Monday, May 4, 2020

Lots of Projects...

Coronavirus Quarantine is presenting oodles of time to work on projects. 
First up is the sixth step of the Scrap Dance Mystery, to assemble 12 blocks. I had one oops, as you can see in the picture...
In two weeks the final step will be posted, using the HSTs, background, and remaining colored squares.  I am curious about the layout!

On to working on more quilts for the disabled kids going to camp. Someone donated this small flimsy with a cat focus fabric. I had no idea how to make it bigger or what kind of colors to use. 

Digging through my stash, I came across this southwest-themed border fabric. It was used on a church quilt in 2009; there was a lot of fabric leftover. It caught my eye because the colors look so much like the colors in the cat flimsy.

So I added a containment border in teal and then added the final border. Yes, I fussy cut the fabric and then mitered the corners. I enjoy that kind of challenge! 

Another donation was a bag with 12 sampler blocks made in batik fabric, as well as yardage of multicolored-pastel batik that had all the colors of the blocks. I used that for sashing. Now it needed a border. Nothing from my stash or the stash of my friend could match this. I felt it needed a teal border. So I went to Joann Fabrics.

I waited outside in a line for an hour and a half. When I got inside the store, I was shocked at the empty shelves in the quilt fabric section. There were very few batiks, but there was one teal that I thought was just right! It was worth the wait, for the quilt shines!


I found these in the donation bin. It was easy to see how to make this into a quick quilt.

Sew the two pieces together, trim to the correct size, add two borders, and here is the finished quilt. I think it is so sweet; it looks like something a grama would make in her little white cottage!

One last project. I am making quilt kits; I am hoping women in my guild will step up and take a kit to assemble a very simple row quilt for the kids camp. Two are superheros, two are fire engines, and one is a fun cartoon of a bear riding a bicycle.

Linking up today with




Friday, April 24, 2020

Dinosaur Quilt!

A couple of years ago I made a shirt for my daughter out of dinosaur fabric. She loves that shirt! I had leftover fabric that I discovered while sorting my fabric stash. I knew it could become a cute quilt for the special needs kid's camp. 





Using the colors in the fabric, I chose some blender fabrics (fabrics that read as a solid from a distance, generally tone-on-tone; they add to the quilt without distracting from the main fabric or pattern). I cut the dinosaur fabric into 8" squares, then added 3" borders around each square. 



I squared each block down to 12.5", then assembled. I think it turned out really cute, and I'm sure there will be at least one dinosaur lover at camp!



Thursday, April 23, 2020

Many Projects in Process!

I completed the fifth step of the Twist Mystery Quilt-along. Very simple, to sew the four-patches together with a background square in between. I am so curious to see what we will be doing with these!

This is my sewing table. There are many projects in process. I see at least 6 different quilt projects represented here! It looks like a tremendous mess, but everything is in piles and there is no confusion. Not yet.

I am making small quilts for a camp that hosts special needs children in the summer. Each camper goes home with a quilt. My quilt guild is dedicated to helping with the need; as keeper of orphan blocks (donated blocks that have no purpose for the maker), I am having a lot of fun picking through the bin and designing ways to use the blocks.

One bag had these twelve batik blocks, plus some batik that matches the colors. Last night I sewed them together with sashing. It is small, 37" x 48"; I will add 4" borders to bring it up to the requested size of 48" x 60". 

Stay tuned for more children's quilts!