Sew Sunshine

------------------------------------------------------------------------ Recently I was asked to demo at our local guilds sew day, how to make some quilts quickly for charity. I have been making kids quilts mostly over the years at a reasonable pace, a few here and a few there. Then I got evolved in my church sewing group several years ago. That group makes bed rolls for homeless clients by using all kinds of textiles like drapery, discarded bedding sheets and blankets, canvas, fleece etc. But we also had boxes and boxes of donated cotton fabrics. Old fashioned calicos from the 80's and some kids prints. In order to work in our area freely something at to be done to empty some of the boxes. I started by cutting squares and sewing the cottons with denim squares (we also have still, boxes and boxes of donated denim jeans). Simply sewn and then layered with flannel and backed and tied. I am a quilter though and so I have made many quilts in various patterns so that I could quilt them...

Project Quilting 16.3 is all about Common Blocks. At first I was not sure what I was going to do. I wanted to stick to my idea of making P.Q. pieces for charity and so with limited time this week I was thinking ...no way! Then I remembered this little panel quilt. It actually was a yard so double what you see here. I decided to cut it narrow and then add some common blocks to fill it out.  I pulled out some colors that I had close by (with out digging in my stash) and made some blocks to add.  Friendship star was first. Easy block but every time I make one I mess it up. ha I did play a bit with the fabric placement.  Simple 9 patch.  Played with the fabrics here too. Lastly the simple 4 patch border.  And the crazy thing is it is finished on Wed. I think it is true the more you have to do in a week the more you get done. I don't want to push that thought though. I want to share this cool art exhibition my friend Jen went to see last Saturday. This piece is from ...

Project Quilting 16.2 is Ombre I used this simple tumbler template to create this ombre fade.  Who knew I had so many greens in my stash...and I did not use them all either. blush* The backing was a piece I had in my stash which let me to think about quacamole for the title.  Simple quilting diagonals and picked one green for the binding.  It measures about 40" x 48".  Linking up to P.Q. 16.2 over at Persimon Dreams  Here if you want to see my first P.Q. 1 Mythical creature quilt go  HERE

This was a fun quilt to make. It is a free pattern on the Tilda website. I wanted to do an applique quilt for a long time and I do love a dresden.  I did a simple diamond quilting over the top of applique. I was not sure how hard it would be to quilt myself. It wasn't! I love everything about this one. The pattern the colors how the blocks came together. So scrappy and fun. Perfect to finish for the county fair. So glad I did. I received Judges choice and a blue! I made this quilt bigger but was not sure how much bigger so I had some extra blocks I put on the back.  66"x 76" approx. My other 2 entries I have posted about before. More about this trip around the world   HERE got a Blue ribbon and  My Bee mate quilt Notan got a blue too! Read about it  HERE

When I was Queen of the Bee I chose a theme based on notan. I was not sure how the group would interpret the idea but I also had a piece of fabric called "opposite" by Marsha Derse that I thought might help.  The fabrics I gave was various blacks and kona snow. There is a tiny bit of purple and some of the opposite fabric line. Each block was so different. I finally pieced them together with the background that I wanted to be opposite too. not working..... much better I think clear thread, straight line quilting

Our local guild had a maximalism challenge.  I wanted to play with one shape in multiple ways with bold contrast color with neutrals and bold prints. I wasn't sure one shape like the cross or plus made in a more ordered fashion could be maximalism or not but this is what I came up with. Whether it is or isn't it will be in a local art museum with other guild members entries starting next week. I love this pink color and am super happy with how it turned out. This part of that center fabric I saved just for this label and contributed to the name. 

This day was sort of a birthday wish I had that my sisters would help me sew some of my fabric up for outreach quilts. One sister thought it would be fun to give out scratch off tickets but she guessed they were duds...I won $25!! We finished 5 quilt tops that day and I went home and quilted them. One of my sisters took some blocks home too and has another top done for me. I still need to get that done but I have been dealing with a broken bone in my foot and now some realignment therapy for some toes. It sort of makes it hard to get a lot done as my sewing area is both upstairs and down.   A little bit every day.....