I received these 9 blocks from my SIL on Thursday. I was so excited. We are now at 41 blocks! I didn’t think we would make 30, but people have been so generous. It warms my heart. Now my goal is 60 blocks: 20 for each of the 3 quilts.
As reminder, one family we know from school and my husband’s cousin were affected by the September 2010 San Bruno fire. We are making 3 quilts: one for our cousin and his wife, one for my son’s friend and one for the parents of my son’s friend.
Want to help? I am thrilled at how many people are making a block or two. Do you want to contribute some blocks?
All star blocks are welcome!
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern, technique, eg. embroidery, painting, silkscreen, etc)
Block size: 8″ finished or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA, probably around the end of March. We can’t do it without you!
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks very much for your generosity!
I went to a quilt retreat this past weekend and was thrilled to receive 8 more blocks!
Bron’s Retreat Stars
Bron is a star herself and came through with 3 more blocks. These are her best yet, I think! I am fickle, though, because every time she gives me more blocks I like the new ones best.
I like the fabrics she chose. The stars are really bright and cheerful.
I brought some fabric to the retreat to make it easy for people to make blocks. It turns out that I didn’t have much of the really dark blues, which I was hoping to use in the background. I also brought Around the Block to help with the patterns. I thought about reloading Judy Martin’s Star block add-on to EQ7 on my computer, but I didn’t get around to it before I left for the retreat. It ended up not mattering, because people didn’t use the fabric to make blocks anyway!
Diane’s Friendship Stars
Diane also made some pieced and appliqued Friendship Stars. She got up at the crack of dawn yesterday and beavered away on these. I have talked about Diane before. She does wonderful silk painting, but not much piecing beyond borders. I talked about her pear ATCs, which I just love. She said she struggled a bit with the piecing and ended up appliqueing 3 of them. I thought it was very clever! Her blocks are great.
I have been promised some more blocks, so perhaps we are starting to get attention and will have enough to make some nice quilts.
Want to help? I am thrilled at how many people are making a block or two. Do you want to contribute some blocks?
All star blocks are welcome!
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern, technique, eg. embroidery, painting, silkscreen, etc)
Block size: 8? finished or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA, probably around the end of March
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks very much for your generosity!
Just after I wrote the SfSB blog post, Mom arrived with another block (the one on the right). I had forgotten to take a photo of the one she made last week, so here they both are. We are up 26 now!
Want to help? I am thrilled at how many people are making a block or two. Do you want to contribute some blocks?
All star blocks are welcome!
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern, technique, eg. embroidery, painting, silkscreen, etc)
Block size: 8″ finished or smaller (frankly, we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA, probably around the end of March
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks very much for your generosity!
I have been expecting some blocks from Chris and SherriD. I was gratified to find them in my mailbox today! We are getting quite a little collection. We now have 25 blocks. I think 5 more and I could make the 3 quilts. I would like more blocks, because some of the blocks are small, but I could make the quilts with 30 blocks total.
Stars for San Bruno Thursday
Chris is the first one to do applique’ and I really like her blocks. They are very friendly looking. I hope I get at least one more applique’ block so each quilt can have one. 7 more would be ideal ;-), then I can put 3 applique’ blocks in each quilt. The background on Chris’ blocks is exactly what I was imagining for this quilt. I met Chris when she came to CQFA and then we met up at the Modern Quilt Guild meeting as well. She has a great blog. She writes very thoughtfully and had some interesting posts about design classes she has taken recently.
SherriD More Stars
SherriD, from the Lazy Quilter blog, has come through with four more blocks. I don’t know why Sherri named her blog the Lazy Quilter, because she doesn’t seem to be lazy to me. Have you seen her U is for Unicorn quilt? WOW! These new blocks mean I can use them as a kind of border on one side of the one of the quilts. This puts Sherri up to a total of 6 blocks (I think). Isn’t she great? I secretly hope she makes more as I think these blocks will look really good in the quilt. 😉
I am planning on bringing my Around the Block book, some dark blue fabric and some yellow fabric so people can make some blocks at an upcoming retreat I am attending. I hope they will take the opportunity to sew.
I am going to get the Young Man to make a block, too. He refuses to sew, but I am thinking he could paint and then I could print the star on fabric. I haven’t done it yet, but it is on my mind. I may assign that task to my mom.
Want to help? I am thrilled at how many people are making a block or two. Do you want to contribute some blocks?
All star blocks are welcome!
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern, technique, eg. embroidery, painting, silkscreen, etc)
Block size: 8? finished or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA, probably around the end of March
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks very much for your generosity!
Virginia and Jeanne came through with two more blocks each for the Stars for San Bruno Project. We now have 18 star blocks. A good many of them are the same pattern as Virginia’s, which is Friendship Star. I think that is a nice message to send to the people who will get these quilts.
Virginia is a wonderful quiltmaker, bagmaker, teacher, helper with the upcoming show and all around good person. She is such an inspiration.
Jeanne (said the French way)
Jeanne is an awesome colorist. She has been making quilts for a long time and loves fabric and color and scraps. Many, many of her quilts are scrap quilts and go to auctions, the babies of her office and other good causes. She works mostly in tiny block sizes so she mentioned that these blocks seemed like behemoths to her. I love the Sawtooth Star in a Sawtooth Star block. I also love the Pinwheel in the Sawtooth Star block.
Want to help? We now have a total of 18 blocks, which is a thrill. Do you want to contribute some blocks?
All star blocks are welcome!
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern, technique, eg. embroidery, painting, silkscreen, etc)
Block size: 8? finished or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA, probably around the end of March
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks so much for your generosity!
I stumbled across this on Great Recycled Gifts website. I don’t think I want to use a metal bag, but I can definitely see the advantages. I also love the shape of this bag. I may have to see about making a bag that shape.
I went to CQFA and the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild Meetings today (total quilt extravaganza!) and had a great time. As an added bonus, I increased by Stars for San Bruno collection of blocks by 2! The top two are from Bron. She has upped her contribution to 4. Yay and thanks, Bron!
Adrianne is the owner/author of Little Bluebell. She also contributed 2 (the bottom ones) blocks to the SFSB cause. She came to the end of the meeting just to give me the blocks. I met Adrianne at the first meeting that I attended back in December. She told me about attending Market on a press pass. She also made a Flea Market Bag, which inspired me to make mine. Thanks, Adrianne!
We now have a total of 14 blocks, which is a great start. Do you want to contribute some blocks?
All star blocks are welcome!
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern, technique)
Block size: 8″ finished or smaller (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks so much for your generosity!
The good thing about being off of work for a few days is that I can post things as they occur rather than waiting until I have a spare minute. Mom made this star for the San Bruno quilt this week and I think it will go very well with the others.
All star blocks are welcome!
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern)
block size: 8? or less (we will work with any size)
Remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks so much for your generosity!
If you would like to contribute the parameters are:
I received these blocks from SherriD yesterday. Aren’t they great? I love the combinations of goldy-yellows and blues she chose for the blocks. They glow.
Sherri told me that she tried a new technique to make the blocks, which is a great idea. It is nice to not have to commit to an entire quilt if you want to try something new.
If you would like to make blocks, too, here are the parameters:
All blocks are welcome!
Block background: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern)
block size: 8? or less (we will work with any size)
remember to sign your block!
Deadline: TBA
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks so much for your generosity!
On September 10, 2010 a gas line exploded and leveled a neighborhood near where we live. It was big news at the time, but the world has moved on. In that neighborhood lived our cousin. His house was not destroyed, but was severely damaged. Also, the Young Man’s school friend lived there. His house was destroyed and he and his father ran for their lives.
Barsha's Star
My mom put out a call for blocks that we can make into quilts for these families and we received our first block today. One is promised and one is in the mail.
Barsha taught sewing in a local county for years before she retired. She is a gifted seamstress and I go to her when I need new pants. 😉 I first met her through a local guild. She is also a gifted quiltmaker, teacher and wearables artist. She has a wonderful, light studio and knows how to use a serger.
Thanks, Barsha!
Would you like to help? The parameters are:
Block backround: dark blue
Block design: Yellow star (any pattern)
block size: 8″ or less (we will work with any size)
remember to sign your block!
Contact us through our blogs for mailing instructions. Thanks so much for your generosity!
The Child and I worked on and finished his pillowcase. I wanted him to do several, but we won’t be doing that. My original idea was that he work on a project during the summer that was not screen related and would help or benefit someone else.
Lining Up the Pieces
We started on Thursday of last week. There are 3 pieces in the Twiddletails pattern: the cuff, the trim and the main body of the pillowcase. The pain part of this project is lining up the 3 pieces.
Pinning
The whole process was a challenge for him. Sewing is not high on the list of interesting activities for a 13 year old. The prospect of helping kids with cancer kept him there, but he had a hard time with the various parts of the process.
It was interesting and a good lesson for me to show him what to do. Everything was so foreign to him. Pinning took forever and it started with me showing him how to stick a pin in the fabric layers to keep them all together. I was surprised that I found it so incomprehensible that he didn’t intuitively know this basic concept. Almost all of the steps of sewing are so ingrained in my being that working with someone who had no experience was an eye opener. It gave me some insight into some of what beginner quilters know and don’t know.
Sewing the Burrito
Running the machine was not an attraction for my darling. He sewed carefully and slowly…for awhile. He had a hard time with the concept of not pushing the fabric through the machine, but letting the feed dogs do the work.
As You Sew, So Shall You Rip
He didn’t pay attention and wandered off where the seam line should be. He learned how to rip out his stitches.
First Success
He was able to finally finish sewing the burrito. If you can make it through the pinning and sewing with this pattern, the burrito creates the cuff, trim and body of the pillow case as one large piece. The Child had some trouble with the trim, but I didn’t feel like making him rip it out again. It is good enough. I plan to pin a note to this pillowcase saying that a teenager made it and it was his first sewing project.
As You Sew, So Shall You Rip 2
After he sewed the burrito, I had him sew the first line of the main part of the pillowcase. He sped the machine up a little (I had it set to super slow) and his mind wandered. The seam, which started out a 1/4″ away from the edge of the pillowcase ended up near the middle of the main part of the taco fabric. I didn’t look before I told him to backstitch, which ended up as a square spiral, also in the middle of the pillowcase. More ripping and unsewing. I did half for him and we took a week long break.
Following the Line
Yesterday, we got back to it. I drew a line on the pillowcase that he could follow while sewing. Brilliant! The line was much easier for him to follow.
Crazy Pillowcase Maker
Yes, his hair has a life of its own, but here is The Child with his finished pillowcase. He left my workroom so fast I was surprised my head didn’t spin. Now I need to think of a new project for the rest of the summer.
If you want to get together with people to make pillowcases, check the AllPeopleQuilt site for info on sewing with Etsy and ancillary meetups around the country. TFQ went home from our trip after hearing me go on and on about pillowcases, to find that she could easily make a few dozen from fabric on hand. Not sure how many she has in the pipeline, but I am looking forward to seeing her finished products. The Child and I are slowly plowing through his pillowcase. It is painful, but he is doing it. Go make some pillowcases!
I hope you know that there are plenty of other opportunities to do good with fabric!
Office Supplies
I am a pen junkie (are there any positive words for junkie/whore when referring to legal things like pens?). My current love is the Pilot G2. Recently, on the Cool Tools Blog, I saw a post about Jet Pens. They also sell journals, notebooks and scrapbooking supplies. Do not blame me if you spent your retirement money on pens and Japanese office supplies.
Sewing
Also on the Cool Tools Blog, I saw a post about a spiral eye needle. Apparently, you can thread this blindfolded! I need this needle. Sadly, they are not sold in regular stores and are expensive, so no losing them. Order from the Spiral Eye Website.
Linda M. Poole, who used to respond to the creative prompt, but got a fabric design contract and has too many things on her plate now is having a contest with said fabric designs! The designs are now fabric and a new line just came out. The deadline is October 4 and all the details are on a recent blog post. Go check out what she is offering as prizes. Did I mention they are FABULOUS prizes? [SherriD: I am looking at YOU!]
Someone pointed out another type of design wall on the Big Tent Quiltcast Supergroup. It is called the Vanishing Design Wall and it looks like it has potential.
Need some quilt-spiration? Bradie Sparrow is doing a summer quilt-a-long. They are on Week 5, but it is easy to find the blocks from the previous weeks. Friend Julie is making the blocks. and has been posting them. I thought about joining in, but really have enough projects going!
Blogging/Social Media
When I used Blogger, I was able to post via email. It was convenient when I went on vacation or saw something inspirational. WordPress has that feature, but I have never been able to get it to work. Amplify, related to Clipmarks, has a way of posting to blogs, Twitter, FB, etc via email. I haven’t tried it yet, but have set it up. We’ll see!
Are you on Goodreads and FB? If so, you can connect them so that the books you read post to your FB wall. I enjoy seeing what quilt books my friends are reading. I also enjoy seeing the fiction and reading reviews friends have written. I kept track of the books I read last year and was amazed to see how many I had read. This year I am a little scared of how many books I am, ostensibly, reading at once. Try it out!
Other
If your child stays at the local library after school, then you might wnat to get him/her one of the seat savers shown in Library God Stephen Abram’s blog. While you are at it, give them a donation. After all, you are saving on childcare, libraries offer a great service and are really hurting right now. Alternatively, perhaps you need one of these for your quilt guild meeting to keep the Quiltzillas away from your preferred chair?
Julie wrote very well about The Sketchbook Project. I have to admit that I got one, too. Since she wrote about it and, basically, wrote everything I was going to say, go look at what she wrote. My theme is In Flight. I haven’t started.
I saw a slide show of a sketchbook by Victor A. Lundy on the Library of Congress site. It reminded me that practice makes perfect and that sketchbooks can be small. The drawings are much better than I can do right now and capture some great images. I studied the people in the drawings especially.
I am sick of Wordless Week. It was great while I was gone, because I didn’t have to worry about posting, but now that I am back (yes, I will tell you all the details) I want to toss up some words and get some words back from YOU!
I am sitting here listening to Patrick Monahan and Train singing “Hey, Soul Sister” and “Save Me, San Francisco.” Suddenly, I am obsessed with these two songs and have been listening to them over and over for the past half hour or so. I don’t know what they mean, but I love the sound. I first heard “Hey, Soul Sister” on a re-run of CSI: NY, then I found the performance on YouTube and, then, had to buy the song. Now I can listen to it, as well as “Save Me, San Francisco” whenever I want. It is a good thing I am home alone (as I write this), because I am sure the family would be screaming for me to stop torturing them.
Along the lines of obsession, I have been making pillowcases for the past 24 hours. I have 4 cut out and two made. Of the two, one has already been mailed as a special gift. I hope the recipient is still where I mailed it when it arrives! She told me today she is leaving! Oh well!
Hoffman Fish
The fish pillowcase is made from an oooolllllddd Hoffman print. TFQ informs me that it is at least 15 years old. It was in my stack of fabrics that are designated for backs or ‘other.’ Often I buy a half yard or less (though I am having a crisis of how much fabric I should buy), which is not enough for a pillowcase.
Unless I have bought specific fabric for a pillowcase, then my general collection does not provide large enough pieces for the main piece of the pillowcase, so I dug into the back stash. If I haven’t used the fabric, it should be fair game, right? I have a lot of conversationals in this group, so they will work well for the cheerful pillowcases being requested.
I have mentioned the Million Pillowcase Challenge a couple of times. I went to the website to try and figure out where to send the pillowcases and encountered a problem. Quilt shops are collecting them. I have to donate them locally and don’t really have a local quilt shop. One is a few towns over, but they don’t seem to be collecting them. I was determined to forge ahead when CraftHope came through.
CraftHope just finished their largest project, related to the oil spill clean up in the Gulf of Mexico, ever. As is their M.O., they started Project #9, a collection of pillowcases for the Con Kerr Cancer Project. The good thing (for me) about this particular project is that they provide a regional directory of hospitals to which I can send or take the pillowcases with contact information. The deadline is September 15 for the CraftHope project. Can you make some pillowcases?
As I mentioned, The Child and I will be making the taco and robot pillowcases tomorrow. I cut all the pieces and made the fish pillowcase so that I have the steps firmly lodged in my head. He would lose what little interest he has if he had to wait around while I tried to figure out the directions. TFQ walked me through the first pillowcase (see below) and, thus, was instrumental in getting me started.
One big problem is suitable fabrics for the 12-17 year old boy set. After all, all agesa nd genders get sick. I looked at the various quilt shops I visited last week and saw some that would be ok. I saw a great selection at VooDoo Rabbit.
Sweet Dreams Pillowcase
I saw the chocolate fabric at Britex when I was inspired to make a Sweet Dreams pillowcase for my mom. She has ongoing problems sleeping and is having a hard go of it taking care of Grama in SoCal.
The fabric has been around since the end of June and I finally got my act together and made the piece. I am happy with the way it turned out. She is coming home next week. I sent the pillowcase today and hope it arrives before she leaves.
I used the Twiddletails pattern and it is great! It seems bizarre, but works very well and I learned to make French seams! She has a store, so go buy a pillowcase kit and make one for Con Kerr. Thanks, Anina!
I have graduated from Train to Semisonic singing Closing Time, so I will end this post and work on my CPP responses, pillowcases, napkins, and all the projects I am fired up to make!
I felt a bit of freedom in my sewing today. I finished the Blue Janus back yesterday (have to write about that, yes) and didn’t have anything pressing to work on. That left me to see how I felt and work on what I felt like.
Frosted Star Blocks
I sewed two more test blocks for the Frosted Star pattern. My pattern is much easier to follow and trimming the segments before sewing the block together works really well. I used a mostly monochromatic color scheme for these latest blocks so I can also donate them to the Rainbow project. I couldn’t resist using a bit of one of my Philip Jacob prints.
I think I need to test the 9″ pattern rather than the 12″, because the 12″ is just too big and the 9″ is what I would use in the quilt. I am thinking that I won’t make this quilt even though I like it a lot.
Merry & Bright Wrap Back
I felt compelled to make a back, so now the back for It’s a Merry & Bright Wrap is finished. This back was less arduous than the one for the Blue Janus quilt. Quite simply, it was much smaller. I also made a big effort to use very large pieces of fabric. Rather than days, it was only a few hours in progress. I am happy that it is done, though I don’t have plans to quilt it yet. I’ll have to see about that.
Making the above back gets me farther along in the various finishing tasks I have to do. I still need to make the sleeves for FOTY 2009 and the Chocolate Box as well as the facing for the Chocolate Box.
Half Moon by ModaKaffe Fassett Dot
I don’t know what is next on the list, but am thinking a tote bag is in order. I have this new black and white fabric that is demanding my attention. Half Moon by Moda will be the bag body with possibly a pink inside.
The Kaffe Fassett dot attracted my attention for handles (I think I may be in a monochromatic phase right now). GAQF only had a fat quarter, but I found a half yard in my fabric closet, which will be enough for the handles. I like the combination of big and small dots.
I am thinking I will use the AMH Multi-tasker tote pattern again even though it isn’t exactly the bag I want. I’ll peruse my other bag patterns first. I do know how to make the AMH MTT and it is a pretty good bag pattern.
