A Fast Finish!

I began the Teal and White quilt in early May. It was simple and just what I was looking to do. 

This donation quilt used many 2.5" by 6.5" teal scraps and finished at 54" by 68". 

I free-motion quilted the double bubble motif with 40-wt #2600 Dove Aurifil thread. The 40-wt is a little heavier than the 50-wt and shows the quilting a little more.

The backing, teal with various colors, is from my stash.

Hopefully this quilt will bring some joy and comfort to a young person.

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I haven't been making masks for a while. It's been a nice break. I don't have a lot of interfacing so I'm not sure what I'll do in the future.

Illinois will move into a new phase for COVID-19 in the next few days. It appears that larger gatherings will be allowed and restaurants will be able to host customers inside at reduced capacities. We are seeing many people not wearing masks so we'll mostly stay home . . .  and I'll work on understanding this new Blogger and I'll keep quilting!

To Boston With Love

The Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild has started a project called To Boston With Love. They want people to sew a small flag using the themes of love, peace, and/or harmony - the flags will all be strung together to be displayed in Boston in June. Visit one of the above links for all the details. As of right now, the flags all need to be received by May 21.

I decided to make a flag or two. So I began late Sunday afternoon. The hardest part was deciding how to make each flag. After that, it goes pretty fast. 

Here are my flags - all four of them. I cleaned all of the threads off of my design wall before I took this and then realized the white background wasn't good!

 One more photo on my cutting mat.

Yes, that's my foot

 And a close up of the little 6" X 8" flags.

If you are in Boston in June, I hope you get to see all of the flags and feel the love!

Quilts Delivered - Wow!

We delivered the quilts to Mom's home this morning. Lots of oohing and aahing! The camera phones came out and pictures were immediately shipped off to the CEO! An interview was interrupted so the director could see the quilts! Whoa - this was a little overwhelming for me!

Some of the residents remembered painting the squares. They all checked out the quilts and some pointed out their blocks. A former policeman, the fellow who painted the police car, teared up - he said he now felt a part of something!

Eventually I explained the choices for the piecing and quilting. The stars in the corners of the sashing are for the staff and the residents - they are all stars! The hearts quilted in the sashing symbolize the love of that home. And the paisley quilted in the outside border symbolizes that we are all connected in this journey.

I am so glad we had the opportunity to be there this morning for the unveiling. The first quilt was hung before we left and the second will be hung later today(?) - as soon as they get the necessary hardware.

It is an honor to be a part of this special project!

Quilts for Mom's Home

My mom taught me to sew when I was 4 years old. She was a fantastic seamstress but never a quilter! When I tried to teach her to quilt over 10 years ago, she was already affected by Alzheimer's and couldn't sew any more.

Mom lives in an Alzheimer's home where there are only 24 residents with a fantastic, loving, caring staff. Last November the assistant director and I were talking and she said they would like the residents to make a quilt. Because of Mom's beautiful quilts, she assumed I knew someone who quilted - guess I'd never shared that I was a quilter!

Anyway, together we devised a plan. The residents would paint on fabric and I would put the squares together into a quilt. It sounded so simple!

I washed white Kona Cotton and ironed each square onto freezer paper. Then the residents, some with help, painted on each square. The acrylic paint was mixed with fabric medium.

Note: when fabric painting, somehow block off the seam allowances. Maybe tape an inch around the outside of the block with painter's tape. Wonder why I didn't think of that!

I got the blocks in late December and then had to decide the layout. I had many ideas since I'd been thinking about this for awhile. As I put the squares on the design wall, it quickly became clear that with the busyness of the quilt blocks, the setting had to be very simple. I also had size limitations since the quilts(s) would be hung in a certain area. So I decided on a simple 3 by 4 arrangement for two 'identical' quilts.

There is a tiny heart quilted in Dorathy's block.

The staff at Mom's home often wear green polo shirts. When deciding on the color for the sashing and border, I realized I had this green in my stash that would be perfect. It was bright and matched the green in those shirts.

My very first attempt at thread painting!

Of course I had never quilted anything painted. I decided to use Dream Poly - it only had to be quilted every 12". That meant I would not have to do any quilting in the painted squares. The machine quilting went well. I had some quilting paper so I drew a little heart pattern in the sashing. The borders are done in my favorite Paisley - I hope the residents like the texture.

I really need to talk with that Packer fan - we are Bear's fan in this house!

These quilts will be hanging in an Alzheimer's home; they have to be washable. I was nervous to put these into the washing machine. The blocks were painted with acrylic paint with textile medium added. I set each block with my iron not once, but three times!  It took me forever to hand stitch the binding on the first quilt because I was procrastinating - I was afraid to wash the quilts. I finally put the first quilt in the machine with a little prayer and it came out fine! The second binding was finished and that quilt laundered the same day! 

Paisley quilting - I'm improving!

The quilts are ready to be delivered. It was my honor to share in this activity. I learned lots! I know some of the residents will be able to pick out their blocks; it will be fun to share the quilts with them tomorrow.

1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Dresses ...

Since I can't be at my church's sew-in for Little Dresses for Africa, I decided to make a few dresses so I would have a donation. 


I pulled fabric from my stash, cut the lengths, sewed up the back seam and then I counted. I thought 10 would be a good donation - I had 24 dresses started! So...I kept sewing. Now it might have been faster to just follow the directions but I decided that each one 'needed' at least one pocket, some 'needed' two, some 'needed' a little more interest. And since I didn't have any bias tape, I faced the armholes and made the ties for the straps. Oh, it would have been fun to have daughters to sew for - I did sew for my sons when they were small but no frills!


So here is my pile:

There are 9 size small - definitely the cutest!

Another look.

Most of my favorites are size small. The blue with the lace.

The green with the extra piece around the middle.

And my overall favorite - the one with the flower. When I put the pockets on this dress, one of them moved! Not wanting to tear out the pocket, I appliqued a flower (already made in my stash!) coming out of the tipped pocket. I love the flower but mostly I love the colors!

There are 5 medium dresses.

 And 6 large ones.

 It's a little hard to see the second dress in. I love the fabric.

And there are 4 extra-large dresses.

The blue Hawaiian print showed up in the largest 3 sizes. I absolutely love that fabric but have never used it. As tempting as it was to keep it, I decided to pass it on. I hope some little girls love it too!


Everything you see is from my stash. You can't actually see the 8 yards of 1/4" elastic that I had to buy. 


The dress really is a quick pattern if you just make it and don't play!

Six Little Bunnies - done!

The bunnies are ready to go meet some African children!

They each have a soft tail!

Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies...

My friend Nancy recently emailed me that her pastor and his wife are going to Ghana in the near future. They will be visiting orphanages and would like to take handmade dolls, etc. for the children. Nancy then gave me this link: http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com/. There is a free bunny pattern there.

Here is my prototype. Of course, I changed a couple of minor things in the pattern - you know me, I don't think I've ever met a pattern I didn't change!

So now I am ready to make a few bunnies to send to Africa.

Eventually I will get the doll pattern. I really haven't made many stuffed toys, but today I am having lunch with my friend Colleen and she has made hundreds, maybe more! I'm sure she'll share any secrets!

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

The Extreme Makeover Home Edition came to Northwest Illinois last week! A home outside of Lena was rebuilt for the Stott family in 1 week - actually 106 hours. Lena is only 15 miles away. Ray was able to volunteer on the site for four hours last Sunday. I didn't get my request in in time to work on the site - I was less than 2 minutes behind Ray! We did go to the site on Monday night just to see how things were going and I took this picture of the new house.

I was able to volunteer to do some sewing. The fabric was very slow and late getting to the site so we didn't really get very busy until Tuesday and the house had to be ready to reveal on Wednesday by midday! Yesterday (Tuesday) I began sewing at 10:30 AM and finished after midnight! We did pillows for the family room - brown and cream with a little gold, and pillows and curtain panels for the master bedroom - black, cream, and yellow.

Working on another pillow:
Our official sign at Good Times.

Krista was REALLY sewing!!!

One yellow pillow.

Gracie and her creation that matched the flowers in the curtain panel.

It was getting late and it took ALL of these people to make this one yellow pillow!

Wednesday officially arrived and we were tired so we all stopped working for Ray to take our picture.

It was FUN! I hope the Stott family likes what we made!