Last Saturday my local quit group had a Charity Sew-in at our Senior Center. Several projects were worked on - one quilter who is working on downsizing her stash cut out 35 pillowcases. I was very motivated to get through some of my larger charity quilts, and pushed myself to finish sewing the blocks for the Brown/Tan charity quilt, School's Out pattern. One member really likes to iron, and as ironing is very hard on my hands, I brought the blocks ready for her. M. was working on laying out quilts, and I asked her if she would mind laying out these blocks. She was taken with it, and went ahead and sewed all the blocks together. I quilted the quilt today and hope to get the binding on over the weekend. The size is 85.5" x 74", fabrics mainly from a FQ collection purchased many years ago. 42 12" blocks.
The other two projects that I cut out and had ready to sew were the Pink/Tan Charity Quilt, cut as a disappearing 9-patch, and the FQ Prize Quilt - cut as a 9-patch with a large center. The Pink/Tan fabrics had come together as a collection when I was searching the stash for other fabric. A large piece of gifted fabric was enough for a twin backing, so that was my size goal. The pieces were cut as 5" squares with the center square for each block the darkest red, as that make s a nice accent when it is cut. As the 9-patches went together and were pressed, I did all the cutting to keep the size consistent. Four of us completed all the blocks at the retreat, and J. was kind enough to bring them home and sewed the top together. She dropped it off this week, and it's waiting for borders and quilting.
The FQ Prize Quilt was cut from a fabric bundle that I won from QNM. Most of the pieces were fat quarters; some smaller, and some had pieces cut out of them. As I pressed the fabrics I sorted by size, and cut from those groups, cutting 5" squares, 5" x 2.5" strips and 2.5" squares. It's harder for me to work with fabrics that were not chosen by me, and these were not my colors - chocolate brown, orange, green, and a few random things. A couple of small pieces that were too different in style and a light blue that didn't go with anything were set aside. Three of us worked on these blocks and K. offered to bring them home to work on.
And feeling good about using up some of these older fabrics...I won another set of fat quarters from a blog drawing last week! They are Christmas colors but not Christmas prints.
And the other finish - Summer in the Park. This started with 3 yards of Kona that I thought would be grey, but read as a taupe and didn't play well with blue fabrics. Size is 87" x 71". I watched the video on Missouri Star Quilts and then found a blog called England Street Quilts with good information about making a larger version quilt, as I wanted to make it a bed-sized quilt rather than a lap-sized. I do not use starch, and had to be careful assembling these blocks as the edges are all bias. Seams were pressed open.
Many of my projects are from scratch – based on an idea, but
without step by step instructions. This can be both freeing and daunting. What
if I make the wrong choices? The article in the June/July 2014 issue of Quilter’s
Newsletter Magazine about Fidget Quilts for Alzheimer’s patients, stuck a
chord, as my MIL is suffering from the disease. The follow up issue of QNM had
some feedback from quilters who had followed the guidelines of the original article,
and their mats had been rejected by caregivers. Small items such as keys or
buttons could be chewed or pulled off . Before starting my mat, I contacted the
head of the facility where my MIL is and asked about these concerns, and
whether they would be interested in a fidget mat. The feedback was “yes please,
red and pink are favorite colors of several of the residents, and a size of 1
ft. by 3 ft. would work well on their dining table.”
Having a color scheme and size helped me choose fabrics and
designs. I began to over think the design, and finally took a step back and chose to keep it simple. After looking for squeaker inserts (now only available as dog chew
replacements – not baby craft items), I decided to focus on textures. Red velour
made nice hearts; white plush fur became kitty faces. A piece of wide satin
pink ribbon made triangles to give windmill blocks some dimension. Continuous
zippers made circles that open to a small cat print hidden inside. Floppy
petals on flowers give movement. A simple pocket can be explored. Each side of
the mat has six blocks and they repeat, both horizontally and vertically, so
each end or each side have six unique blocks. Feedback has been positive.
