A Tale of Two Quilts...and Two Quilters

My Mom, age 91 years young, was not real pleased with being told by the authorities to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic.  She is very independent! I  decided she might like to sew a quilt top, so as a surprise I had some pre-cut fabric and a few supplies sent to her from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  And guess what? She did a great job! In fact,  she has made 2 tops so far. She was used to garment sewing so with an adjustment to her "normal" seam allowance she was good to go.  In the first top, she chose not to use the black pieces in her layer cake. To have enough fabric for the second top, she used them plus some other fabric I sent her. And she ended up really liking the look of the black!  It gives the second top a very sophisticated and modern look I think.  So here are the two finished quilts, which she's graciously donating to Quilts for Kids.  Thanks,  Mom!!

What's going on around here?

It's been about 4 months since I last posted and the world has certainly changed!  We're dealing with the COVID-19 virus now and on self-isolation as per local orders. Good time to catch up on my own projects,  do some charity longarm quilting,  and check in with the blog.

To begin, I made this quilt as a gift to my church for their annual fundraising auction.  Paired with a quilt rack, it sold for $1000!

Following that, I had a few customer quilts to work on, then I was contacted by a nearby Quilts of Valor group and quilted this for them.  

After finishing 32 quilts for Quilts for Kids and turning them in, I received 25 new tops to quilt for them. At that time I also had 5 quilts on hand, 4 sent by my awesome sister-in-law and one from a local friend. These 5 will eventually be quilted and given to Quilts for Kids.  The COVID-19 scare was just getting off the ground the day I got the 25 quilts, and so I decided to await developments and finish some of the projects I  had cut out.  So far I have completed 3 of the 6. One will probably get finished today and the other 2 have been put back in storage because they were only barely started. Here are the 3 tops finished; the heart and the other pink one are also quilted.

So that's the update. Stay well everyone!! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I'm featuring brand-new quilter and friend, Abigail!  Here she is making her very first quilt blocks.  She was so excited to see these come together!

As time went on in her busy life, we managed to get together for a second session and she put together the pumpkin block and then the sashing and borders.  Here's her completed top. (She's standing in front of my ironing board; the quilt is not electrified!!  LOL )

Before you ask, this is just a pattern I designed for her and it isn't published anywhere.  Just HST's, a bit of paper piecing for the leaf and stem of the pumpkin, some "stitch and flip" for the body of the pumpkin, and a whole lot of praying it would just turn out well, and it did!  :-)

Later, I quilted it on the longarm, and she came back a third time and got the binding on it.  Here she is with the finished runner at home with her Mom, all ready for Thanksgiving!!

They're both too cute, right?  And the runner looks good in their space!  Great job, Abigail!  Looking forward to our next project!

And a blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends to all of you blog readers!

Birthday Brunch Quilts

Many thanks to these lovely ladies (and one more who had to leave early) for making quilt tops for Quilts for Kids and attending the second annual Birthday Brunch.  Also thanks to Barbara Tourney,  our local chapter president,  for attending and explaining more about this wonderful organization.  And I don't want to fail to mention my talented sister-in-law,  Kim, who sent me 6 tops a few months ahead of the Brunch.  Thanks again to all of you!!

The quilts are quilted now and here's how they turned out.  First, Marcia's three. 

Charleen made these two, and also cooked our delicious waffles! 

Jane made this one and it looks like gingham.  Sew cute!

This is Bernie's.  I added the 2 borders so it would be a little bigger.  

This was made by Beth. I decided to give it the full custom treatment.  

For Anna's modern quilt,  I used all the different feathers in my repertoire.  

So that's  it, and 9 more comfy happy kids somewhere  we hope. Looking forward to next year!!  And just a side note, I will accept a quilt top donation any time of year!

BICYCLE QUILT

This wall hanging is a smaller version of a design by Piece O'Cake Designs called "I Want to Ride my Bicycle." It's for my youngest brother's birthday. Fun to make and quilt! I used Heat N Bond Lite for the bike applique. 

In the "ta-DA!" department, presenting "the" video!  Sorry I have to do it by link, but computing is not my strong suit.  :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KSt3_ej42g

This is my go-to design for edge-to-edge quilting.  I call it "C's" but it's more of a hooked paisley.  For me, it flows.  And no, the longarm doesn't need oiling, it's just that the phone picked up the noise of it.  A lot.  :-)

Here's another one I've been using a lot lately - swirls a la Jamie Wallen.  His method just clicked with me.  :-)

Quilts for Kids

Here are some examples of my recent work for Quilts for Kids.  I highly recommend supporting this wonderful charity! (Top collage picture - all quilts made by my talented sister-in-law, Kim!!  Thanks, Kim!!)