comfort quilts for donation

Yes, it's been a while. A long while.

And I've missed writing updates and sharing photos. So I'm going to try to get back in the habit of spending time here :)

My wonderful quilt guild continues to support a local breast cancer care facility with donations of comfort quilts for patients in the surgery phase of their treatment plan.  I set a personal goal for 2017 to donate five quilts, and the first two are finished and on the way to patients.

16-patch quilts are so simple, but the result is always beautiful. The fuchsia, orange, and yellow batiks in this 56" x 70" quilt remind me of a summer sunset. You only need 20 fat quarters to make this large throw sized quilt.  First I cut four strips measuring 4" x 18" from each fat quarter, took two of those strips and paired them with two strips from a different fat quarter, and used this construction method to create one 14" finished block. Repeat nineteen more times and you've got 20 quilt blocks!! This is a great project to take along to a retreat or sew-in because it can be chain pieced without needing to constantly refer to a pattern or directions :)

Fellow guild member Judy C did the freehand longarm quilting on both of the quilts I'm showing you today. She did a marvelous job!

The second quilt was made with fabrics I purchased from another guild member who was destashing fabrics and kits, and it's tough for me to resist a pile of bright, beautiful fabrics at a bargain price! The fabrics were part of a kit to make an entirely different quilt, but I had a new half-hexagon template from Missouri Star Quilt Company begging to be used.  The template is designed to be used with 10" fabric squares (layer cake squares), but you can also use it with fat quarters or yardage.

After cutting all of the half hexagons it took me a few tries to find a layout I liked, but once that was settled the sewing was easy! The sky blue borders are cut from my stash fabric and bring the final size to 55" x 65".

The flowers Judy quilted in the center of each hexagon are the perfect finish :)

The kit even had enough fabric to cobble together a backing and scrappy rainbow binding! Who wouldn't like a quilt backing covered in zinnias?!

In October 2016 our guild members made 31 donation quilts for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and a few of us were lucky enough to deliver the quilts and receive a tour of the facility.  The nurses, doctors, and administrators provide such excellent care to their patients - both physically and emotionally.

Since our 45 member guild began supporting this local care center we've donated over 100 quilts to local women battling breast cancer :)

slow sewing steady progress

25 done, 7 to go...

The flower garden blocks are nearly all complete! All of the fabrics have been chosen and cut, so now it's just a matter of sticking with it. I usually sneak in a bit of hexie sewing time on my Monday morning coffee talks with Thing 2 :)

My quilt guild has been hosting a couple of evening meet ups each month for hand sewers (again at Starbucks) so that provides another opportunity for progress.

The background hexies aren't nearly as exciting as the flowers, but I've got about 40% of those sewn together. I'm using a coloring chart to keep track of the sections; this should make it easier to put the whole thing together when all the components are finished!

I don't have a count of how many background hexies are basted and ready to go, but there is a bag full.  And on a recent evening in a fit of paper-punching madness I punched out 622 foundation paper hexagons. Carpal tunnel, here I come!!

Some of these counts are "best-guess"...

• Center Star Colored Hexagons completed: 151/151 (100%)
• Flower Colored Hexagons completed: 475/608 (78%)
• Grey Background Hexagons completed (guessing): 218/532 (40%)
• Total Hexagons completed: 874/1291 (67.6%)

You can read more about the method I use to English Paper Piece (EPP) these hexagons and see the project pattern in this post.  Previous progress updates can be viewed here.

I'm a little shocked at how diligently I've managed to stick with this project.  I hope my persistence continues!!

halloween block lottery

My quilt guild (CLMQG) is holding a second block lottery in July, and this time we are trying a paint chip challenge in Halloween colors! I selected these paint chips at my local Home Depot to use as our guidelines and made two sample blocks for our June meeting when the block lottery and rules were announced...

I chose these fabrics for my sample blocks...

The color rules state that you must use ONLY the paint chip colors and black and white, so I added these three black prints...

The blocks must measure 12.5" unfinished (12" finished).  I like the clean graphic lines of "Plus" quilts, so I played around with my graph paper and colored pencils to draft one conforming to the 12" size rule.  The block is composed of 2.5" cut squares and 2.5" x 6.5" cut rectangles.  I tested out a couple of color layouts with the graph paper to make sure I liked the look before I started cutting.

I tried a couple of different arrangements of the colors trying to use just the solid fabrics and black prints.  (I couldn't find a yellow solid to match the paint chip, but this print is small enough to pass for a near-solid.)

In this version it seemed like the lights and darks were too clustered...

Here the acid green and yellow are too close together and there is too much orange...

Here is the winning layout.  This is a very easy block to cut and sew - once you've decided on the layout you just sew the pieces into rows and either press all seams to the right in the odd numbered rows and to the left in the even numbered rows, or make it even easier and press all the seams open.  It's not difficult to get accurate sizing on this block because there are no triangles or seams on bias edges.  There also aren't too many seams that need to match between rows.

My second block is called "Rolling Diamond", and I found the pattern and tutorial for making this block at knottygnome crafts. My friend and fellow CLMQG board member Lorrie has also published a tutorial on her website, SewMod Designs.  This block is more difficult to get an accurate size because of the square-in-a-square blocks and those bias seams, so be careful if you make one of these!

I left the obvious Halloween prints out of this block and used just two of the paint chip colors with two black and white prints.  I'm planning to add my "Plus" block to the lottery but keep this Rolling Diamonds block for myself; I really like the look of this block and might make an entire quilt using some additional colors and more black and white prints!

Here's a shot from my new swatch journal (in a future post I'll give you the details on this latest project of mine) that gives all known information about the fabrics I used...

I'll let you know how the block lottery goes and if I won after our July 19th meeting :)

If you would like more information about the specific rules for this lottery or helpful tips on successfully sewing quilt blocks for any swap or lottery, head over to the CLMQG website and read this post.

Happy Halloween sewing in July!!

a summery donation quilt

We've had so much excitement at my house in the past three weeks - Thing 1 finished her junior year of college and moved home, Thing 2 graduated from high school, Thing 1 moved away again for a summer internship, and lastly Thing 2 performed in her final year dance recitals and celebrated a birthday this past weekend. No lazy days of summer here!

I have carved out some time to sew most days though and finally completed this donation quilt that I started last November. The free pattern is called "New Wave" by Elizabeth Hartman, and you can download it here.  If you are a long time follower of elsie's girl you might remember the other New Wave quilt I finished in 2011.

This quilt was made specifically for donation to a local breast cancer care center. My quilt guild is currently supporting this local medical facility by providing many donations of handmade comfort quilts for recently diagnosed women in our community who are having surgeries and beginning treatment.

The pattern uses only 12 fat quarters and an additional 1.25 yards of contrast fabric.  I think this combination of fuchsia, lime green, and orange accented with the black makes a bright and cheery quilt! My friend Isis (isis_custom_quilts on Instagram) used her new long arm quilting machine to quilt it for me, and I love the pattern of swirled daisies and the lime green thread she chose.

The quilt backing fabric is still cheerful but not as bright - black line drawings of daisies on a white background.

The bias cut black and white stripe binding and a Crystal Lake Modern Quilt Guild label finish the quilt perfectly :)  It measures 51" x 64" - slightly longer than the pattern is written because I used the Wrights Fat Cats template by Darlene Zimmerman rather than the template provided in the pattern.

The instructions for using the Fat Cats template with this quilt pattern used to be found on Elizabeth Hartman's website, but while writing this I realized they are no longer posted there.  So I'm including some brief tips from my pattern notes about how using this template changes the construction and size of the quilt top.

• you'll need 1.25 yards of sashing fabric (the pattern calls for 1 yard)
• cut your sashing pieces 2" x 11" rather than 2" x 10"
• use the 1.5" and 10.5" lines on the Fat Cats template to cut your wedge pieces
• finished quilt size using 12 fat quarters will be 51" x 64" rather than 51" x 55"

I've already got some fabrics chosen for my next donation quilt - a 56" x 70" 16-patch quilt in batik fabrics that remind me of a fiery summer sunset :)

dots and low volume: stars for a block lottery

The Crystal Lake Modern Quilt Guild is introducing a new program at our April meeting - a block lottery! Any member that would like to participate makes a block (or two or three) following the rules for that lottery and each block earns that member one chance to win.  The winner of the drawing takes home all the blocks brought in for that lottery!

For our first lottery we chose a theme of star blocks made from dot fabrics on backgrounds of low volume fabrics. Any star block is fair game as long as the fabric requirement and size rules are followed.  The other board members and I each made a couple of blocks as examples to show the guild at our March meeting. For my first sample block I modified a pattern in the book Modern Bee - the Triple Star. My 12.5" unfinished version is a Double Star...

The center square finishes at 3" surrounded by half-square triangle (HST) and square units that finish at 1.5". The outer star HST and square sections all finish at 3". I chose to use a variety of blue dot fabrics as well as a wide variety of low volume background fabrics.

My second block was cut using the Easy Dresden ruler (you can watch a Missouri Star Quilt Company video tutorial explaining how to use the ruler here). The orange blades were cut from a 3.5" x 22" fabric strip, and the pink blades were cut from a 4.5" x 22" strip. One strip of each color is plenty for the entire block. After sewing each blade point and then sewing the blades together, I machine appliqued the entire unit to the 13" square background fabric. The background fabric was cut slightly larger because when appliqueing a block like this the background fabric tends to shrink up a bit.

The center circle of the dresden star was backed with Heat and Bond Lite so it could be fused to the dresden and background. I used a machine blanket stitch to permanently secure the circle to the center and then trimmed the block to the required 12.5".

This post contains photos of the other samples made as well as more details of the block lottery program.  I'm very excited to see the blocks that other members bring in April - maybe I'll be the lucky winner!  I sure wouldn't mind winning mine and the other sample blocks for myself :)

Thank You Lynn!

I have a wonderfully spunky friend Lynn (who always has the most infectious smile on her face) with mad skills in graphic design. Earlier this year (much earlier) she designed a logo for our newly forming Crystal Lake Modern Quilt Guild. In order to thank her properly with no funds to our name, we designed and made a quilt specifically for her.

And now that quilt has been delivered to her! After I finished sewing the quilt top, Paige (our CLMQG President and amazing machine quilter) finished this on her long-arm machine with an all-over pattern of swirls and curls in a light yellow thread.

The backing is one of my favorite prints from Heather Bailey's Pop Garden line - Pop Daisy in Red.

Lorrie (another CLMQG member and friend from SewMod Designs) sewed the red and white polka dot binding.

And this is my lovely friend Lynn. If you are ever in need of some awesome graphic design work, drop me a line and I'll pass your info to her. She really is the best!

Thanks Lynn!!

You can read more about the construction of this quilt here. The finished size is approximately 63" x 68".

Improv Piecing Challenge quilt top done!

My modern quilt guild challenge project is due next week! Today I finally got the top pieced...

It's baby quilt size - about 39" x 44". Wow - it is so much harder to piece odd-sized/shaped blocks than I expected! I didn't want any bias grain along the outside edges of the quilt, so the whole thing took more planning than I anticipated. Originally I intended to have the column of blocks in the right third of the quilt, with the other 2/3 to the left just open (negative) space. But after piecing it that way, the symmetry-loving part of my brain said, "ummm, NO!" So now it's sort of large 9-patch layout, which makes me happy.

Looking at the photo just now, I feel like it needs a little more white on the top and bottom to balance it out - maybe just 2"-3" each. What do you think?

My next step is to find a fun backing and get busy quilting!

improv piecing challenge

Last Sunday the newly formed Crystal Lake Modern Quilt Guild held our first workshop - Introduction to Improvisational Piecing. We had a turnout of about 20 ladies eager to get some hands-on practice with modern quilting techniques!

Paige (our President) led the workshop, and her goal was to help everyone feel more comfortable with forgetting the "rules" and just placing colors and shapes together by instinct. We focused on a simple "log cabin" type of block. Some of the ladies were very uncomfortable without a set of directions, but they all stuck with it and each made at least one block.

I'll be the first to admit it - this kind of quilting is not something I love. I struggle with chopping up fabric into random sizes, sewing it back together in random ways, and then lopping off bits of the block as I go. It's the randomness of the whole process, but it's good for me so I soldiered on and actually had a great time. It helped that for this workshop I used a bunch of scraps that were already chopped up. In fact, I brought along my entire basket of strip scraps (except for those favorites that are tucked away and destined for a scrappy-trip-along quilt) and let everyone have at it!

Here's a look at the three blocks I completed...

As a follow-up to the workshop, the guild is challenging all the participants to finish their blocks into some type of completed project. I'm thinking baby quilt for mine with lots of negative space.

I was going to "square up" each block but then on Monday I decided to emphasize the odd angles with a uniform 1" strip of Kona White around each one followed by a 1/2" border of the black and white stripe. My first block from the workshop... As you can see I still managed to end up with two right angles. Darn - I tried so hard to avoid that!

Block 2 - I think it looks like a house. Getting better at avoiding the dreaded right angle...

Block 3 - and we're back to the right angles!

I quite like this view of them all stacked together, and I think this is how I will place them in the baby quilt with lots of negative white space on the left side. It will be the perfect chance to practice some new free-motion quilting designs. Which will also be "good for me".

Paige was an excellent advisor and "cheerleader" when people began to get frustrated with the process. She has wonderful color sense and endless patience - a great combination when dealing with a room full of ladies trying something new. It turns out that stretching yourself in an unfamiliar direction is great creative fuel. And bonus - I didn't have to bring home any scraps!! Thanks Paige!

Our challenge projects aren't due until July, so I'm putting these blocks away for a bit in order to finish a different quilt for our nephew's first baby - a boy! Maybe I'll show you a peek at that quilt next time.

Until then, thanks for stopping by and reading :)

Exciting Announcement!

A branch of the Modern Quilt Guild is starting in my area! A couple of friends and I started kicking the idea around last fall, and we've finally made it happen...

If you are able to join us, we'd love to see you at our first meeting, February 10 from 1-4 p.m. at the Home State Bank Commercial Banking Center at 611 S. Main Street, Crystal Lake, IL 60014.

Please check our website for all the important details. "Like" us on Facebook to receive the latest updates directly in your news feed.

All quilters and sewists with a love for modern fabrics and/or quilting designs are welcome. New to quilting or sewing? No worries - we are interested in bringing together people of all skill levels. Check it out - we're going to have great FUN!