Sunday 8 November 2015

Charity Quilt

Every year my guild picks a charity and makes quilts during the year for that charity. Some of the quilts we have made and donated have been to Project Linus, the local women's shelter and community members in need of a little quilty love. This year we our charity is Victoria's Quilts Canada. They provide quilts to people in Canada who have cancer.

We sorted out fabrics and put them into colour coordinated kits, which we then put into large ziploc bags. The bag I took home had some pinks and greens. It also had various size cuts with no yardage. A little bit of a challenge, just what I need right now. I scoured the internet and pinterest looking for inspiration. I wanted a simple to piece project, heck I already had a big enough challenge with the sizes. I had various 6 1/2 inch blocks, some 2 1/2 inchish strips to name a couple.
I saw a quilt called Stacked Squares Quilt at Kitchen Table Quilting. You can download the pattern from the Moda Back Shop.  It uses a layer cake and jelly roll strips, but I thought I could adapt it to work with what I had.

I took the 6 1/2'' squares I had and added a 2 1/2'' strip to two sides and then darker 2 1/2'' strips to the those same sides, this gave me a 10'' finished block.This size block worked out great as I ended up with a 50 1/2 x 70 1/2 inch top. The sizes that Victoria Quilts wants are adult: approximately 50” x 70”, youth: approximately 48” x 60” and child: approximately 36” x 48”.

auditioning square and strips
 There were no whites so I used some of my own plus some additional fabrics for the squares and strips. It was an easy and quick top to piece. I think it turned out not too bad. I only hope it gives someone comfort in their journey, as battling cancer is not easy.
My version of Stacked Squares
I another picture with the sun just catching part of the top.

sun catching a portion of the top
Someone else in my guild will longarm it. My guild bought a roll of cotton batting and is also providing the flannel for the backs.

I am left with the following mostly 3'' squares a few 4'' and strips ranging from 1 3/4 to 2 1/2 inches. I could use some ideas for these. 

leftovers

How would you use them?


Sunday 1 November 2015

Black and White Stepping Out

Slow sewing is going to be the norm over the next several months as I deal with a health issue. I am trying to squeeze in a few minutes here and there when possible, as sewing is wonderful therapy.

I have been wanting to make a black and white since forever, well maybe not forever but for a long time. What better quilt to make than using my own pattern from the Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop, you can read about it in this post and also get the free pattern download. You can read about the fabrics I used here.

Black and White Stepping out top

I am trying to decide on borders. I scanned my fabric and played around in my graphics program with a possible idea of using some flying geese. 

flying geese borders
A narrow border of black and white and the flying geese centered on all four sides, and maybe white corners. I really like the blocks and don't want to take away from them.

I am also working on a charity quilt using fabric from my guild plus some of my own additions. You'll have to wait to see it in another post.

Until next time happy quilting!