Joel Dewberry Charity Quilt

As part of the Foothills Piecemakers Quilt Guild, we make philanthropy quilts with members making blocks, making quilt tops, and/or quilting the quilts for various charities.  I did not make this quilt top  but offered to quilt and bind it. 

Charity quilts are wonderful quilts to practice new quilting and binding techniques. It is a win for the quilter to practice a skill and a win for the guild to have some of the quilt tops finished into quilts.

This quilt used some large pieces of Heirloom by Joel Dewberry for FreeSpirit fabrics.  The bold yellow and reds of the large scale prints are fabulous in this line.

For the quilting design, I quilted a a curl and then surrounded it with two tear drop shapes.  It was a larger design so the quilting went well, but I found it difficult to keep the spacing of the quilting lines even over the quilt top.

For the quilting thread I went with an Aurifil gold thread in a 40 wt (versus my usual 50 wt).  This is a little thicker yarn which helped the quilting stand out a little more.

When it came time to bind the quilt, I was between an almost black print and a magenta print.  The black print was the winner because I thought that it framed the bright colors better.

I finished the lap sized quilt and turned it into the philanthropy group of my quilt guild where it went off to a good home at Safe Haven (a local shelter for women and their children).

I am linking up with Finished or Not Friday @ Busy Hands Quilts and
Finish it Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts.

Cloud 9 Block Hop Charity Quilts

At long last, I have finally finished the charity quilts made from the 2016 Cloud 9 New Bloggers Block Hop!  I apologize to all of the hop participants for the delay in getting these quilts finished.

I used 24 blocks to make 2 baby quilts, each 36" x 48" and they will be donated to through the Greenville Modern Quilt Guild to the Greenville County Hospital System for children that have been removed from the parents and homes.

Under each picture is a listing of block/designer names and a link to the block tutorials.

Row 1: Star Thistle (Twiggy and Opal), Steady On (Night Quilter), Crossing Stars (CrafTraditions)
Row 2: Berry Fields (Granny Can Quilt), Diamond Fusion (Alice Samuel's Quilt Co), Barcodes (Smiles from Kate)
Row 3: Snowflake Swirl (Sevenoaks Street Quilts), Double Pinwheel (Woodberry Way), (Fenced In (Yellow Cat Quilt Designs)
Row 4: Pinwheel in a Snowball (Kathy's Kwilts and More), Frosted Windowpane (Lighthouse Lane Designs), Abstract Cabin (Brown Paws Quilting)

Row 1: Pointed Star (Said With Love), Urban Intersections (Irene Grimes), Geometric Transparency (Sarah Goer Quilts)
Row 2: Add it Up (This Mom Quilts), Berry Patch Path (Trials of a Newbie Quilter), Improv Star (Orchid Owl Quilts)
Row 3: Mazarin (Hilltop Custom Designs), Berry Patch Plaid (The (not so) Dramatic Life), Star (Adventurous Applique and Quilting)
Row 4: Bordered Square (Handwrought Quilts), Off Hours (Laurel, Poppy, and Pine), Four Square in a Nine Patch (Stitches Quilting)

I wanted to use these quilts to try a new-to-me machine sewn binding technique. 

If I sew the binding on totally by machine (I usually sew them on by hand), I typically sew the binding onto the front of the quilt, glue baste the binding to the back, then sew in the ditch between the quilt top and the binding on the front to (hopefully) catch and stitch down the binding on the back.  I made one of the quilts this way (shown above as the first method).

For the other quilt, I sewed the binding onto the back of the quilt, glue basted the binding to the front of the quilt, then stitched the binding down right at the edge of the binding (second method).  

I found the pros of this second method to be that I did not have to worry about catching the binding on the back like in the previous method.  The one con would be that I like how the corners look more in the first method.

Do you bind your quilts entirely by machine?  Which method do you prefer?

I am linking up with Finished or Not Friday @ Busy Hands Quilts and 

Finish it Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts.

Clamshell Coin Quilt

Last week I was doing some testing for one of the new Quilt Theory patterns (Spring release scheduled around April).  I knew that I was going to wind up with a bunch of strips so instead of having some partially made blocks floating around my sewing room, I made a bunch of additional strips and turned them into a simple coin quilt for charity.  

I used a bunch of colorful Tula Pink prints (mostly from her Slow and Steady line) paired with Moda Bella in white.  

To make the coin quilt, I sewed a print and a white strip together along their long edges to make strip pairs.  Then I cut each strip pair into 6 pieces.  I pressed the seams towards the prints so that when I sewed the columns together, the seams would nest and I got pretty decent points even without pinning.  

The quilt top finished at about 38" x 40" (it was important to me to keep the width of the quilt below 40" so I did not have to piece the backing).  I used some of the blue snail print for the backing.

Next came the fun part, trying out my new Bernina ruler foot.  I bought the foot right before the holidays but had to get some secret sewing done before I allowed myself to play with it.  

I used a the HQ Versa Tool by Handi gadgets   (affiliate link), a longarm ruler (so it is 1/4" thick) that is a little larger than my hand in size and has 4 different quilting shapes on it.  I used the clamshell shape and with complete luck (I wish I could say it was planned but it was not), the clamshell design was the exact height of the finished rows (2").

The foot is great and after a just a little learning curve, I was making the clamshells pretty quickly.  The entire quilting took under an hour and a half.  

This quilt is on its way to Tennessee for a family that lost their home in the large forest fires there this fall.

I am working on a post highlighting some of my learnings and tips for using rulers on a domestic machine.

I am linking up to Link a Finish Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday, Finish It Up Friday, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Sewjo @ My Go Go Life, and Show Off Saturday @ Sew She Can.

Foothills Charity Finish No. 2

The Foothills Piecemakers Quilt Guild (my local traditional quilt guild) makes philanthropy quilts with members making blocks, making quilt tops, and/or quilting the quilts for various charities.

I did not make this quilt top but offered to quilt and bind it. The quilt was made using various red Kaffe Fassett prints. Very bright and busy...great for hiding quilting mistakes :)

Charity quilts are wonderful quilts to practice new quilting and binding techniques. It is a win for the quilter to practice a skill and a win for the guild to have some of the quilt tops finished into quilts. 

I have a twin size quilt that I wanted to quilt with large paisley-like overall pattern.  This baby/toddle sized charity quilt was the perfect practice piece.  

I quilted using a magenta colored Aurifil thread (which is hard to see due to the fabric prints, you can see it a little better on the blue print background).  

I used the blue backing fabric for the binding as well, I think that the blue is a great contrast to the crazy bright magentas of the quilt top.  I sewed the binding on completely by machine, which is great to practice as I normally hand sew on all of my bindings.

This quilt is now off to a good home through the guild's charity program.

To Sash or Not to Sash - Finished Charity Quilts

To sash or not to sash, that is the question :)

I finally finished the quilts made from the charity blocks from the Fabri-Quilt New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop 2015 (just in time to announce the next hop, see below!).  I had 24 blocks so I figured that I would make two baby/toddler sized quilts.

I first had to decide how to combine the 12 blocks (each 12" square finished) into the quilts.  I had initially planned to add sashing but when I was arranging the blocks on my design wall floor, I really liked all of the blocks right next to each other.  Since I was making two quilts, I decided to make one with sashing and one without.  Here are the unsashed and sashed versions:

Which layout do you prefer?  I am still really torn, I really like the colorfulness of the nonsashed version and how the blocks interact with each other and I also really like how the sashing frames the blocks in the sashed version making each individual block stand out more.  Seeing them side by side if I had to pick I would go for the unsashed version.

I used my favorite go-to Aurifil color 2600 Dove for the quilting to blend well with all of the different colors.   I quilted the unsashed version with a simple meander and the sashed version using a few different quilting motifs (some were more successful than others).  Here were a few of my favorites:

Many thanks to the Fabri-Quilt New Blogger Block Hop bloggers who made such beautiful blocks to play with.  Here are the bloggers who contributed blocks (with links to the individual tutorials for the blocks):

Unsashed Quilt

Row 1: Lisa @Sunlight in Winter Quilts, Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl, Wanda @Wanda’s Life Sampler
Row 2: Vicki @Orchid Owl Quilts, Kim @Leland Ave Studios, Sarah @Smiles Too Loudly
Row 3: Diana @Red Delicious Life, Sharla @Thistle Thicket Studio, Wanda @Wanda’s Life Sampler
Row 4: Sarah @Smiles Too Loudly, Liz @LizzyClips Design, Denise @CrafTraditions

Sashed Quilt

Row 1:  Martha @Once a Wingnut, Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs, Dina @Living Water Quilter
Row 2: Sandra @The Bias Edge, Terri Ann @Childlike Fascination, Hannah @Modern Magnolia Studio
Row 3: Diana @Red Delicious Life, Margo @Shadow Lane Quilts, Jane @Jolly and Delilah Quilts
Row 4: Wanda @Wanda’s Life Sampler, Helen @Midget Gem Quilts, Carrie @Chopping Block Quilts

You can find all of the blocks and their tutorials on Jayne from Twiggy and Opal's Pinterest board and you can find Yvonne's amazing charity quilts she made with her blocks here and here.

I will donate the two quilts through my local guild, the Foothills Piecemakers Quilt Guild.  Both quilts will go to the Serenity House which is a organization that provides women who are struggling with addiction and their children housing, food, and support.  Most of the women and children show up with little to nothing and truly appreciate the quilts.

Thanks to all of the quilters who contributed blocks for these charity quilts, they are going to make some kids very, very happy.

And now for some super fun news!  Paintbrush Studio (formerly Fabri-Quilt) is sponsoring another block hop with Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl, Stephanie from Late Night Quilter, and myself hosting.  The hop will be happening March 28-30 with tons of new blocks and inspiration! (and yes, we will be hosting another New Blogger Hop this summer, stayed tuned for details)