charity quilts part 1

I haven't been blogging much, but I HAVE been quilting!

After being shamed publicly about the rack of quilt tops hanging near my longarm by the gal who fed our cats while we were on vacation this summer (she didn't really shame me, but she gets all feisty when I say that, so I'm saying it!), I decided it was time to get something done.

I have backs for a lot of these.  I've bought longarm thread to go with these.  Why are they just sitting there?  (Because I'm still a tad afraid of my longarm...shhhhhh!)

(Actually I'm afraid of breaking my longarm and not being able to figure out how to fix it.  Not a good reason to not use it, I know.)

So I started at the "oldest" end and tried to do one a weekend.

I started with this froggy quilt I made using scraps from lounge pants I made for myself years ago.

I struggled with how to quilt it and then one morning the week leading up to my plan to quilt it, I realized I could do lily pads with little hops between them to mimic a frog jumping!  With a little doodling to practice, I was off and running.  It didn't take much time at all, but since it's a charity quilt, I wasn't fussing too much if it didn't look perfect.  (And anyone who knows me, knows that fussing for perfect rarely happens anyways...)

The following weekend, I was feeling pretty good, so I loaded this one.  Made from scraps from a baby quilt I made for a friend a few years back.

This one I did some not-so-hot doodley butterflies.  There might be one with just three wings in there, but I'm not saying...  But it was good practice (to learn what motifs I am NOT good at) and it's done.

These were donated in the name of my quilt guild to the local homeless and domestic abuse shelter.  They're baby sized (though perhaps a little generous in the opinion of some) and I hope they'll keep some unfortunate little ones warm this winter.

After that, there were two twin-ish sized tops hanging.  I've quilted both and bound one, but have not yet taken photos.  The first included the saga of the broken button and the second has less quilting due to the fear of another broken button...  Once I get the second bound, I will get photos and share.  These are destined for the local VA hospital and we donate around Veteran's Day, so I'd better get going.

Then there are a whole lineup of doll-sized quilts (varying in size) made from scraps.  I worked both days of my guild's sewing weekend on these and am trying to have all 8 of them finished-finished by our guild meeting Thursday night.  With just two left to hand-sew binding, I think I'll make it (if I ever stop typing!).   These will be donated to a local group that gives dolls with 3 outfits and a quilt to local kids.  Though I didn't know it when I asked, there is an older gal who had previously made a lot of quilts, but with her advanced age, has slowed down.  I hope these 8 (and perhaps more!) will help ease her burden.  I promise photos of those as well, once they're all done.

The projects for me have taken a back seat to these lately, but that's okay.  Sometimes getting things done and knowing it goes to a good cause is more important than my stuff.  Okay, probably more often than most of us want it to be.

I still have five quilts on the rack.  Some are for me, some are for others, but I'll share as they're finished.  (They're all tops you've seen, and though some are old, none are as old as the two you see above.)  But five is a vast improvement over what was there!

Time to go sew those last two bindings!

Happy quilting,

Katie