Inspiration

There is nothing like a trip to a quilt store for inspiration.  You walk in and see a vast array of fabric, patterns and quilts. You touch it, you imagine what you could do with it and you want to take it all home.  If you are a quilter, you know what I mean.  If you are not a quilter, you think we are obsessed.  And that would be true.  I am obsessed.  I love fabric and I thrive on figuring out what would be fun to do with it. This is one reason the quilts we are making are so fun.  Figuring out what to do with some scraps someone has donated is sometimes a challenge but so rewarding when you end up with a quilt some little boy or girl falls in love with.  I guess you could say it is like putting a puzzle together.

Now for some quilts.

                         This quilt has a great underwater print with fish, coral and sea creatures.

The back of the quilt is very bright and cheery.

This quilt is one of my favorites.  (Have you heard that before??)  It is shades of greens and pink and peach.  The quilting was done by one of our quilt fairies and is just exquisite.  This quilt was made by Shelly with just 4 1/2" squares that were leftovers.  She did a great job putting them together.

The back is a sweet pink with flowers and touches of green leaves.  Hopefully you can see a bit of the quilting. 

Now that you've seen some of our ideas for using scraps, does anyone have any suggestions for using camouflage fabric?  Using it may require a lot more thinking on my part!  Leave me a comment if you have ideas!  Thanks as always for following the blog.  Feel free to leave me a note.  I love hearing from you.

Look Underneath

Have you seen the shows about Hoarders? There are several different ones.   They show people who are addicting to saving things.  Their homes are overwhelmed with things they buy, trash they don't throw away, rotting food, and all kinds of unimaginable things. A television crew comes in and films while a team cleans their way through the house all the while making sure you are totally disgusted at the filth. The news reports about a woman whose husband told the police she was missing.  The police searched, using cadaver dogs. Her husband found her several days later under a pile of trash in their home. True story!!  Now I want to make it clear...I am not a hoarder!!  My house is somewhat in order even if I haven't dusted.  My trash is thrown away and I have vacumned in the last two days.  But I do have a little secret.  I love to save scraps.  I save scraps of all sizes.  As long as they are one inch wide and one inch long I save them.  You can always use those to start a log cabin quilt block.  The good news is that not only do I save them, I use them!  Those triangles you cut off corners?  Saved.  You make half square triangles with them and use them for all sorts of things.  Borders, blocks, whatever your imagination comes up with.  It isn't really the saving that excites me.  It's the fact you can take a scrap that a lot of people just toss in the trash and use it for something.  Kind of like the last squeeze in a bottle of shampoo.  I can't justify just tossing it.  That being said, I have been sewing lots of half square triangles.  They make great pinwheel blocks.  My sister and I have made a deal.  I sew them and she takes them and comes up with a way to use them in our kids quilts.  Nothing goes to waste!

Just a few of the thousands I have done. 

Now, on to the quilt for today.  This is one my sister made from....you guessed it...our scraps.  Isn't it amazing what some random scraps can end up being?  I think it is a great quilt.

How can you not love those bright colors?  Doesn't it make you smile just looking at it?

And you thought the front was bright?  How about these jungle animals.  No matter which side the kids look at there is lots of cheer in this quilt.  Even my cat (down in the corner) is trying to get a closer look.

There are three things I would like for you to consider from today's blog.

1.  Stop!  Don't throw away that scrap.  Someone can use it.

2.  If you don't want your scraps, the kids and I do!  We'll make a quilt for them with it. Just leave me a comment and I will return a message to you.

3.  If I go missing, please tell my husband Greg to look under the scraps!

Zoo Animals

I am spending the day today with two of my favorite things to do--watching college football while I quilt.  I seem to be more productive when there is something I like on tv and I love watching college football.  I always pick a team to cheer for even if I don't know the team.

This week has been busy finishing up quilts I picked up from the ladies who graciously quilted them for us. I want to share one of them with you.  It is bright, cheery, and has a great backing.

Zoo animals are fun for the kids--they can hunt for their favorite animal.

No animals were harmed in the making of this quilt!!

The back of this quilt is almost more fun than the front.  Zebras, zebras, zebras.  I think they look like they are just ready to say something to us!

Check back for more pictures.  We have some great quilts in the works and I can't wait to share them.

Just a random thought--Can you imagine all the good we could do if every person did one nice thing for one other person?  It wouldn't be a big commitment of time or money but would make such a difference for someone.  We never know how the little bits of kindness grow into something great.

Quilting Angels

Three ladies have now offered to quilt a few quilts for our group.  I have gotten four back from them and we are getting bindings put on.  When they are done, I'll be sharing pictures of them.  These ladies do fantastic work.  They are so talented and have really given us a boost in getting the quilts ready.  A big thank you to them--truly angels sent to help.
I just received 9 quilt tops from Susan today.  She has been sewing her fingers off!  They are all different and really some fun quilts.  I can't wait to get them quilted with binding and labels on so I can show them off.  The kids are going to love these.

I have to admit I feel like these quilts are my kids.  I love each and every one of them and it is almost hard to give them away.  I can't decide which is my favorite.  Ok, Joshua and Joel--you are my favorites--the quilts come in second.  The quilts do each have their own personality though and I love them all.  Susan and I say frequently, "This might be our best one ever."   



I call this quilt Crazy Cats.  It is fun and full of color.

The second quilt I chose to show you today is a wonderful red and blue--great for a boy or girl.  I love the focus fabric in it.  The pattern in the fabric reminds me of a quilt itself.



Please feel free to leave me a comment.  I love hearing from everyone and appreciate the comments.





Fabric Travels

One of the interesting things about our project is seeing where our fabrics have come from.  When we started, we literally had next to no supplies.  As we mentioned to our friends what we were doing, we started having people say, "I have some scraps you can have."  From there it has blossomed.  We have gotten anything from small scraps to lots of yardage.  Sometimes it is a challenge to put together fabrics that coordinate.  Other times they seem to fall out of my closet together.  We have gotten fabrics as close as our own closets to states across the nation.  Some of the first came from Washington, D.C.  Some came from Oregon, Arizona, and Michigan.  And of course friends in Kansas have given us what they can.  Fabric has come from friends, friends of friends, and total strangers.  One person donated thread.  Several people have left fabric and batting with my hairdresser. You never know what we will get next and where it may come from!

Hopefully everyone had a nice and relaxing holiday weekend.  The change to fall weather will bring an increase in children becoming ill.  We are gearing up and trying to finish as many quilts as we can.  The increase will result in the quilts being given out quickly so we need to try to stay ahead and have quilts ready to go.

Here's a block that I have been playing with.  It is a very simple and quick block, but I think it can be very effective in different color options.  The hospital keeps telling us the brighter the quilts the better, but we just can't help making some soft and sweet ones too.

There are lots of possiblities  to work with on this block.

This is a great flannel quilt that my sister put together using leftover blocks from a quilt she made for her family.  It was fast and easy--great for an older boy.

This quilt is a favorite of mine--bright but still easy to look at.

Sometimes the back of the quilt can be as much fun as the front.

I hope you enjoyed this sampling of blocks and more quilts from our stash.

Quilts to Warm Our Hearts

Today has been both a good day and a sad day for Greg and me.  I was able to deliver six more quilts to Lawrence Memorial Hospital.  Their gratitude is genuine and very heartwarming.  The nurses love getting them and giving them.  That was the good part.  The sad part is a close friend of ours lost his son today.  He was a second grader and was hit by a car after school and died.  I was reminded that when we first started this project with the quilts, I was asked if we were agreeable to having the nurses give a quilt to a family who had a loss of a child at the hospital.  Denise, the nurse in charge, felt that it was something they wanted to do.  We of course agreed that would be fine.  I was also reminded this evening that I hope we never have to do that.  We all know how uncertain life is for all of us.  It never goes exactly the way we have planned.  For this family, the unimaginable has happened.  I know tonight I will tell my family how much they mean to me.  I hope you will do the same.

I thought you might like to see where the quilts are going.
This is a picture of the front of Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

Isn't this a fun quilt? Black, pink, and purple with bright lime green on the front and back.  Can't you just see a little girl with big beautiful eyes picking this one?

This one has bright colorful crayons in the blocks.  A boy or a girl would love this one.

This one is a very simple two color quilt that would be good for a young child or a teenager.

We are now at 31quilts that we have donated.  Each one represents a child who is sick.  Hopefully most of them will have a short hospital stay and be back home happy and healthy.

Back on Track

We have things repaired, replaced and back on track at our house (fingers crossed behind my back).  I was actually able to get back into my sewing room yesterday.  It was great to be in there messing with fabric again!  Touching fabric for you non-quilters may seem weird, but you quilters know just how good that feels!! I have so many ideas for quilts that I can't wait to start. 
   Some good news came my way this week.  Nan, who hosted the charity swap for fabrics for our group and Shannon, who is a friend of Nan's, have volunteered to help quilt some of the quilts for us.  This is a huge offer on their part and I am very excited to have them joining in.
  To give you a little bit of insight, I thought I would share our process. Right now, I collect the fabrics from anyone who shares their scraps with us.  I try to put together a kit for a quilt top. One of my favorite things about the process of making a quilt is cutting the fabric.  Sometime I have what I need and sometimes I have to scrounge to find what will work.  After I get the kit together and cut, I pass it on to Beth, Shelly, or Susan.  They will sew the quilt top and return it to me.  I then "sandwich" the quilt with batting and backing and quilt it.  I will then pass it on to Beth, along with the binding.  She puts the binding on and sews on the label.  The quilt then gets passed on to my friend Carrol who has recently began washing them for us. They have to be washed in fragrance and dye free detergent and softener to avoid allergies.  Then they are put in a stack ready to be delivered to the hospital.  So, if things are going well, we always have quilts in progress and some ready to be delivered.  Our "assembly line" works quite well and takes advantage of everyone's abilities.  I admit sometimes I just can't stand it and I sew a quilt top myself when I really have other things to be doing.  Sometimes I will make a quilt block that we haven't used before to see if it is one that we can make quickly and will work for us.  Since we are making quilts for "almost newborns" to 18 year olds, we need lots of variety.

   Here is a picture of a block I have been playing with.  Who knows, you may see it in a quilt soon!

There are two lessons I have learned:

1.  Figure out how to make it work with what you have.

2.  You might not like it but someone will.

This is a very simple quilt made of pastel 4 1/2 inch squares but is one of my favorites.  It is soft and sweet.

Yellow is my favorite color so of course this one is one I like.

This quilt is anything but soft and sweet!  It is one of the first ones we made and it was made with fabric we found at an estate sale.  It is a prime example of lesson #2.  I don't like it but the kids at the hospital did!

Time for me to play with fabric!