I have the Green T quilt in my possession and I am applying the binding. This is the quilt that Gerre and I worked on together at the last Charity Day. Gerre quilted it and did a fantastic job!!
She quilted in a big circle and it really looks fantastic. I used the Reflections fabric (RJR, I think, from the Dark Ages) in a kind of olive green color. It is a little mottled, but I think it fits well with the variety of greens in the quilt.
Gerre and I make a good team and I told her so. I told her I want to work with her again. She is working on quilting the postage stamp/16 patch, which I will bind as well.
I really liked working with Gerre. I am thrilled that we have made this quilt together and I am proud of how it has come out. Yes, I know it is not finished, but I am thrilled with the way it has come together.
I can probably classify this as a hack. Really, I don’t know about the hack thing, because I made the apron without the Amanda 7 Pocket Cafe Apron pattern.
ARHS Grooming Apron
I couldn’t find the pattern and, after cleaning my workroom, I called my mom and had her measure the apron I made for her. I looked at the previous blog posts and went for it. I had to kind of make up the pockets, but I think it will work well.
A few months ago, I volunteered at the Young Man’s Band Review. I was assigned to the grooming team, which means that I followed the head of the grooming team around and carried stuff she needed to fix buttons, cut hair, adjust hems and jackets. At that time I thought it would be really useful to have an apron.
I finally had a chance to make one and it took me about three to four hours. The hardest part was pressing the seams. I really dislike that part, because I can never get the seams as flat as I want them.
I have to say that I enjoyed making this apron a lot more without the pattern than I did before. I think the problem with the pattern’s printing/font size was too small.
Regardless, I think the apron came out really well and I hope it will be useful.
I haven’t been able to make it to my PO Box recently and when my mom went for me, what a bonanza! Lots of fun goodies, including some blocks for the Black & Grey Teenaged Boy Donation Quilt from Jackie! WOW! What a great surprise and these blocks will really look great with the others I have.
I know I keep saying this, but I really, really need to put all the blocks out and take another picture. I need to see where I am.
This makes me think that I am continuing to make blocks for some reason that I don’t know or I haven’t decided to reveal? Perhaps these blocks are some kind of therapy?
I managed to finish the four blocks I was working on most recently, but couldn’t put together any new ones yet. I really need to lay the whole piece out and see what I have.
I had a few more choices in this group since cutting some additional patches. I like the way these look. they are as cheerful and happy as grey and black blocks can be.
I wasn’t ready for color when I started this quilt, but I am glad I am ready now. I started this quilt a long time ago and I can see the evolution of the blocks as time passes.
As I mentioned yesterday, Gerre and I teamed up for the Charity Race Sew Day. we were 4th in line to pick fabric and ended up with a variety of green colors. Gerre and I looked at each other in disappointment, but knew that the recipient would like it and got to work.
We pushed two tables together and used that as our workspace. We laid out most (the table wasn’t THAT big) of the pieces, cut the background and Gerre started sewing.
Gerre & Jaye Blocks
After cutting the background, I paired up pieces and parts and handed them to Gerre. She put them through the machine. I cut them off, pressed them, then paired them off again with other pieces and handed them back to Gerre to sew.
I thought we did very well and sewed pretty quickly. Still, we weren’t first with a finished top. I don’t sew very quickly in general, and, though I wasn’t sewing, I was pleased that we were able to finish as quickly as we did with little or no drama. I was organized and got Gerre the pieces she needed efficiently. She was a sewing rock star. Our system worked.
After we finished the piecing, we found a vintage sheet that was large enough for the back and layered and basted the top. I thought we were being nice for some other guild member, but Gerre said that she will quilt it. I offered to bind it so the piece will be done when we hand it in.
Gerre & Jaye Blocks: Chunking in Process
I showed Gerre how to “chunk a top.” It is harder if you don’t have a design wall and lots of leaders and enders. That plug lump in the middle of the table didn’t help, though it was useful for making the machine work. We started making postage stamp blocks in between to try and keep the T blocks in order.
I really think this is a great pattern for charity quilts. It is interesting. There are lots of ways to put it together and it comes out well. I want to work with Gerre again.
Peggy and Michelle did a great job organizing the Charity Day Race Game and 8 of the quilts we made were from the kits Michelle and Peggy put together before the event. They are awesome, dedicated and well organized.
Worker Bees
We all got kits and set to work. Peggy had done a lot of the cutting already, so we all only had to cut backgrounds and sew.
Michelle and Jennifer worked on a red version of the T quilt with a lot of Joel Dewberry Notting Hill fabric.
I was on a team with Gerre and she took the first sewing shift. I wasn’t really paying attention to how other teams organized their sewing and cutting and pressing and pinning, but our organization worked very well.
Rhonda and Ruth worked on a turquoise version with some Pearl Bracelets and a lot of fish fabric.
Diana worked on a pastel version with some Aneela Hoey fabrics and Jennifer finished a second green top that really looked like light in a forest.
Karen and Joelle finished another red top with a lot of card game fabric that they joked they would give to Kenny Rogers. Peggy made a brown version that looked like candy and Michelle finished a second top with a blue solid background. Gerre and I finished a top with green Ts and a light background. the quilts all used the same pattern, but were so different and fun.
Jennifer & Michelle
Ruth & Rhonda
Joelle & Karen
Jaye and Gerre
Peggy
Michelle 2
Diana
Gerre & Jaye’s Bonus Quilt
After the T quilts were done many people worked on making postage stamp blocks, including Gerre and I. We made as many pink and white postage stamp blocks as we could, then we added in some yellow and white blocks in to bring the quilt up to size. We didn’t finish it. Gerre put me in the sewing driver’s seat and I kept screwing up when sewing the blocks together, so we pinned the blocks together and Gerre will finish the top at home.
You have seen a number of donation blocks and quilts I have made for BAMQG using the postage stamp pattern. I wouldn’t have called it a postage stamp pattern; I would have called it a 16 patch, but postage stamp was what the Charity Girls called it, so we’ll move on and fight about names later.
The most recent quilt (still in process!) is the Black and Grey Teenaged Boy Donation Quilt. You know it; you have seen it 100 times. I make those blocks as meditation and to do something good for others. There is something about making those blocks that feels infinite. Infinite possibilities. I think simple blocks have that quality.
Cheryl’s Postage Stamp Quilt
Cheryl’s quilt is a perfect example. She took a number of different blocks, put them together and added an awesome border to make this donation quilt.
One thing is that I could use a lot of different scraps. I could use a similar border idea to finish the Black & Grey Teenaged Boy Donation Quilt. Perhaps I will use this idea when I make the next donation quilt.
Recently, our Twilter friend Daisy started going through a rough patch. She is so good about making up quilts for people in need, such as the Scrapitude quilt she made for Frances, that we all heeded the call from Weezy (have you listened to her podcast?) for blocks and fabric. It took me a few days to get to making the blocks, but I did and I am glad.
You can see my Harry Potter trying to find the Snitch block in the top row along the center. One of my blocks is on the back as well.
Weezy did the heavy lifting on this quilt and she did a great job.
Daisy quilt back
Daisy received the quilt on Saturday and was thrilled. I was very glad it was well received.
I made some blocks for a Disappearing Four Patch quilt that Daisy made for Terje. Terje’s family is going through a really tough time and then Terje injured her foot. So unfair, but a very good opportunity for a quilt.
It is fun to make a few blocks, especially easy ones that I can use to play with color and fabric, then send them off to see what they become. I used the Flower Sugar fabric from Lecien. I still have a lot of it, not all, but enough, left and it is cheerful. I made three blocks. In the photo below, I can see one of them in the 2d row, 1st position on the left and another one in the bottom row in the second position on the left.
Terje’s Disappearing Four Patch
I think there might also be one in the 4th row, last position, but it is hard to tell. Perhaps you can see them.
Regardless of where my blocks ended up, it is a cheerful quilt. I am always amazed at the choices people make when given a specific request. I don’t remember the request particularly, but it was definitely for cheerful fabric. It is fun to see the interpretations and wonder about their influences.
Another thing I did during the Labor Day Sew-in, using leaders and enders, was to make donation blocks. As I said, I had to put a leader or ender between each piece of the FOTY 2013 pieces. That meant that a lot of other projects progressed, including the donation blocks.
I only made three blocks, which doesn’t buy me anything in terms of another row on the quilt, but I am three blocks closer to another row, which is closer to an entire quilt and that is nothing to be sneezed at.
I made serious progress on the blocks for this quilt last weekend. As I mentioned, I took photos Friday (a week ago). That really prepared me for knowing what I needed to do to make some progress.
Finding the blocks, which had gotten stuff under a pile of fabric, was a really good start.
I laid out all of the blocks and realized that though it is getting there, I still need more blocks. The layout is 6×5 right now, but I might need to make it skinner and longer. Mrs. K’s quilt is on my mind, though, and putting the blocks on point is skittering around on the edges of my brain.
6 more Black/Grey Donation blocks
As soon as I had an idea of where I was, I gathered up all the parts of blocks that were on my sewing table and sewed them together. That added another 6 blocks to the group of blocks above.
My blocks have a lot of fabric repeats, but I think when all the blocks are put together (like above), the duplicates don’t matter so much.
I also think that Jackie and Cheryl’s blocks blend in nicely.
I didn’t sew any new blocks as I tried to work on the Russian Rubix using parts for a new journal cover as the leaders and enders.
As I mentioned last time, I was really feeling quite stalled on my Black/Grey donation quilt project. Jackie and Cheryl, who I mentioned briefly (in a subsequent post), sent me a total of 5 blocks, which when I laid it all out, ended up creating a whole row of the quilt top. I like the clock fabric that Cheryl used. Even though it, and a few of the other fabrics are not specifically grey, it reads grey, and the other fabrics add interest and blend well, with all the other fabrics.
The fabric choices add to the interest of the quilt, I think.
Jackie’s Blocks
Jackie also made some interesting choices. I think when I mix these up with mine, they will add movement and make some of my duplicate fabrics not as prominent.
We got an email just before school let out saying that one of the Band moms had breast cancer and she was being treated quite aggressively.
We got an update at Band Camp and I decided to ask for one of the quilts made by the BAMQG Charity Project. Michelle and I met on Friday and she gave me this quilt for the Band Mom.
I can’t decide if it is a star or some kind of ring quilt. I forget the name of the design. It is very scrappy and cheerful and I think will make the Band Mom feel better.
Star Donation Quilt Back
I sewed a small label on to the back for historic purposes.
I just have to wrap the quilt and will give it to the band director soon.
It almost feels sinful to enjoy sewing for charity so much. Odd, I know.
I spent all afternoon on Saturday sewing at the Charity Sew Day. At first, since I don’t like lugging my sewing machine around, I thought I would run around and cut and press for people. Nobody responded to my forum post about that idea so I brought my back up machine. What a waste! I forgot the foot pedal so I ran around and used other people’s machines while I was doing an improv quilt top, then Gerre let me use hers pretty regularly when I started on the second top.
One of the great things was showing Gerre how to do leaders and enders. She was charmed and made 2.5 blocks at least in between her Dr. Seuss wonky log cabin blocks. That means another person knows how to do leaders and enders and more blocks will get made.
Michelle and Peggy were really well organized, as usual, and had a number of different solids to use with our scraps.
Flower Sugar Lap Top
I took the ends of quilt backs, which Colleen cuts off and returns to me. They aren’t much good unless I want to cut them up into squares or something and I never seem to get around to that. It occurred to me that I could make some Improv quilt tops with them so I brought them along. Two birds, one stone: gets the ends out of my house, adds comfort and, hopefully, beauty to someone else’s house.
The first top I made was made from the leftover back pieces from the Flower Sugar hexagon quilt. Edge pieces were quite large and I sewed them together relatively quickly. This is not great work of art, but it isn’t completely boring either. I brought it home to make the back for it. I’ll use some of the leftover Flower Sugar fabrics. I still have a lot of them and I am happy to use them for a good a cause. I may also ad something to the bottom. It looks a bit unfinished.
Star Sampler Charity Quilt
Next, I took the edges from the Star Sampler and worked with those. Michelle had an idea to make a sort of easy log cabin, but I thought the pieces were too small and I made them into rectangles. I got pretty far – to putting on the sashing – but I wasn’t able to finish the top, which would have been my preference.
I still have trimming to do and the sashing to finish. I will have used all the green fabric, from the charity stash, before I get to the two outer borders, so I have to figure something out about that. I don’t know what, but something.
I have two long strips of Philip Jacobs Chrysanthemums that I will put on the outside. I’ll probably put another border on after that, but we will see. I pinned a lot of it together so I could just sew on Sunday.
It was also fun being there with other people. Gerre, Rhonda, Susan, Leanne and Lindalee, with our bosses, Michelle and Peggy, of course, were all there sewing and we were laughing quite a bit. Kelly stopped by, but couldn’t stay.
Rhonda’s Improv Medallion
Rhonda made a large house block quilt and then worked on an Improv medallion piece. The stripes were made by sewing 2 parallel straight lines the width of the black and white fabrics (right sides together) about an inch apart, then she cut 1/4″ away from the sewn line and had strips already sewn together. I want to try the idea.
We played around with the placement of the stripes – both width and direction. It was kind of a group activity and really fun to see how people interpreted the design.
That coffee cup fabric is really nice and in a colorway I haven’t seen. I have some with a teal background. This colorway goes well with Rhonda’s overall design.
Rhonda’s House Block quilt
Rhonda has only been quilting for a few years and I am continually impressed with her design sensibility and what she chooses to tackle. The house block quilt reminded me of my house block quilt, mostly because of the placement of the house block.
In case you can’t tell, she made the door open, which is a really nice touch.
I also really liked the four patches she used as windows in the upper story.
Gerre was using Dr. Seuss fabrics to make wonky log cabin blocks. The red in that line of fabric is very primary, making the blocks really super bright. Working at her table made me feel very cheerful.
Leanne brought some fabrics that were not her style and she was trying to figure out what do with them. They felt as though they had never been washed even though she said they had.
Lindalee was making strip sets and ended up with two strip blocks, where the strips are on the diagonal. She does really nice and precise work.
Michelle was working on two really, really Improv quilts. One was blue and gold and had inset strips throughout the blocks. The other was a beige and purple piece with a lovely New York Beauty-like arc as part of the design.
Peggy’s Brown & Turquoise Charity Project
Peggy was working with brown and turquoise and she did an excellent job. I really love the color combination and know that my sister would love it as well.
there was a lot of discussion about layout and at one point the two shorter sections were down at the bottom, placed symmetrically. I’ll let your imagination consider what the visual symmetry could have symbolized. Someone suggested moving one up and filling in top and bottom and that solved the problem. It is really a nice looking quilt and a good use of color.
Even though I sewed steadily, I didn’t get as much done as I expected. I have high expectations, but am satisfied with what I got done.
I feel fortunate that I can contribute to a charity that helps people locally by using my sewing and quilting skills. I don’t think that contributing to charity should be unpleasant or painful and making quilts or quilt blocks is an awesome way to contribute.
That being said, this year has not been the most stellar example of charity quiltmaking on my part. Life is like that sometimes. I think I am back in the saddle with my charity-teenager-boy quilt.
I wrote about my whole dilemma a little while ago and got 3 blocks almost immediately from a quilt-mate. I also got a promise of blocks from a Twitter friend. I was so excited that these lovely women just made and gave! Quiltmakers are often such nice people. Thanks, ladies.
4 More Black/Grey Donation Blocks
Their generosity got me going again and I made eight blocks last weekend in between sewing on the facing to See and sewing triangles on to the Russian Rubix octagons.
I was feeling a little stuck in terms of fabrics. I really want this quilt to be interesting even with the limited ‘color’ palette. I dug into my grey box and got some new greys. I had a few black scraps around, so I cut those up into 2.5″ squares and that made the project a little more interesting.
I have over 20 blocks now and if I had even a few feet of space on one of my design walls, I would put the blocks up to look at them and see how large the quilt could be. I don’t expect or want it to be bed sized, but teenaged boys are large and I want to make sure it will cover most of one.
Last 4 Black/Grey Weekend Blocks
I really would like to get this project into a quilt top as I don’t want it to get to the point where it is dragging me down. I want the project to be filled with positive energy. I guess I just have to do it!
