There will always be a demand for people to make and donate quilts to various charities. The fabric below was sent to me from Quilts for Kids, an organization that delivers handmade quilts to sick children. Because I'm "financially challenged", they even provided the fabric for the quilt. Rules, inspirational stories, etc., may be found on their web site, http://www.quiltsforkids.org/. There might be a local chapter in your area, and if not, your quilts will be welcomed for national distribution.



This is the quilt label that they also enclosed. When I finish the quilt, I will sign my name and sew this to the back of the quilt.

As I said, there are many, many organizations that are in need of handmade quilts. Many will accept quilts and covers that are knitted, crocheted, fleece, quilted, etc. You will just have to find out what specific guidelines your chosen charity will require.

As life would have it, I was recently on the receiving end of a donated quilt. Not me, specifically, but a dear friend. She has been in ICU for a few weeks and received a beautiful, handmade lap quilt. In ICU, even balloons are restricted, so the only color in her drab room is this beautiful quilt. Once I found out the background of the quilt, I volunteered to make quilts for the ICU unit too. The least I can do is "pay it forward" as that quilt really touched my heart during a difficult time.

I just wanted to point out the great need for quilters to make quilts for charities. Many of you reading this blog are quilters and sewists and your skills are badly needed to keep these charities loaded with quilts. The ICU unit at my local hospital has given over 700 quilts in only a year and a half and are in constant need for more. That's a lot of quilts! So if you have the time, there is a worthy charity near you that needs your help. Please contact them for details and get started on a quilt that will bring hope, cheer, and brighten the day of someone special!

The Block of the Month series is coming to an end. This is block #11, a small 6" block. I think I'm just going to make pot holders out of the three-6" blocks that we have made throughout the year, as I don't feel that they will fit well with the larger blocks. I'll pick up a little extra fabric and make a few more 12" blocks to finish my quilt.

My orange color blocks are finished and ready to be mailed tomorrow!


Here are all 20 blocks....ready to go!

I was also able to redo the wonky blocks that I received in the first part of the exchange. When you have so many people involved in an exchange and so many levels of talent, it's no wonder that a few of the blocks may not meet your expectations. These exchanges are still a wonderful way to connect with other quilters and get a great variety of blocks and fabrics. I highly recommend joining the swaps and having fun!

Block #11 out of 12 is finished. I didn't do the best job on this block because I changed one of the fabrics and the pieces got lost in transition. If you look closely at the beige triangle sections, you will see that each triangle is actually made of four triangles. The original pattern called for the center triangle to be made with the same light blue fabric as the outer sections. I wasn't happy with the light blue and substituted a complimentary fabric which totally lost the definition of the separate triangles. It would have been much easier to just make one triangle instead of combining the four triangles. Up close, in person, you can see the four separate units but they are all but lost in this photo. It's still a nice enough block, but I certainly messed up the whole point of the design!




I received the first part of my mono color block exchange today! Twenty blocks, each reading one color. I was pretty happy with most of them. A couple were rather wonky and I will be enlisting "Jack the Ripper" to help me take them apart and resew them. It was fun to look at all of the different fabrics.


More mono color blocks.....(I did receive one duplicate so it will be returned for an exchange.) Oh, and are you observant enough to see that one of the blocks is rotating counter-clockwise instead of clockwise?




And the last four blocks....

I hope to start the next 20 blocks sometime this week. I have chosen orange for the color, as the hostess said they didn't receive many orange blocks in the first part of the exchange.

After a month away from my blog, I'm finally taking the time for a little update. Summer just seems to be busier than winter and even yard work takes me away from hobbies and crafts. My limited energy has to be divided and some things just have to be put on the back burner.

My dear sister-in-law, Patti, visited in June. One of our main goals was to make a baby quilt that will be given to her soon-to-be-born grand niece. We had planned on making the entire quilt, from design to quilting, while she was visiting.

Here's Patti sewing the strips together to make the Rail Fence pattern. She found some really sweet pink fabrics for the quilt.


A proud Patti showing off her completed quilt top! She did a wonderful job and took great care to make sure that her seams were nice and straight.

Now at this stage, the plan changed. We discovered that the quilt was taking many days of her visit and it still needed to be quilted and bound. Although Patti could have finished the quilt herself, we decided that we wanted to do a little sight seeing and just get out of the house for the last days of her visit. So.....I finished quilting and binding the quilt after she went back home.

The quilt is on route to Patti and I pray that she will like the finished product. Now all Patti needs is for her grand niece to make her entrance into the world!

One of our sight seeing stops was at the home of Gene Stratton-Porter. We toured the grounds and her home and were thrilled to learn about all of the other talents that Gene mastered. Writing was just a small part of her life. She was far ahead of her time as a naturalist, architect, artist, home decorator, etc., etc. She had to have been quite a force in her day when women were "seen and not heard." I had to snicker as I imagined how she must have been perceived by the men of her era....they had to have been pretty intimidated by her!