Color Bars, a PCQ Community Service Sew Day Project

The project for PCQ Community Service for April was quilts for adults. The quilts will go to the local hospice we support and are much appreciated by the families of the patients they serve. For April the committee made up kits for the sew day, using the Color Bars pattern (see tab below header). 

We had about 18 or 19 kits made up. It took several sessions of cutting to cut all the strips, even using the die cutter, to make that many kits. We used mostly the club's stash for the dark colors and some light prints we had ordered in bulk for the lights. The prototype is typical of the colors in the kits, warm neutrals for the lights and random darks: 

I had also cut some pastel strips from my own scraps and from bits and pieces from the club's stash. These were much more multicolored and varied than the light neutrals (low volumes) for the kits. It used up a lot of leftover binding strips and backing off-cuts, as well as some one-off scraps.  

Knowing that in merchandising, navy is often the base color that grounds a palette of pastels, I used some navy from the club's stash for dark strips for contrast. This kit is one of a kind, and I nabbed it for myself to sew at our sew day last Saturday. 

I was able to get all of the blocks with dark outer strips made at the sew day. 

And a good start on the light blocks, but I didn't get them finished before it was time to clean up. 

Since then I was able to finish the blocks and put them all up on my design wall. 

It needs a little tweaking, then I'll label the blocks and kit it up for assembly at one of my social sewing Wednesdays. It'll be 60 x 80" when sewn, a good size for an adult throw as preferred by the hospice. 

I really like this palette, very soothing. I hope this quilt will bring a little comfort to a patient and family served by our hospice. 

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

Bolt of Lightning Flimsy

This is the first of many, I hope, charity quilts for our local family services agency to come from the fabulous box of black and white prints sent by Julie. 

I love the variety of prints - Thanks, Julie! - and the cheerful colors. When this flimsy gets quilted and has the quilting texture rather than just piecing seams, it'll be even better. 

I see a design decision that I'm second guessing. See how the upper coral bold of lightning parallels the green, but the lower one veers off? Now I'm wondering if I should make them match. If so, which way? On the one hand the eye likes to see them all going the same way as on the right. On the other hand, I really wanted this layout to have some irregularity, which is why the blue and green stripes aren't parallel and there's more negative space. That's what I was going for on the left. Either way it's an easy fix at this point. 

This was a quick finish, but it's been so windy here that I haven't been able to take photos until now. Finally, a calm morning, but as always here, the sun is wicked but the shade is too dark, so you get bright sunny pictures. 

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and TGIFF

A PCQ Charity Quilt, Finished

When I was first developing easy patterns for PCQ to kit up for charity quilts, I thought we needed baby quilts among other sizes. So, I made this prototype in baby quilt size, using fabric from my stash. The top finished 37-1/2 x 45".

It turns out we need quilts that are a little larger, closer to 45 x 60".

I had barely enough of the grey print to make three more blocks, but a bit more of the lavender. Six more blocks made a 45" square, but still not big enough. So I added accent strips of purple and used the lavender print for borders. The top came up to 45 x 58", close enough. 

Since it was always intended to be a PCQ charity quilt, it was eligible to use the club's backing and batting. Last week at social sewing I was able to get the batting cut and the backing pieced. I quilted it on my domestic machine at home, and now it's a finish. 

For speed and ease I gave it an allover meander. Except, I added flower-like shapes within the meandering, in each of the lavender blocks and in the borders. This was a new-to-me attempt at something more than just a meander, and while it's nowhere near perfect, it's pretty good and I like the result. 

Can you see the motifs on the front? They show up better on the back. I used more of the lavender print from the front for the binding. 

So now it's a finish, just in time for show and tell at PCQ's spring luncheon next week. 

Later I made a larger teaching sample in the same pattern, no border, and that's the version we kitted up. Several PCQ members have already finished their quilts made from the kits we provided at the March sew day. At the luncheon next week everyone who made charity quilts from our kits will show them as a group. I'm looking forward to seeing them finished! 

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and TGIFF

Bolt of Lightning on my Design Wall

The box of black and white prints from Julie was so enticing, I just had to dive in and create something. I played in EQ8 and raided my stash for some cheerful solid colors, and came up with a project using half square triangles. I found solids in coral, turquoise, and green in my stash, not much of each but enough if I used them all. 

I sewed the HSTs at social sewing a couple weeks ago, but then put everything aside while my son and grandson were here visiting last week. My sewing room was converted to guest room mode for their visit. 

Based on my EQ plan, I started putting the HSTs on the wall. I didn't want just ordinary chevrons, so the layout has a bolt of lightning effect. To get the effect I wanted I needed some all black and white HSTs, too. 

Continuing the layout with the coral blocks; I had more of the coral fabric so I was able to balance out the top and bottom with it. 

The blocks will finish at 7" so the top will be 49 x 63" when sewn, a good size for a donation quilt for a teen girl. 

I used a variety of black and white prints, 7 in all, six from the box and one from my stash. I turned the black and white HSTs so the diagonal seam runs parallel to the blue and green.

 The colors are really much perkier than they look in these photos. I think this color combo looks good and will be suitable for one of the clients of the agency we support. 

The pattern is super easy, a 7 x 9 block layout of 7" finished squares. I chose to make 7" squares because I could cut 8" squares for the most efficient yield (least waste) from my WOF, to make two-at-a-time HSTs. The resulting 49 x 63" size is perfect for our needs. The blocks are now off the wall, labeled and kitted up so I can sew the top together at social sewing. 

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

March Stash Report and Goals Update

I had a light list of goals for March because I knew I'd have some non-quilty things going on. DH and I went to Palm Springs for a few days, and my son and grandson came from Missouri to visit for GS's spring break. A good time was had by all. 

March activities did not include any fabric shopping, so nothing was added to the stash. A couple of tops were finished so I can count out the fabrics that were used in them. 

Blue Strip top inspired by Carla's scraps;
I'm counting only my own fabrics used in it for my stash report. 

March Stash Report: 

IN this month: 0
OUT this month: 5-1/4 yards (Teen Quilt teaching sample, 3 yards. Blue Strip top, my fabrics, 3-1/4 yards.)

IN YTD: 5-1/2 yards
OUT YTD:21-1/2 yards
YTD Net Change:16 yards OUT

I'm definitely reducing my stash so far this year. That will change in April. 

Goals Update: 

March Recap: 

1. Finish prepping kits and lead the project for PCQ Charity Sew Day on Feb. 12. Done; sew day went well.

2. Quilt the blue strip top, bind and finish the quilt. Not done.

3. Finish Winding Ways top for No Shame Train. Done, post to come next week (will figure yardage for next month's stash report).

4. Assemble the coral snake blocks into a flimsy. Progress; blocks are sewn into rows but rows are not sewn together.

Other: 
 - Made new teaching sample top for PCQ Kid Quilt, suitable colors and size for teen girl.
 - Cut strips for more Kid Quilts and for Color Bars quilts; enough light strips for at least 8 more quilt kits are cut. 
 - Created new page under blog header to make charity patterns readily available. 

Teaching sample, kid quilt top in teen girl size and colors

April Goals:

1. Continue working with charity committee to make kits for Color Bars quilts and Kid Quilts. Participate in charity committee prep day Apr. 7 and sew day Apr. 16.

2. Cut and kit up pieces from donated black and white prints for charity quilts to work on at social sewing. 

3. Quilt the blue strip quilt on the club's long arm (booked for Apr. 13)

4. Quilt the lavender kid quilt before April 11. 

5. Travel to Paducah for AQS Show April 26-30; attend the show, visit with friends, and have fun.

These should be do-able. I'm especially looking forward to that last one!

New Tab for Charity Quilt Patterns

The response to my charity quilt pattern posts over the last couple of months has been amazing and very gratifying. To be able to find them again in the future, I've added a tab below my header labeled Free Charity Quilt Patterns. 

The patterns are available for any charitable purpose. They were designed to be included in kits so total yardage isn't given on the PDF, but I've added the yardage requirements and number of strips needed per kit to the the new page. 

Check out the new tab. If you're inspired to make a charity quilt and want any of the PDF patterns, leave a comment and be sure to include your email address within the text of the comment. 

Link ups: I'm celebrating a different kind of Friday Finish today, the new page, at TGIFF, Wendy's Quilts and More, and Alycia Quilts

PCQ Community Service Sew Day

Recently PCQ held an all day sew day to work on charity quilts for a local family services agency. The Community Service committee had prepped kits ahead of time using the Quilt for Kids pattern I had created for this purpose. We had a great turnout - 18 people! The room was so packed we couldn't have shoe-horned another person in. 

We had prepped about two dozen kits. Some people took an extra kit home after working on their first kit that day. We ended up making at least four more kits because we had enough cut parts for them, and made them available for adoption at the general guild meeting last week. All were taken. 

The agency serves victims of sexual violence so our focus was on quilts for teenage girls. My sample: 

Everyone got all their blocks made and some people got some of their rows together. I heard no complaints about the pattern or the kits, although a couple needed extra strips, which we were able to provide. Based on the ease, speed, and progress, I would consider this a successful charity sew day. 

Some of the kits had black in them, not all. The tops that were this far along when we took the photo happened to have black in them. George's kit had pink flamingoes, tropical florals, and greenery, and he was planning his layout so all the flamingoes would be going in the same direction. I wish I had a photo, but maybe I'll get one when his quilt is finished. 

By the following Wednesday at social sewing, several people had completed their tops and were making backs and cutting batting in preparation for quilting them on the long arm. Here's Julie's top; you can't see it in the photo but the black patches have multi-colored confetti printed on them, very festive. This quilt could go to one of the boys the agency occasionally has as a client. 

It was a fun and successful sew day. Very gratifying for me, not only because of the impact of making so many quilts for the family services agency we support but also because my pattern and my efforts were successful and well received.