More Charitable Quilts

I thought I'd show this quilt first.  I'm not a'verse to using a panel now and then for a quick gift or a charitable quilt, especially one as cute as this!  The only problem with panels is they usually come measuring 24" x 44".  Which is an odd size for a center.  Young kids quilts I generally make to be 44" x 50".  Starting with a panel that means really wide side borders and skimpy top and bottom borders.  Kind of awkward.  I made the yellow and brown stripy border and then added the cute green fabric.   That worked pretty well.

I had these two cute flannel fabrics for the back all cars and trucks to compliment the front.

Next up is a scrappy flannel quilt.50" x 60".  I made the top a long time ago.

I used some of my "I Love Lucy"  flannel in it.

It still makes me laugh!

I used a polyester blanket like material for the backing and cut it extra big so I could fold it over,  back to front to make the binding.

The quilting made some cool patterns on the back too!

I got a whole bunch of pre-cut plaid squares from the guild flea market awhile back and I made two 36" x 48" lap quilts for wheel chair bound Vets with them.  This is the second one.

I showed this top when I finished it  but I finally got it quilted!

56" x 68"

They are all really simple quilts.  I don't think quilts have to be really complicated to be enjoyed.

Happy Holidays!

cheers, CW

Old Brown Blocks

About 3 years back I asked for and Orphan blocks as my Thank You Blocks for having coordinated the Block-of the-Month for 2 years running.  I probably got well over a 100 blocks.  I had a lot of fun sorting them and I have been making charitable quilts with them ever since. One stack of blocks particularly surprised me.  It was a rather large stack of blocks which were mostly in shades of brown and white or tan.  I think this color scheme must have been popular in the '80's +/- ?  I had to laugh because tho' my stash is expansive I probably own a total of about 3 yards of brown fabric, maybe not even that much!

Anyway,  nothing like a challenge to get me going.  I kind of split them into 3 groups:  red-ish browns, darker browns and lighter browns.  And out of that grew these three quilts tops.

I felt lucky to find that amber print for the sashing in my stash but it seemed to help tie things together.

This picture shows how I get started.  Once the color scheme is established I put them up on the design wall grouped by size and see if some layout suggests itself.

I deconstructed the block in the lower left to make part of the lower border. 

Then cut up another larger 9 patch block to add to that. 

A few pieces of added print strips to fill in the gaps,

traded out the right border for darker brown blocks, And done! 

This last quilt was actually the first one in the Brown batch finished earlier this year. 

About half of these blocks were so old they were hand pieced.  Imagine!  I'd never get any quilts done if I had to hand piece them!

These quilts measure about 36" x 48", to be donated to wheelchair bound vets program.

It's a great size for these Orphan block projects because there are enough of one type or style of block to make really big quilts.  But the smaller size is manageable.

Happy Holidays!

Cheers, CW

Happy Holidays!

Goodness Gracious!  It's been almost a month since my last post!  Where has the time gone?! I have actually done a lot of sewing!  But since Hanukah is almost over I will share this picture.

 Since my grand daughters live far away and mailing a lot of packages would be expensive I make them a little Hanukah 'bootie' bag. They are only 5 and 2 1/2 years old so I send them simple little gifts like sea shells, hair bows, buttons,  Dreidels and a bit of chocolate.  Each night of Hanukah they can reach in the bag without looking and feel around for that evening's gift. 

I thought I'd also share these pictures.  We finally got some rain and we've had some spectacular Rainbows!

 You can just see the second rainbow outside the first?  It was actually much more vivid but my camera skills could not catch it.  The arch of the rainbow went all the way across the sky it was amazing!

I will share some of my finishes next time.

'Til then However you celebrate the winter Holidays may they be Joyful!

cheers, CW