quirky granola girl: baby quilt

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.

Last one. #100quilts4kids #dcmqgcharity collaborative effort with blocks by @dcmqg members, especially @cbmauro, piecing by me, quilting by @beacraftygirl and binding by @anjeanetteklinder. Most blocks made at a workshop with @dsquilts. This toddler quilt

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.

#100quilts4kids #dcmqgcharity group effort quilt with blocks by @dcmqg members and @eustella, pieced by me, quilted by @beacraftygirl, and binding sewn by @pilarandolivia. Oh! And class for the quilt blocks taught by @dsquilts! This will be donated to the

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.

It's been so dreary and rainy here for days and that weather will continue, so this semi blurry pic will have to do. Finished orphan block quilt for #dcmqgcharity #100quilts4kids. Quilting by the lovely @beacraftygirl, hand stitched binding by the equally

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.

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.