Round 1

I decided to use the one large block I made recently as the center of a round robin style baby quilt. Last week I added round 1.

Originally the four patch round was nine patches, to repeat the center, but it looked too heavy and out of proportion. So a little seam ripper action, and the proportion looks much better. With the narrow green border, this is now 28" square. 

This will eventually become a donation quilt for Operation Shower. If you've ever donated a quilt, you'll like yesterday's post (scroll down). 

Link ups: 
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Love Laugh Quilt

This Is Why

I received an email yesterday from one of the organizations to which I sent a Hands2Help quilt. This is the quilt I sent, called Have Faith: 

Here's what the email said: 

Hi, Jan!  My name is [MW] and my family has a small breast cancer foundation in Utah.  I just picked up your amazing quilt from Emily Bailey a few minutes ago – all I can say is WOW!  It is just gorgeous and will be going to a young Mom in Utah who has just had a recurrence of her breast cancer.  She is raising 3 boys, taking care of her elderly mother, and is divorced from a very abusive man.  I know that your work of textile art will bring her a lot of peace and comfort as she gets ready to battle the beast for the second time.  You are an angel for spending all of the time, energy, money and creativity to donate this piece.  I just wanted you to know how much it is appreciated and will be loved by someone going through a terrible time right now.  Thank you! – Love, [MW], The Christi Anderson Rack Pack Foundation

 

And my reply:

Hi [M], 

Thank you so much for your kind words!

It makes my heart feel good to know that my quilt is giving comfort to someone. Actually, at least a dozen people put love into that quilt: the pattern designer, friends in my Bee who made the blocks, and me. 

Please give the recipient my best wishes for her recovery and for strength during this difficult time. 

Jan

The Have Faith block was designed by Jaime Janow Elfert of L'Fair Quilts for charity use. The blocks were made by the members of Sew Bee It. I created the layout with sashing and finished the quilt. Unfortunately the girls in the bee didn't get to see the finished quilt because of no meetings since February. But I do want to thank Jaime for the inspiration and the girls in the bee for making blocks. This quilt was destined from the get-go to be a donation quilt. I'm glad it can help bring a little comfort to someone going through a rough time. 

Olive Basket Weave Flimsy

This UFO is moving right along. The blocks are now sewn together and framed with borders, bringing the flimsy to 59 x 68". 

Although it looks solid in these photos, the olive is actually a tone-on-tone print. The narrow purple border contrasts well with it, and complements the purples used in the blocks. 

This flimsy will go into the to-be-quilted pile. Since it's such an autumnal palette, it may have to wait until fall to be quilted. It will eventually be a donation quilt. 

Link ups: 
Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Alycia Quilts

TishnWonderland

Design Wall

 Auditioning purple for the inner border of my bee basket weave top:

It's a bluer purple than some of the other purples in the top, but it'll work fine. There are several purple fabrics not showing in this photo and the greater the variety, the better each one works. I like that there's good value contrast between this purple and the olive. 

However, sewing blocks into rows and rows into a top is boring. I'm still sewing blocks into rows for my bright strippy spiral, too. That project was a squirrel but now that I know what it's going to look like, it's just mindless sewing to get it there. I really needed something quilty to engage my mind. 

I found something. I looked through my Quilt Inspirations Pinterest board and found a Jen Kingwell block that looked challenging. You can see it here. 

But I wanted to change it so I could use my 6 x 3" chisel and 3" HST dies to cut some of the pieces. It took some drawing in EQ and on paper to figure out the changes to the proportions; my block does not have the same proportions as hers. 

I learned that chisel shapes have a left and a right. The die cuts two at a time, both in the same direction. If you cut a strip of fabric long enough for four chisel pieces and fold it wrong sides together, you get two left and two right chisels. My block needs four orange paisley lefts and four green rights. It took a bit of experimenting resulting in a few extra pieces going the wrong direction before I got it right and had what I needed. 

My block is huge, 18", and the corners with huge squares of white background looked empty, so I added the large HSTs, which introduced a third print into the mix. Not originally planned, and now very different from the JK inspiration block, but it works.

The fabrics are all remnants, scraps, and FQs from stash so there isn't enough of these fabrics left to do much with. But I do have a couple more FQs that will coordinate with what's here. Since this is such a large block, it could be the center of a round robin style baby quilt, and I could combine the additional FQs with the leftover scraps from this block. That'll give me something to think about and figure out.

This one block is the result of an afternoon with my mind engaged, which felt good. I'll get back to mindless piecing and get the basket weave top finished, but this was a nice change of pace. 

Link ups: 
Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Love Laugh Quilt

Comment Moderation

Sorry, folks, but I'm getting so much spam lately that I have to enable comment moderation. It's a pain, I know, but I don't know of any other way to get rid of the problem.

Basket Weave Blocks on my Wall

I pulled out a UFO recently and made the final two blocks needed. The rest of the blocks had been made by my friends in Sew Bee It. 

Here the blocks are on the wall but I see some rearranging I need to do before I sew them together.

The top will get a narrow inner border, the same width as the strips, and a 4" outer border. I'm still looking for fabric for the inner border. I want a very dark maroon or russet or burgundy. Hopefully I can find something, then I'll use the same olive as in the blocks for the outer border.

Maybe I can continue to move this UFO along. I should at least be able to get the center done, even if I get stuck on the borders due to lack of fabric. And any progress at all is good, right?


Link Ups:
Quilt Fabrication
Finished or Not Friday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
UFO Busting with Tish

May Stash Report and Goals Update

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that May felt like a weird month. I didn't stay focused on my goals very well, but I did finish a couple of small quilts.

Beach Baby for new grandma Valerie

May Stash Report:
IN this month: 3 yards (charcoal background for bright strippy spiral)

OUT this month: 6-3/8 yards (FG baby quilt binding, 3/8 yard.  Bee blocks, 1/4 yard. Green strippy (AKA Sea Glass) top, 2-1/4 yards. Pink Cats, top, backing and binding - 3-1/2 yards)

IN YTD: 29-1/2 yards

OUT YTD: 70-3/4 yards

YTD Net Change: 41-1/4 yards out

I'm so bored with my stash! I'm looking forward to the time when I can shop live for fabric again. Online fabric shopping has more often than not been a disappointment for me. 

Flying Geese Baby Quilt

Goals Update

May Recap: 

1. Make baby quilt for new grandma Valerie. DONE

2. Talk to Sandy about quilting How Many and Corona Medallion; get and/or prep backings. No, Still need to figure out backing for How Many. Batting finally arrived.

3. If possible, start quilting Color Spoke Puzzle. No, awaiting invisible thread. 

4. Layer, Baste, and quilt Keep Positive for Hands 2 Help. Not done.

5. Quilt and finish baby quilt for Operation Shower. DONE, flying geese baby quilt. This will go to Little Lambs for H2H instead of Operation Shower. 

6. When background fabric arrives, finish piecing bright strippy spiral top. Progress: Charcoal background is cut, rows are halfway pieced, columns are clipped for piecing as I can get to it. 

7. Look through UFOs and find something to move forward. DONE: Pink Cats baby quilt, which will go to Little Lambs for H2H. Progress: Basketweave Bee Blocks. 

Other: Pieced green/aqua/blue strippy columns baby quilt top, now named Sea Glass. 

Sea Glass in progress

June Goals: 

1. Finish piecing Bright Strippy Spiral.

2. Talk to Sandy about quilting How Many and Corona Medallion; get and/or prep backings.

3. If possible, start quilting Color Spoke Puzzle. 

4. Layer, baste and quilt Sea Glass baby quilt.

5. Finish piecing basketweave bee blocks top. 

6. Piece another strippy top using already cut strips. 

7. Design something new and complicated to piece.

I also need to get all the Hands2Help quilts mailed out, which I will do this week. 

Pink Cats Baby Quilt for Hands2Help

I don't know how focused I'll stay in June. I actually didn't feel like writing goals this month. Maybe my goals for the month should just be:

 - pet fabric

 - piece something

 - quilt something

 - and my stretch goal: buy fabric

Maybe those I can achieve!  ;-)

Linking up with Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt