Took the Day Off

Finished up this quick little top for Quilts for Kids on Friday, then took Saturday off!

Had to play with the dog and her new Christmas present.

Hard to get a good picture since she wanted to show off her new toy, but didn't want anybody else to have it!  Everybody got a little something fun for Christmas ...

End of the Year Projects

Found some time today to get back into the sewing room and finished up the dog panel for Quilts for Kids.  I am getting a free roll of batting to use for quilting Quilts of Valor and Quilts for Kids so I am working up a few tops to have on hand when the batting arrives at the first of the new year.

This is the finished top – turns out the panel was printed wonky (as they are sometimes) and it was difficult to square up the top with the borders.  Might have trouble getting this one to lay flat when quilting, but I’ll do my best!

And, of course, I have to have multiple projects in the works, so this will be an  alternating 4-patch and novelty squares top – the yellow will be the first border:

And this kitty panel will be one of the next on the drawing board:

We’ve been having some lovely sunsets, but rain is expected tomorrow.

But if there is no lightning, then I’ll be sewing - Always something fun to work with around here!

Blatant Plug or Good Idea?

Happy National Pancake Day!

Yep, since 2006 the well-known breakfast chain restaurant, IHOP, has been sponsoring National Pancake Day.  Today (Feb 28, 2012), guests at their restaurant can enjoy a free short stack of pancakes and the only request is that participants consider leaving a donation to the Children’s Miracle Network or other designated local charities.  I'm thinking IHOP had a Good Idea.

I am familiar with the Children’s Miracle Network and their hospitals throughout the USA through the Quilts for Kids organization where I make frequent donations.  I was excited recently when I saw that a quilt that I had sent to them was posted in their website’s gallery with a lovely comment about its simplicity and colors.  Click this link to see my quilt I called Hawaiian Party.

And would you like to know what the world record is for stacking pancakes?!  Andy Wrobel stacked up 60 pancakes up to about 2 ½ feet to take over the Guiness Book Record.

Andy is in Melbourne, Australia, and cooks up his pancakes at a restaurant called the Pancake Parlor.  The stack eventually collapsed but I’ll bet a good time was had consuming the structural components ... Yum!

Quilting Today

I finally managed to get some quilting done today.  My frame has been fixed since the day after I found an issue with it.  My sweet husband took the rails off and re-aligned and tightened the screws and it’s just fine now.  These are the three for Quilts for Kids that I just need to get bound tomorrow – then it’s a quick wash and out the door they go:

While I’ve been really trying to use up my stash and scraps, occasionally I can’t pass up a sale.  These are the fabrics that I bought in a kit from Joann’s that was 50% off (the solids are from my stash):

Considering the discount, the amount of fabric included in the kit averaged about $4.25/yd for higher quality fabric.  I’m sometimes willing to spring for paying that much for fabric for my donation quilts, but I’d have to drastically cut back if I had to pay $10.00/yd.  Can’t see that happening, so I keep trying to find bargains.

Don’t know what I’ll be working up with these fabrics – I don’t feel constrained to make what the kit offered (simple squares), but I hope to post a picture of something special soon since I really like the colors.

QFK Top and BooBoo

I finished up the Quilt for Kids top that came in a kit from the organization.  They neglected to include enough strips of the dark green in the kit for the 4-patches and I didn’t have any fabric remotely close to that color so I substituted some orange that I think goes with the dinosaurs focus fabric and the purple and green provided.  The green was three blocks short, but that was odd when I just made that many substitute blocks (no pun intended) so I made a few extra.  I hope I’ve made a pleasing arrangement of the various color blocks.  This is the competed top:

But then I had this issue arise with my quilt frame:

I’d say when it rains, it pours, but I hope this isn’t a trend of problems. My husband I plan to correct the issue with the rails of my frame tomorrow – it looks like a screw just vibrated loose over time where the rails connect and is an easy fix.  Crossed fingers everybody!

Quilts for Kids

My kit from Quilts for Kids came in the mail today!  The makers of Downy fabric softener are still affiliated with this great group and sending out a free kit for a child-size quilt for the asking.  They request that you make up their kit and also make up a quilt from your own fabric and send them both back to them to be distributed to hospitals associated with the Children’s Miracle Network.  Of course, if you have a local chapter of Quilts for Kids, your quilts will remain in your local community.

This is the fabric I received:

And this is the teen-girl’s quilt top that I finished and will send back with my finished kit. 

I’ll also send the teen-boy’s quilt (with USAF airplanes fabric) that I have posted about earlier.  These quilts are only about 38” x 45” so they don’t take that long to make … it’s the quilting itself that holds me up.  But knowing that a child in the hospital will be cheered up by receiving one of these quilts will spur me on.

My dog (just off to the left in this photo) found a friend in the garden today.  She stuck her nose right up to this Giant Swallowtail and it didn’t faze it a bit.  It just fluttered from flower to flower, as happy as could be.  Those purple flowers must be tasty!

And how do I know it was a Giant Swallowtail?  I looked it up, of course!  This is one of my favorite sites for identifying butterflies:

http://www.gardenswithwings.com/identify-butterflies.html

There’s also a page there to tell you what butterflies you can attract to your garden by entering your zip code for your part of the country.  Happy planting to attract butterflies!

Just Plain Cute!

This photo has nothing to do with quilting - or does it?!!  Maybe quilts are all about comfort and this picture is just too cute not to love.  Thanks to http://www.snuzzy.com/ for this cute photo.

And this was the recent finish of the teenage-boy quilt top that I wanted to make.  It has all types of US Air Force aircraft in the print fabric - I'm hoping it will find a teen at Quilts for Kids that is an airplane nut!  I'll finish quilting it soon and get it mailed off.

What I'm Working On Today

Well, I went out looking for Indian Hawthorne plants to replace a few in the yard that were hit pretty hard in last winter's freezes.  Lo and behold, there was a Joann's store right around the corner from the big box store with the plants.  OK - so I've been to each a hundred times and knew they were both there, but what's your point?!

Anyway, I jogged on in to Joann's looking for some teenage boy fabric per my last post.  I didn't find any panels, but I did find several suitable fabric prints.  The hard part then was finding coordinating colors.  I really liked some underwater fabric but didn't see anything to go with it, so I got one nautical print that I liked and one with airplanes.  This is the one I'm working on now:

Detail

Top in Progress

The design for the quilt is from the book "What a Novel Idea" by Pat Sloan.  It has quite a few patterns that I liked that showed off how to use novelty prints in quilts.  The one I'm making now is a smaller version of the one on the cover so it will fit with the size quidelines requested by Quilts for Kids.

And, by the way, I did get the Indian Hawthorne bushes and I started pulling out the old dead ones today!

Scrappy Saturday

I took a poll recently in my on-line quilt guild for ideas for making quilts for teenagers - especially teen boys.  Quilts for Kids has a call out for these quilts and they would also be great for another group that I donate to called Wrap-Them-in-Love.  Well, the ideas poured in - everything from free patterns on-line, block designs and fabric choices like interesting panels (maybe camping or outdoor scenes), dolphins and underwater prints, safari prints and a friend suggested that peace signs are popular again (who knew?!).

I've had no trouble with finding lots of prints for younger kids, especially florals for girls, but I'm anticipating a new adventure in shopping for some of the above fabrics for teens.  I'll post what I find!

So last night I only had time to play with a few scraps.  I have a piece of fabric I was sent as part of a challenge and the only rules are to make blocks 12 1/2 inches to return for a sampler quilt.  I know that another participant has already made a bear block, so I found this cute native American-style rabbit.  He's a Sindy Rodenmayer design at Fat Cat Patterns under the Ethnic Flavor category on her sidebar.  She has lots of other cute native-flair animals there, too.  The challenge fabric is in the sunburst arch.

Right now Rabbit is just in pieces on my ironing board (and the light is terrible for taking pictures at night), but he'll be appliqued down to his background fabric today.  Now I have to think of some other blocks to go along with him using some more of that challenge fabric!

Donating to Quilts for Kids

One of the organizations that I occasionally make quilts for is called Quilts for Kids.   I have participated in two ways:

(1)   I joined in with the Downy Touch of Comfort program, whereby the Procter & Gamble company – the parent of Downy Fabric Softener – partnered with Quilts for Kids to provide comforting quilts and a touch of home to children hospitalized in the Children’s Miracle Network hospitals.  I believe this partnership has now ended as they exceeded their goal of donating 10,000 quilts to children;  AND

(2)   I have volunteered at a local quilt shop (LQS) for several different all-day events to crank out a bunch of quilts for the local chapter of Quilts for Kids.  When you work with your local chapter, the quilts that you make stay within your community. 

The national Quilts for Kids organization will send out a free quilt kit upon request.  Kits include the fabric for the top and backing of the quilt.  The pattern and official Quilts for Kids label is also included in the kit.  The quilt must be returned within 4-6 weeks.  The organization also requests that you include one or more quilts of your own when you return the finished quilt so they can reach more children in need of comfort.

The link to request a kit follows:

http://www.quiltsforkids.org/patterns/request/

The following photos include my two Downy quilts (the kit that was sent and the one made from my own fabric) and several tops that I have donated to my LQS for the all-day volunteer event for the local chapter of Quilts for Kids.