Giving Feels So Good - Charity Quilts

Last October I told you about a Charity my quilt group donated 15 quilts to. You can read about it here.  We decided to wait until we had another 15 quilts ready before we headed back to the home to donate them.

Earlier this week, my mom and I drove over with the 15 quilts that were finally ready and we were welcomed with opened arms. 

Again, we had some orphan blocks, and we used some of our scraps and some fabrics from our stash to make these lap quilts for the young moms at the home. They get to use them while they stay there and then bring them with them when they leave.  

sampler quilt made from Betty's orphan blocks

Big Block quilt

Perky Patches

Nine Patch

 We work on these quilts at our weekly get-together, and at our retreats. We plan some of them together but each of us sews individually.  Alice quilts them and Pat did the binding on most of these. Each has a label that says: " Stitched for you with love 2017".

Brick Quilt - inspired by Crazy Mom Quilts

Big Block quilt

Framed squares

 There are 15 beds at the home so we brought 15 quilts. Each girl will get the chance to go pick her own quilt.

Brick quilt - inspired by Crazy Mom Quilts

Framed squares

Big Block quilt

Big Block quilt

 My mom and I left the home with big smiles on our faces and we had so many ideas for more quilts. We were itching to come home and make more!

Big Block quilt

Piece of Cake 2 - pattern by Thimbleblossoms

HSTs in Flannel

 We've already got some ready to be quilted and have some fabric picked out to make a few more! It definitely feels so so good to give! :)

Gabrielle's T-shirt Quilt

A few months ago, I received a phone call from Gabrielle's mom asking if I could make a t-shirt quilt. Gabrielle had saved all of her t-shirts and jerseys from when she played competitive volleyball back in high school and she now wanted to have them made into a quilt.

When I met with Gabrielle, I was a little surprised at how many shirts she actually had. She wanted as many of the shirts as possible in the quilt. So that was my challenge, using as many of the shirts as I could but keeping the size of the quilt reasonable because she wanted to be able to use it.

Gabrielle's T-Shirt Quilt

It was a little like putting a puzzle together. I had fun figuring it out.

close-up of Gabrielle's T-Shirt Quilt

I used a fusible interfacing on the back of each t-shirt to make it easier to piece it. I used a cotton backing and Hobbs 80/20 batting. I quilted Ribbon Swirls on it because the pattern kind of reminded me of Volley balls and it gave nice texture to the quilt.

close-up of Gabrielle's T-Shirt Quilt

I used the same cotton fabric for the binding as I did for the backing. I think the black fabric framed the quilt nicely.

Label

It was a nice surprise when I called her to tell her that the quilt was ready and I found out that it was her birthday. She came to pick it up the very same day.

Gabrielle's T-Shirt Quilt

I'm happy to know Gabrielle will be able to wrap herself up in wonderful memories!

Gabrielle's T-Shirt Quilt 

more blocks for my 150 Canadian Women quilt

This is such a busy time of year with the school year and my daughter's competitive gymnastics coming to an end. Then there is my youngest daughter's soccer season that starts. It just doesn't seem to end, and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way!

But it does cut into my sewing and quilting time. So I haven't had much to post in a while.

I did have a quiet day today as I am feeling a bit under the weather, so some time in my studio seemed like a good idea.  I got quite a few new blocks done for my 150 Canadian Women quilt and I thought you all might like to see them.

These are blocks 16 to 27.  I am still very far behind because blocks 91 to 93 were posted today on the Next Step Quilt Designs web site. I am still hoping to get the quilt done before the end of the year so I have lots of time to catch up.

I am really enjoying reading about all of the Canadian pioneering women and then picking out the fabric for each block.

150 Canadian Women

This year is Canada's 150th Birthday.  There are so many exciting things going on in the quilting world to celebrate this exciting event.  One of them is a Quilt celebrating 150 Canadian, inspiring, pioneering women from yesteryear to today.

Kat Tucker from Next Step Quilt Designs out in Calgary Alberta has put together this wonderful project.  Every week she sends out the instructions for three 6" finished blocks. Each block comes with the biography of a pioneering woman.

Now, I have to be honest and tell you that she has already sent out the instructions for 75 blocks, so the project is half done.  And for those doing the small quilt, they will be able to assemble their quilt this week.  However, I was working on the memory quilts so I am behind on my blocks.

first 15 blocks on my design wall

I have 15 blocks done so far and as you can see they are all red and off-white.  These were fun to piece, not too much of a challenge, but they will get more time consuming as I go.  The blocks will have more pieces and the pieces will get smaller.

I'm not quite sure how I will put the blocks together but I have lots of time to figure that out.

I look forward to sharing my progress on this quilt with all of you.  I am hoping to have it all done by the end of the year.

Reece's Quilt

This is the last of four quilts I have been working on for the last few months.  Four quilts for four children who lost their father last year.

Reece is 12 years old and the eldest of the four kids.

She loved the buffalo plaid shirt her dad wore so her mom put that one aside especially for her quilt. We paired it up with the black and grey shirts. 

Reece has always had a fascination for Terry Fox and his battle with cancer. Kevin received this t-shirt for participating in the Terry Fox walk one year and he proudly wore it. Of course we had to include it in her quilt as well!

Ralph Lauren Polo shirts were one of his favourite brands of shirts so I included some embroidery from those shirts as well. 

Nancy and I went to the local quilt shop to purchase the border, binding and backing fabrics. While we there, we saw the maple leaf fabric and thought it would look great in this quilt too! There were a couple of other fabrics that caught our eye so we added those too.

One of  Kevin's favourite t-shirts

I decided to free-motion quilt this quilt with some "organic" wavy lines. I had to be able control the machine myself and go around the embroidery from the Ralph Lauren polo shirts because it was too thick to go under the foot of the machine.  I think the texture of the wavy lines lends itself beautifully to the quilt and adds to the cozy overall feel. It turned out just as I had hoped!

the quilt on the longarm

the back

This is Reece's label with the scriptures her mom picked out just for her.

Her father used to sign every email and letter: "Here, with a purpose."

Everything was very well thought out and has special meaning.

The children received their quilts on the 1 year anniversary of their father's passing, along with a beautiful photo book their mother put together.  Beautiful keepsakes they will cherish forever.

I am a little sad that this project is over but so happy that I got to work on it with Nancy. She is such an amazing lady and had great vision for these quilts. I am so happy I was able to make her vision come to fruition and help her through the grieving process.  It's not over yet though... we have plans to make a special quilt for her now and I can't wait to get started!

If you missed the posts about the other three quilts...

A Quilt for Brinley-Blüe

Paxton's Quilt

A Super Hero Quilt for Maddox

I am linking up to Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts as well as TGIFF over at Charly & Ben's Crafty Corner.

A Super Hero Quilt for Maddox

This is the third of four quilts I made in the last few months. Four quilts for four children who lost their father last year.

Maddox's quilt has a Super Hero theme.

The inspiration for this quilt came from a picture of Maddox and his Dad taken one Halloween. Maddox is dressed up as Captain America and his Dad is dressed up as Superman. Kevin has his hands on his hips, just like Superman, and is looking straight ahead. Maddox is looking up at his dad with that look of admiration only a child could have for his Hero, his Dad.  Perfection.

The t-shirts were all worn by Kevin and the blue patches are from his shirts. The plaid ones are actually from some pyjama pants. We picked up the red fabrics from our local quilt shop as well as the border, binding and backing.

The Captain America T-shirt was a gift Maddox gave his Dad for his birthday and also the last t-shirt Kevin wore before he passed away.

Kevin was a fan of Ralph Lauren Polo shirts so I added a patch from one of those shirts.

patch from Ralph Lauren polo shirt

 I quilted the pattern Jessie's Swirls on the quilt to add some texture and movement to the geometric squares.

quilt on the longarm

For the back of the quilt I used a nice blue crosshatch fabric from Carolyn Friedlander, one of my favourites.

back of quilt

This is Maddox's label with the scriptures his mom picked out just for him.

His father used to sign every email and letter: "Here, with a purpose."

Everything was very well thought out and has special meaning.

label

The children received their quilts on the 1 year anniversary of their father's passing, along with a beautiful photo book their mother put together.  Beautiful keepsakes they will cherish forever.

Stay tuned for the final quilt...

Paxton's Quilt

This is the second of four memory quilts I made in the last few months. Four quilts for four children who lost their father last year.

Paxton is 6 years old and his quilt has a "Canadiana"/Americana All-Star Theme.

Nancy found this pattern on Pinterest and it really spoke to her because her husband, Kevin, was born in The United States.  The pattern was originally for a Queen size bed so I did some playing around with the measurements so that I could have something to work with and we would end up with a lap size quilt.

the completed quilt top

The blue parts of the quilt consist of Kevin's blue shirts, the beige parts include one of his shirts, a pair of his pants and some fabrics from my stash and from the fabric store to make it look scrappy. Nancy and I had fun picking out the red fabrics at our local quilt shop. We wanted to add a bit of Americana with the stripes and a bit of "Canadiana" with the maple leaves. It was the perfect time to buy all of those fabrics, it being the sesquicentennial, and all of those fabulous fabrics being in the store! We also bought the blue border and binding and a dark blue polka dot for the backing.

Kevin was from Atlanta so I added a strip from a shirt that had the word "Atlanta" on it, and he was a fan of Ralph Lauren Polo shirts so I added the tag from one of his shirts to a strip as well.

The inspiration quilt had one star in the centre of it and Nancy liked this idea. Since Paxton is only 6 years old, we wanted to make the quilt playful, so we went with it, and added stars here and there in different colours, some are fabrics from Kevin's shirts and some aren't. I even found that fun navy star fabric in my stash.

To keep with the theme I quilted a Stars and Loops pattern on the quilt.

the quilt, loaded on the longarm

The stars and loops really show up nicely on the back of the quilt with the lighter coloured thread.

the back 

 Here is Paxton's label, with the scriptures, picked especially for him by his mom.

His dad used to sign every email and letter: "Here, with a purpose."

Everything was very well thought out and has special meaning.

the label

The children received their quilts on the 1 year anniversary of their father's passing, along with a beautiful photo book their mother put together.  Beautiful keepsakes they will cherish forever.

2 more quilts to go...