SAHRR Round 3 - Stars

 

This round was stars, especially wonky stars. I think I prefer regular stars over wonky ones. But I'm OK with the quilt so far... waiting to see what Round 4 will dictate.

H2H: This Year's Quilts

 Every year Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict organizes a charity quilt give-away. She encourages quilters to think of the world community or the local community and give quilts to those in need. She picks various programs we can choose to support, or even encourages us to donate to a program of our own choosing. I have participated every year since I found out about it (ten+ years?) and always enjoy it a lot.

This is what I created in 2021. This one went to Victoria's Quilts in Canada. She wants them to be 50" x 70" and tops only. That helps with the extra expense of postage to Canada. Victoria and her crew finish the quilts and then give them to people who have cancer. This was made from a huge pile of floral fabrics I received free from a friend. Florals don't seem particularly great for kid quilts, so I thought they might be suitable for some adults who are undergoing cancer treatments. Not a big fan of florals myself, I was still pretty happy with how this one turned out. It's even pretty!

The next one is photographed twice. It is also made from the floral fabrics, and went to Quilty Hugs which gives the quilts to people in the U.S. who have cancer. Again, it seemed appropriate for an adult. I assume that's who it will be given to. My cousin, Beth, quilted this for me on her long-arm.

At the last minute I also decided to participate in the Hometown Heroes quilt gifting. Because it was a last-minute decision, it has not yet been quilted and not yet been given away. But this is the top which I made from a kit and will be finished soon, I hope. Pattern is Magic Carpet by Vanilla Latte Quilts. (This quilt is high-lighted in my previous post from May 26.)

To see other gorgeous quilts given out by generous quilters, click here and be inspired.

H2H: Front Line Workers

 I have a quilt I am going to give to the pastor at my church, but it has not yet been quilted. You get to see the uncompleted top. (And I hope she doesn't read this; I think I'm safe there. She won't see my secret plan.)

Hands2Help has encouraged us to give away a quilt to a front line worker, aka Hometown Heroes. They have all worked so hard and been so dedicated; they need some thanks for all they have done. My pastor has worked very hard and has met with some backlash. Surprisingly, some people complained to her about the fact that we were not having in-person worship during the pandemic! The staff all worked together to provide meaningful on-line worship. I know it was difficult for them to make the transition, but they made it great for the rest of us. Her job was made even harder by the fact that one of her staff members was on maternity leave, so the work load on her and the remaining staff had increased.

I found out that she gets criticized just for any old thing: the sermon topic, the hymns that were chosen, you name it. I didn't know people could be so.... petty. I know she has worked very hard and has put her heart and soul into doing the right thing. 

Anyway, I appreciate her hard work, her dedication, and her unflagging optimistic attitude, so she will be getting this quilt some time in the next couple of months. Pattern is "Magic Carpet" by I-can't-remember-who. This was a kit.

Click here to see other quilts gifted to front line workers.

Giving a Quilt to Two People

Today I met Bonus grandson and his mom at a McDonald's that has a playland. I had a quilt to give him, but he was more interested in playing on the climbing things. His mom loved it! It's a very simple pattern, but she was overwhelmed with the soft minky backing. It was fun to see her loving it so much. We could only get Bonus' attention long enough to touch it for a split second. Couldn't get more than his hand in the picture. (I have a feeling he and his mom will be sharing this quilt.) He does love to climb and play! It was a fun Bonus day. He always makes me happy.

A Boy and His Quilt

It happened! The thing that I love! I found a picture of a kid wrapped in a quilt that I made! This is a boy in Mexico. He looks so happy to have (a) a quilt and (b) trucks on his quilt! And I am so happy that he has it wrapped tightly around himself, as if he absolutely loves it, and also he has it right side out, so I know it's one of mine! Truly the stars were aligned.

Here he is in a group.. the others have theirs folded or back-side showing, so you see how lucky I am to have found this great display of quilt love. This definitely made my day.

A Soft Quilt

I made this very easy quilt top, thinking I might donate it to one of the programs I support. The fabric is so cute that I decided I would like to give it to my Bonus Grandson. I had it quilted by a professional, using minky on the back.

Here is a close-up of the fabric.

Once it was quilted, it was so puffy and soft. Then, with minky on the back, it's even softer. It's a very comforting little quilt. I hope Bonus will like it. I'm not sure when I will give it to him; it's very warm, so I might wait until winter.

I finally got the binding attached yesterday. It's finally done!

Mini Vacay, One Quilt

Husband and I went on a 4-day vacation to southern Wisconsin. We picked that area because my friend from Georgia would be there visiting her parents; it was a good time to see each other.

We stayed at a resort. These pictures show the area. It was quite pretty.

I enjoyed the quilt theme on some of the doors.

Weather was perfect! Sitting on the balcony was restful and pleasant. We read, napped, and also took walks along the lakeshore.

My friend from Georgia is on the left. The friend on the right lives nearby, so we got to increase the fun and see her, too.

We are back home now, so I was able to finish this quilt. Some of these string blocks are at least 15 years old! I made more last week to finish this and quilt it. Then after vacation, today, I finished it off. I will donate this quilt locally.

Book Review: Norwegian by Night

Norwegian by Night by Derek Miller

An American octogenarian and recent widower moves to Norway to live with his grand-daughter and her Norwegian husband. They think he has dementia, and it does appear that he's a little odd, but the reader will never know for sure if it's dementia or just lack of understanding between generations. He has a lot of clear (and muddled) thoughts which didn't seem consistent with dementia, but... I admit an ignorance about what inner life is like for a person with dementia.

There's a murder, an escape, a police chase all of which are quite interesting and not too thriller-ish, for which I was thankful. I don't usually enjoy mysteries and murders, but I loved this book. The old gentleman is pondering his years, especially the time he spent fighting in the Korean war. And he mourns his son who died in Vietnam. There are so many family and life issues in this book, adjustment to a new home, relationships and unknowns, plus it is quite captivating just to follow all that happens. I can give this book a strong recommendation.

This quilt of mine has recently arrived in Guatemala and was donated to a child there.

Treasure From Great-Grandma

My cousin recently contacted me and asked if I would like to have an old quilt made by our great-grandma. No one in her immediate family wanted it. Of course I said YES! She mailed it to me from Washington, and here it is:

My great-grandmother, Emma Pratt Shaw, made this in the late 1930s and gave it as a top only to my Uncle Roger H. Roger was too young to appreciate it. Later, in the 40s, he had his sister, my Aunt Hope, finish it. She repaired some of the squares and sandwiched and hand quilted it. Then it was kept in a closet and basically unused until now. So it is in GREAT shape.

This quilt is very similar to a quilt that was given to my dad.. same story. Made in the 30s, finished in the 40s, and it was in our family and used often as I was growing up. My sister now owns that quilt; it is much loved, very soft and tattered. I am thrilled to have its pristine sister that even has some of the same fabrics in it.

What a treasure!

My (make-do) Method of QAYG

I have made two quilt-as-you-go quilts. That is, I did the quilting in sections, before all the blocks were joined together into one top. The first time I did it, I looked up ideas on the web and found something that seemed to work. This is how I did that one (which I sent away and could no longer examine to remember how)... and so I had to scratch my head and try to remember how when it came time to do this recent one. This one is 48" x 72" which is a little big to quilt on my regular domestic machine. I chose to quilt it in three sections, which means I had two joints to make.

(1) After the three sections were quilted, I joined them together as usual, pushing back the batting and backing so I could pin and sew the seam. This shows me pinning one of the seams. Note: one can't quilt all the way to the edge, because you need to make room for this seam. Also the backing and batting are needed for creating the back joint.

(2) This is the actual sewing of the seam, showing the batting and backing pulled back for room to sew.

(3) The sections are all sewn together, so now I have to work on the back joint seam. I'm not a precise, OCD, it-must-be-perfect quilter, so keep that in mind, please. I pulled back the backing fabric and then just trimmed the batting with a scissor. It sort of meets except where it sort of overlaps. Whatever. I used a glue stick under it to help keep it in place as I worked.

(4) With the batting trimmed and glued into place, I folded the backing fabric into place so it meets. Oh, look! Someone else must have done the quilting in that spot, because it's not perfectly straight! (That's called organic.)

(5) Now I sewed a zig-zag stitch over the folded seam. Do you see that the joint seam is not perfectly centered? That was sort of an accident/on purpose thing.

(6) I liked that it wasn't perfectly centered, because I didn't want to be sewing it right on top of the seam I had just made when I sewed the quilted pieces together. This way, my zig zag landed to the side of the regular seam, so from the front I zig-zagged again on the other side, symmetrically placed, and this helped secure all the batting and folds that were underneath. At least that's my theory, and I hope it's true. [Confession - when I did this joint the second time, I also stitched-in-the-ditch in that regular seam, to add even more strength, but I chose not to do that on this first joint. Who knows why.]

(7) Here's the joined sections from the front. You can't even tell! Isn't it kind of nice? I was pleased. My husband looked at it, front and back, and said "You can't even see it." That was music to my ears.

(8) Here is the completed quilt with a little of the back showing. If you click on the picture it'll get a little bigger so you can examine it. Go ahead. It's not perfect by any means, but I invite you to take a look anyway. This method worked for me, and I'm satisfied with it. I'm so glad I have learned not to worry about perfection. I have a lot more fun just enjoying the quilting process without being strict with myself.

Here's the completed quilt. Yay! I took some time to admire it and be pleased with myself. (Oh, this quilt turned out a little darker than I intended it to.. oh, well. It still looks good.) And now I'm on to another project.

A Quilt In the Wind

I made a quilt for my daughter, and this weekend we gifted it to her. She lives on the North Shore (Lake Superior), a beautiful place to visit. We had fun being her guests for the day. I wanted to get a picture of her with the quilt in front of the lake. Impossible task! It was way too windy. I laughed so hard watching Daughter and Husband trying to hold the quilt still in the wind. They couldn't do it.

Here's the quilt:

And here they are trying to hold it up for a picture! So funny!

"Oh, well. Let's go back home."