2014 Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge

Hello everyone! It's that time of year again. Time to sign up for the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge!! Don't know what that is? Head on over to Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Sarah will tell you all about it. Just click the link above to go to her blog or click on the button on my side bar for more details.

My mother and I participated in this last year and it was so much fun. I know we all love sewing and making lovely quilts, but why not put it to good use and donate a quilt or two or three (or more) to a good cause and make not only yourself but someone else very happy. Last year I made two fish quilts for the Quilts Beyond Borders charity. One went to Europe and one went to Africa to orphanages. It was so much fun to design these and sew all the fish together, quilt them and then give them away. I'm hoping they made a couple of kids very happy.

My mom outdid me and made 3 quilts herself: The first two for the Happy Chemo charity and the last one for the Quilts Beyond Borders charity. She put together the tops and basted them for me. Then I quilted them for her and she put the finishing touches on with the binding. It was really fun to collaborate together on these and to send them off when they were all done.

You can read my posts about our finished quilts here if you'd like: Hands2Help 2013 Charity Quilts.

So, this year I'm going to help out again. I know I can make at least one quilt. I hope I can make more, but I don't know what my time going forward is going to be like yet. I am starting a new job tomorrow and won't really know how busy I'll be until I get going into it. This effort is important to me, so I'm going to make time to make at least one quilt. This year I'll be giving to the Quilts of Compassion charity. This charity helps people dealing with disasters in their neighborhoods. They need quilts of all sizes so it gives me the most freedom in pattern design and time. There are two other charities you can choose to donate to if you get involved. They are all detailed on Sarah's website.

I really hope you'll choose to help out. We all spend time quilting for ourselves or for gifts for our own loved ones, but I also think it is important to give to those who don't have the means to make a quilt for themselves or the people they love. Since I've been blessed with so much I feel it is part of my responsibility to share my blessings and talents with others. 

As an added bonus, if you sign up this week Sarah is having a giveaway for those who commit to just one quilt. The quilts need to be mailed off by June 13th. That's 3 months to get it done, and all through that time she'll have tutorials and guest bloggers and lots of ways to keep us all motivated with the challenge. So, with one more push, I hope you'll join us! :) Happy quilting everyone!

Flying South Baby Quilt

Hello everyone! So I'm a bit behind in making my friend Jason a baby quilt considering his son is a couple months old already... I had planned on making this quilt:

I bought the magazine so I had the pattern. I went out and bought all the fabric since my brown and green selection is very slim. I washed all the fabric. And then I let it all sit. And sit. And sit. I just couldn't get motivated to do this project and I realized I just hated the pattern. Yes, it is adorable and I would love to have this quilt. But making it is another story. It seemed tedious and just completely un-fun. 

I was watching tv one night and doodling on some graph paper when I came up with a quilt that I did want to make. I looked at it and thought, "that's what I'm doing for the baby quilt!" 

I ironed all the fabric this morning and got to cutting. I just used the greens that I had bought and some white for the background. I put these together:

I love how easy the "no waste" flying geese method is. One large 7 1/4" square for the center and four 3 7/8" background squares give you four geese blocks measuring 6" x 3". Once I got these put together I cut the remaining background pieces and before I knew it the quilt top was completely done!

This is a lot of negative space for me. A lot. I've never had this much before and it's kinda freaking me out a bit. I think that I'm going to just straight line quilt this with some diagonal lines in white, but it will be so noticeable in that negative space. Now I'm thinking that I should have just made the whole top out of flying geese and no negative space to make the quilting easier. But... I looooove this quilt top and the look of it. So, I guess soon I will be getting over my fear of negative space. :) 

Stay tuned!

Auction Quilt Flimsy

Hello everyone! I've got my flimsy finished for the auction quilt I'm making. I guess I should come up with a better name for it, right?

It is 60" square. I still need to find a backing fabric for it. I'm thinking some type of blue or gray print. And then I think I'll do a scrappy binding with the left over print fabrics from the front. 

 

What would you use for a back?