Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge 2014

I’m excited to have been able to do a quilt for Sarah Craig’s Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge this year!  I love that she provides this opportunity each year, and it feels so neat to participate in such fun.

I thought I’d try something new with this quilt and just did strips of fabric the width of the fabric. I have 10 different fabrics and each were cut about 6” wide.  It finishes at 42 1/2” x 59”.

  

Sarah gave three organizations to choose from this year, and although I would have loved to do something for all three, I ended up choosing to send my quilt to Happy Chemo again. I guess I just have a special place in my heart for people going through cancer and chemo, since my mother had to go through that.

 

  

I put yummy soft pink minky on the back, and quilted it with happy flowers all over it, with an occasional heart and butterfly here and there.

 I wrote the words “You are Loved” in one area, but it was hard to see it in a picture on the front side of the quilt, so this picture below is of the back side of the quilt, you just have to read it backwards.  :)

Thank you, Sarah, for providing this great opportunity again!!!  You are a jewel and I really appreciate you!!!

More Operation Sunshine Donations!

 

A couple of days ago I met my friend Marion from My Quilt Diet and she gave me a quilt top and a finished quilt for Operation Sunshine! Two wonderful ladies donated these quilts and took them to Marion, who in turn brought them to me.

 

The first one is an adorable quilt top from Pamela Caldwell from French Knots!

 

Such lovely blues!

 

This will make one of the girls very happy!

 

And this cool quilt came from Emily Herrick from Crazy Old Ladies!  Yup, you’ve probably seen this quilt somewhere before…

It’s a quilt from her Geared For Guys book! The very one she made and that has been to international quilt shows. Wow! How cool is that?!

 

This will make one of their boys very happy! :)

 

So, to Pamela and Emily, I thank you both!! You have both been so kind in your donations. They will be very appreciated by this family!!

Operation Sunshine Donation #3!

Sweet Jeanenne Nielsen sent this cute quilt to me in the mail for Operation Sunshine! 

 

 

What a sweet D9P!  One of the little children of this family will love it!!

 

 

 

And Jeanenne’s good friend Liesha Farnsworth donated the quilting. Didn’t she do a beautiful job?!

 

Thanks SO much Jeanenne and Liesha!!  They will love your quilt!

Second Operation Sunshine Donation!

Today Tricia Sagan brought over her gifts for Operation Sunshine!

This is such a beautiful quilt!

(I’ve got to find the pattern! She said she got it from the Moda Bake Shop.)

I found the pattern! It’s here! Woohoo!

 

 

And of course, since it has pink in it, my daughter wanted me to take a picture of her wrapped up in it. :)

 

And look at this gorgeous backing. So cute!

 

Tricia even bought some sheets to go with it. How totally thoughtful!

 

Thank you Tricia!!! What a great lady you are. It was wonderful seeing you again!!

2012 - A Great Year to Start Quilting Again…

So here we go again… ending one year and beginning another.  I’m so glad I started quilting again this year as it’s brought me a lot of joy.

Here’s a collage of a lot of the things I sewed this year…

 

The best thing about sewing and quilting is that, usually, the things you make are for a gift for someone you love. So, the project often evokes a feeling of love for that person when you see it.  What a wonderful hobby!

 

 

Grandma’s Hand Print Quilt

Several months ago I posted about a quilt I was planning to make for my mother-in-law for Christmas. Well, now that it’s Christmas and I’ve given it to her, I can follow up and show you the completed quilt, and the happy Grandma!

 

 

It took me a long time to try to figure out what to do with the blocks in between the hand prints.  I worried that if I did much piecing in these blocks that they would detract from the hand prints. I tried to envision different kinds of blocks and since I couldn’t really envision what they would look like, I just decided to do plain fabric squares. I did modify six of the blocks and put in four-patches instead.  I’m quite pleased with the outcome.

 

 

The blocks are 9 1/2” (cut) each and the finished quilt is 56” x 74”.

I appliquéd the hand prints using Heat n’ Bond lite, and then did a narrow zig-zag around the edges.

I used fabric from California Girl – they look so bright and cheery!

 

  This block is one of my favorites. Since one of the grandchildren had a baby this year, that means Grandma is now a Great-Grandma! It didn’t work to give the baby her own block since that threw off my pattern, so I sewed her right along-side her daddy’s handprint. Adorable!

 

 

Near each hand print I fmq’d a little heart. (I need to get better at doing hearts!)

 

This block has the youngest grandchild’s hand prints on it, and since she’s so little (she’s only two) I decided to put both of her hands on it. Cute!

 

 

I labeled all the hand prints and this little tag on the back of the quilt using a permanent Micron pen. That’s what the gal at my lqs suggested I use and it worked great!

I backed the quilt with that double sided super soft stuff - it’s like minky without the bumps. What’s it called?? All I know is it’s SUPER soft and snuggly! Yum!

And yes, I did use batting as well. I wondered if it would be too heavy, but we all agree that it really is very snuggly and not too heavy at all.

 

And, yes, I remembered to sign my name!

 

This is my daughter snuggling up in it before we wrapped it up.

 

And here comes the big moment!

 

I LOVE to see the pleasant surprised look on people’s faces and you know you’ve given them something they love. : )

 

Oohing and ahhing over each grandchild’s hand print…

 

Yup, she loved it.

 

This is the youngest grandchild putting her hands on her hand prints. So sweet!

 

 

Linking up with Confessions of a Faric Addict – Whoop! Whoop!

and with Crazy Mom Quilts

and with Lily’s Quilts

Stars & Stripes – Done!

I started this quilt, oh, about 4 years ago! No, it didn't take me so long to finish it because it was difficult (so easy!) it’s just that I got as far as putting on the border, and – didn’t. So it sat there all this time. I pulled it out a couple of months ago and realized how close I was to finishing it and thought to myself, “That was silly.” Anyway, here it is. I got it back from my favorite LAQ a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t get it bound until today because I knew I had cut out the binding 4 years ago, but I couldn’t find it! Until this morning that is… So, here it is:

Stars & Stripes!

It’s about 42”x60” and will hang on the wall in my sewing room.

 

I sure hope you can see the amazing quilting that my friend did on this quilt. If you look closely at the blue area, you’ll see four eagles with their wings spread - their tails all in the center. Amazing!

 

Then in the white border, she quilted the words, “God Bless America” all around it… Beautiful!

Then in the stripes, she did wavy lines and then in the red stripes, she also did stars.

Here’s a picture of the back so you can see more of the detail.

I love finishes!!! :)

A Special Quilt from Heaven – The Story

A few weeks ago when I was first learning about the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge that Sarah Craig is doing over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, I read about one of the charities called Happy Chemo, and I thought to myself, “I would really like to make a quilt for this project. What kind of quilt could I do?” Immediately the thought of a little plastic sack of fabric in the corner of my sewing room came to mind, and I thought, “That’s perfect!”

So, this is the story of the little plastic sack of fabric…

It held some pretty blue, yellow and green fabric, already cut into 6 1/2” squares along with some extra yardage. The layout had already been determined by my mom and each row was pinned with little papers with numbers on them.

My mom purchased this fabric several years ago and had cut it all out, done the layout, put it all in a sack, and then with all of her other projects she loved to do, she just didn’t get around to sewing it up.

My mother passed away 2 1/2 years ago, and when my siblings and I gathered together to go through her belongings and divvy it out between us, this little sack of fabric is one of the things I chose, and it has sat quietly on my shelf for the past 2 1/2 years.

The significance of this quilt is that many years before her passing, she had breast cancer. She had a mastectomy and went through a double dose of chemotherapy. The chemo was a hard go for her but she had told the doctor that she was a fighter and that she was going to beat the cancer. She definitely was a fighter and she did win.

Her amazingly positive attitude, faith and determination got her through it and she was blessed to gain another fifteen years with her family. For which we are all forever grateful!

I’m going to write a special letter to have delivered with this quilt to its recipient, sharing its story. I hope it will help her feel loved and encouraged.

(My fourth son enjoying the attention. : )

I love this quilt! It is so bright and happy!

So this quilt has two authors, me and my mom. A special quilt from Heaven. I really feel that my mom had something to do with the inspiration I received to make this quilt be the one I send to Happy Chemo. I hope it brings its recipient a lot of happiness!