Just wanted to show off the great batik fabric rolls that I won in the Twist to the 60's Blog Hop from Debby.  She cut these from her own collection and I'm telling you that each one is just beautiful!  Thank you so much, Debby...they're gorgeous!

 

 

And I have an update on the Mennonite Hunger Relief Quilt Auction.  It was held on September 28 and this was my donation.  I've already blogged about it, but if you are a new visitor, it's just 16" x 16" and has 200 pieces in the top.  I called it "200 Pieces".....OK....not very original.  I don't know if the title had any influence on the bidding, but it brought $200!  I hope that $200 will bless a lot of people with nutritious food!

 

 

I finally finished my donation for the 2013 Mennonite Hunger Relief Auction.  The finished size is 16" x 16" and there are 200 pieces in the top.  I've called it "200 Pieces."  Pretty creative title....huh?  This is the auction that only allows hand quilting, thus, the quilting is sparse.  :)  There is no way that I could have done any quilting in the tiny blocks themselves.  I planned to bind the hanging with the turquoise fabric, but didn't have enough.  I ended up using a gray fabric from my stash.

 

 

 

Here's a close up of my clumsy quilting.  It came out OK, but if my hands didn't hurt so much, I could make smaller stitches.  This may be my last donation for this auction because of the hand quilting requirement.  I'll just have to see what my thoughts are after the first of the year when it's time to start planning the next quilt.

 

 

 

 

The auction isn't held until the latter part of September.  I usually attend and will let you know if my little hanging sells.  It's for a great cause, so I hope someone likes it!

 

I went ahead and put the borders on last night, going with a 3" border.  I can always make it narrower.  It's now 16" square. I'm going to bind it with the turquoise fabric if I have enough left over.  I may even pipe the edge instead of regular binding.  I had planned on adding a tatted trim around the blocks, but when I laid it on top of the blocks, it just took your eye away from the quilt and made it too complicated..... didn't add anything to it. 

 

 

Now I have to hand quilt it.  Yuck...... I don't enjoy hand quilting at all anymore.  Too painful for my hands.  This auction will only allow hand quilted quilts.  You can machine piece...thankfully.... but cannot machine quilt your donation.  This little quilt is just screaming for precision, machine quilting in some sort of straight line or geometric pattern.  My hand quilting will not do this justice and will actually make it less appealing.  When you are auctioning off quilts for hunger relief, you would think they would allow machine quilting which would probably double their quilt donations and thus make tons more money.  But, alas, rules are rules ..... traditions must stand .... and hand quilt, I must.

Auction Quilt

 

I had a chance to continue with my auction quilt this week end and have finished the tedious blocks.  This LITTLE quilt is only 10" square finished and has 200 pieces in it!  I'm pleased with my design and the overall look and I'm now ready to add borders, which I think will be 2" or 3".

 

 

 

 

Here's the backside where you can see all of the pieces.  I used a soluble foundation paper, so I'll be able to soak the papers off and iron it dry, trying to keep things from distorting.  I'll add the borders before I remove the papers, which will also help it to keep a nice square shape.

 

 

 

 

The problem with this being so small (I'm thinking it will be only 14" to 16" square with its' borders added) is that it won't be very visible when it's actually on the auction block.  If I get it to the organizers in a timely fashion, it will be listed in the auction book, where I'll be able to add a little description about it.  I'll be sure that I make that happen so that it doesn't get overlooked with all of the big boy quilts.  :)

I started working on a new project yesterday.... a small wall hanging for the 2013 Mennonite Hunger Relief Auction.  It's held in late September and I have donated a quilt or hanging for the past 4 years.  This year, I decided to go small.  Really small.  These blocks are 4" finished and have 37 pieces in them!  Although the pattern is easy, it still took me about 2 hours to make just one block. 

 

 

 

Sorry about the poor picture quality.  I have a new photo editing program and I'm still in the learning curve.  This block is actually perfectly square, but the tips are not laying flat on my board which makes it look distorted. 

 

 

 

 

This is one of those projects that you have to walk away from and change pace once in awhile.  It does get tedious.  I'm only doing four main blocks, some smaller PP sashing blocks, and then the border.  I has to be hand quilted to be donated in this particular auction..... I hate to hand quilt with my terrible arthritis...... but I will only be quilting the outer borders and maybe a spot or two in the blocks.  I'll just have to see how it goes.  I may also tat a border around the perimeter of the blocks too.  Most of this is just up in the air and I'm designing as I go, hoping for a happy ending.  Hmmm....... 

Yesterday, I headed to the Michiana Mennonite Hunger Relief Auction (check out this link for lots of details) with my friend, Joyce.  We had made and donated a quilt and drove up to see the auction.  (I had shown you the border blocks that I made in a previous post.)  The main attraction at the auction this year was the Psalms Quilt made by Carol Honderich.  I imagine many of you are familiar with Carol's online quilting classes that she has been hosting for many years.  She's created and taught The Women of the Bible, The Psalms, and The Names of Jesus.  When I say "taught", I mean that she did everything from designing the patterns (pieced, foundation, and appliqued) along with commentary and history discussing each block's inspiration.  I've "attended" all of these classes, although I have never finished one of the quilts.  Carol's web site is Patterns of Faith and you can contact her and find out details about joining one of these Yahoo group classes.  They are free, of course, and full of inspiration, regardless of whether you even touch any fabric and make any blocks.  She continues to combine her love of God with her love of quilting and reaches thousands of people all over the world.  Her quilting ministry is amazing! 

 

Joyce and I walked into the auction facility and Carol's quilt was the first quilt hanging on the featured wall of quilts.  I was so drawn to Carol's quilt that I didn't even notice that the second focused quilt was the one that Joyce and I had made!  We were elated!  Each year, three of four quilts are picked for this special spot and we hardly expected to see our quilt hanging next to such a wonderful quilt as Carol's!

 

 

So here's our quilt.  It's draped behind protective plastic so the colors are a little dull.  I think we were chosen for a featured quilt because our quilt was quite different from the "normal" quilts that you typically see at this auction.  Generally, they are very traditional in both pattern and fabric.  Our quilt was an original pattern made with batik fabrics.  Just different enough to be chosen, I guess.  It was very exciting and humbling. :) 

Here's our quilt on the auction block.  It did not do as well as we had hoped but $800 will feed a lot of hungry people and that's the whole point behind donating these quilts.  Overall, the quilts did not go for very high prices.  You just never know what the trend will be each year.

 

 

We are already thinking about next year's auction.  There were some very tiny wall hanging quilts (like 18" x 18") that did very well.  I love to paper piece and may make a small wall hanging for next year.  It would certainly not cost much with so little fabric.  Gotta sleep on this one ..... there's plenty of time to make a decision.  If you'd like to donate a quilt, go to the link at the beginning of this post and get the details.  You can always mail your submission if you are not close enough to attend.  Until next year......

 

Oh, I forgot to tell you the best part...... I got to meet Carol and thank her personally for her devotion and hard work.  It was an honor and a pleasure!

I'm helping my friend, Joyce, make a charity quilt.  I'll post more details at some time in the future.  Anyway, she wanted me to make border blocks and gave me some yardage of the fabrics that she's using in the main blocks.  I was to make the border blocks 12 1/2" x 6 1/2" and make them anyway I wanted using only the fabrics she gave me.  I made 26 total blocks, two of each design.  One of the blocks isn't in the pictures simply because it looked lonely all by itself.  ;)

Two of each were made- (only one of each is pictured);

Two of each were made- (only one of each is pictured);

You'll notice that several of the blocks are two-6" blocks joined side by side.

Someday I'll have a picture of the full quilt and the details

 of the quilt.  (This may be quite awhile!)

Here's a recently finished quilt for the Linus Project.  I've had the fabric for quite some time and finally made the quilt.  I had a motive for getting it done...... Edwards, a local fabric shop, enticed me to get it finished in order to be eligible for a drawing for a new sewing machine and several other door prizes.  The "admission price" was a finished quilt to donate to our local Linus chapter.  Talk about motivation!

I did my "signature" wave quilting pattern.  It's just so easy and I've never had any trouble with bunching up.  It's not very fancy, but it gets the job done fairly neatly.

Here's a folded over shot of the back, which used the same focal fabric as the front.

And, no, they didn't draw my name.  The real winner was Project Linus, which received over 180 quilts that day.  These quilts will bring a smile to lots of faces!  Be sure to check for Linus chapters in your area...... many children will be thankful for your donations.

Please check out this link for specifics for donating quilts to the victims of the Texas wildfires. 

And if you can't donate a quilt, United Notions

 is asking for pillowcases. 

Calling all Quilters: "Here in on County Texas we have had some bad fires like all of Texas. I am asking the sewing community to step up and make at least one pillowcase this week for these victums to try to make a small diffrence. You can mail them to me at Country Living Quilts 1816 CR 427, Marquez, TX 77865 Please post this every where"

I've been nursing a sprained back and sewing moments have been few and far between. I'm seeing a little relief and have been working on the Mennonite Hunger relief donation quilt. The first picture is of the runner that is going to be the item that I donate. I made another table topper and was not happy with the results. There is a picture of that project, following this one. Anyway, this is the runner that I'll be focusing on. It turned out to be 22" x 48". I absolutely love the fabrics! They are bright, happy, spring fabrics and I like the way the different fabric lines worked well together. This is the runner that will have to be hand quilted, so I didn't want it to be too large to get overwhelming. The big border is 4" wide, which will give me a fair amount of space to quilt. And, of course, the busy fabric will hide my stitches! And this is the topper that will not make the cut! I designed this one too and used EQ5 to make my pattern. I think the mistake that I made was in setting the measurements to round to the nearest 1/8", not 1/16". Since most of my rulers don't have 16th measurements, I adjusted the templates for 8ths. The little blocks within the 12" blocks are only 4", and those little 4" blocks just multiplied the distortion. You can see that the setting triangles are puckering a bit. This should quilt out, but it will take some maneuvering to get it flat and keep it from puckering during quilting. I just got frustrated with the whole thing and moved on to make the runner. I'll finish this topper and use it for myself. Oh, the topper is 41" x 41". (As usual, sorry for the picture quality. The fabrics look washed out instead of bold and bright.) Have a blessed, peaceful day!

Just a miscellaneous day today, with lots of odds and ends.

I was doing a little under-the-bed cleaning and found a box of fabrics that I had totally forgotten about. My guess is that they are from the 80's and perhaps the 90's. This first shot is of some Christmas laminated fabric yardages. I thought this was a fairly new concept in the past few years, and here it is, in my old stash, laminated fabric! The fabric seems to still be in pristine condition and I'm kind of excited to find a project for this laminated fabric and see how it sews. It sure pays to clean out those under the bed boxes!




Next up, found in the same under the bed box, are these embroidered, homespun fat quarters. Again, totally forgotten about! They are also looking like new and will make cute additions to projects.






Here's a close up of one of the cows;

And here's a close up of one of the ants. I love the ants!

Well, yesterday was a vintage day. After finding the long lost and forgotten fabric, I got out my vintage 1974 yogurt maker. I wasn't sure if it would still work, but after 10 hours, I had some great homemade yogurt. I had kind of forgotten about this little appliance when a FB friend passed on a recipe to make yogurt in a crock pot. This sparked my interest to dig out the old yogurt maker and give it a go.

I even found the little instruction folder to give me the specific instructions.

I also made three sets of kitchen curtains yesterday. (I had a very productive day, thanks to God!) I looked for "ready made" curtains, but they were just so expensive. Most were sold by the individual panel and I needed six panels. Regular kitchen curtains, which were cheaper, were simply too short for my windows. I didn't want the valance and shorter curtains, just a regular pair to hang in each window. I had been fabric shopping and also found that yardage was quite expensive, knowing that it would take about 7 yards to make them. I finally found some discount fabric at Walmart for $1.50 per yard! It was a nice, textured white blend, that was perfect for curtain use. The bolt only had 6 yards, so I had to sew the curtains differently than planned. Instead of an enclosed rod casing at the tops, I just hemmed all four sides and used cafe rod hooks to hold the curtains. I'm actually glad that I made them this way, as it makes opening and closing them very smooth and easy.

Next up is the fabric that I bought to make a quilt to donate to the Mennonite Hunger Relief auction in September. I found this fabric on sale, designed a pattern, and now I'm ready to begin. I'm only making a wall hanging, probably around 42" x 42", and it will have to be hand quilted. That's the part that I'm not crazy about, but I know that I can do it! Each of these yards of fabric comes from a different fabric line, but I thought they went together beautifully. I'm excited to see if it all turns out as I see it in my mind.

And lastly, here is a link for another charitable cause. It's "Just One Star", a project sponsored by Moda. All you have to do is make a star block which will be put into a quilt, then given to a wounded veteran. The goal is to receive 1800 star blocks and make 100 quilts. Deadline is May 1st to make your blocks. Go here for a pdf download with all of the details, the instructions for the block(s), and the address to send your block(s). I hope you will join me in making at least one block for a deserving vet!

I received notice yesterday that my most recent Kiva loan has been repaid in full. There is a link on my sidebar to Kiva's web site, where you too, can loan money to a deserving individual or group to help them better themselves, their families, and their communities.

Tonight, I helped fund a loan for a woman from Kenya that needed extra help to buy carrots and potatoes to sell at market.

This is my sixth loan and it has only cost me $25 for all six loans because you re-loan the same money, over and over, after the loan is repaid. The system is wonderful and I highly recommend it.

Click on the link and see if there is someone that you would like to help!

Today was my monthly fellowship with some of my quilting friends. It's always wonderful to see what projects they have been working on and catch up on their lives.

Joyce brought this beautiful, hand quilted quilt that will also be donated to the Mennonite Hunger Relief Auction. She and her Sister made all of the blocks.....which, by the way, are only 6" blocks, set them in this beautiful arrangement, then sent it off to the quilter. The blocks are very complicated with lots of pieces in each of the tiny blocks. The hand quilting is just excellent with small, even stitches. The blocks represent women of the Bible so each block has a story to tell. My picture does not give you a very good perspective of the quilt and it doesn't show the binding, which was made up of the colors of the quilt blocks. Oh, and the back is a wonderful purple! I'll let you know how the auction goes......this quilt is a real beauty and I hope it goes to an appreciative home.




This next quilt (top only) was made by Fran. Again, my picture does not do it justice. She used a wide range of beautiful Batiks and the colors are just fabulous. The pineapple leaves are composed of many, many shades of green. I love the way the keyboard border blends from shade to shade to shade around the perimeter. This is one that you should see in person to really appreciate the beautiful colors.



So......another wonderful day with my dear friends! Can't wait until next month!

Look out! It's time for one of my soap box posts!


I joined a student mentoring program last year and it's time again for me to be matched with a student and guide them, via email letters, as they read 5 different genres of books throughout the year.

There are thousands of students, all looking for a reading mentor, and it could be you! Click on the logo above and see if you think this could be a ministry for you. It doesn't take that much time and you will, as always, receive much more than you give. Joining is simple. Your only cost will be for a police background check. I found all of the books that my students chose at my local library, so I didn't even have to buy any books. I ended up with two students, as they are always short on mentors and the program significantly grows each year...... they really need you! In2Books has won many awards and the program continues to improve as they work out the kinks. All of the details can be found on their website.

Please think about joining this great organization. It won't take that much of your time and you will thoroughly enjoy the letters that you receive from your student as you discuss the latest book and get to know each other.

OK......click on that link and check it out!

I picked up our charity quilt that had been off to the hand quilter for quilting. The following pictures show the front and back sides of several different sections so that you can see the patterns that the quilter used. She did not quilt this the way that I would have quilted it, but it still looks pretty good overall. Her fee was very reasonable for over 35 hours of hand quilting and she got it done in a timely manner. So here you go;

Braided quilting on the sashing and the key board border, front side.




Backside of same.




Front side of one of the pieced blocks. She hand quilted all of the pieced blocks with the same crossed X kind of pattern.



Backside of same.

Front side of one of the applique blocks. Each applique block was simply outlined around the shapes. Because the appliqued pieces were all fused, our quilter was unable to needle the appliqued pieces themselves.

Backside of same.

I'm going to work on the binding today and will, hopefully, have a full sized picture of the quilt soon. I will be glad to have this behind us and delivered to the auction in September!

Yesterday was a full day of wonderful quilting with wonderful friends! Six of us (only four were able to be there yesterday) made two blocks each, to put into a quilt that is destined for the annual Mennonite Auction to raise funds for hunger relief. We've had the blocks done for quite awhile, but didn't have a plan to put them together......the layout.....color choices......sashing, etc.

Here's Joyce, Fran, and Lois (Kathy and Bev were unable to join us) and the keyboard pieces that were to become the outside border.





Here is the quilt before adding the outside border. We laid everything out on the floor and auditioned the sashing fabric and the cornerstones. The original plan was to use black for the sashing but after we laid everything out, we decided that the green made it a softer, happier quilt.



This is the finished quilt top. We were all very happy with the end results. The blocks in this quilt all represent different Psalms and the appliqued blocks have the corresponding Psalm embroidered on them. We now need to have it hand quilted. Unfortunately, this auction will only accept hand quilted quilts, although the piecing can be done by machine. We are hoping that someday they may expand their quilts to include machine quilting. This auction is always extremely successful and if they opened it up to machine quilting, they would get many, many more entries to auction. Although I am able to hand quilt......I do not enjoy hand quilting a large top. I would also not be able to get it finished in time, so I will be contacting a local church group to see if they will be able to quilt it for us.

Ta-da!

Several inches of snow arrived last night and I'm spending the day inside, enjoying the view.

I've been wandering around on the quilting sites that are frequently advertised in the quilt magazines and came upon;

http://www.redroosterfabrics.com/

They have a nice assortment of free pattern downloads and although I have way too many patterns as it is, it's still fun to add more to your possible future projects folder. When you go to the site, just click on patterns and you will find both current and retired patterns. Obviously, they are designed around their fabric lines, but you can use your own stash. I found several patterns that I thought were a little bit different and copied them for my files.

And another place you should check out is;

www.allpeoplequilt.com/millionpillowcases

I've mentioned this before, but there is a huge need for charity quilts and pillowcases too. I love the pillowcases because I can make them quickly and since they require much less fabric, cheaper. The site has four pillowcase patterns for you to download.

Back to browsing.......

Oooh, I'm back. Here's another great site;

http://www.windhamfabrics.com/

They have some great free patterns too. Don't miss the Page 2 tab at the top of the first page of patterns.

January's BOM is finished! Although I have many more projects to work on, I enjoy actually completing something, no matter how small. I'm one of those people that tackles the simple things before attacking the more complicated projects. "They" say you should do the hardest things first, but I need a sense of completion that inspires me to move on to the harder projects.

Next on the list of harder things is to get my Quilts For Kids quilt basted, quilted, bound, and shipped off. Hopefully, it will be finished by next week since I've moved it to the top of my list.

If you go all the way back to my April 21, 2009 post, you will find details about Kiva, a loan program that helps entrepreneurs in impoverished areas build their businesses.

The loan that I told you about in that post and made on that day, was paid back today. I have re-loaned the same money to another business woman, a 46 year old woman with a grocery store in Mongolia.

If you have an interest in Kiva, please check out my sidebar for a link. You will find information on each of the entrepreneurs, all waiting for your help!

Hmmmm....this doesn't look like the Christmas exchange project that is supposed to be my top priority.....life happened and I'm still behind on that project.......

Meanwhile, I was piecing the quilt below at my church this past Saturday. Everyone liked the quilt and suggested that I donate it to an auction that will take place on Saturday, October 17th to benefit the Woodburn Christian Children's Home. Yikes! Only one week (less than) and many other obligations to take care of during this time. I got it done.....the proof is in the pictures! Just goes to show you what you can accomplish when you set your mind to something AND there is a deadline...not to mention that any money that it raises will go to a great cause.

Does this quilt look familiar? It's the same pattern as the last charity quilt, just different fabrics. Same pattern, same quilting design. I needed a fool-proof and fast quilt and this one worked out nicely. The color of this quilt is actually a soft mint green....much prettier than this picture shows.

Fold over of the back side. I attached a label on one of the corners with Matthew 19:14 on it. "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

The quilt was delivered to the home today and was in time to be included in the auction and in the accompanying auction brochure.

FYI.... Here's a link to one of the auction information pages. Maybe you are looking for a good charitable cause. :)
http://www.wcchonline.org/2009%20Auction/Auction%20Letter%20Businesses%202009.pdf