2019, lap quilts for Wrap a Smile.

There's a charity I found called Wrap-a-Smile in one of my quilting magazines.  A woman was on a trip with doctors who operate on children with facial deformaties, like Cleft palate.  She found that these children were then sent home covered only in paper, like newspaper.  She decided it would be a good thing to send quilts along with the doctors to give the little patients.  Since they've gotten thousands of quilts to give to children in places like India, Africa and all over the world.  They prefer quilts about 40" x 60" and colorful with as little white as possible.  Some places consider white a sign of death. 

2019 Queen sized, "Tumbling Block"

This quilt is called "Tumbling Block".  I started it over 25 years ago, put it away and got it out about a year ago.  I was trying to decide whether to finish it or throw it away.  I had already done enough work on it and decided to finish.  I just finished it this last week and got it back from my long-arm quilter last night.  It is the biggest quilt I've ever made.  I sewed the "blocks" together by machine and then sewed them together by hand.  The only way to get all the blocks together was by hand to use the "fudge factor".  That means, when seams don't quite fit, you can "fudge" it a little better by hand.  I had some extra blocks left over so I appliqued them in a row on the back.  Rather than cut off the edge to make it straight for the binding, I appliqued the entire edge to a strip of  black material.  I had a hard time deciding to do that, but I'm glad I took the time.  The black edge adds a lot.

  I 'll be very glad not to have this pile of material hanging around the house, especially where I worked on it in front of the TV.

2018-2019 twin size, "string" quilt

I made this quilt to try out the "string" piecing pattern.  I  finished the top a long time ago and had the backing ready but didn't know how to quilt it,  the middle picture is of the backing with a pieced insert, to add interest.  The bottom picture is a close up of the quilting pattern,  I took it over to a guild member who is setting up a business, with two long arm machines, lots of fabric, rulers, kits, thread, etc.  I had her do two quilts with this preset pattern.  I really love how it turned out.  

2018, December Full size, Stacked Coins

 A few years ago, a friend gave me the beginnings of this quilt.  I finished with some of my own fabric and it is now one of my favorites.  I like the way it looks against the gold walls of the bedroom.  I decided to make another of the same pattern of some really rich fabrics I have.  The pattern is called "Stacked Coins" tho usually the sashing between is white to make the coins stand out more.

November 2018 Quilts for charities

I made this newborn sized quilt out of a box of flannel squares I had cut, probably from the same box as the pink quilt in the last post.  This will probably go to a newborn at church.  It turned out so pretty.

 This quilt is from the same box of cut up flannel I had.  It's a little bigger than the first quilt.  It will probably go to the pregnancy center in town.  I don't know who they give them to, probably girls seeking counseling.

I found this charity through one of my quilt magazines.  They send these quilts with doctors who do surgery in third world countries.  They ask for smallish quilts so these are easy to make.  They also ask that we put little or no white in the quilts because in some countries white symbolizes death. Also, of course white is harder to clean.  These quilts are made from my plaid shirting material.

August 2018, baby quilt for a Girl

I've talked before about the huge bucket of flannel I brought home from the Grand Center.  As I was cutting I separated out the baby colors, pink and blue.  I made two quilts out of these pinkish squares with some lavender thrown in.  Notice the back, really cute material for for a baby quilt.  This is the last quilt I'll be making from the huge pile of flannel.  Whew!

August, 2018, Denim quilt, and one from Laura for charity auction

 This top quilt was made from circles cut from old levi's of Vere's.  The circles are sewn together so that a square is made, (notice the denim squares on the quilt back) the curves folded over in front.  There is a square of my plaid fabric inserted, at the denim curve folded over, and sewn down.  The quilt is small, but very heavy, even without any batting at all.  It was so hard to maneuver it under the needle, and I'm afraid the lines sewn aren't very smooth.  But the denim is sewn down, and it will fray a little, which it's supposed to do.

 This quilt was donated and ended up with my friend from guild, Laura Senter.  Laura is know for the charily quilts she is always making.  This one is very old fabric, a lot from the old flour sacks that quilters used.  They used what they had or could find.  The piecing was all by hand.  Laura and her husband stretched it out onto the frames at the Grand Center in Moab.  They have a room just for sewing there.  Laura went over almost every day for hours to do the hand quilting.  I went over many times to help with the quilting, but put in about 2 hours each week.  You can imagine how much quilting it took, each shape "quilted in the ditch". 

Well, I'm sorry to have to say, this is the last of Laura's quilts as she became very sick during those last weeks, and just after she finished it, she died.  I saw her 3 days before, and she had an angelic face, and said she was at peace.  I have the quilt and will show it to the quilt guild, then I can give it to the lady in charge of the auctions.  The quilt will be auctioned off and the money goes to benefit the women's shelter here in Moab.  Thank you, Laura, love and miss you.