Tag Archives: on point

Comfort Quilts – Who Really Benefits?

It is no secret I enjoy making quilts for other people. I have given them as birthday, wedding, baby and “just because” gifts. But my favorite thing is making comfort quilts. Making a quilt for a person who is going through a rough time for whatever reason is the most rewarding sort of quilting. I love the idea of imagining this person who is sad or feeling blue receiving a handmade gift. The person then knows there is a another person, somewhere out in the universe who felt the desire to lessen their pain even the tiniest bit by spending time making something for them.

Who knows whether this person would understand the time it takes to make a quilt? Or if this person knows there is expense put out to make this gift? That isn’t the issue. For me it is all about wanting this person to have a positive experience in the midst of a negative time in their life.

The quilt I am sharing today happened due to some crazy team work. Somewhere a quilter made the 16 patch blocks. I can tell these blocks were made quite some time ago. They were frayed at the edges and a wrinkled mess. Along the way, the first quilter decided they couldn’t finish the quilt for whatever reason. The blocks were then passed along to another quilter who promised to make a comfort quilt with them. Then these poor blocks languished for a long while, making the second quilter feel a bit guilty for not getting it done. She posted on Instagram that she would send them to anyone who would promise to finish up her promised task. I raised my hand quickly (on Instagram of course) and she mailed the blocks to me. (She actually mailed two sets of unfinished blocks and I have the second set out and ready to work on).

Due to my move up to Washington last spring, it took me some time to get to these blocks but I finally did. Looking at the blocks closely I saw they needed some work. I squared them and reinforced many seams that were coming apart. Next, I set them on point with a solid navy blue background. After laying them out, I realized I would have a few blocks left over. I used them as the border. The fabric was already fraying so I didn’t want to unpick the seams. Instead, I just stitched the blocks in a column and then sliced long strips. (Does that make sense)?? That made a nice border for the quilt.

Straight line quilting makes things easy.

I used this super cute print (I think it was a Moda fabric?). I remember buying it last fall when I was at a fabric sale for a local sewing group. I had gone to that sale looking for pieces large enough to use as backings and this was one of the pieces I picked up.

Zooming in on the backing so you can see it better, check out the cute birds, oak leaves and acorns. I really like this piece and used just over half of it for the backing.

As a result of three quilters working together another quilt will be donated soon. First I want my daughter in law to see this one and the quilt I recently made as part of the Villa Rosa Designs blog hop. Unfortunately, a woman my DIL works with just went out on leave because her husband has terminal cancer and is now under hospice care. My DIL asked me for a quilt for them and I am very pleased to give her one of these.

How about you? Do you get a strong positive feeling making quilts for a person unknown to you? It sends much needed kindness out into the universe. There are many organizations who want quilts such as these for their clients or patients. It makes me happy to participate and do what I can to fill that need. Working with two other anonymous quilters, together we made one more quilt.

Linking up with my favorites – check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

Crazy Smokey Days

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I don’t know how much this makes the news across the country but Northern California is basically on fire. It is horrendous. We had a local fire about a mile from my house two weeks ago. It burned 350 acres and caused a lot of local damage. Before this we had a fire up at Yosemite. It burned 4,700 acres and is just about contained. Along with this fire is the Happy Camp fire (the name is sort of ironic.) Burning still, it has consumed 132,000 acres. It is in a wilderness area so it hasn’t burned many structures. Closer to my home, we are dealing with the King Fire. It is burning near the town of Placerville which is about an hour from my house. But as the crow flies, it is much closer. This fire is now burning just over 92,000 acres. There are over 7,000 firefighters working it and it is only 35% contained as I write this. The fire started over a week ago and has consumed 65 structures so far. It is a horrific fire. The worst part? It was started by an arsonist. The suspect has been arrested. Just unimaginable. Crazy, smokey, frustrating times.

Here is a picture of the smoke we are dealing with. This was taken this morning by my hub.

Luckily this afternoon a breeze came through and cleared the smoke for a while. I am sure it will settle back in by morning. They closed a number of schools on Monday. For today and tomorrow they decided to keep the kids indoors and cancel after school activities. It is completely unhealthy to be outside. The good news is that we have a 60% chance for rain on Thursday. We are so excited! Doing a rain dance for sure. Keep your fingers crossed for us. We need to get the fires contained and we desperately need some (a lot, a lot, a lot!) of rain.

Since I was inside all weekend with the exception of one trip to the grocery store, I spent a great deal of time at the sewing machine. It was a good opportunity to work off my stash because there was no going to the fabric store. Here are a few things I worked on.

I used more of the upcycled burlap that I love creating with. This pennant is hanging up above my (very fancy!!) design wall, inspiring me. On the design wall is a strip that I created with some holiday fabric scraps. I will add some lengthwise strips to the long edges to create a Christmas table runner but I need to find something at the LQS because none of my fabric worked. Love the banner though.

After making the “CREATE” banner I decided to make one for the holidays. First I made this one:

I put up a few odds and ends on the mantle to give it a holiday feel. I like the pennant with the exception of the E on the end. It needs to be a darker color so I will replace that flag.

This is the other one that I made.

I like this one but it needs some embellishment. I think I will add some buttons to the ends of the twine for weight and maybe that will dress it up a bit.

Finally, I made progress on a holiday lattice quilt that I am making. It will be set on point and needs sashing. I am thinking of using a fabric that is a deep cream color, tone on tone, for the sashing. Again, I didn’t have anything for this. I need to get the sashing as well as a fabric to use for the corner and setting triangles. But this is coming along nicely and will sew together quickly.

Not bad for a few days stuck inside! Hoping for clear skies tomorrow and a trip to the fabric store. Simple pleasures, right?

Linking to Stitch by Stitch, Freemotion by the River, Fabric Tuesday, WIP Wednesday and Let’s Bee Social as well as Needle and Thread Thursday. Links to these wonderful sites are found at the top of my page under Link Ups.

Friday Finish!

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The past week was a busy one and I didn’t spend lots of time at the sewing machine. I spent several days visiting with my son who lives in the Central Valley. Soooo hot there. I lived there years ago and acclimated to the heat back then. Now? Not so much. While I was there I made a trip to the local quilt shop in Turlock, CA — called “Cloth and Quilts”. It was really well stocked and the people were so friendly. (But then, isn’t that always the case? They are quilters, after all.) I was fairly disciplined and only picked up two pieces of yardage and three fat quarters. Not too bad at all.

Even with being gone for a few days, I did manage to finish a baby quilt that I have been working on. I posted about it earlier here. I am so pleased with the final result! The colors are adorable and overall it is a sweet little quilt that will, hopefully, make some new mama out there very happy. I did five inch squares on point with white sashing. I also appliqued a heart to one of the squares on the front and then did a pieced backing with three more appliqued hearts. Love these accents!

The print that I used for the backing was leftover from another project. I can’t remember the name of it but I love the floral print. They look like hydrangea blossoms to me but who knows??