Today Julia and I needed something different to do so we decided to do a few errands and then go for a short hike. We are fortunate to live in an area with tons of gorgeous walking trails. Julia chose Hirschman Trail for today’s walk.
We have walked here several times before. It is an easy walk and there are some really pretty sites to see.
The highlight of this trail is a beautiful pond. It comes up quickly but I look forward to seeing it each time – once on the way in and again on the way back out. Today there were two beautiful ducks swimming. Other times I have seen large turtles swimming at the water’s edge.
Walking along the trail we spotted this bright blue painted rock with a B on it. It was a little treasure nestled in off the side of the trail. There have been lots and lots of people painting rocks for others to find since the quarantine started. We decided to keep an eye out for more and we were not disappointed.
Wonder what the significance of the letter R was?
This little gem was in the crotch of a rotted tree branch.
This was actually a chunk of wood someone painted. Cute little rainbow!
Another spot of color on the trail.
Another letter, was this “I” the start of someone’s name?
We really enjoyed finding these. It was fun to think of people tucking them in along the way. Julia and I plan to paint a few and plant them on another trail. These made us smile so we will do the same for someone else.
And now…. too make you smile! Look at these two cuties!
These sisters really look alike. Older sister is on the left and little sister is on the right. They are surely cut from the same (very round) cookie cutter!
Hope you are finding ways to change things up a little. Getting outside, doing something new, learning something different? It all helps to keep us sane during this crazy season of life.
I have been looking forward to the mail delivery and the UPS guy daily. Most days they bring me a wonderful package to open. It’s like Christmas around here!! Sarah’s amazing Hands2Help event is finishing up at the end of the month so quilts are being mailed to various organizations all over the map. Mercy Hospital in Sacramento is one of the (incredibly grateful) recipients.I have opened quilts from throughout the US – Florida, Texas, Arizona, and North Carolina among others!
I thought it was time to share the bounty with you. I took pictures of some of the quilts but not all. This was not done with any rhyme or reason. I wanted to share some of these and it just isn’t feasible to photograph all of them. Not enough hours in the day, right? But I will say this – ALL of the quilts are amazing. Each one is uniquely beautiful and all of them are clearly made with love and compassion.
Let’s take a look at these beauties!
These were both made by Emily of Darling Dogwood. Both have gorgeous batiks in similar colors but the light and dark backgrounds sure make for a different vibe.
I have to say I don’t know Ann but isn’t she a talented quilter? Her choice of colors and patterns are just wonderful! I love both of the patterns she used for her quilts.
Ok – three quilts from three wonderful women. Top left came from Kim C. in Florida, top right was made by Erica in Arizona and bottom center by the wonderful Linda R. in Texas. Thank you ladies!!!
These two are so much fun. Top left is from Anny who lives about 2 hours from me and I have had the pleasure of meeting in ‘real life’. She made this with a group from the Sacramento MQG – so cool that they chose to donate to a hospital local to them! The other came from Selina who lives in Florida. Thank you so much!!
Two more lovelies – Trudie sent her quilt all the way from Texas and Kathryn sent hers over from Pennsylvania. These beauties will bring great comfort to their recipients.
This quilt came from Cyndy in Oregon – she blogs at Quilting is More Fun than Housework. (I got lazy and used a picture from her blog post!!). Anyway, the thing I love about this quilt is it is made up of orphan blocks! Her orphan blocks look like they were planned and made to go together. I was pretty surprised when I read this. It is really beautiful and she did a great job of laying these out and making them work!
As I said before, there are more and I am so very thankful for each of the quilts donated. It never ceases to amaze me how generous the quilting community is. Quilts of this caliber take so much time! Not to mention the expense of fabric and batting. And then, beyond all that, spending $20 to mail the quilt somewhere! I am grateful to know all of you and thankful you thought of Mercyful quilts when you wanted to give someone such a lovely gift.
Oh how I love this event! Each year Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict hosts an event, Hands 2 Help, to encourage quilters to donate some of their work to various organizations. I have participated numerous times over the years. I have donated quilts to various places and have marveled at the number of quilts made and gifted each May. Last year and this year I am going to donate as well as coordinate the receiving of many beautiful quilts for Mercyful Quilts.
Over the past several weeks, the quilts have started to arrive. It is so fun to open the packages and see the color schemes, block patterns and quilting styles on each one. From simple to ornate, each one is beautiful and very much appreciated. I promise to share them with you – I still need to take pictures though.
As I thought about the event from the donor perspective this year, I knew I would donate one to Mercy Hospital – you all know how strongly I feel about their program. I will be giving them the blue and yellow star quilt I wrote about in my post two weeks ago. I also wanted to donate to our local Project Linus group. As I started to look at fabric, I decided it was silly to make a new quilt for them. I have a small stack of baby quilts in the closet that I made for the fun of it but never used or gave away. It seemed more practical to give one of those away than to make another one.
I chose to give them the Fireburst Quilt I made a while ago during a quilt along hosted by Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland. It is such a sweet quilt and should be used. Yesterday I washed and dried it since it had been in the closet for some time. It is all soft and crinkly now – ready for a child in need.
I love the colors used for this quilt – they are bright and cheerful. I remember when I started to spiral quilt this I worried it would be stiff so I decided to gradually widen the space between the spirals. It worked out well and I like how soft and puffy it is.
The fabric on the backing is Folk Fleur from the Meriwether line by Amy Gibson. It is sweet with tiny flowers floating across the fabric. (There is just a bit left in the sale section of the shop.) I used a zig zag stitch to quilt the border which added a bit of whimsy.
I am really happy to give this quilt to Project Linus. I love making them but it doesn’t make any sense to leave them unused in the closet. I know many people have stacks of their quilts throughout the house and that is what works for them. I feel like quilts are to be used. This one needs to belong to a child.
I am excited to see the numbers for this year. It seems with each year more and more quilts are donated as part of Hands 2 Help. With the quarantine in place this year, and many people unemployed, it might be a lesser number? This would be totally understandable too. Are you participating? If so, thank you for your generosity!! Thank you also to Sarah for spending so much time organizing this inspirational event each spring.
Oh my goodness – time is flying by. Nothing like a pandemic forcing all of us to stay home day after day to make a person busy, right? In March when all of this started I thought I would accomplish this huge to-do list due to being stuck at home. I created a list of blog posts to catch up on, pictured myself scrubbing the kitchen and bathrooms till they sparkled – it was going to be such a productive time. Ummm, what the heck? I have hardly posted here and it took me until yesterday to force myself to scrub one shower. Not the picture of productivity I had anticipated!
Ah, just proof of my human imperfections!! Also proof I really am not into house work. Haha. OK – moving on to sewing. There hasn’t been a lot going on. I did get the April and May blocks done for the 2020 Monthly Color Challenge. Want to see them?
The block for April was made with purple and I was able to continue my polka dot theme. Have to say, I have no idea how I will put these blocks together. I suppose I need to think of a way to sash them with some sense of continuity.
Love the green block which was May’s color. It is a great pattern and would be cute as a quilt on its own.
I also made this cute little pink Dresden. Now I have three of them. Still not a concrete plan as to how I will use them but I like making them and they use up lots of tiny scraps so that is a win in my book!
A few days ago, I posted on Instagram that I was totally inspired by Kirsty of Bonjour Quilts to start a new project. She sent out a newsletter and as she always does, showed some quilts that had been made by others, using one of her patterns. She has a tutorial called Meadow and when I saw that quilt, I got all excited to make one. I clicked over to this post which was from a long time ago (maybe 2016?) . Deciding I really NEED to make this, even though there are three quilt tops on the guest bed waiting to be quilted, I started to pull scraps.
The beginning of a new quilt!
I spent a pleasant evening sorting through white, off-white and green scraps. I ironed a stack of them and began cutting squares in three different sizes. This is a great pattern to use lots of scraps from my bins.
Last night I started making nine patch blocks – only made a few but it is a start. These are the biggest size, using 6 1/2″ squares. They gradually become smaller. Fun, fun, fun. I love starting a new project!
Finally, I will leave you with a picture of my very imaginative grand daughter. She was pretending to be a bird in her nest, reading books. Thankful this bird is safely wearing her helmet while sitting wayyyyy up high in her imaginary tree. 🙂
Today is the kick off of a blog hop honoring Paula B. Paula was a kind and generous quilter who blogged at Paula B Quilts for a number of years. She loved thrifting (we certainly had that in common), studying antique quilts and making quilts for charity. One of her favorite organizations was Project Linus. Our quilting community was saddened to hear of Paula’s death on February 8, 2020 after a short and unexpected illness.
Some weeks later, I received an email from Kate of Smiles From Kate and Janice of Color Creating and Quilting, asking if I would like to be involved in a blog hop as a celebration of Paula’s life. Kate and Janice thought it would be nice to have quilters make a quilt to donate to the organization of their choice. The hop is being held this week as Paula would have celebrated her birthday today, on May 6th. I can’t think of a better way to honor the life of this very generous quilter.
Ok – let’s talk about the quilt I made. Some time back, I posted about thrifting some pretty blue and yellow fabric. I knew I wanted to make a quilt with large pieces so I wouldn’t have to chop of the fabric. To this end, I chose to make a large star quilt. The tutorial is available here on In Color Order. I love this pattern and it can be made in an afternoon. It looks great with bold, large scale prints. This is the second time I made one. Years back, I made a smaller one which hangs in the shop downstairs.
Quilting this up was enjoyable. I did straight lines within the star, echoing the shape of each point. I did a large, loose stipple over the background. My goal was a loose pattern to keep the quilt nice and soft after washing it. The bright yellow fabric used to bind it sets it off perfectly.
Love the tiny yellow frame made by the binding.
Finding a backing fabric was easy. I had a piece of sage green gingham in my yardage stash that worked nicely with this quilt top.
Loose, wavy quilting over the background of the quilt.
This quilt is destined for Mercy Hospital in Sacramento. I am still organizing Mercyful Quilts for them and I think this will be well loved by the family who chooses it. If you are not familiar with Mercyful Quilts, please read about it by clicking here and here. It is a wonderful opportunity to provide comfort for a family as they say good bye to a loved one. I have recently received a number of quilts donated on behalf of the 2020 Hands2Help event. I will share some of those in a later post.
Let’s get back to the hop! It will be happening through the end of the week.Below you will find the schedule of the bloggers who are participating in this hop. I plan to visit them and see what each came up with and where they are donating to. I love finding out about organizations supported by other quilters. There are many and it is great to know who needs what!
Also a number of wonderful prizes have been donated. Each time you visit one of the blogs below, be sure to leave a comment. Each comment left on any of these posts is an entry into the prize drawing!! The giveaway is open until May 15th. Prizes will be awarded after that date. Enjoy and good luck! I know Paula would be just thrilled to know of all of these quilts being made and gifted in her honor! To see the prizes donated for this event, scroll to the bottom of this post!
Thank you for stopping by today. Enjoy the hop in Paula’s memory – I know I plan to!
A few weeks ago I started sewing HST’s with a stack of charm squares that have been on the shelf for several years and lots of solid scraps. When I started this, I had absolutely no plan for the. It was just something to do in the sewing room. I limited the solids to shades of gray and blue.
Time passed (as it does) and I decided it was time to put them together. I looked through my computer files at patterns I have bought and never used. A copy of Pike’s Peak by Meadow Mist Designs caught my eye.
I bought this pattern long ago – you know back in the day when we were free to come and go as we pleased. We could gather in groups, hold quilt guild meetings and quilt shows. No one was wearing goofy looking masks and dousing their hands with gallons of hand sanitizer every time they were in public. Ah, those were the days. But back to the pattern…. I bought this and never made it. The pattern has a baby quilt size as well as a throw size.
However, the HST’s I had already made were smaller than those required by the pattern. To keep things in proportion, I sized the background pieces down. For the background, I chose a textured solid I had in the shop. (Sadly, it is now gone and I can’t get this line any longer.) I like the texture it adds though.
I love the various shades of gray and blue. From a cornflower blue to dark navy and from the palest silvery gray to dark charcoal – there is a nice range here.
I am unsure exactly how I will use this. It finishes at 42″ square which is small for a lap quilt. It doesn’t feel like a baby quilt to me so I don’t think I want to donate it. I might quilt it and hang it in my sewing room. The walls in that room are pale gray and this would look pretty hanging in there. Decisions, decisions.
Next is basting and quilting this up. Not sure when that will happen though. I am working on a quilt for a blog hop that happens next week so I want to finish that up.
I have been remiss in posting and reading blogs over the past couple of weeks. During the quarantine there are lots of people sewing (and especially making masks) which has created a spike in orders for my shop. Thus lots of time has been spent packing and shipping orders, which is great. I am happy to help people choose the fabric they need for their projects. Lately I have met (online of course) some really kind new customers and I have really enjoyed this.
I hope everyone is coping as well as possible with the ramifications of this quarantine. It affects everyone in different ways, some much more than others. Hang in there, stay safe and try to support the people who need it.
