What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

In the past two weeks, so much has happened with our quilt project for victims of Hurricane Helene. For the distribution of the quilts received I have concentrated on the areas hardest hit that have not been the focus of other groups. Boxes of quilts arrived over the course of a couple of weeks and I sorted some into categories to take to those who needed support. On a cold and overcast day, My Sweet Babboo and I drove down to Columbus, NC to meet Diane Nelson at Steps to Hope. Below on the left are Scott and Gay Pleune ...

I have been hard at work finishing the last charity quilt out of the pile that I had. With this particular quilt I was just not feeling it and decided to do a minimum of quilting-in-the-ditch on it just to get it done.

I like to push the boundaries a bit with my sitdown longarm, i.e. see what else I can do on there and how difficult (or not) is it to push my quilt through the machine with the latest ideas I have. Given that I have a draw full of rulers I am always looking for new ideas to use my rulers to complete allover designs.

 I'm getting closer to finishing up my potato chip quilt.

I got it quilted this weekend. Next step is binding. I have some scrappy binding and I plan to use it for this scrappy quilt.

Check out the backing fabric I used. I found this in my stash.

 I used sashing and corner stones to complete my quilt top using the 12 blocks that I made. If you made 12 blocks and you want to finish your blocks the way I did, the directions are below.

You will need (31) 2" by 12.5" for the sashing and (20) 2" by 2" squares of scraps for the corner stones. If you used the larger 2.5" by 4.5" potato chip pieces, then you need (31) 2.5" by 16.5" rectangles for the sashing and (20) 2.5" by 2.5" squares of scraps for the corner ...

It is no surprise that I made an Autumn Quilt in Spring :-) Meet Sweet Dreams.

Autumn in Spring

• Project Type: Quilt for Quilts Across America
• Size: between 50” to 60” wide and 75” to 90” long. 
• Fabric: Any, in colors that appeal to children aged 2-17.
• Work with any size unit that you want, you can also use ...

 How are doing with your Potato Chip variation 2 blocks? I have four blocks completed and the other eight are in progress.

This post contains all of the directions for making ONE Potato Chip Block (Variation 2). The instructions to make the original Potato Chip Block can be found by clicking the following link: Original Potato Chip Block

I cut scraps for most of this quilt. All of the "chip" pieces are scraps. I did use a single fabric as my accent fabric, but you could just pick a color and use a variety of fabrics of the same color. If you want to use the same fabric for the accent as I did, you'll need 1 to 1 1/2 ...

I am so grateful to the Fat quarter shop for inviting me to participate in the 2024 Make a Wish charity Quilt-qlong. FQS have raised over $113k to give sick children and their families to make their wishes come true. Join in and help sick children to find joy in their lives by fulfilling their wish. The Ohio star is a favourite of many quilters and Release 2 of the moonbeams charity QAL features this popular block. All the details about when the requirements, blocks patterns, backing and finishing instructions will be posted are found at the Jolly Jabber FQS ...

One of my 2024 goals is to significantly reduce all my scraps. What do you classify as "scraps"?

Over here, anything that is too small to fold and put away is a scrap. I also don't save very small pieces of fabric.  I have friends who will gladly adopt these.

My first step was to take ALL the scraps and cut them into 2.5" wide jelly roll strips. I was AMAZED at how many strips I ended up with! I then sorted them by color because I am not a "just grab one" kind of girl. "Intentional scrappy-ness ...

Mikayla’s Grace is a wonderful charity in my area of Wisconsin that supports families with a baby in the NICU (neonatal ICU) and those who experience the death of a child or pregnancy loss at hospitals in the Dane County area.

Crafters from all over make beautiful handmade baby items that they sew, knit or crochet and send to Mikayla’s Grace — from gowns, hats, and booties, to baby blankets and quilts. Several times a year volunteers meet to assemble these donations into care packages and deliver them to local hospitals to distribute.

Melissa recently sent out an email ...

Finishes have been few and far between the last couple of years. In fact, my last list of completed projects was for 2016!

I saw a quilt like this at "show and tell" at my guild and it spoke to me. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out the design, since no one seemed to know which pattern was used.

I partially chose this design because I have a whole tote full of 2.5" strips that need to go ...

 Scrap Tape is a non-woven wash away interfacing. Have you ever heard of sewing to receipt tape or phone book pages as a foundation for sewing with scraps? Well, Scrap Tape does the same thing BUT, you don't have to take it off before using your scrap piece in your project. This is the part that really appeals to me! I hate ripping paper off the back of pieced fabric units/blocks! It's so time-consuming and messy!

Scrap Tape is currently available in three sizes:

5" by 25 yards Scrap Tape

2.5" by 25 yards Scrap Tape ...

My goals from last week were modest

- finish the handstitching of the binding on the scrap quilt

- baste one of the little charity quilts ready to be quilted,  

- maybe continue on my cat quilt from ages ago, and 

- continue on my knitting projects in the evenings.

Finished my scrap quilt, i.e. handstitched the binding over a couple of days

As I did my shoulder in a couple of weeks ago, had to take it easy, however I did manage to baste one of the charity quilts. In order to go easy on the shoulders, I noodled all over it ...

I chose to make two quilts - Sea Salt and Rainbow Kiss.

Sea Salt is a baby sized version based on my Masala Box pattern. I picked out bright blues and greens from the Island Batik Basics (these are available all year round) and paired them with Island Batik solid white background.

Sea Salt

Happy Weekend to you! 

I have added a new page - Positivity 2023 QAL. See top left of the blog page. It contains important links and these will become active/live as we move through the QAL.

I am working on the Positivity QAL blocks in preparation for the Quilt Along, beginning on May 28, 2023.

Kaffe Fassett Love!

Here are the gifts/prizes we have secured for the Positivity 2023 QAL. We appreciate the generosity of our sponsors!!! Do take a look at their stores/shops.

Made out of fabric donated a few years ago, I believe by Stephanie. THIS PICTURE sparked the idea that finally pushed the fabric pieces to quilt status.

There was enough matching fabric included for back and binding.

It will likely be donated to the Children’s Hospital.

I used 2-1/2″ squares so this one finishes at 38″ square.

Last week I had a fun day sewing with a couple of friends. My Sweet Babboo was going to work on a car project with a friend of his, whose wife is one of my sewing buddies. She invited another quilt guild member to join us and we spent a lovely afternoon sewing and chatting while the guys worked in the garage. I had a project in mind for a charity quilt with a hard deadline, so it was the perfect time to get started. I cut a bunch of squares at home first.

I was offered one of her ...

I finished one of the quilt tops from the Orange Tree Quilters group. Another beautiful little quilt!

Like the colours...very tastefully put together.

Its a smallish sort of quilt...from memory about 52in square. In looking at it I was unsure how to quilt this. Did ...

 I had some unexpected sewing time at the end of last week so I decided to add the inner border and a pieced outer border to my Potato Chip Block quilt.

I used up all but about a dozen of the pieces I cut for this project! The inner border was cut 2" wide, just like all the pieces. It took me a little bit of trial and error to get the outer border pieces sewn so that the pattern continues around the corners AND no fabric was sewn to itself. That last part got harder as I had fewer ...