Doing Good – Page 18 – Artquiltmaker Blog

Sew Day Projects

I had great intentions to get the pockets of my Ultimate Carryall Bag made during Sew Day. I also wanted to set a good example by working on it and encourage people to get it done.

Best laid plans.

I forgot my mesh and the interfacing. In reality, I thought I had everything already cut and prepared. I hadn’t cut the mesh and the interfacing wasn’t adhered. People were very kind and tried to help me out, but I gave it up as not possible.

St. Patrick's Day Donation block — St. Patrick’s Day Donation block

I turned to charity work. I grabbed some packs of 2.5 inch squares, which Peggy always has available, and started to make some squares.

I didn’t want to waste bringing my machine. If I couldn’t work on my own projects the next best thing was to do community service work.

I sewed the squares into blocks. It is an easy mindless task, though I did pay attention to color and print placement. I was able to follow the conversation fairly easily and still sew. My plan was just to sew a bunch of blocks. It turned out that I was pretty fast. Mary helped after she finished her project, so we were able to finish a baby quilt. Mary took the top home and will put borders on, then bring it to the meeting.

St. Patrick's Day Donation Top — St Patrick’s Day Donation Top

I am sad I didn’t get to work on the bag. The quilt project wasn’t planned, but I am pleased that I didn’t drag my machine down for nothing.

Blue Strips Donation Top Progress

I also made progress on the Blue Strip donation top Saturday. It is larger, so not moving along as quickly as I would like, but it is also not causing me any problems. I made progress on this piece as I worked on Frolic on Saturday.

More Donation Blocks

Last month I only made two donation blocks, but I did better this month. I went over my 2019 monthly goal of 30 this month. Since I only made two last month, however, I probably should have made 60 this month.

I know you have seen most of the scrappy community quilt blocks, but I also made some of the regular 16 patch blocks and have started on a new color for a Color Strip quilt top in blue. I am not where I want to be but I am making progress and that is all that anyone can hope for.

More Blue Donation Blocks

I spent more time on Frolic! over the weekend. In addition to making slow progress on that piece, I also made a lot of progress on my blue strip donation quilt.

I now have all of the blocks finished and the sashing cut. As I mentioned before, I am going to make this piece slightly larger than some of the others.

It seems like it is an odd shape – more rectangular than square, but it may be the lack of finished seam allowances.

I am pleased with the yellow I chose. This was a half yard of fabric I have had around for awhile. I thought the color worked well with the blue even though light yellow is complementary to darker blues.

A Very Small Dent

Blue Strip Donation Blocks - mid-February — Blue Strip Donation Blocks – mid-February

I am up to 21 blocks for my latest Color Strip donation quilt. I plan to make another 14 so it is slightly larger than the red and orange donation quilts.

Regardless, I have barely made a dent in my blue scraps. Of course, I generate them at a faster clip than other colors, except, maybe, pink, but still. I’d like to be able to see progress. Perhaps I will be able to make 4 quilts out of this drawer.

They went very quickly as I worked on Frolic the other day. There were a lot of small fiddly seams to sew on Frolic!, so I needed leaders and enders. They come together very quickly once you start and some strips I have are very long, so I can cut 2-3 blocks out of a strip set.

Donation Block Updates

Fortunately, there are a lot strips, so I have been able to make a number of strip sets that yield more than one block.

You can also see the in progress blocks as well.

More New Blue Donation Blocks

I worked on the UCAB‘s short front pocket over the weekend. I wanted to incorporate my Clippy Pocket hack into an actual pocket. As I worked on that complicated project, I made donation blocks as leaders and enders.

I am really happy with these blocks. They are more fun to make than the white. I have a lot of scraps, but within those scraps are a lot of strips of different lengths, so the blocks are going fast and I can, sometimes, make two at a time.

Community Sew Day

Saturday was a Community Sew Day. I made about 18 blocks, some were the blocks of the day; some were the 16 patches. I’ll show those another day.

These blocks can be super scrappy. I tried to stick to a common color scheme so it would be easier to put blocks together into a cohesive whole. As the day wore on the pickins got a little slim and eventually I switched to a dark color scheme. I am not as happy with those blocks as they just seem dark. They will be good for a boy quilt, so they won’t be wasted. Perhaps I can make 6 more blocks in the same colors so Peggy can make a top.

These are similar to the Mav block I made a few weeks ago. The good thing is there are no seams to match so they make a good pattern for group sewing. You need:

5-4.5″ squares
5 – 2.5 x 4.5″ strips
2- 2.5 x 6.5″ strips

Use the image above as a guide for the layout.

Nine blocks make a quilt – at least they did for our project. The group ended up with 8 quilt tops and a few extra blocks. Some of us were talking about cutting scraps into pieces in these sizes and making them whenever we had spare time or needed leaders and enders.

The quilts are VERY scrappy.

Some New Donation Blocks

Since I started making the Color Strip and Improv donation quilts, I have not been making very many of the regular 16 patch donation blocks the guild collects.

However, they are really great for leaders and enders when I am not at home and don’t have my scrap bin handy. I forgot to bring them last Saturday to the mini-Retreat, but brought the bin Sunday and was able to churn out two blocks in between putting the new Running with Scissors Tote together.

I brought my bin to the Charity Sew Day yesterday and started some more, so there will be a few more for you to see later.

Finished Orange Strip Donation Quilt

The Orange Strip Donation Quilt is finished. Sue R. did the quilting and Rhonda finished the binding, so it was a real joint effort.

For once I took a photo of the back.

Now I have it at home and am waiting for the San Mateo County Fair to roll around.

Finished: Improv Donation Top

I finally finished this top to the point where I felt good about handing it in. I was rather sick of it, but I also have enough pride not to donation a too-small top.

That is all I handed in. I just provided the top and will let Peggy find backing and batting. I know I could have gotten a bigger hit on my Fabric Used spreadsheet, but I wanted to move on.

I haven’t started anything new for donation, but I will soon. It will be either blue or pink. Both drawers are overflowing. I don’t feel like I made much progress emptying the white drawer, though the White Strip Donation top and this one clearly used up fabric. Since I have more white to use, I could combine it with some of the blues. I know I have more than enough blue scraps to make more than two quilts. Combining some blues with whites will spread the use of blue and make for an interesting variation.

2019 All Donation Quilts

I feel like posting all of my donation quilts really makes me see that I have accomplished something good in the world. When I feel down, I can go and look at them. I made 14 donation tops last year. You have seen them all throughout the year, but it is nice to have them all in one place.

Total: 13 donation quilts

This is Ends n.7. I made it from two half yards of burgundy (with visible pink undertones) fabric and the ends of the Triple Star quilt. Finished January 2019.

Green Strips donation quilt is made from a yard of Kona Cream and 19 blocks that I made from strips found in my scrap bin. This was inspired by Alison. Finished January 2019.

The Green Thing donation top was finished in February. I used leftover pieces from the Green Strips donation top and a lot of scraps from my green scrap drawer.

Purple Strips Quilt

This may be the second in the series of strip quilts. We’ll have to see if I do anymore. I have more scraps, so it is a possibility. Tim suggested the grey as the background and I think it works well.

As I did with the Green scraps, I made an Improv donation quilt with purple scraps to further clear out that bin.

Ends n.8 (Bonnie & Camille). I made this from the edges of the back of the Stepping Stones n.2 quilt.

Spiky 16 Patch n.3

I made these blocks in 2018, but just got around to put them together in March. Frankly, they were in the way on my design wall and I needed the space.

My first Red Strip Donation top was delivered to Tim so he could quilt it and enter it as a triptych with the purple and green versions. He dealt with the backing.

This started out as a second Red Strip Donation Top, but as I didn’t have enough strips, it became the Red Chunk Donation Top. This is the second quilt I finished from the scraps in my red scrap drawer. You can obviously see that I did use some yardage.

I don’t have as many orange scraps as I have other colors, but I have enough. It is surprising how little fabric it really takes to make a quilt. I wonder what the least amount of fabric one can use to make a quilt – not a mug rug, but real sized quilts that can cover humans? The orange strip quilt came out really well and I am pleased with it. I definitely have an orange that I like. The consistency worked well to pull the whole piece together.

I used up the green plain blocks I cut for the background of another quilt and then didn’t use. They were laying on my sewing table bugging me and I wanted them out of my hair. I was in orange mode, so I cut some plain orange blocks and made a quick donation top.

Orange Improv Donation Top - almost finished — Orange Improv Donation Top – almost finished

I finished the Orange Improv donation top and back for Tim to quilt.

I finished the white strip donation quilt.

2019 All Donation Blocks

I always have in the back of my mind that I would like to make 30 donation blocks per month-360 in a year. This year’s achievement is 115 blocks. So far, I have made a good effort, but haven’t quite achieved that goal.

I’ll keep trying, despite what Yoda says.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31