A finish and RSC and Sparrows QAL

 This week I finished the quilting and binding on the second quilt from last year's Stash Buster Challenge. The original quilt was so big that I wasn't comfortable quilting it. I intended to send it out to charity as a flimsy but the postage was so much. I ended up taking it apart and making 2 quilts instead. The first (larger) quilt was gifted to friends. This quilt will be sent to charity as part of the Hands2Help 2023 campaign hosted by Sarah @Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  

I changed the layout to a 4 x 5 grid and quilted vertically in straight lines about 1" apart.

I used a piece from my stash for the backing and a coordinating piece for the binding. 

I'm calling this quilt Play Nice!

Linking to Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Linky Party @Patchwork & Quilts, and Wednesday Wait Loss @The Inquiring Quilter

I also finished 2 of the purple button blocks for this months RSC.

2 more purple buttons to stitch! Linking to ScrapHappy Saturday @SoScrappy.

My Sparrows top is all put together! I'm loving it. More to come soon!

A Little of This and That

 I've been working on my final quilt for the Hands2Help2021 challenge. I will be donating 2 quilts to the Little Lambs Foundation and another quilt as my Hometown Hero. More on that in a later post. I put the final stitches in the binding of       Spring Fever yesterday! 

This is a bright baby quilt.

 

I pulled fabrics from my stash to match the piece, also from my stash, that I would use for the back. I drew a simple quilt pattern on graph paper. 

The rotating pink squares bring movement to the simple design.

The backing has little rose buds in blue, pink, and yellow with green stems. I needed to piece the back to make it big enough. 

The Little Lambs Foundation suggests 36" x 42" for the size of a baby quilt. 

Spring Fever is 36" x 44" ~perfect!. 

I FMQ petals in the yellow blocks, leaves in the green blocks, and a offset circle shape in the pink/white blocks. 

The binding is a striped fabric with a mix of colors that I felt would go nicely. 

It was nice to stitch this quilt completely from my stash!

I'm linking to Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? @Confessions of a Fabric Addict and 

Link Party @ Quilting Patchwork Applique.

EDIT: I've sent off 2 quilts to Little Lambs Foundation this week!

I haven't updated you on my Thankful Slow Stitching in awhile. It has been a little slow lately as I have doing some additional hand stitching. Almost all the green stems are finished!

Slowly I have worked on some scrappy blue tumbler blocks. Here is all the colors I've completed so far.

Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching @Kathy'sQuilts and ScrapHappySaturday @SoScrappy.

I forgot all about sharing my March journal calendar and it is almost the end of April. I'm more accountable to keep it up when I share it so here it is! 

A little bit of sewing

It has been a while since I have had time to post or even sew. Our daughter, son-in-law and grandson have moved from Texas and are living with us while our SIL goes back to school. It has been in the planning stage for more than a year. Needless to say, Covid-19 complicated the move. They will basically have the second floor; 3 bedrooms, bathroom and a small family room. 

This is just before the move from TX

To make it feel a bit more like 'their space', we removed most of our things... cleaning out, getting rid of some, storing others. 

The house is still in a bit of a unpacking stage (their pod came on Thursday) but things are going well overall. It has been fun to have our grandson here where we can see him everyday and really get to know him and watch him grow! ❤️

In the midst of everything, I did get some sewing done! 

Since it is June and the monthly color is pink, I made time for the RSC block. 

All the colors together!

I'm linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday over at So Scrappy.

I also did a bit more sewing on the I Spy quilt I am making. Hopefully, I will have more to show in the near future!

I received some exciting mail this week from Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. She sent this lovely pack of fat quarters and Thank You note. Sarah not only hosts and organizes Hands2Help every year but she finds sponsors to help say thanks!  Sarah is pretty amazing! Creating quilts for those in need has been the draw for me to participate and give back these last 2 years. This touch of thoughtfulness is an added bonus! 

Looking forward to Hands2Help 2021!

Hands2Help2020 Parade

The Hands2Help2020 challenge comes to a close the week of May 31st. I felt a final parade of the 4 baby quilts that I donated to the Little Lambs Foundation was in need. Although I have posted about each quilt before, here I include the 4 all together.

The Hands2Help challenge is hosted by Sarah @Confessions of a Fabric Addict. The challenge started in 2011 but I just first read about it last year. I really enjoyed making a quilt for Jack's Basket last year so this year I decided I could do more than one. I planned on making 2 baby quilts for the Little Lambs Foundation. 

While doing a sew-along for improv piecing, 2 of the practice pieces turned into the 2 additional baby quilts for a total of 4!

First up is In The Neighborhood. 

This baby quilt was built around the cute Bear fabric. 

You can read more about it here.

It finished size is 31" x 36"

Next is the first practice piece made into a baby quilt. 

It is called Stacks of Blocks after the improv stacks technique. You can read more about this quilt here.  

This baby quilt finished at 28" x 37".

The 3rd baby quilt I made was another practice piece for the improv sew-along. 

It is called Small Wonders and the improv technique is called insert. You can read more about it here.

This one finished at 40" x 40"

And the last of the baby quilts for the Little Lambs Foundation is Kimba. 

This quilt was built around the cute baby lion print. Not made in traditional baby colors, but I am pleased with it and hope some child in need will be too!

You can read more about it here. 

Its finished size is approx. 36" x46".

They were all packed and sent in the mail to Little Lambs Foundation.

Thanks to Sarah for all her work in putting together this great opportunity to give to those in need! 

Hand2Help2020 is a wrap!

Linking to the Linky Party for 2020 Hands2Help Challenge. 

Not One but Two!

One positive side of sheltering at home is the time I get to spend in my sewing room. This week I tackled some baby quilts! They will all be donated to charity!

The first one was the result of the improv play I did to get ready to participate in the improv triangle sew along. In Nicholas Ball's book, he suggests practicing improv techniques such as curves, inserts, stacks, rings, etc. I took each technique and practiced using older fabrics from my stash. 

After completing the stacks technique, I had a pretty good size piece. 

Instead of having this piece hang around as an orphan, I dug through my stash to find more coordinating fabrics and made a baby quilt. I added borders to make the finished size 28" x 37"

I quilted fairly densely in straight lines about every 1/2" and a geometric meander in the borders. 

The backing and binding are also pieces from my stash. 

Even though these are the colors Pantene chose for their colors of the year in 2016, I assure you these fabrics are from the late 80's or early 90's. 

It is nice to use up older fabrics! 

My second finish is from a picture I pinned to my Pinterest board way back in 2012 from Flickr. The pattern is called Easy Going Modern by Felicity Quilts. 

I'm calling this In the Neighborhood because of the cute print. Just look at that orange bear with blue glasses riding his bike through the neighborhood! 

This quilt finishes at 31" x 36". 

I quilted it with straight lines cutting each of the blocks in half. I added a 1" border. The backing is pieced with left over pieces from the front and some bright red/orange I had in my stash. 

These quilts will go to Hands2Help2020. 

I'm linking up to Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Brag about Your Beauties, Peacock Party, Finished or Not Friday, and Friday Foto Fun.

Next up will be this baby quilt resulting from more improv play. 

Stay tuned to see how this evolves. 

Another project I actually finished after many years is this lamp shade. I inherited this dresser lamp from my grandma, but the shade was in bad shape. I lived with it for a long while, then with no shade for some more time.

 I finally took the plunge. 

I made the pattern based on the old shade (in picture below) after deconstructing the shade. The fabric is the cutoff from shortening the curtains in our room. I pressed under 1/4" on the curved edges and another 1/4". I glued the larger circular wire along the bottom then glued the top wire. Once the wires were in place, I folded under the raw edges and glued the seam. 

To stiffen the fabric to retain its shape, I used Aleene's Stiffen Quik. 

It worked great! 

What Have I Been Doing?

I unexpectedly took time away from my blog but not from quilting!

Recently, I was asked to do a commission quilt by some friends from our church.  It is a T-shirt quilt for their daughter that is graduating from HS. I don't usually take on commission work but decided to go ahead. I knew I would have to put aside my personal projects except for the quilt I was making for H2H Charity ~ Jack's Basket in order to insure that it would be done for the graduation party in June. I met with them to look over the T-shirts and determine the ones that would be included in the quilt. We also talked about style of quilt (puzzle/mosaic verses grid), colors and size. I also gave them some resources to look for sashing, borders, backing, and binding fabrics.

I set out to determine the size of the blocks based on the largest logo and cut and stabilize the T-shirts. They decided to go with the 4 x 5 grid style quilt with sashings and borders. I have ordered the backing and binding fabrics so we have a little lull in this project as I wait for delivery. 

In the meantime, I was able to sandwich and quilt my Ribbons of Joy quilt for the Hands 2 Help project hosted by Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I'm quilting for Jack's Basket. Yesterday, I put the final stitches on the binding and threw it in the washer and dryer for the some crinkle goodness!

 Since I backed it with flannel print from my stash, it is so soft.  

I love the primary color scrappy ribbons and the cute bug flannel backing!

I quilted straight line along the edge of the ribbons and in the negative white space, I quilted a loose weave pattern. 

The binding is a red and white stripe fabric from my stash. 

This quilt finished at 36" x 40"

It is ready to be sent off to Jack's Basket and hopefully bring joy to a special family.