many hands and many hearts

What a Week! from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

This has been a crazy week! Lots of big fabric donations coming through the door, huge boxes arriving full of finished quilts and bags of "kits" to be completed by our volunteers being made and distributed. We are all working hard to keep up!

So today, I only have a few finished quilts to share because we are behind on photographs.

We did finish another Jewel Box quilt. Janet laid out these blocks a long time ago and I have just gotten around to sewing up the quilt top. We put a lovely purple flannel on the back.

This quilt ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 1 day, 5 hours ago. under compassion quilts , donation quilts , finished quilt , jewel blocks , many hands and many hearts

Some Kid Quilt Finishes from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

The end of the year will be here in no time at all. So we are already prepping for the big shipments of kid quilts starting late summer. Here are some we finished this week.

This fun car quilt is all flannel and super cuddly. Kristin sent in the quilt top and the backing. Local quilter Cindy quilted it up for us. She has a small machine setup, so she likes the tiny ones!

We received a couple bear panels (originally for making pillows), but we are using them for some small Happy block quilts. I think we have two ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 1 week, 1 day ago. under compassion quilts , donation quilts , finished quilt , kid , many hands and many hearts

Friday Finishes from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Computer problems are so frustrating!

My computer was down for a few days but I am back up and ready to share a few finishes.

There have been a lot of Rail Fence quilts getting finished lately and I have to admit I have loved them all! This top was made by Mina. I love her color combinations. Thanks to Nann, we had the perfect peach backing.

This colorful quilt top was sent in by Margie and Linda. We had to wait a bit to finish this one because I really wanted some Kaffe Fassett fabric for the backing. I ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 2 weeks, 1 day ago. under donation quilts , finished quilt , many hands and many hearts

Mid Week Finishes from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

I am so used to sharing quilt tops made by others, I was pleasantly surprised that I am sharing a quilt top I made months ago.

It looks like I sewed up this quilt top in July of 2024. It has just been sitting in a stack of tops waiting to rise to the surface. I had forgotten how much I really liked this quilt.

I used a fun blue polka dot fabric sent in by Holly for the backing.

Mina sent in anther quilt top using this awesome box pattern. Every time I see one get finished; I want ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 3 weeks, 2 days ago. under compassion quilts , donation quilts , finished quilt , hsts , many hands and many hearts

Some Mid-Week Finishes from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Here at Many Hands and Many Hearts, we are working hard to work through the big backlog of quilt tops we have right now. A few more longarm quilters have joined the team so it is full steam ahead!

The mom of a Board Member is a quilter and has offered to sew together "kits" into quilt tops. She doesn't live in the area so the items are shuttled back and forth during visits. This was a kit I put together from some fabric I pulled out of my stash. The pattern came from 3 Yard Quilts. Barb did ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 1 month, 1 week ago. under finished quilt , many hands and many hearts

Oh Scrap! : Simple Inspiration from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Sometimes inspiration for a quilt can come from the simplest item.

One of our "Pickers" let us know they had a couple bags of fabric for us. The bags contained a lot of yardage, quite a few printed panels and a few previously cut squares. There were quite a few squares cut from some material that looks like blue bandanas.

I try to find some quick inspiration for things like cut squares because they can create a storage problem if we can't attach them to something quickly. I took a quick dive into the scrap bin and saw a ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 1 month, 1 week ago. under compassion quilts , many hands and many hearts , oh scrap! , scrap quilting

Supporting Each Other from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Rather than share some finishes today, I thought I would share how generous the hospital we work with

is - we give quilts to them and they give to us!

Our quilts are all delivered and controlled by the volunteer office. Recently I reached out to my contact there to see if she knew of any grants the hospital might have that we could apply for. When she heard we were getting short on batting, she made sure two bolts were shipped to my doorstep.

Then this last week, they contacted us to say they received a large donation of fabric ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 1 month, 1 week ago. under many hands and many hearts

Early March Finishes from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

It is interesting to see all the different quilts that get completed each week. I never really know exactly what will cross the finish line.

This lovely quilt top sent in by Kristin and I quilted it up when I had some open time. She also sent in the pieced backing. I already have this one in the pile to go to the hospital in the next delivery.

When we receive panels, I tend to put them in a pile until I can find time to match them with a block drive or one of the elves decides to take ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 1 month, 2 weeks ago. under finished quilt , jewel blocks , many hands and many hearts

A Good Week for Finishes from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

This was a good week for finishes. We shelf finishes quilts by size/type so weeks like this keep our inventory pretty level. That makes filling orders a lot easier!

We have been working on increasing our stock level of Veteran quilts. We will be doubling our monthly requirement up to six. Janet used some of the 4-patches from a block drive we did almost a year ago. Thanks to Karen, we had these two lovely prints for the backing.

Here is a fun quilt top made by local quilter Chris. The front is so colorful, we knew we had ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 1 month, 2 weeks ago. under finished quilt , many hands and many hearts

Some Kid Quilt Finishes from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Every year, we try to make large donations of children quilts to one of our recipients. They have a hard time keeping up with demand around the holidays so we try and help them out. Last year we sent them 100 quilts. This year I would love to see at least 150. So I thought we should start getting some completed now.

First up is this fun little quilt with a transportation theme. Construction equipment on the front and fire trucks (thanks Karen) and Cars on the back. Kristin sent in the blocks and one of my local elves sewed ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 1 month, 4 weeks ago. under compassion quilts , donation quilts , finished quilt , many hands and many hearts

Finally Some Finishes from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Hey, I finally found a bit of time to write up a blog post with some of our finishes. We are all preparing for an ice storm that is supposed to hit tonight. Hopefully it will be a short hindrance and temps warm up quickly. I just hope we don't lose power.

First up is this fun quilt top sent in by Kristin. Did you notice some of the blocks are made with smaller bits? that is a great way to make enough blocks when you are short some. Kristin also sent in this soft blue print for the ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 2 months ago. under compassion quilts , donation quilts , finished quilt , many hands and many hearts , split 4 patch

March of the Quilt Finishes from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Finally, it appears the quilt pipeline is filled, and lovely finishes are getting completed at a wonderful rate. Here are a few from earlier this week.

We received a LOT of lovely green Jewel Box blocks. We still have hundreds of blocks to work thru and turn into quilts. This is the 13th quilt made from that block drive.

(Sorry about the shadowing on all of these quilts. The sun was just going down and I worried it was going to rain the next day.)

We also finished the Veteran quilt made from a bunch of orphan blocks. We have ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 2 months, 2 weeks ago. under compassion quilts , donation quilts , finished quilt , jewel blocks , many hands and many hearts

A Few Finishes from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

It has been about a week since I shared some finishes. Things seemed to have slowed a bit around here. I think the holiday lull has finally caught up. Hopefully after this week we start seeing quilts move a bit faster.

First up is another patriotic churn dash quilt. We still have quite a few blocks in stock from the last block drive. I really like this combination of big and little blocks.

A nice flag print for the back thanks to Karen. I think this lovely Veteran quilt is the 14th quilt we made from that block drive.

Barb ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 2 months, 3 weeks ago. under churn dash block , finished quilt , many hands and many hearts

Oh Scrap! : Orphan Blocks and Panels from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Here at Many Hands and Many Hearts, we do get various panels and orphan blocks included in packages containing blocks for the block drives. It is always fun to see what shows up. We don't often get to use them but Janet decided to pull a bunch of RWB blocks and lay out her first orphan block quilt. Here is the top all put together.

I think she did a pretty good job. Now she did not have to figure out how to sew all that middle section together. I have to admit, that took me a LONG time ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 3 months ago. under many hands and many hearts , oh scrap! , using orphan blocks

Oh Scrap! : A Scrappy Finish from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

I was able to get the scrappy rail fence quilt onto my longarm frame this week and it is now completed. Hurray!

The quilt top was made from a bunch of scraps leftover from backings and bindings. I pulled anything that was blue, green and yellow. I really made a nice dent in the scraps!

The back was also sewn from a bunch of leftovers. The blue fabric were chunks left over from previous backings. A few people donated this extra wide backing print. That means I had lots of bits to play with!

The lovely floral in the center ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 3 months, 1 week ago. under many hands and many hearts , oh scrap! , rail fence , scrap quilts

Good Bye 2024! from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

It is time to say goodbye to 2024. It was a crazy, unexpected year for me and I think I am ready for it to end. I am really looking forward to 2025. Many Hands and Many Hearts should be an official 501c3 in a couple months and I know that is going to be fun to see. I love my board members and all of them are enthusiastic and ready to see MHMH grow.

Here are a few more random finishes to close out the year. Janet played with some lime and turquoise blocks. Nann sent in this white ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 3 months, 2 weeks ago. under churn dash block , finished quilt , jewel blocks , many hands and many hearts , rail fence , scrap quilting

It's Friday! from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

There are some very scrappy quilts in the lineup today. It is interesting to see how quilts flow through the pipeline. I bet it directly relates to my moods!

Marci sent me all these lovely scrappy blocks. These are the 10.5" squares. I am pretty sure this backing fabric came from an estate. It is an amazing whole cloth. The edges were all finished and it had some sun damage that I was able to cut around. I think it must have been draperies - it sure is nice fabric and a beautiful print.

This quilt measures 60 x 70 ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 4 months, 1 week ago. under many hands and many hearts , scrap quilts

A Few More Finishes to Share from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

We are starting to focus more on adult quilt again. It was quite the year end frenzy as we were sending out large numbers of all sizes quilts. Our stash of finished quilts is quite small right now, so we are working hard to grow or inventories back up. All deliveries for 2024 have gone out. I will share the final tallies soon - first I need to share them with the board.

Here are some quilts that flowed across my longarm last week.

Check out this lovely batik quilt top sent in by Cindy. I am loving the color combination ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 4 months, 1 week ago. under compassion quilts , donation quilts , finished quilt , jewel blocks , many hands and many hearts

Jewel Box Quilts #5 and #6 from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

We have started to fill the quilting pipeline with our Jewel Box quilts so we should be seeing some regular finishes. Janet has been deciding the layouts on most of these blocks and then I sew them together. She is not a quilter but is having a ball playing with the colors and he designs.

This plaid backing is actually thin fleece, and I really wanted it to find a home this winter. So I asked Janet to pull some blocks to go with it. It is always fun to see someone's interpretation - I would have pulled navy and ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 4 months, 3 weeks ago. under compassion quilts , donation quilts , finished quilt , jewel blocks , many hands and many hearts

Block Drive - Split 4 Patch from Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

It is hard to believe that it is already time for another block drive. I am nowhere near finished with the last one! We are making blocks for kids again. I first made this block DECADES ago and it took me a bit to puzzle out how to make it. I think you are going to have some fun making them.

I have no idea what it is officially called - so I am going with a Split 4 Patch.

For each block you will need two 5" squares of a novelty print and two 5" squares of a solid or ...

added by Cynthia Brunz Designs 4 months, 3 weeks ago. under compassion quilts , donation quilts , many hands and many hearts , split 4 patch

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