Falling Leaves Trickling In

On my design wall today are the early-bird blocks for November's Covered in Love Block Drive.  Thanks to Summer and Amanda whose blocks are already here and to everyone else who has commented or emailed me committing to make blocks!  If you want to contribute there is still plenty of time!  I love the color scheme and scrappiness we have coming together, this is going to be a beautiful quilt.

I have been sewing a bit here and there, mostly working on the Crumb-splosion, but for the most part November has been a month off quilting for me.  Partially I needed the break, but more importantly since 2002 November for me has meant National Novel Writing Month.  Becoming a published author is permanently on my bucket list, so this month I am trading the sewing machine for a keyboard and trying to bang out a rough draft of a story.

Hopefully I will be successful, and definitely I will be back to quilting full speed in December!

Linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Red White and Blue Rail Fence Quilt

Mina has been a very generous contributor to Covered in Love! Not only does she regularly contribute to the monthly block drives, but there are always extra blocks and goodies in the boxes she sends!  You'll be seeing more of her projects as I finish them, but first up in this patriotic quilt made from oversize-rail fence blocks.

I only had to join the blocks and border them.  I've had this clothesline fabric for ages just waiting for the right project and this one was it.

I quilted it with a quick, all-over stipple and bound with the same red check that's on the back.

Basting seems to be everyone's least favorite part of quilting, so I want to share a tip I learned recently.  Up until I started CiL I was always a pin baster, but with the increase in volume of quilts that was just too slow and labor intensive. Then I went to spray basting, which was faster but quickly got expensive and I always had to mop afterward, even with putting down drop cloths.  For about the last month I've been using Elmer's washable glue sticks to baste, the kind that go on purple and dry clear.  These don't work quite as well as spray baste, as far as stickiness and reposition-ability, but they still work quite well and it's just as fast.  A $1 glue stick can do about 1.5 quilts and they don't gum up the needle or anything like that.  Plus I can baste across my bed without having to roll up the rug downstairs.  Best of all, they are washable- as promised!  The rinse water turns bright purple when the glue gets wet again and I generally wash twice before drying to make sure all the glue is gone, but once the rinse water is clear you can be fairly certain. I've done a bunch of quilts this was lately so I feel I can vouch for the technique.  No ill effects to report!

Huge thanks to Mina for her support!  If you want to contribute to Covered in Love check out November's block drive page here.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

Quilting in Circles

I'm still working on my crumb project.  We're into the quilting stage now :)

I'm doing spirals centered on each crumb block and letting them overlap where they intersect.

For the backing I had just enough left of this neat IKEA print.  Gotta get some more of that.

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Patchwork Mosaic Quilts-- Big Reveal!

Each month since August I've asked you guys to send in blocks for Covered in Love and each month you deliver!  Covered in Love has now provided quilts to 36 grieving families at ETMC! This gorgeous pair of quilts are from September's patchwork mosaic blocks.

The first quilt is just a jumble of blocks. It's busy, bright and rowdy; so many awesome tiny blocks you guys pieced!

I love how different these two turned out, the second quilt is soft and feminine.

I quilted ribbon candy in the vertical sashings.

Once again, some stunning piecing.

I made a ton of this striped bias binding, enough for 3 quilts, from donated fabric (thanks, Linda!)  Since I was making bias binding anyway I rounded the corners of the quilts. 

Thanks to everyone who contributed blocks to these quilts, I hope I got all your names! Thanks to Ann, Teri, Margaret, Debbie, Diann, Summer, Tricia, Mina, and Tracey.

I checked in today with one of the chaplains who delivers these quilts and he said, "This is a wonderful, powerful gift. [I] placed the Route 66 quilt on a bed Tuesday and the family cried and cried.  He had lived for many years in Amarillo and it was on the quilt! It was perfect!"

I hope that encourages those of you who have donated. These quilts bless lives! Thanks for your continued support.

Covered in Love donates comfort quilts to the families of patients who pass away in the hospital. If you want to participate in this month's blocks drive check out the block drive post here.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

The Crumb-splosion is a Top!

Whew! After months of work, on and off, the latest crumb project is finally a top!

It measures just shy of 50"x70" and I can't wait to get started quilting. I'm planning on doing intersecting spirals.

Rory watched the final stages of this come together from her nest in the string pile. She's going to be really disappointed when I finally clean these up.

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Happy (not angry) Birds!

This quilt is called Angry Happy Birds!  A few weeks ago Cynthia hosted another quilty orphan adoption event and I scored a few more of other people's UFOs for Covered in Love.

These blocks came from Linda.  There were a variety of four patches and other pieced blocks.  I don't know what design she was originally intending, so I just counted what was there and played around with them to make it work. Angry Happy Birds is the first of two quilts that came from her UFO.

The focal fabric in this quilt is these cute, cartoon birds.

I love the deep purple fabric in the four patches with the flowers on it. Linda also sent enough of that for me to use as backing! The quilt got a pretty striped bias binding to finish and soft rounded corners.

The second quilt from Linda's UFO, in complete contrast to the first, is a wild, scrappy-looking patchwork.

To tame the craziness just a little I set the 4x4 blocks in diagonal lines.  Quilting was a stipple over most of the quilt and a wavy line through the diagonal chains.

Thanks to Linda for donating the blocks that made these quilts :) All donations to Covered in Love are welcome! To get details visit the main page and check out November's block drive here.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

November Block Drive: Falling Leaves

Welcome to Fall! Finally!  Summer seems to last forever in Texas, but the days are finally turning cool. In honor of the arrival of fall this month's block drive for Covered in Love will be a falling leaves block.

(Edited to Add: View some finished quilts here)

First off, I didn't invent this block, I've seen it lots of places. I just customized the measurements for our purposes.  To make this block you will need some scraps in fall colors (brown, red/maroon, orange, yellow) and scraps for the background in khaki/taupe/off white shades.

Cut:

(3) 4.5" colored squares

(2) 5" colored squares

(3) 5" background squares

(1) 4.5" background square

(1) 1"x7" brown strip

On the back side of the (3) 5" background squares mark a diagonal line corner to corner and slice one of the squares along that line into 2 triangles.  Sew the brown strip in-between the two triangles to reassemble the square as a "stem" unit.  Pair the other (2) 5" background squares with the 5" colored squares and sew on either side of the marked line, then cut to yield 2 HSTs (tutorial #1 here).

Press and trim the (4) HSTs and the "stem" unit to 4.5" square and lay out the block as shown.  If you are making more than one block at once you can switch around your HSTs to have more variety within each block. Also, I used the same fabric for the background throughout this block, but feel free to keep it scrappy!

Sew together your 9 small blocks into a 12.5" finished block and you're done! Comment or send me an email for my mailing address if you want to pitch in.  Make 1 block or 10, all donations are welcome!

Covered in Love makes quilts of comfort to be given to the families of patients who pass away in the hospital where I work.  These quilts not only bring warmth to a hospital room, but are taken home by the families as transitional items.

Check out our August block drive quilt by clicking on the picture above.

Linking to Oh Scrap! and Design Wall Monday.