I was just over at Val’s Quilting Studio catching up on some blog reading. I didn’t read a whole lot when we were in Vermont last week so I am a bit behind. Val was setting her April OMG and it made me realize I have not been looking forward and setting very many specific goals. So! Here goes. This month I commit to finishing the Postage Plus quilt I made for the Modern Plus Quilt book hop I participated in. Remember I had to take out a ton of miserable quilting? Well the plan was to go back to the long arm shop and quilt it up a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I was down with a virus so had to cancel the appointment and then we took off on our vacation. I know I can easily finish this — all I need is an afternoon of quilting and some time to bind it. Easy peasy!
I plan to donate this to a charity via the Hands 2 Help event on-going over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
I love this annual event and somehow I didn’t get involved last year. I am happy to be back on track this year though.
Ok, you heard it here. I am finishing this quilt and will be sending it off by the end of April! Linking to the One Monthly Goal link up over at Elm Street Quilts. Join in and set a goal for April – you’ll be glad you did!
It is the first of the month and my sister Tina was the first person to start the texting this morning. I don’t remember when we started, but it was years and years ago. As kids, on the first of the month, “Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit” had to be the first words each of us uttered in order to have good luck all month long. It was a disappointment to forget and then hear a sister utter the words. I would think, dang it – it is the first of the month. We are not a superstitious bunch but we did this regularly. Now that we are grown and living far from each other, it has become tradition to text it first thing in the morning. I love family traditions. This morning I looked up the whole “Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit” superstition and while I didn’t find a solid explanation, I did learn it dates back as far as a 1909 edition of the quarterly scholarly journal Notes and Queriesand was also mentioned in A Dictionary of English Folklore. Next I found an article on NPR stating Franklin Delano Roosevelt not only carried a rabbit’s foot for good luck but also uttered “Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit” on the first of the month. So, my family is in good company. Do any of you keep this tradition at your house? Or, did you when you were growing up?
We are home from our Vermont trip. It was such a wonderful week. We enjoyed nice weather and did a few days of exploring in both Vermont and Montreal. It turns out my grand daughter is the cutest little girl. Truly, the cutest. I am sorry to disappoint you if you thought it was your grand child that was the cutest because, nope, mine is. Haha.
Napping with Grammy
I loved spending time with her and could easily pack my bags and move to Vermont tomorrow. Problem is my daughter in law is doing her residency as a radiologist there and who knows where she will land once she is done. They hope to stay in Vermont but one never knows what the situation will be when she is ready to apply for positions. For the time being we will have to keep flying out there to have our Grammy and Grandpa time.
All washed and crinkled!
Before we left, I made a doll quilt to bring to my grand baby. I was still in doll quilt mode from the Spread the Love event in February. This time I thought I would do something with lots of color. It is an around the world type of block that I made with two inch squares (which finished at 1.5 inches.) I love the colorful look of it and I can imagine playing with her, asking her to show Grammy a blue square or a pink square, etc. Sort of an I-Spy color game.
The backing is a cute unicorn print whose history is unknown to me. I kind of think I got it in a box of one yard cuts I bought on sale at Craftsy a while back. The binding is a polka dot from my stash and the batting was scraps stitched together – a quilt made completely from stash and scraps! Win for me. 🙂
Open the gift? Why? Much more fun to climb on it.
The bigger win was watching her open it up. She is hardly old enough to understand opening a gift and preferred sitting on the package instead.
Once we got the paper off, she immediately went into her peek-a-boo mode.
We also brought a baby doll to get her started on the inevitable collection of a billion dolls that most little girls acquire. The doll came with a tiny bottle and she clearly knew what to do with it. (I know! She is brilliant.)
A little for you and some for me?
Yes, it was an awesome week. We are going on vacation with the family in July so that took the sting out of leaving. I am happy to know I will get to see her in a few months. But now I am back home and it was unseasonably warm last week which means the weeds are fierce. I am off to pull enough weeds to earn me some time at the sewing machine this afternoon. I know March is over but I haven’t quite finished my green RSC18 projects. I need to catch up!! So, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit to all of you. I hope April brings you spring time, green leaves, much joy, and as much time at your sewing machine as possible.
Linking up all over the place. Check out the tab at the top of the page, Link Ups.
This finish was long in the making. I started making large (9″ square) scrappy HSTs in the beginning of 2016 as my RSC16 project. They were a lot of fun to make and I easily finished the quilt top by the end of the year. Then I promptly pressed it, hung it neatly in the closet, and closed the door. It languished for all of 2017, poor ignored quilt top. I think I left it there because I felt it was too small and I wasn’t sure what to do with it.
At the beginning of this year, I decided to make a stack of 5″ squared scrappy blocks. Without any plan, I figured I would somehow use them for a border. After making the blocks, I figured out the size rectangles I needed to space between the squares to create the border. For the most part, this worked ok. But you know me and quilt math….. When I laid out the border and it looked like I would be coming up short, I just expanded one or two of the scrappy blocks to compensate. I hope this doesn’t offend anyone. It doesn’t bother me. 🙂
In fact, I love it. I am wild about this quilt. It is my kind of project. Imperfection works in this sort of quilt. I am pleased with the colors, the polka dot background which provides a nice spot for the eye to rest, the border of gray dots between the HST’s and the scrappy border – all of it! This one took a long while to come together, but it was worth the wait! I took it to the long arm shop and quilted it with a meandering loopy motif. Some little spirals, some large loops and some small ones. It left the quilt with a nice, cozy drape. This was a lot of fun to quilt and took no time at all.
For the backing, I chose Newsprint in a wide back. This was designed by Carrie Bloomston and is probably my favorite backing. When I ordered my first bolt of it, I was pleasantly surprised to sell the bolt within weeks. I just received a second bolt so I have it in stock again. Because it is such a fun print, I also take the wide back and cut fat quarters and 1/2 yard pieces. Each of these (wide back, fat quarter, and 1/2 yard cuts) are available in my shop.
The binding is a print by Lotta Jansdotter called Aliisa from her Lemmikki line. I really like this fabric but looking back, I don’t know if it is the best match for the quilt. The color is “slate” but when it is next to Newsprint and the gray dotted background, it has a very blue tone. Because the quilt is so scrappy, I decided to go with it anyway. I like the angular pattern of the print. So, I think it is ‘good enough’. I did go back to the listing though and update my description to explain about the blue hues this fabric has. If you are intrigued by this one, click here to see the shop listing.
I can happily check this one off the list and report I am down to three unfinished quilts in the closet. Well, that is not including either of the RSC18 projects I am working on. Not too terrible!
Tomorrow I am off to see my kids in Vermont. Probably no blog posts until I get back – unless I change my mind. 😉 I am so excited to see my grand daughter. She started walking last week and it will be so fun to watch her toddling around. Like I mentioned in my last post, any Etsy orders placed by 3:00 Friday (today) will ship. If placed after that, they will ship on Monday, April 2nd. The last time I was gone like this, I promised to refund half of the shipping charge for orders placed in my absence – sort of a thank you for being patient and waiting until the 2nd for shipment. Same goes with this trip! Place the order and just know I will pay half of your shipping cost. Thanks so much for understanding!. It is a bit difficult to be a grammy to a little girl in Vermont when you live in California!
Linking to Finish It Up Friday and a few others. All are listed at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
Yesterday was the first day of spring though for much of the country it doesn’t feel like it. Today I want to provide a glimpse of spring with this month’s Blogger Bundle. Curated by my friend, Yvonne Fuchs of Quilting Jetgirl, this bright, cheerful bundle is filled with vivid color. On the off chance you aren’t familiar with Yvonne, she is a blogger, modern quilter and pattern designer who lives in Southern California with her husband and Puppy the cat. I met her several years ago and since then she has been a constant source of information and inspiration to me and her many readers. She is involved with the Quilters Planner, was a leader in the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop for several years, and is actively involved with the Modern Quilt Guild. All that being said, the most valuable facet of Yvonne’s work is her effort to build community within both the quilter’s on-line and ‘in-person’ communities. I greatly appreciate how Yvonne tirelessly supports each of these.
Let’s look at the bundle she curated! It contains fabric from across lines in shades of pink, yellow and green. There is a delightful ‘rainbow’ component to this selection which includes pieces fro Art Gallery Fabrics, Windham Fabrics and Henry Glass Fabrics. Yvonne chose to use pieces designed by Maureen Cracknell, Carrie Bloomston (one of my all time favorite designers), Kim Diehl and Dana Willard.
As usual for me, the bundle surprised me. I can totally see putting the pink arrows with the two rainbow fabrics. But when she added the cheddar yellow (from Maureen Cracknell’s Garden Dreamer, and the grassy green and rich rust fabrics from Bloomston’s Dreamer line, the collection became richer and more sophisticated. I was pleasantly surprised by this. Each month, working with these quilters, watching them pull colors together, I learn more and more.
For more information, please click here to read Yvonne’s Blogger Bundle post. She has one bundle to share with a luck winner too! As before, this bundle is available in my shop and is on sale today through Friday. (One thing to note: I am leaving Friday night for a week with my son and his family. So orders placed before 3pm on Friday will ship by Friday afternoon. Orders placed after that will wait until my return and will ship on Monday, April 2nd. If you have questions, email me at [email protected] or leave them in the comments.
Thank you to Yvonne for creating this pretty bundle and brightening our day with it. It will no doubt add color to many quilter’s stash!
It has been a while since I wrote a stash post. But a few weeks ago, a friend of mine kindly gave me a large collection of fabric. It was in mid-February when we were in the thick of making doll quilts for A Doll Like Me. My friend, Susan, emailed me and said this was a particularly busy time for her so she couldn’t make any doll quilts. However, she had a lot of fabric that would be perfect for this sort of project. She asked if I would like to have the fabric. Who could say no to that?
There were two large bags of fabric and another bag of patterns. The patterns were for making doll clothes for 18″ dolls, the same size as those made by A Doll Like Me. Some of the fabric was not right for children’s quilts or doll clothes so I carefully sorted it and what I didn’t think I would actually use was donated to a local thrift shop. But there was much that I kept!
These bandana prints are large pieces of yardage. I think a whole cloth quilt would be super cute with these and there is also plenty to use to back a number of little quilts.
Susan has a daughter who is Julia’s age and I could tell that many of these pieces had been used to make clothes and costumes for Sarah (she is really into ballet and performs a lot.)
These pieces are both minky and large enough to back a few doll quilts, making them extra cuddly. It will be a fun project to try because I have’t worked with minky before. The smaller size of a doll quilt makes for a manageable project to attempt. It was so kind of Susan to gift all of this to me and I have it washed, folded and waiting for the next project for A Doll Like Me.
Another bit of fabric I want to share was found at a local thrift store. When poking around at a thrift shop, I often take a quick look at the clothing to see if anything appeals to me from a fabric standpoint. You never know what you will find! A few weeks ago I saw this hand made blouse. It isn’t something I would wear but I really like the fabric which features the work of George Seurat, a French painter from the late 1800’s.
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, by George Seurat
The painting featured in the main fabric is called A Sunday on La Grande Jatte and was painted using Seurat’s well known technique, Pointellism, a process of creating with very small dots of different colors which then read as a solid color when viewed. This work of art hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago and I loved it when we visited there several years ago. I have a little print of it hanging in my sewing room. So…. when I saw the shirt I decided to upcycle it.
After a quick wash, I careful cut it apart and ended up with this little collection of fabric based on Seurat’s work. It made me feel bad to take it apart after someone put out the effort to sew a shirt with it, but I knew I wouldn’t wear it. As quilters often do, I cut it apart so I could sew it back together and make something unique. I did a quick search on-line to try and figure out who printed the fabric (no selvages were available) and was not successful. I am looking forward to deciding how to use this though. I think I will add some solids and then what??? There is likely enough for a table topper or a mini. I am sure I will come up with something. It was a such great find for $2.00.
I hope you will be back on Wednesday when I post the Blogger Bundle for March. Curated by Yvonne Fuchs of Quilting Jetgirl, it does not disappoint!!!
Linking to several blogs – check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
This year National Quilting Day and St. Patrick’s Day coincide! This is the best for me because I can combine two of my favorites, fabric and all shades of green. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I am hosting two giveaways; one on Instagram and the other on Facebook. If you are interested in throwing your name in the hat to win a fantastic bundle of green fat quarters, head on over there. Also, I have a few bundles of these gorgeous greens listed in my shop – today only, they are $17!
I will draw the winner tomorrow morning. Good luck and Happy St. Patrick’s Day/National Quilting Day!!
The release of Modern Plus Sign Quilts, written by Paige Alexander and Cheryl Brickey is being celebrated with a blog hop this week and next. I am so happy to take part in celebrating this book. I have long been a fan of plus quilts and made one a while back. I called it Positively Floating and you can see it here. Adding a book devoted to modern interpretations of plus quilts is the perfect thing for my collection of quilting books.
There are a couple of things I really appreciate about this book. One is the ease of most of the patterns Paige and Cheryl designed. I am not usually one for fussy quilts with tons of pieces to cut and points to match up. While there are some advanced, challenging patterns in the book, there are also lots of options for simpler designs. Also, there is a nice write up on the history of plus quilts which I really enjoyed. Finally, with many of the patterns, the authors included an illustration of a suggested layout for cutting the pieces such that you get the most out of the fabric needed. This is really helpful for me as I just don’t have a strong ability to see spatial relationships and often (more often than you’d think) will cut my pieces and find I don’t have quite enough fabric. This is because I don’t always choose the most efficient cutting plan. Part of me attributes this to the fact that for years I sewed clothing, not quilts. Clothing patterns always show the best way to lay out the pieces on the fabric – so I never had to figure this out for myself. Anyway, I think this was a great addition to the quilt book and you don’t see it in many books that are published.
Let’s move on to the quilt I made. This is the pattern called Postage Plus. It is based on a postage stamp quilt (basically small patchwork) used to build the plus. The oversized plus is set into a bold pattern of stripes. This gives a very modern result. The book shows a quilt with a gray and white background which is looked really clean. When I chose to make this pattern, it was so I could use up an older Moda jelly roll that I purchased from a destash last year over at Academic Quilter. Using strip piecing with a jelly roll made this quilt a very simple project to assemble.
The quilt came together so quickly. I love using the stripes to bring out the brown and green shades in the patchwork. The colors make me think of ice cream for some reason. Lime sherbet or coffee ice cream, which would you choose? I would go for coffee ice cream every time!
You might notice I am sharing a quilt top, not a finished quilt. If you are a fan of Instagram, you probably saw the posts where I was unhappily removing a large amount of long arm quilting gone bad. Ugh! I took this quilt top and loaded it on a long arm at my friend’s house. For whatever reason, I couldn’t use her machine and obtain a good result. It just looked horrid. I am far from a perfectionist and will often leave issues such as wobbles, mistakes, or points that don’t quite work out in the quilt. (Maybe I am too lazy to fix things like this). But this was bad. Even the lazy quilter in me couldn’t just ignore it. So I stopped, after quilting about 25% of the top, removed it from the frame, took it home and unpicked it. Really, it wasn’t too awful a task and I am happy I fixed this.
I am eager to load it on the machine at the same shop where I have been renting time. I have an appointment on Friday of this week and will be able to quilt this up then. Off topic here, but take a look at the blue skies we enjoyed yesterday. It was a gorgeous day and I am lucky to have taken photos then. Today it is fierce, pouring rain – not a day to be outside. Sure changed dramatically over night!
In closing, I strongly recommend Modern Plus Quilts. The book is top notch with creative patterns of varied complexity , nice tips and clear information – a book well done. The blog hop goes on all of this week and through next week. Paige and Cheryl are offering giveaways each day so be sure to hop over there and enter the giveaways. Lots of fun happening in blogland these days!
Linking to my favorites. Find them at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
This post contains affiliate links which means if you make a purchase by clicking on them, I will receive a small payment. This does not change the purchase price to you in any fashion.
This week was a blur. Each day was busy and the time flew by. Big news at our house is that Julia has a driver’s license. This is always a huge milestone for any child and parent. The contrasting experience is substantial; the freedom and independence of being able to drive vs the increased worry and anxiousness! Quite the extremes for both the kid and mom and dad. She is a good driver and a responsible person; it is all the weirdos out there that make me worry. I am sure it will be fine though. She was so excited to pass her driving test. We celebrated with frozen yogurt afterward.☺
I was making really good progress on a quilt that I will share next week when I take part in a blog hop celebrating the release of Modern Plus Sign Quilts, a fabulous new book by Cheryl Brickey and Paige Alexander. I loaded the quilt top on a long arm belonging to a woman in our local quilt guild. This is a different machine than the one I have rented a few times in the past. Oh my gosh! It did not go well, not at all. I fought my way around for a while, continually thinking, ‘it will get better, this will smooth out.’ But it became clear that I wasn’t going to be successful. So we took it off of the frame and I have been unpicking the quilting. Ugh. Not so fun. But a learning experience, which is always valuable. For the hop next week, I will share the quilt top only. I have an appointment to quilt it at the shop (where I am more familiar with the machines) on Friday next week.
Moving on… between sessions of unpicking all of the ugly quilting, which is still not finished, I did make a cute little sleeping bag for A Doll Like Me. Remember I cut up my whole cloth panda quilt and made a smaller doll quilt with it? There were two rectangles that were too small for a doll quilt. But they worked together for a sleeping bag. I think it is really cute.
Basically I trimmed the two rectangles such that they were the same width but one was longer than the other by about six inches. I curved the top two corners (I probably wouldn’t do this again because it was hard to bind along that curve without a bias cut binding.) The top of the shorter rectangle needed binding to finish the edge. Then I stitched the top to the bottom, wrong sides together. I think I stitched them with about 1/4″ seam allowance.
Once they were stitched together, I bound the edges just like you would a quilt. As I mentioned, going around the curve was a trick because the binding wasn’t cut on the bias. So, next time I will leave a regular corner or will cut the binding on the bias so it curves appropriately.
When a doll is tucked into a sleeping bag, she needs a pillow, right? I took two rectangular scraps and cut them to the same size. Putting them wrong sides together I stitched around the perimeter, maybe 1.5 inches from the edge (I wanted to make a flange). For stuffing purposes, I left a two inch opening on one end. After stuffing it with poly-fil, I closed up that opening. Again, I finished the edge with binding (a single fold, narrow binding this time though.)
Thank you to Elena of That Fabric Feeling for the inspiration for the doll’s sleeping bag. She made an adorable set for Amy last month and when I saw it, I knew I could use these scraps and make one too!
I love the whole set and hope it will bring a smile to a child someday. Amy is cataloging quilts and sending them out to her special kiddos. I think I will hold on to this one for a bit. I am waiting for a few more doll quilts from members of our local guild. Once I have enough to fill another box, I will send them on.
See you next week for the blog hop. I absolutely love this book and I am excited to share it with you. Linking to lots of places today so be sure to take a peek at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
A few weeks ago, I was visiting with friends in the office I retired from. One of the women follows my blog and Facebook page. She told me she had a quilt top she had made in the mid-1990’s. It was intended for her daughter (now in her early 30’s). Robin thought it would be fun to finish it up and asked if I would quilt it for her. I am the first to say I am not highly skilled with quilting. This quilt top was for a twin size bed which is bigger than I am able to quilt at home. After making sure she knew my skill level, I agreed to finish it up for her.
She brought me the quilt top the following week. As she said, it is definitely 90’s colors (mauve, pink and green) but she was hoping I would have a fabric in the shop that might work for the backing. I sent her several photos to choose from. She made a great choice with the Dash print from Carrie Bloomston’s Dreamer line. I love this print. It is very similar to Moda’s Grunge fabrics with the addition of a small scale print on it. The background is pink with smudges of lavender. The modern back is perfect for slightly updating the 1990’s quilt top.
I took it to the long arm shop where I am able to rent time. To me, this is such a great opportunity. I don’t have space for a long arm and don’t relish the idea of maintaining one either. Being able to rent one is the perfect compromise for me.
The gal that works there helped me load it on the frame. For the first time though, I didn’t really need a whole lot of help. (She was probably glad to see this!). The quilt top has been sitting for many years and was a bit distorted. Before I took it to the shop, I did clip threads from the back, iron it well and starched it. Even with all of the prep, it was a trick to get it to lay flat.
Because of this, I figured I should quilt it loosely and let it be a bit puffy. I think it would have been difficult to quilt it tightly without having lots of puckers.
It took little time to quilt. I used large loops and an occasional loose flower and just quilted edge to edge. I am pleased with how it looks. In previous projects on the long arm, I found it a challenge to quilt circles, they would look oblong and sometimes almost rectangular. These look like circles! I am making progress.
Never having quilted for someone else before, it feels a bit strange to just stop at this point and return it to her. When I trimmed the edges there was quite a bit of the backing fabric left over. I asked if she would like to use it as binding and she agreed. So, I cut the binding strips and sewed them together. The rest is up to Robin. She will bind it and wash it.
It was fun to use the long arm again. I think it has been since about October since I quilted there, so quite a few months. I do have a quilt top nearly finished though which means I will be back there next week. This was a win-win for Robin and I both; her long time UFO is nearly finished and I got more practice time on the machine. She did purchase the supplies and pay for my fees to use the long arm. Even though it still needs the binding, I am calling this a finish (at least for my portion of the project.). Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts, TGIFF and a few others. Check the top of the page under Link Ups for lots of fun places to link to.
I don’t think I can really articulate all that this Spread the Love, Quilting for Kids event has meant to me, but I am going to try. This is likely to be a long post…. Bear with me.
When I first read about Amy and her shop, A Doll Like Me, I knew she was special. I knew the work she does is really important and so valuable. But I didn’t know what all would happen when I put out the call to the quilting community to make doll quilts for A Doll Like Me. I didn’t realize how much I would come to enjoy working with Amy. I didn’t know I was going to have the opportunity to become friends with her and get to know about her family and what is important to her about this work she does. Also, I had no idea I would make so many new friends within the quilting community. I hadn’t a clue how much support my family would pour into this project. My sisters that sew, made blankets, quilts and gowns, my family donated financial support to the Go Fund Me campaign for A Doll Like Me. My nephew works for Go Fund Me and he took Amy’s campaign to his management team – they loved it and donated $1,000 to it.
Kindness begets kindness. It has this incredibly powerful, trickle down effect. Let’s take a look at the flow of kindness within this event. I think it is so important.
Amy made a doll for a friend’s child. Kind act #1
Her friend showed it to another friend. Kind act #2
That friend asked for a special doll with a limb difference for her child and Amy made it for her. Hugely Kind Act #3
The friend shared the doll and Amy’s world changed. A Doll Like Me began. Hugely Kind Act #4
Sometime later, Elana of That Fabric Feeling somehow connected with Amy and offered to make doll quilts for her. Amazingly Kind Act #5
Elana posted about the doll quilts on her blog, thereby sharing the need with the online quilting community. Kind Act #6
I randomly stumbled on to the posts about Elana’s doll quilts. Random and happy occurence!
I decide this needs to be shared as a community event so more people can participate, thus creating Spread the Love, Quilting for Kids. Kind Act #7
Art Gallery Fabric offers me an amazingly generous number of prizes to offer and hopefully encourage participation so Amy would have a large stash of quilts to use in her work. Kind and Generous Act #8
My family reads about my work (they are such faithful blog readers!) and decide to contribute financially via the Go Fund Me campaign for A Doll Like Me. Kind Act #9
My nephew finds out about these donations from his mom (my sister) and takes it to the management at Go Fund Me. They donate $1,000 to the campaign. Hugely generous and Surprising Kind Act #10
Quilters take this event and announce it at their guilds, their sewing groups, their on-line community and I start receiving emails, lots of emails, asking if they can continue to contribute after the February event concludes. I can’t remember how many groups contacted me but it was at least ten. Kind Acts #11 through 20 or so?
My sister, who lives in the UK, offers to be a collection point so that quilters in the UK can participate without having to mail their quilts to the states. They are mailing their donation to Juanita and she will collect them, package them up and send them to Amy. Kind Act #21
A quilter in Canada offers to do the same thing so the participants in Canada won’t be paying such high postage expenses. Debbie is collecting the Canadian doll quilts and will package them up and send them to Amy. Kind Act #22
Doll quilts start arriving – I have received pictures of well over 200 doll quilts so far. Promises of more are in the works. I have heard tales of how meaningful this has been to so many quilters, how much they have enjoyed taking part in this and thinking of these kids who will have their Doll Like Me and also a quilt to wrap up their baby. So, let’s try to quantify this and say these are Kind Acts #23 – 228. I know there are more quilts in process but this gets the idea across, right?
Quilters ask what else they can do. Amy says ‘well, I would like to have some doll size hospital gowns for kids facing a hospital stay.’ So far I know of fifteen hospital gowns that are finished and sent. Also two more doll outfits. More are in the works, but for now this will be Kind Acts #229 – 246.
See how this works? Kindness begets kindness. Small acts grow, more people get involved, more compassion is extended, and people feel intrinsically rewarded; it feels good to be kind. That warm feeling of satisfaction causes kind acts to happen more and more. One mom is using this project as a teaching tool. She has five children and has committed to making five quilts, one with each child helping her. Those kids will likely benefit and become more compassionate for others, more sympathetic to the needs of others. How will they use that lesson in compassion as they grow? Who knows, but you know it will affect them in a positive manner.
I cannot thank everyone enough. You are all so amazing. Want to see some of the quilts that were made?
I didn’t think it was feasible to upload over 200 pictures so I just made a few collages. So many fun quilts though. I am sorry I couldn’t share every single quilt. They are all outstanding. Included in these special quilts are applique, strip quilts, animals, patchwork, Dr. Suess, Sesame Street, Raggedy Ann, flowers, tractors, and even race cars. Whether modern or traditional, each one is unique and so special.
This community grabbed on to the idea of helping children. It spoke to so many of us. It felt good to do something positive. To have something meaningful to work on as we deal with one senseless tragedy after another in this world we live in.
So many amazing, adorable, hand made quilts in all shapes, colors and styles. These tiny quilts aren’t going to change the world but we are giving something special to a child who needs our love, maybe just a bit more than the other kids.
Look at these sweet hospital gowns, pajamas and clothes that have been made so far.
When I was talking to my friend Mari about this doll quilt event I was dreaming up, I asked what she thought – she said there would be an overwhelming response. She nailed it, didn’t she? Do you know what? One quilter made seventeen doll quilts! She was on a tear (no pun intended!), making one after another; an example of the kindness spreading throughout the community.
Let’s talk about those gorgeous fat quarter bundles offered up by Art Gallery Fabrics! Each person who emailed me pictures of their quilts has been entered once for each quilt they shared with me. Also an extra entry was made if the person made hospital gowns or outfits. You may continue to email me pictures of completed items through February 28th.
Quilt bloggers who have gotten involved can share their posts by linking up below. The link up will remain open through February 28th. When I read through the link ups, I will enter the blogger once for each quilt shared on the post. I hope you will take a few minutes and check out the other posts. I am sure you will come away inspired and gratified.
On March 1st I will have the fun task of picking ten winners via Random Number Generator. I will email the winners and ask for their mailing information. If you are a winner, please email me your information within two days. Otherwise, I will pick another winner. Does this all make sense? If you have questions, leave them in the comments and I will get back to you.
I am so energized by the response from all of you. You are amazing, generous people and there are no words to accurately describe how gratifying this has been. Thank you for all of the time and effort you have poured into these sweet quilts over the last several weeks. Thanks in advance for the quilts promised to A Doll Like Me in the future. I know Amy is overwhelmed by the response and also very grateful.
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