Charity begins at home

I am so happy to say that I have my monthly allotment of charity quilts done and delivered -- for April and for May! That never happens. But, I'm a bit busy with some administrative work and I wanted to make sure that the baby quilts for the hospital got done. And since they were done, they might as well be delivered.  No sense having them here and then maybe forgetting them.

They are certainly varied. The "charity" part is that almost all the fabric was donated by friends and all I had to do was repurpose it. How sweet is that! Free fabric already in triangles or  4patches. Oh, yes, that's my kind of charity.

This quilt and the one below were made with triangles that monkeymamaquilts had leftover from a class we took at our local guild. I have railed about this pattern (instructions were dreadful) and waste of fabric (see what I mean). I won't go into it again, here. Nevertheless, I was thrilled to get her scraps and see what I could do to make them into quilts. The blocks finish at 8.5" or 9", I think.

For both of these, I practiced new "filler" quilting to see if I liked it and if it would work on a larger quilt. The answer for both is "yes" -- but I have some work I need to do to get better.

This little quilt was made from scraps from mom22smartchix and all I had to do is put the squares and 4 patches together. Love that! I practiced random free hand feathers for the quilting. Oh, my -- so much more to do in that area. I think it can work well for a boy or a girl and it's happy.

The owl fabric here is darling and the quilt is actually much cuter than it looks in the picture. The owls were compliments of mom22smartchix and were leftover from a baby quilt she had made for a friend. Because the motifs were big (and cute), I wanted to maximize the fabric and went with larger blocks. I practiced quilting flowers in each block. The flowers were fun and I'll definitely try them again.

So -- charity begins at home and I am fortunate to have a number of "charitable" friends who gift me parts and fabric periodically. I am oh-so-happy to play with them and see what can be done to pass on their blessing to someone else.

I hope your finding blessings along the way this week!

Jan

Generosity!

Aren't quilters the most generous people?  You know what I mean ....

They'll give you their last scrap of their favorite fabric if you need it.
They'll bind your quilt if you break your arm or are running behind.
They'll take the time to explain whatever you need to understand.
They'll encourage you -- no matter where you are in the learning process.

I've been getting batting and backs ready for some charity quilts and I realized that so much of these quilts were actually donated by someone else.

This is a 12" x 12" mini-quilt from a practice block I made YEARS ago in a machine applique class.  The local homemakers club is doing a silent auction with all donations going to ovarian cancer research. I echo quilted (tuck included for free) and decided I don't really like trying to do echo quilting 1/4" apart on my Bernina.  Lesson learned.

This little quilt is to be donated to the local hospital and I am hoping the right quilting in pink thread can rescue it from itself.  I bought a lot (all) of the neutrals at an auction from our local guild with proceeds going to Salvation Army angel tree.

These quilts are also going to the local hospital when I get them quilted.  The strips were cut using a friend's Studio cutter -- generously loaned to me for a long long weekend while she was out of town.  Having pre-cut strips when I'm under the gun to complete a quilt is an incredible advantage!

This quilt is made from blocks donated to me by monkeymamaquilts.  She made them early in her quilting career and this little top is the perfect size for the hospital.  More generosity.  Interestingly, the backing is a darling lavender polka dotted flannel given to me by mom22smartchix for use in a hospital quilt.

This is another hospital quilt -- with the owl fabric donated by mom22smartchix and the quilting done on monkeymamaquilts HQ16.  Thank goodness it's bound and ready to go!

Finally -- and even easier -- monkeymama quilts decided she didn't really have a use for this ABC quilt.   Isn't it darling?  It's a bit big for the hospital so we agreed that I would quilt it (on her HQ16) and bind it and we'll donate it to Quilts Beyond Borders.  If you aren't familiar with this incredible non-profit organization, you can read about it here.  It's wonderful because you can donate tops if you don't have access to a longarmer.

I rest my case -- quilters are the best!  I suspect you have had the same experience and been the recipient of another quilter's generosity -- giving us all good reason to pay it forward.  I hope you are finding time to quilt -- and give!

Jan

I feel like Tigger....

.... because bouncing is what Tiggers do best!

I have been bouncing....from one project to another.  Starting with these beauties -- from fabric we bought in Houston.....

 ....to playing with some of my 1.5" squares.....

 ....to making a charity baby quilt from donated flannel strips.....

 ....to another charity baby quilt....

 ...to playing with my yummy pink fat quarters that range from the palest of pink to an orange sherbert to a deep deep pink.

So, I haven't finished anything (yet) in the last two weeks -- but I've played with lots of fabrics, patterns, and used up some scraps as well as finally cutting some fabrics I've loved.  Who knows what this week will bring.

I hope you are finding time to play with fabric -- whether it's bouncing like Tigger or devoting yourself to a single project until it's done.  It's all good!

Keep piecing, Jan

Quilts Beyond Borders

Have you heard of this organization?  It is remarkable and was founded in 2007 by delivering 230 quilts to orphans in Ethiopia.  Since that time, they have sent over 2,600 quilts to Ethiopia, Haiti, Japan, Thailand, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Uganda, Burundi, Cameroon, and Russia.  Currently they are working to send quilts to the Forgotten People organization that services Arizona Navajo people living, in many cases, without electricity and running water. They are cold.  This is shameful!

Whether you prefer to donate your charity quilts locally or globally, you have to admire their Mission Statement:

To provide quilts to children in need, especially orphans living in under-served areas of the world where the warmth of a quilt is needed at night.

I don't have permission to share "before and after" pictures from their brochure that shows spartan bunk beds lined up side by side (the children appear to have to crawl into (or up to) their bed from the foot.  There is no room between the beds.  The "after" picture shows wonderful colorful quilts draped at the foot of each bed.

If you've ever been to a major quilt show, you know the charity organizations' booths are normally at the very last aisle of the quilt exhibits.  They are not in high traffic areas -- by a long shot.  While in Houston last fall, we walked by the QBB booth and were drawn to the packets of fabric, finished quilts, and a few items for sale.  In reading their brochure, this was the paragraph that drew me in and led me to sign up to make a quilt (or quilt top) within the next year:

More than 140 million children in the world today have lost one or more parents.  Sub-Saharan Africa is the home to an estimated 50 million orphaned children. More than one in three orphans will have lost  a parent to AIDS.  In Ethiopia alone, there are currently about 5 million orphans.

I was all in!  It was reaffirmed when I read that besides their school uniforms, this will be the only personal possession of many orphans.  Heartbreaking!

This is an organization that makes it as easy as possible on us quilters when it comes to donating.  You can donate unwanted fabric.  You can donate a quilt top (42"x48" to 42"x60").  You can donate your long arm quilting.  You can donate $15 which pays to send 6-8 tops to a volunteer longarmer.    They will also take frequent flier donations, publicity, researching grant opportunities, and sales of quilts for fundraising.

Seriously -- you don't have to send a finished quilt.  These three tops will be going to a longarmer next week along with some leftover scrappy binding.  

I know many quilters are called to serve and donate locally and I understand and admire that.  I make two small baby quilts for the local hospital every month.  A small church quilting group I belong to is making pillowcases (with members furnishing pillows) for local children who are removed from their homes and put in foster care.  I know many of you make quilts, layettes, and pillowcases for local organizations.  What I don't always understand is the position that it's "either - or".  Why can't it be "both" with the generosity of quilters being spread locally and globally?

I am not looking for an answer because this is a personal matter.  We quilt for so many reasons - creativity, gifts, inspiration, peace, energy, fulfillment, art, healing.....I suspect we rarely need to quilt to keep our families warm these days.  But there are opportunities throughout the world help keep others warm.

I would encourage you to see if you have a quilt top (or quilt) you've fallen out of love with or fabric you are tired of or scraps or a pattern you want to try -- to look at QBB's website and see if you feel moved to help them out.  Postage to ship it is the only expense.

This very simple brick quilt is their recommended pattern (3" strips cut across fat quarters) and these are the fabrics that I picked up from their booth.  The two Scrappy Trip Around the World tops (pattern by Quiltville) are from my 2.5" strip bin that exploded when I opened it.  It's certainly more under control but I have enough 16" strips to make at least one more.  The smaller strips are being subcut for another Cross Quilt.  I need to get something in my quilt room under control!

Even if you don't donate to this wonderful organization -- I would suggest you look at their website for a reminder of why quilters are special and we should all be proud to use that title in describing our art.

Keep piecing!  Jan

Finally Finished -- Hurray!

I am so so happy to say that I finally forced myself to put everything up and get out my Orca Bay (Bonnie Hunter mystery from last winter) and sew down the binding.

Because I have fallen out of love with this quilt, I had the binding sewn on and just decided to sew it down on my machine rather than by hand.  I want it over and put up.

I'm hoping I will love it more one of these days.  That's what happened with this quilt -- it was also a mystery and I got weary of it, didn't like my color choices, and put it up.  I later needed a quilt for a friend, pulled it out, and decided it wasn't half bad.  I'm hoping for the same thing with Orca.  Time will tell -- literally.

In addition to finishing this, I finally started the MacQuilt challenge with fabric that was gifted in honor of Mom22SmartChix's birthday challenge.  We are to have our tops done by October (next month!).  I have 56 blocks made, on the floor for final adjusting, and should be able to meet the deadline if I keep paying attention.

Details about the challenge fabrics was in this post -- there are 9.5 yards (I miscounted originally) -- and I hope to make two lap sized quilts with different patterns.  Interestingly, this is a fabric line that reads as solids but is a directional print!  That means I would be itchy if I tried to do triangles.  Would have made me nuts to have lines going different directions -- I had enough problem keeping the directions straight with squares.

I also finished two charity quilts and they are quilted, bound and ready to be delivered next week.  That is always a relief as I try to make two each month (other than a one month sabbatical in August).  I did free motion stippling on these which makes me tense beyond words.  I kept having a bit of drag on my lucite/plastic quilting table that fits my machine.  I was hesitant to wax or polish it -- any advice from anyone out there on what to put on there to give me as much 'glide' as possible?  I'm happy the backs (flannel) don't show the herky-jerky stitching in a few places.  I know these are the perfect size to practice on in order to improve my free motion quilting.  You can only do so much on a practice sandwich.

The icing on the cake is we have four men working diligently digging up our back yard for a new patio.  This will be great eventually.  It is not great now.

I hope you are loving whatever project you are working on!  Jan