100 Quilts for Kids

Hey there! Welcome to my first blog post (here) for 2015!  I've been busy as the DC Modern Quilt Guild president this year and have been blogging over there.  But now I'm back for a post about 100 Quilts for Kids.

I made four quilts for the quilt drive this year.  My guild is donating all that we collect to kids at the DC General Homeless Shelter.  That shelter has about 600 children on average.  After reading that, I've had those kids and charity quilts on the brain for two months straight. 

The first collaborative quilt has blocks made at the Denyse Schmidt workshop that the DCMQG hosted in June.  Attendees gave me two blocks each, I added a few more from my stash and Cathy added a bunch more.  My guild friend, Jamie, did the quilting and another friend, Anjeanette, stitched the binding down.  I adore the colors and movement in this quilt and it will be missed the most.

Next up is another quilt made from blocks from the DS workshop.  Again, I added a few more from my stash and Cathy's friend, Stella, added all of the blocks she made at a similar workshop.  Jamie did the quilting and Cassandra stitched the binding down.  This quilt has a Cotton + Steel metallic Netorious print as binding and that extra bit of bling was a perfect addition.

When my friend, Alyson, was over for a sewing day in August she helped me arrange some guild orphan blocks into a quilt top.  Three of these blocks were ones I received back in my days in the 3x6 Bee.  The rest were blocks donated by other members.  I love how they all fit perfectly with the other blocks in this quilt.  Again, Jamie did the beautiful quilting and guild friend, Cindy, stitched the binding down.

This last quilt was made entirely by me, but the quilting was made possible by Anjeanette.  She has a midarm machine and she let me come over and play last month.  The "back" of this quilt is a zoo print, so I quilted the "front" with names of zoo animals done in cursive across the quilt.  I've always wanted to do word quilting, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it out. This quilt was SUPER hard to photograph so you'll have to trust me that the print and the yellow solid are much prettier in person. 

So that's what is up with me lately.  What is happening with you?  Or what have you been up to in the past nine or ten months since I blogged?  Do you belong to a guild?  Do you make any charity quilts?  I'd love to read about it.

Hard to give away

Henry went off to his first day of school for this year, so I thought I'd try blogging again.  I'm behind on everything around the house, but why not procrastinate a little bit longer?

I have drastically cut back on my sewing bees and swaps--because I'm low on sewing time, my WIP's keep piling up, but mostly because it is stressful to sew for other people and equally stressful to send it away in the mail after working so hard on it.  Recently I saw the ice cream swap on instagram and I thought I'd give swaps another try.

The ice cream block comes from the 318 Patchwork Patterns book by Kumiko Fujita.  This book was recently release again in English and is for sale at the link (and I have no ties with the vendor).  I have loved that ice cream block since I first saw Penny's block (back in 2010!) and now I've finally made one.


 

I used a bag construction technique found in a Suzuko Koseki book but then changed the dimensions to suit the pencil bag I wanted to make.  You quilt the front and back panels but use a separate lining and then you quilt a zipper gusset with the lining fabric.  Then when the gusset is sewn into the bag there are exposed seam allowances. 

 

Then you stitch binding tape above the seam allowance by hand and then stitch it by hand again below the seam allowance but without wrapping the seam allowance.  This way the seam allowance is tucked down and that gives the bag more shape while making the inside cleaner. 




Here is a picture of the quilted gusset.




The finished zipper gusset,




and the finished bag.  Yet again, I love the finished product so much that I really didn't want to send it off in the mail.  I'll probably be taking another break from swaps.  Call me selfish, but I don't seem to find time to make cute ice cream bags to stay here at home and I'll never will if I keep signing up for more swaps.

For Pink Sakes

I am participating in the For Pink Sakes Blog Hop hosted by Anna of Life Sew Crafty.  Anna is collecting pink blocks to make a breast cancer quilt.  Her mother-in-law has been fighting breast cancer and she has more information about that here.



For my block, I used the bra block pattern at Paper Panache.  I just fell in love with the duck and duckling fabric and now I wish that I had a bra like this.  Unfortunately, a bra made out of quilting cotton would probably be uncomfortable...

If YOU would like to contribute a pink block to Anna's quilt, please find more information on her blog.  Anna will also be hosting a giveaway on August 2 for anyone who has participated by reposting, sending a pink block, contributions, etc.  The giveaway items are pretty cool, so click through on this link and consider pitching in.

Now go check out the other bloggers on the blog hop!

May 10
Anna of Life Sew Crafty
Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Robin  Miscellaneous Thoughts
Kathy of Kwilty Pleasures

May 24
Jess of Quilty Habit
Melinda of quirky granola girl
Kristyn of Melon Patch Quilts

June 7
Amy of The  Calico Cat
Leanne of Devoted Quilter
Terrie of Quilting Nonnie

June 21
Carla of modern bias
Meli of Munchkin Quilts
Stacey of The Tilted Quilt
Julie of The Crafty Quilter 

July 5
Erin of Sew at Home Mummy
Lyanna of Blue Striped Room
Heather of Quilts in the Queue 

July 19
Katie of Swim Bike Quilt
Sarah of {no} hats in the house
Katie of Snuggle Up with a Dish from Karma

Baby quilt for a new little MQG member

Jessie, the president of the DC Modern Quilt Guild, just had a baby.  I was lucky enough to get to put together the blocks from the MQG members to make the quilt for the new little bundle.



I was inspired by Teaginny's Tiny Log Cabin Quilt.  So I asked for monochromatic log cabin blocks in each member's favorite color, out of their favorite fabrics and measuring only four to five inches.  I also asked each person to send some pale neutral scrap for the sashing.

Once I received quite a few blocks in the mail, I arranged them on my design floor.  I like to use the back of a picnic tablecloth.  The flannel side is very sticky and the other side is slippery so it is easy to roll up or fold and then flatten it back out without my blocks getting rearranged.




Then I started improv piecing around each colorful block with whatever low volume bits I could find that worked.  Here is the first quarter,




the second quarter (after Henry trampled on it),




the third quarter,




and the fourth.




Once the top was all assembled I basted it,


and then did some quilting with white 20wt thread.


Then I added some black hand quilting around each block...














(that cerise block is mine!)


...and I hand stamped the back of the quilt with the first name of the person that made that block.




Linda attached the binding and hand stitched most of it and Anne finished the rest.  I'm so grateful that some people like to add binding because it is my least favorite step of the process.




I stamped DCMQG and wrote the year on it.

 


These are 11 of the 24(!) people that submitted blocks for this quilt.

Confirmation that I'm a geek

(As if you needed it.)

I sent this mini quilt off to a friend last week.  It is a Patchwork Death Star.




The inspiration for it started when my friend, Blair, sent me this most fabulous embroidery hoop.




Perhaps, more accurately, it started much earlier when we started talking about how smooth Lando Calrissian is.  Once it was determined that we were both Star Wars fans, the pins and tags just kept flying.  She is super sweet and talented so she made me that hoop of awesomeness up above.

It is really, really hard to craft for awesome crafters.  It took me a l-o-n-g time to decide what my theme would be.  And then I was stuck on making the Death Star all in florals.  It turns out that I didn't have enough small scale florals for my idea and getting the right value changes was going to be impossible.  But I have gray fabric up the wazoo.  Once I decided to do the pattern with English paper piecing things went pretty smoothly.  Some advice from Melissa and Jessie helped, too.

I really didn't think that there would be many people who would want to make a Patchwork Death Star of their very own.  But the requests for a pattern have been pretty insistent.  I still need to finalize how to print the pattern out, but I hope to have it up tomorrow. 

Have you ever shown your geeky side in your quilting?

Speaking of Samplers

I've been hand quilting my Farmer's Wife blocks this month. 

I'm varying the color of the perle cotton (size 8) and varying the width of the seam allowance to match the fabric patterns and block design.  It is s-l-o-w going, but it is so beautiful, and cozy, that I think I may work on it for a few more weeks before I need a break from it.

Have you ever done hand quilting before? What is the biggest quilt you've ever hand quilted? Do you feel comfortable with your technique?

Pony Club Update

I apologize for the grainy quality of the Instagram photos, but I thought that I should update my progress here. I am having a blast with these blocks and each one feels like its own success. That is what I love best about samplers.  Each block feels like an accomplishment.  A quilt made of a bunch of the same blocks just doesn't hold a similar satisfaction for me.

A Dandy

New Jersey

Colt's Corral

Hen and Her Chicks

Children's Delight

July Fourth

Maud's Album

Sheep Fold

Ribbons

Like I mentioned in my last post, if you are tempted by these blocks, please get the book and join in. I'd love to see more versions of these blocks and of this sampler quilt.

In the meantime, I've been getting tempted by a few other samplers out there.  Do you have a favorite sampler that you think I should know about?

Pony Club Sampler

My Farmer's Wife quilt isn't done yet. That hand quilting only happens when I'm in the mood. And right now I'm in the mood for another sampler quilt.

The Pony Club Sampler has 8" finished blocks and much of the piecing is more complex.  I don't think I'll get away with only paper piecing three of these blocks.

I'm doing the whole quilt in Anna Maria Horner fabrics.  I love her vibrant color schemes and wild patterns.  I usually choose things that are more tame, so this will be a challenge for me.  The first block here is Mayflower and has four y-seams.  I was pleased with how much easier they were compared to my first attempt at y-seams on the Homemaker block (first 3 attempts not photographed because it looked awful!).

Here is the Boy's Playmate block.  I am adding some vivid solids in with the AMH fabrics.

Here is the At the Depot block

and Old Indian Trail block. 

 I'd love to have anyone else join in on sewing this sampler in 2014.  I'm trying to recruit people to join on Instagram or on Flickr.
Are you working on a sampler of any kind?  I'd love to hear about it.