Hands 2 Help 2022

The Hands 2 Help comfort quilt drive of 2022 is wrapping up with its final linky party. This year, H2H is being hosted by Mari of The Academic Quilter. 

I've been participating in Hands 2 Help for several years, with quilts for Mercyful Quilts, Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo, and Little Lambs. These charities are on the schedule again this year, but there's always the option to donate locally. 

This year I'm donating locally. Through PebbleCreek Quilters I can donate to the local family services agency that serves victims of sexual and domestic violence (SFAC), and to Hospice of the Valley. Because these charities have been vetted by and are supported by PCQ, I'm allowed to use PCQ's stash for piecing and backings, PCQ's batting, and PCQ's long arm to quilt at no charge for any charity quilt for these organizations and the others we support. I serve on PCQ's charity committee, where my role is to plan for and prep for certain community service sew days. 

Because of the connection with PCQ, this year I've been particularly productive. I've given three quilts to Hospice and three to SFAC. 

For Hospice: 

Tumblers, fabrics donated by Carla and from PCQ's stash

Scrappy Blue Row quilt, fabrics from Carla and from my stash

Blue Color Bars, pattern in the Charity tab above,

displayed by PCQ Charity Committee members MW and MH

For SWAC: 

Winding Ways, no finished photo available. 

I finished piecing the top and it was quilted and bound by someone else in PCQ

Lilac Quilt for Kids, pattern in the Charity tab above

Bolt of Lightning, black and white fabrics donated by 

QuiltDivaJulie and solids from my stash

Some of these quilts have already gone to their respective agencies. Blue Color Bars and Bolt of Lightning are very recent finishes and will go the next time our committee makes a delivery. 

Because I have the privilege of working with the PCQ Charity Committee, I've been able to help generate more quilts for the agencies we support by creating patterns we can kit up for members to work on during Charity Sew Days. The Quilt for Kids kits have been very popular and quite a few have been finished and donated. Several Color Bars quilts are currently in work from our April sew day. The patterns are available free for any charitable purpose in the Charity tab above, below my header. 

It's been a pleasure to create these quilts for the agencies we support and dedicate them to Hands 2 Help 2022. Check out the rest of the H2H quilts at the linky party here. 

Friday Finish: Blue Color Bars

 The PCQ Charity Committee held their May sew day last Saturday and it was mostly a catch-up day to work on kits we had started in March and April. For those who hadn't started one earlier, there were still kits available for anyone who wanted to start one. In March we made Quilts for Kids and in April we made Color Bars. The patterns we included in the kits are available in the Charity Patterns tab beneath my header above. 

I had worked on a Color Bars kit at the April sew day. Most of the kits were warm neutrals with miscellaneous darks, like the pattern, because that's what we had a lot of in the club's stash. My kit was special. I had cut strips from random pastels with a bit more color in them than the neutral lights. They were mostly leftover binding bits, off-cuts from backings, strips cut from my scraps, and strips cut from small pieces in the club's stash. To ground the pastels I used a dark blue from the charity committee, with permission. I like the combination of pastels with navy. 

The flimsy was finished at social sewing a few weeks ago, and I quilted it on the club's long arm the last time I had time booked on the machine. At the May sew day last weekend I got the quilt bound and labeled. Friends at the sew day helped me take pictures: 

This quilt is large enough for an adult throw, 60 x 80", the size preferred by the hospice we support. The colors are soothing. There's actually a lot more color than shows in these bright sunny photos, as you can see in these blocks: 

The Blue Color Bars quilt is finished, labeled, and will be delivered to Hospice the next time we make a delivery. 

We had a good turnout at the sew day and I know there are several more Color Bars and a few Quilts for Kids projects that are progressing nicely. 

Linking up with Alycia Quilts, TGIFF, Wendy's Quilts and More and My Quilt Infatuation

Steppers

 At social sewing last week I was able to get all the blocks made for Steppers. 

Steppers is a pattern designed by Alycia of Alycia Quilts, tutorial here. It's an easy rail fence variation.

I put the blocks up on my design wall so I could label them for assembly this week at social sewing.

I mark the rows and columns so I can stack up the blocks and easily assemble them in the right order.

All kitted up and ready to go. The parts for the side and bottom borders are also cut and packed, but I'm not likely to get to them at social sewing this week.

This will be a donation quilt for the local social services agency. The black and white prints were gifted by QuiltDivaJulie and the teal is from PCQ's stash. There's enough of the teal for the backing and binding, too. 

While most of the agency's clients are girls and young women, there is the occasional need for a boy quilt. This one with the bright teal is gender neutral. The flimsy will finish at 48 x 66" .

Link ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts,  Love Laugh Quilt

Bolt of Lightning Donation Quilt Finish

Quilted, bound, labeled, and finished. This quilt will go to the local family services agency. At 46 x 59", this will be a good throw size for a kid or a teen. 

I enjoyed playing with all the black and white prints - thanks, Julie! - and setting the bold colors against them. The piecing was super easy, just half square triangles. There are so many possible layouts with HSTs but this one kind is of fun, more modern.

The bright sunlit photos make the quilting look wrinkly, but it looks much better in real life. I chose stippling for the B+W prints because it wouldn't show anyway. And straight lines for the lightning bolts because that's what the quilt told me it needed. Lots of wrangling using my domestic machine, but worth it for the result. 

I'm really glad I have an outlet locally for donation quilts and that they truly appreciate having them for their clients. I want to keep making quilts but I don't need any more, and my family members don't need any more, so I'll continue making donation quilts for awhile. 

Link ups: Alycia Quilts, Wendy's Quilts and More, TGIFF, My Quilt Infatuation

Kitting up Steppers

Now that my snake quilt is a finished top, I need a new piecing project to work on at social sewing on Wednesdays. I'll make another donation quilt using the black and white prints that Julie sent for that purpose, along with something bright. I can cut at home, where I'm less likely to make cutting mistakes, kit it up, and piece it at social sewing. 

The pattern is Alycia's Steppers pattern, with a slight modification to add borders to one side and the bottom. I drew it up in EQ to plan the borders before I knew what fabric I'd be using for the color. The teal is from PCQ and is used with permission from the club's charity committee chair. It's perfect to make this a gender-neutral quilt. This quilt will go to the local family services agency we support. Although the majority of their clients are girls and women, occasionally there is a need for a boy quilt, too. 

I still need to cut the teal strips and pack up the kit for social sewing. When sewn, the blocks will look like this mock-up:

Thank you to Julie for the black and white fabrics, Alycia for the pattern, and PCQ for the teal fabric. Together we'll make this a comfort quilt for a teen who's been sexually abused. 

Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Love, Laugh, Quilt

Snake Quilt Flimsy

 The coral and pink Snake quilt that I've been working on for nearly a year is now a finished flimsy! I finished sewing the rows together at social sewing earlier this week. Whoo Hoo! 

The girls at social sewing named it: Candyland. It does look like the game, doesn't it?!!!

The flimsy is 60 x 80", too big to hang vertically on my wall, so it's horizontal for photos. It doesn't make any difference, the coral trails still snake their way around the top. 

Pardon the wrinkles - it was folded and stuffed in the bag I carry to social sewing and I should have pressed it again before I took pics. 

The arcs are paper pieced. The background shapes are cut from templates. With some careful squaring up of the blocks, the seams came together and the snake trail matched up pretty well.

I have a plan for quilting it, and I have a pretty peachy coral print for the backing. When I get the backing pieced and can get time on the club's long arm, I'll baste it all together. Then on my domestic machine I'll quilt in the ditch around all the arcs, and diagonal lines in the background behind the snake trails. There's so much movement in this design that it definitely needs straight line quilting to balance all these curves. 

So, a finished flimsy, a long time in work. I first posted about it on June 13 last year, so it's been 11 months in progress. 

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and TGIFF

Charley Harper Pillows, Part 1

My favorite find from the AQS show in Paducah is these Charley Harper prints. When I showed  them to my husband, he just had to grin. Those quail are too cute! 

We have quail in our yard frequently, although I haven't seen any babies. They're fun to watch; they're so goofy how they run everywhere, rarely fly. They walk in a row along the top of our wall in the back yard and it looks like a cartoon shooting gallery.  I've also seen road runners a couple of times since we've lived here, but they're fewer and far between and much harder to spot.

My plan is to use these fabrics for pillows for our family room. The old pillows are looking a little worn, so we need a refresh. I found a sage fabric in Paducah that coordinates with our decor that I'll use for pillow backs, and I'll use these prints for the fronts. In my bag of batting off-cuts there were some pieces that I can trim to size. The pillows will be 18" finished. 

In order to feature the prints, and in keeping with the Charley Harper aesthetic, the quilting has to be simple and linear. Straight lines for the quail, and careful outlining for the road runner. An afternoon with my walking foot accomplished the job.

Next I'll quilt up the sage for both pillow backs. Sometime soon I'll get to the store to buy zippers and pillow forms, and soon we'll have new pillows. 

Link ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts,  Love Laugh Quilt