Tish's Adventures in Wonderland: Block for a Cause

Showing posts with label Block for a Cause. Show all posts

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Heart Quilt for Pulse--A Finish

Today I am celebrating the finish of my Heart Quilt for Pulse!!! As we speak it should be on it's way to the fine quilters of the Orlando MQG. Honestly, this one should have been finished weeks ago, but when I found out my Sweet Sixteen was on it's way (I had the white background finished) I decided to wait for her arrival before I quilted the hearts.

Back in June, when the Orlando MQG put their call out for help with their Quilts for Pulse charity, I new I would like to help. Step one would be sorting through my stash to see what I had in the way of rainbow colors. So I carried the totes containing colored fabrics to the living room.

After sorting through the pieces I came up with piles that I thought would work for giving the quilt a rainbow look. Lots of happy colors. Even Mr. Newton helped with the sorting. He's getting so gray in the muzzle.

I decided to make my quilt 6 x 6 10" blocks with a white on white fabric for the background. I used the heart tutorial on Cluck Cluck Sew. After all the pieces where cut, it was time to start the block construction.

And in less than a day, I had a finished quilt top, begging to be quilted.

I played around with a few other different settings for the hearts, but decided on this layout because of the squarish diamonds that the background fabric formed. I decided on back and forth curvy lines in the larger diamonds...

and pebbling in the smaller ones using Aurifil #2021 Natural White.

And this is where the story takes a long long break (a 3 week break), to wait on the arrival of my Sweet Sixteen.

I knew that I wanted to quilt the hearts with very little quilting since the background had quite a bit of dense filler. I went with a design I had stitched earlier in the year on the Aurifil Mini Penny Love. Double curvy swirling lines that formed hearts. It is suppose to have a ribbon effect so no need to worry about travel stitching. Just let the lines go where they will.

I fell in love with this design because I could stitch it with no marking, which speeds up the process by leaps.

So I took this motif and ran with it. I had kinks along the way that I had to work through, but you have that when you are using a new machine for the first time. The biggest hurdle to jump or problem, was these two clowns.

When I wasn't paying attention one of them would sneak up on the quilt and hide in the folds.

Who am I trying to kid, there wasn't really much sneaking. They would just plop down, even with me quilting, and proudly claim the warm softness as their own. There really was no "hiding" to it.

So with the help of the fur kids, I was able to finish up these beautiful hearts. I found a speckled print with most of the colors in the quilt that I used for a machine binding. No flanged binding this time. I'm just as surprised as you are, believe me.

And now for a few pictures I took before I gave it a wash and packed it away.

Would you believe I forgot to put one of my labels on it? But I figure that is okay. The who made it isn't important. This quilt finding its owner and hopefully giving them some comfort and love is what is important. I hope they can feel how much fun I had creating this quilt. Jen had discovered my CD's from when I was in high school and college. I jammed out (rather loudly) to Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Madonna, Stone Temple Pilots, and even Metallica. I'm pretty sure Jen was ready to have me committed. But it was a song I had forgot about by Jewel that made me stop and pause for a few moments, because it was so fitting for this quilt. The song is called Hands.

If I could tell the world just one thing

It would that we're all Okay

And not to worry 'cause worry is wasteful

And useless in times like these

I won't be made useless

I won't be idle with dispair

I will gather myself around my faith

For light does the darkness most fear

My hands are small, I know

But they're not yours, they are my own

And I am never broken

Poverty stole your golde shoes

It didn't steal your laughter

Heartache came to visit me

But I knew it wasn't ever after

We'll fight, not out of spite

For someone must stand up for what's right

'Cause where there's a man who has no voice

There ours shall go singing

Hands by Jewel

I love our quilting community and the way we all band together, from all walks of life to stand up and do what's right or bring love to those that are hurting. With each block and quilt we give a small piece of ourselves. As long as we are quilting together, there is love and warmth in the world. That my friends, means evil cannot win. We will cover the world with love, one quilt at a time

Can someone get me a ladder??? I think I've been on my soap box for too long in this post, I'm getting a nose bleed :)

Today I'm linking up with Main Crush Monday, TGIFF and Can I Get a Whoop! Whoop!

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Don't Forget To Give Back

I do have to say I believe there is something to karma and finding that balance between good and evil/bad. Hey, sometimes you get what you give and I try to always have this in the back of my head, so that I'm giving more good than bad. One of my and Jen's (my daughter) favorite TV shows is My Name is Earl. You know the one about the guy with the list always trying to make up for the bad things he's done. I'd like to think I don't have a list per-say, but I sure as heck do not want to have to make one. I'd rather just stay on karma's good side.

This past week, our family had what could have been a very tragic event happen, but luckily, all is well. Everyone is healthy and happy. But it makes me think of Kat over at Kat and Cat Quilts and her charity Coverd In Love. Kat tries to provide quilts to families that have suffered loss at the hospital she works at. Our crazy roller coaster reminded me, that I had not participated in donating blocks to Kat for a few months and maybe it was time to whip some up. What better way to show karma, I appreciated the thumbs up news.

This month, Kat is asking for disappearing 9 patch blocks in black and white prints, with a center accent block of lime green, bright yellow or Caribbean blue. Now for a quilting confession. In all my years of quilting I had never made one of these super easy blocks. I did a quick fabric pull from my stash (and found my blacks and whites have shrank) and decided to get to work.

I cut squares. Then I carefully sewed them all together....so...I could cut them up again, and sew them back together.

I wish I had more of the black and white print so that I could send more than three, but I did not. But three is better than zero and hopefully I can participate again next month. If you have a few extra minutes to spare, hop over and check out Kat's blog and consider sending a few of these simple blocks. There is still plenty of time this month.

And I couldn't close this post without sharing these beautiful heart blocks. These blocks were made by my guild's president, Barbara, to send to the Orlando MQG to help with their Pulse quilt drive. I had hoped to ship my finished quilt as well, but I still have a bit more quilting to do, so these blocks traveled without it. I still have till September 15th to send the quilt. That's practically years in quilter terms. As soon as I get my tensions issues resolved, I'll be right back on it.

Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Covered In Love Feb Blocks

One of my favorite uses for my stash, is making blocks to send to Kat (Kat and Cat Quilts) for her charity Covered In Love. I am hoping to be able to donate a few blocks each month this year. Helping others is always a rewarding use for one's stash. For February she put out a call for Split 9 blocks in the following color ways.

Photo from Kat and Cat Quilting

So since my stash is nice and organized, I was able to quickly pull some greens, blues and creams.

And the cutting process was able to commence.

The blocks went together super quick, being made of two HST's and seven squares.

After everything was completed and I was cleaning up, both Oliver (the cat) and Princess Caroline of the Fuzzy Butts (her official kitty title) approached me with their thoughts on the matter. They felt if I was going to send something to Kat, I should probably send something to Cat as well. They kind of had a point. I told them not to worry I would take care of it.

We have a thousand (okay maybe 6) of these little mice around our house. We call them the moo-sa moo-sa's. Oliver loves to find them and leave them "dead man" floating style in the water bowl for the dogs to find. Occasionally, he will retrieve them when they have reached a suitable water level and place them strategically on the floor for us to step on, hopefully with socks on. Miss Caroline carries them around in her mouth and wrestles with them. You never know where one will turn up. I thought this sounded like a suitable gift for young Rory (Kat's cat) and set out to find one.

As soon as I purchase a new moosa for the house, the tag and elastic cord are immediately removed. Oliver has an unhealthy obsession with eating them.

The whole time I was assembling the package to mail, I felt like I was being watched...and I was by my tiny chocolate colored ninja.

Like most little kids, Miss Caroline didn't quite understand why I wouldn't let her play with the new moo-sa moo-sa.

Hopefully, when the package arrives in the next few days, both Kat and cat will enjoy their happy mail.

If you would like to help contribute to Kat's charity or just learn about it, you can check it out here.

Today I am linking up with The Year Of The Stash and Needle and Thread Thursday.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Scraptastic Award--Part 2

Several weeks ago, I posted about a Scraptastic Award I received earlier in the year, when I inherited the scraps of my friend's very talented grandmother. Boxes and totes full of tiny scraps she had saved over the years.

At the end of September when Kat over at Kat and Cat Quilts put out a call for scrappy string blocks for her charity Covered In Love, I knew that some of Grandma Carver's scraps had found a home. So last night I pulled out a tote of sorted scraps.

Don't worry, I still have more to sort through. My thoughts were to channel my inner Mrs. Carver, reach in with my eyes closed and grab two heaping handfuls of fabric and let her guide me in the chaos.

A side note, if you are also working on another project, say a mystery quilt, and already have small squares sitting on your work space, move them before placing a large pile of scraps on the table. After a bit all the fabric starts to look alike. Luckily in this story no mystery quilt pieces were harmed or discarded.

I started out by following Kat's suggested method for making the string blocks by using an 11" base block and sewing my strips on as I go. When Oliver heard me talking about Kat and Cat Quilts he automatically assumed this meant that an actual cat had to be present and help with the project.

I never let on and gave him the task of guarding the garbage bag I keep on the chair to make sure I didn't toss something of importance.

After I had covered my block in random strips, it was time to turn it over and trim it down to 10.5."

After trimming away the excess fabric and flipping the block over, what was left was a perfectly squared completely scrappy string block.

So after several more sew-press-flip-repeat I had four blocks that I will send out today to Kat.

I would like to think that Grandma Carver would approve of the blocks and their destination. Thanks to her ~~hoarding~~ collection, a family that is in desperate need of a hug might be able to find some comfort in a quilt.

With practically almost all of the scraps gone, what will I do?? Try typing that with a straight face. You can hardly tell that I have made a dent in the mass of scraps, but that's ok, I have several other ideas in mind for them. If you would like to help a fellow quilter in her quest for making quilts for those in need, pop over to Kat's site. There is still 11 days to makes some string blocks to send out.

And always remember, sort your scraps thoroughly, you never know what you may find.

Come join the party! Today I'm linking up with: Sew Fresh Quilts, Freemotion By The River, Blossom Heart Quilts , and Quilt Story.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Fabri-Quilt New Block Hop---Watermelon Taffy

Shortly after the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers blog hop came to a close the hop leaders, Cheryl at Meadow Mist Desings, Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl, Stephanie at Late Night Quilter and Terri Ann at Childlike Fascination put out a call to those that participated to possibly join together in another blog hop. They introduced to us the...

What exactly did this mean? Participants would be sent a bundle of six fat eighths courtesy of Fabri-Quilt in a color palette of Watermelon Summer.

Chartreuse, Turquoise, Coral
Aqua, Lapis Blue, White

The challenge would be to write a tutorial on how to make a 12 1/2" block created by the blogger. We would each construct the blocks we designed and then mail them to one of the group leaders, who would then turn them into quilts for three different charities.

The creation of this block was a collaborated effort between my husband and I. He enjoys creating designs in a book of graph paper when we are watching Netflix and for a while now he has been wanting me to give one of his creations life. Since legally half of all his things belong me (I jokingly tell him I have ran a half marathon because I claim half of his full marathon) I figured it would be okay. Just kidding, he was very excited to see what I came up with.

After a few days playing with colors, figuring out numbers, and making sure I would have enough fabric I was finally ready to cut my fabric and get started.

So together we introduce to you Watermelon Taffy.

Cutting Instructions

White Lapis Blue (Dark Blue)

Twelve - 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" rectangles Four- 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" rectangles

Four- 1 1/2" squares Four- 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" rectangles

Twenty- 2" squares Six- 2" squares

Coral Turquoise

Four- 2" squares Four- 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" rectangles

Four- 1 7/8" squares Two- 2" squares

Eight- 1 1/2" squares Eight- 1 1/2" squares

Chartreuse Aqua

Eight- 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" rectangles Eight- 1 7/8" squares

Eight- 2" squares

We will combine the twenty 2" White squares with the 2" Lapis Blue, Turquoise, Chartreuse, and Coral squares to makes some 1 1/2" half square triangles.

Oliver, my quilting kitty, stopped by to put in his two cents on constructing half square triangles. We marked a diagonal line on all of the white squares. Then matched them with a colored square (right sides together) and sewed lines 1/4" on both sides of the marked line. Then we cut on the marked line and pressed the two squares open. Next we trimmed the squares to 1 1/2" square and clipped off the tails. Wha-la a pretty half square triangle.

You should have 4 Turquoise/White, 8 Coral/White, 12 Lapis Blue/White and 16 Cartreuse/White half square triangles and a pile of pretty confetti.

Now we are ready to start constructing the 4 1/2" units that make up this block. For unit 1 you will need:

2 White and Lapis Blue half square triangles
2 White and Coral half square triangles

1 White 1 ½" block

1 White 1 ½" x 2 ½" rectangle
2 Coral 1 ½" block

2 Turquoise 1 ½" blocks

1 Lapis Blue 1 ½" x 3 ½" rectangle

1 Lapis Blue 1 1/3" x 2 ½" rectangle

Arrange your pieces in the following layout.

Next sew rows A, B, C and D together. They should look like this.

Next sew completed rows B and C together to form Row BC.

Then attach the Lapis Blue1 1/2" x 2 1/2" rectangle to Row BC.

After you sew Rows A, BC and D together you will have a completed unit. You will need a total of 4 of these units.

For unit 2 you will need:

Four Chartreuse/White half square triangles

Two 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" White rectangles

Two 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" Chartreuse rectangles

One 1 7/8" Coral Square

Two 1 7/8" Aqua Squares

Our first step will be to create a square in a square unit using the Coral for the center square and the Aqua for the outer square. Begin by marking a diagonal line on the Aqua squares and cutting them like in the picture below.

Next I like to fold the Coral Square and four Aqua triangles in half and press to mark the center.

Then when I open them up they nestle together nicely to make sure I have the triangle centered on the square.

Now we are ready to start sewing our unit together. Once you have your triangle matched up on the square, sew a seam 1/4" from the edge. Repeat on the opposite end then press open.

You will then be ready to trim off the tabs.

Then fold your unit in half to find the center and repeat with the remaining two Aqua triangles.

Then press open and cut the remaining tabs.

Now we are ready to lay out our pieces for the unit as follows.

Sew each row together.

Now all that is left to do is sew your completed rows together.

Now you have a completed unit 2. You will need a total of 4 of these units.

And now for our last unit and I promise we will only need one of them. Arrange you remaining pieces as follows.

Four Turquoise and White half square triangles

Four Lapis Blue and White half square triangles

Four Turquoise 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" rectangles

Piece together the small pinwheel in the middle and the top and bottom rows.

Next sewing the 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" Turquoise rectangles on to each side of the pinwheel. Then you will be ready to sew your rows together.

Now that we have all of the units constructed we can lay them out and begin to sew the block.

The only thing left to do is sew the rows together and Ta-Da...

Now we have a finished Watermelon Taffy Block. Since our block is finished I thought it would be fun to play around with EQ7 to show you what a quilt made from this block would look like.

This is what the blocks would look like if they were arranged in a 4 x 4 block quilt.

These are the blocks set on point. I think both versions sort of have a stained glass window look to them.

I hope you have enjoyed the tutorial for Watermelon Taffy and have found it easy to follow. This was my first attempt at creating a tutorial and I have to say the experience has been quite fun. Hopefully there will be more in the future. I would also like to say a big thank you to Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs for taking the time to help me proof the tutorial. Please take some time today to check out my fellow bloggers and their creations. And most important, Stephanie at Late Night Quilter is offering a give away today and who doesn't love a giveaway??