Hands2Help final link party!

 Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Hands2Help Challenge! 

 

 

As we all know, all good things must end, but with quilters, they usually end in a flurry of color, pattern, and fuzzy batting. Which is what today is for-- it's time to show off what you've made throughout the challenge! Link up below and let us all share in the quilty goodness.

Two small things before we start the party-- first, please don't forget to fill out the Count the Quilts form so we can get a final count of the quilts. We have more than 400 counted right now! The form is right HERE.

Second, some of you may have already received your prizes from the challenge, while others haven't. Don't worry! I've had to spread the postage out a bit, so I've sent some out early. All will be explained next week in the thank you post!

A few people sent their photos a bit too late for last week's post, so let's have a look at their beautiful quilts before we get to the link party. Photo collages created in Google Photos, but no other alterations to the quilty goodness!

Jannette sent these tops to Victoria's Quilts Canada:

 

And these as well:

All beauties, and much appreciated, I'm sure.  Kathie L. from Pennsylvania made these three:

 

Gorgeous! These went to Quilty Hugs, Little Lambs, and a local shelter.

Kathy Weed donated these quilts:

 

I love that beautiful blue applique!. She donated these as well--

Her quilts went to Covered in Love and to Little Lambs, along with some receiving blankets and burp cloths made from extra flannel. Beautiful donations!

Finally, but not last or least, Liz W. quilted and donated the four quilts in this collage:

 

And then she made and donated this quilt from scratch, too: 

 

Beauties! These all went to a local organization with the same mission as Little Lambs. 

And that wraps up the non-bloggers quilts for this year! Now for the linkup! You know how to do this:

*Link to your post, not to your blog in general.

*Visit other bloggers, leave comments, and share the love!

*Be nice!

Post your links here, and come back next week for the grand finale'!

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A challenge in black prints

 Hi everyone! I hope you have been having a good week, though I acknowledge it's been a difficult one here in the US, again. (See the bottom of this post for some somber thoughts.) Once again today, we are in the rain. This week the grass was so long that there are clumps all over the lawn from cutting it. Seriously, it looked like a pasture or something out there. All the better for the flowers, though, right?

Did you ever have a project where you made a few blocks and thought you would really like the finished quilt, but you just didn't have the motivation to make the rest of the blocks? That's pretty much how I felt about the black blocks that I had been working on off and on for a couple of years. I loved them but didn't want to make any more of them. Before we go any further with this story, let me show you what they turned into:

 

Not what I had in mind at the beginning! I was looking through the project boxes to put away the pink and green star blocks, and I pulled the black blocks box (say that three times fast!) out of the stack. "I have to make some more of those blocks," I said to myself (with a dramatic sigh.) Then I thought, "but what if I didn't?"

What if I didn't make more blocks? What could I do with just the ten blocks that I had? The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I could have a personal challenge to use those ten blocks and make them into a quilt. I told myself I could make some easy alternate blocks and any kind of borders that I wanted, but no more black blocks.

Pull out the paper and start planning! Once I decided on the alternate blocks, it all came together pretty easily. The really fun part was choosing colors to go with the black blocks. I chose the light grayish blue and the very pale yellow, and I think they both worked. They're hard to see in the pictures but are charming in person. I almost went with a red, but I'm so glad that I didn't. 

 

 

I made the blocks for this quilt a couple of years ago from various black prints, and used a random half yard for the alternate blocks. The border is a very old print from Marti Michell and Maywood Studio. It's super pretty, but I am glad to use it up after all this time. There's about an 8-inch square left, which makes me seriously happy.

I think my experiment worked, though it's a bit bigger than intended. It's about 60 by 75, which would be great for a dorm, wouldn't it? Not bad for starting with ten blocks. Plus, I was left with an empty project box, which I quickly filled with some scraps so that another project doesn't jump in there when I'm not looking.

 

Hope you all have a great weekend. This weekend I'm planning to plant flowers while I pray for the children murdered in Uvalde, Texas. There's a lot that I could say, but nothing that really adds to any solutions. I find myself thinking a lot about my students who just graduated-- strong, brave, smart young people, many of whom are headed for their first teaching positions. Will they someday be forced to step over the bodies of their students and walk past the bodies of their peers? Or will they sacrifice themselves to save the children in their classes? How many of them will continue teaching in the face of preparing for violence every day? Every one of them would stand in front of a gunman without question, though they should never have to. But this is the country we live in right now. That's really all the words I have, because it's all been said before.

I could go on, but instead I'll just wish you peace and a restful weekend.

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, and the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique.

Hands2Help Quilt Parade Part 2

 Hello everyone, and welcome to the second part of our quilt parade for Hands2Help!

 

We have more eye candy this week, but just a reminder that next week, May 29, is the final link party for you all to show off your fun donation quilts. We have more than 300 quilts counted already, so I'm expecting some really pretty things to look at next week. 

While we're at it, don't forget to fill out the form so we can get a good count of all the quilts made for our challenge. The form is right HERE and has no hard questions, so you should be able to fill it out in just a minute.

Okay, on to the quilts made by non-bloggers! All of the photos were submitted by the makers, and some photos have been cropped (without cutting out any quilty goodness) and others have been made into collages using Google Photos. You should be able to click to enlarge any of these.

First up is this pretty one made by Heidee Lindsey:

 

 

So much color! Sherry Book sent this photo of three quilts:

 

I love those bees! These beauties went to Little Lambs.

 

Another beauty came from Ila:

 

 

Such beautiful colors!

 

Linda M. in St. Louis made 8 quilts! These went to Little Lambs:

 

 

And so did these:

 

 

And these three beauties went to Quilty Hugs:

 

 

Gorgeous, all of them!

Kat Slaby sent pictures of her three quilts:

 

These quilts went to an organization called Nurturing Newborns, which sounds wonderful.

Diane sent photos of ten child's quilts she created. Here are three collages:

 

Nice use of panels!

 

 

Adorable! And finally:

 

These are all really cute, and sure to be loved!

And that wraps up today's quilt parade! Thanks to all who sent pictures, and everyone who is finishing up their donation quilts. See you next week for the linkup!

Happy stitching!

Pink and green lace

Hi everyone, and welcome to summer. It may not officially be summer, but it's supposed to be 97* today, so I think that counts. I seriously hope no one gets too hot and passes out at baccalaureate tonight. I doubt that the AC in the chapel will keep up. Do you think that I can smuggle in some ice packs under my robe?

Well, thank goodness the sewing room is cooler, and I got to stitch a few things up this week. I'm catching up on the RSC projects, and I made the pink and green stars this week:

 

It has been so wet and rainy that I tried to take pictures earlier in the day, but they got washed out from the sun, and by the time I went back out it was very still and cloudy. This is why the colors of those leaves are so bright. But aren't they pretty with those star blocks?

I swear these were not dragging on the ground! It's an illusion.

These stitch up pretty fast, but I have discovered that I need to be really careful about seam allowances. I cut these with the Accuquilt and there is no wiggle room at all there. Believe me when I tell you that you need wiggle room for those triangles. I'm thinking seriously about making the next size up and trimming them down. Thoughts?

Above is a closer look at the green stars. I tried to go for darker green, but they weren't very twinkly, you know? I kind of prefer the black ones, if I'm honest, and I'm really glad that I'm using all yellows for the stars. It's a nice constant.

There's a lot of green in this post so far, what with all the grass and trees and such. How about a closer look at the pink stars? Here we go:

They are so festive! Pink and yellow might be my favorite colors, and I love them together. Okay, back to the greens:

For those of you who were wondering what I was doing with all those green triangles I was cutting earlier this week, these are the blocks I'm making. They're huge! They're 16 inches finished. I want to use up all those dark and medium greens I have, plus I thought I would throw in a few of those leftover dark blues just for variety. When I'm done with this quilt (which is astoundingly easy), I think I'll just turn all the rest of those scraps into squares and then. . .I don't know. You tell me.

So there we are! Just to end with a pretty pink something, I saw these out on my walk this week, very early in the morning:

I'm not sure what they are, but they are very pretty! They might be flowering pears? Don't know! 

Everyone have a wonderful weekend! Stay inside and stitch, though I understand there are some people in the US who are really cold while we're really hot. Anyone remember when the weather wasn't truly weird?

 

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22.

Penguin's quilt

 Hello everyone! How is your week going? I have turned in the last of my grades and graduation is Sunday, so you could say that my week is going well. I was actually working in my sewing room a bit earlier, so it is going really well. 

Today I have a very small finish and a very small start. First up, the finish:

It's adorable, is it not? This little tiny quilt is about 8-1/2 by 10-1/2 and is for a very special stuffed animal. About 10 days ago our granddaughter was over at our house, and she told me that Penguin needed his own "qwiwt." (I can't quite capture how she says it, but this grandma thinks it's adorable.)

What is a grammy to do? Inspired by Julie's lovely story of creating with her grandson (which starts HERE), I grabbed the box of 2-inch squares and let the 3 year old pick some out and hand them to me while I put them in a little grid. As she is only 3, that's the limit of her attention span, so I stitched them up later and turned them into this little quilt, which is the perfect size for Penguin. 

Before she lost interest completely, I asked her what Penguin's favorite color is. Can you believe it's the same as hers? What were the odds? This is so small that I was able to find a purple scrap that was just big enough, and the binding is also a lavender scrap. I can't wait to give this to her. Really to Penguin, you know, but I feel sure she'll take care of it for him.

As you can imagine, that didn't take very long, but it was very rewarding. Once I was done with that, I started cutting up the medium and dark blues and greens for a new project. I really need to use these pieces up, and I finally came upon an idea that I liked that I think will work. These will make 4-inch finished hsts, so I'm hoping the quilt itself will grow really quickly. I already know that stitching these triangles together will be soothing and easy for my tired brain.

That's the story from here! I may take a small nap now, but what's happening in your corner of the world? Hope it's good!

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, Oh Scrap! and the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique.

Hands2Help Quilt Parade Part 1

 Hi everyone, and welcome to a parade of pretty H2H quilts from non-bloggers! 

We have some really pretty things to look at today, but first an important update: I have heard from Sarah, and she is doing well and following along with our progress. I'm sure you join me in sending all our best wishes and thoughts her way. This is all of us waving wildly, Sarah, and sending you all the best!

So, now to some quilts! These are in no particular order, and are as they were sent to me, except that I did make some collages in Google Photos just to make things easier for myself when people had multiple quilts.

First up is this beauty from Barb Tazelaar. This one went to Quilty Hugs:

 

 Next, Pat Kattner sent a picture of several quilts that were donated to her local Meals on Wheels program:

Beauties! Next is a lovely patriotic-colored quilt from Carol Westover. The collage shows the pretty piecing and quilting, with a second shot of her cute label. It went off to Mercyful Quilts:

Mary Oliver made two beauties for her local Comfort Stitchers:

 

Marsha Parkhill created these three lovelies for Quilty Hugs:

 

Stephanie Driel created these three beauties for her local foster kids support program:

 

Susan Salo sent along a picture of the front of her quilt and the creative back:

 

No, I don't know why Google Photos stacks some of the pictures and not others. It was free, and it did a good job, and that's all I asked it to do!

 

Sue Trzcinski donated these three adorable quilts to Little Lambs:

 

 

 

Melody Ballenberg donated seven lovely quilts to Little Lambs. Here are the first four:

 

And the final three beauties:

 

I apologize that the collage creator does weird things! But they are still adorable quilts!

 

Juanita sent her six tops to Victoria's Quilts Canada. Here are the three collages of her tops:

 

 A Saguaro top! I love it! 

And the third set:

And finally for today, Kelley Stover sent along pictures of nine beauties. All of these went to a charity for Ukraine. Here are the first four:

 

And the next four:

 

And the final quilt:

That winds us up for today! Thanks to all who made these gorgeous quilts and sent in their pictures. If you sent a quilt picture and didn't see it here, it will appear in next week's parade. There is still time to send in yours as well, so get them to me this week and I'll put them into next week's post. Meanwhile, everyone show some love for these makers in the comments!

REMINDER: don't forget to add your quilts to the count using the form right HERE. We are over 150 quilts so far!

Also, don't forget that there is a linkup coming on May 29, and our challenge ends on June 5 with the prize announcements.

Happy stitching, everyone!