" wide. 

Sew the sets of strips together into 4 rail fence blocks with blue and yellow on the outsides and white sandwiched in the middle.

Then arrange the 4 rail fence blocks as shown with a blue pin wheel in the middle and sew them into a 12.5" block.  Done!

Covered in Love makes quilts to cover patients who pass away at a Texas hospital and comfort the families.  Anyone can contribute to these drives and make as few blocks or as many as they like. The current drive runs March through April, so blocks should be in the mail by the end of April.  Email CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com if you need the address to mail blocks.

Thank you to all of you who have contributed to drives in the past and make our mission possible. We will soon surpass 600 quilts delivered to mourning families!

Christine's Quilts

Late post going up today, sorry about that! I had to be up super early the past 2 days with my nursing students for their first clinical days and Friday snuck up on me.
 

These 6 quilt tops came to me from Christine in Florida for Covered in Love and I finished them recently.

Christine sent me all of her tops kitted up with backings and binding to match, perfectly ready to go!

This scrappy top, above, was the one that became my inspiration for my scrap buster string top. You can see the tutorial I uploaded for that here.

I really loved these two large, earthy colored batik quilts.  These 6 quilts already went to the hospital and will be finding their forever homes soon. 

Further down the page there's another quilt with partial seams made with beautiful Christmas fabrics.  While I was delivering this last batch Chaplain Perry told me a sweet story.

Months back we had sent up a Christmas quilt. I remember writing on here about how I hoped it would wind up with the perfect family.  Perry said they held on to it for quite a while before finally taking it to a family, kind of on impulse. 

The family was thrilled! And told them how the patient had loved Christmas and always hosted it at her house for her large family.  We continue to be amazed how the perfect quilt seems to find its way to each family!

Love these fabrics!

Happy weekend and Stay Warm!  You can look for the next blog drive post Sunday or Monday. 

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 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

String Scrap Buster {Tutorial}

(Edited to add: See the finished quilts here)

Seems like I mostly only make Finish posts these days, but I have something different for once!  Every January I get the bug to clean out my scraps, organize them and make something.  My strings (long narrow strips) I cut down to either 2.5" or 1.5" wide.  You can look back at previous projects at this link (this post will appear on top; scroll down past it.)  This design was inspired by a top that Christine from FL sent in.  The way I made it produces 2 blocks, which can yield 2 different quilts.

I started off this this loooooong strip of scraps 4" wide.

And sewed white/low volume 1.5" strips to both sides.

As I added strips to the sides I carefully alternated directions to avoid warping and ironed after each addition.

Next I started adding 2.5" strips to the sides.

I decided to add (3) 2.5" strips to each side because that made the final panel have a total width of 18".

My target width was 18" because that was just enough to cut 12.5" blocks on point.

The 12.5" blocks with the "railroad tracks" down the middle are the primary block and will make the design you see at the top of the page.  I had enough to make a 48"x60" top, which I'll add borders to.  You do have to be very careful because these are nothing but 200% bias edges.  You have to be very careful and mindful of that when handling and sewing them.

The secondary blocks are triangular and you get 2 per primary block.  These can be put together in 2 ways, either 2 of them back to back or 4 of them point to point. 

The design below is made from the first option, combining 2 triangles into one block.  You can see it's basically the inverse of the primary block, with the big strips down the middle instead of the narrow ones.

This (below) is the design you get from combining 4 triangles into one block. It make the same design but the strips appear horizontal and vertical instead of diagonal. The other big advantage of this one is that it sews up the bias edges inside the block.

I decided to go for the second option and had enough to make a top 54" square with a block leftover. I'll be adding more borders to it as well.

If you make anything with this tutorial please send me a picture! Obviously I'm not the first person to come up with this idea, I googled and found this blogger who did the same thing making one block at a time instead of a big panel.  I did come up with this technique on my own though, and I hope some of you will enjoy it and find it helpful!

Kathy, Kathy, Karen, and Nettie :)

Happy weekend, quilters! These three finished quilts for Covered in Love came back from quilter Kathy recently.  She did a great job with these tops! This bright and black and white top came from Kathy B., so it was made by team Kathy & Kathy :)

This top is another of Nettie's beautiful scrap tops. She must have a real treasure trove of Heather Ross fabrics, based on all the cute scraps in her tops.

And this soft pink beauty came from Karen. 

The top was a tad narrow so I found the perfect border fabric in my donations to widen it.

I love the rhythm to the ladies' names who cooperated on this weeks' batch: Kathy, Kathy, Karen and Nettie.  Quilting heroes!

:)

 
Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 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

Sweet Valentines Quilts

Happy weekend and Happy Valentines Day to those of you who celebrate!  I'm celebrating a huge quilt delivery to the hospital this week for Covered in Love.  On Tuesday I took up 48 quilts!

This round of donations included a lot of donated tops that I finished off, including these three from Julie W. in my Nurture Circle group.

This one with the soft colors and sweet, small prints is my favorite, in case you couldn't tell.

Next up, a very different bright and scrappy quilt.  I like how the alternating blocks of quarter square triangles make the design look so much more complex.

Finally, stacked coins on a light blue fabric.  I apologize for the blurry photos.  I had the get the photos taken in order the get these quilts in with this delivery and it won't. stop. raining.  My first time experimenting with an indoor photo set up in the new house.

Chaplain Perry suggested maybe we should pass out a kitten or two with each quilt, as well, for maximum cuteness.  I think that would make a pretty effective bereavement kit, don't you?

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 500 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