Fun is Packing a Box!

I finally finished up quilting a few more donation quilts for Beth in NJ and have enough kid-size quilts to fill a box.

These will be going to Wrap-a-Smile for children undergoing cleft lip/cleft palate surgery around the world.  These are the last two I quilted up for Beth:

panto is Cotton Candy

aren't those cats darling?!

panto is called Floral Garden

And I scored big when a friend told us about The Cotton Loft’s going-out-of-business sale on-line.  The prices are excellent for quilt shop quality fabric.  The hitch is that you take what you get.  If you order 5 yds and they only have 3 yds left, they will ship you the 3 yds.  I got most of everything I ordered (only ½ yd short on one fabric and 1 yd short on another).  It was kind of a surprise package, but they definitely warn you before you order – and they keep the website really current.  It has been going on for awhile, so I expect more shortages if you order now.  I got these for backings:

I sure feel sorry for those readers who live in the parts of the US/Canada that are being pounded by snow, sleet, ice and extremely cold conditions.  I hope you stay inside, safe and warm!  We will be getting rain today and tomorrow and then a big drop in the temperature.  When it gets in the 40s and 50s (4 -10 C), we freeze down here in Florida!  But meanwhile, things are blooming here:

 

azaleas

 

redbud trees

lots of ornamental grasses

Let’s hope the plants enjoy the rain that’s coming …

One More Quilted

I finished quilting the last of the three tops I received from a fellow member of the Sunshine On-line Quilt Guild.  This one was great fun to work with.  I have to confess a weakness for calico fabrics and this one was a showcase for them.  I did small meandering in the white backgrounds and a ring of hearts in the centers of the blocks.  That made the monkey wrenches pop out.  I wish I had a better camera to take pictures because the quilt is marvelous in real life!

 

Detail of calico



Detail of ring of hearts



Beth's Quilt

I have one more quilt to bind and then this box will go off to Wrap-a-Smile and then on to children having cleft lip/palate surgery.  Sometimes older children and even adults get facial repairs, so this quilt is sure to find the right person to snuggle up to it – it’s perfect for any age!

One More Done

I finished quilting and binding the second of Beth’s quilt tops.  This one has the fish with snorkels and masks that I posted about yesterday.  I had some fun with this one and tried a template and the chalk Pounce pad that I’ve never used … the template kind of reminded me of fish, tail-to-tail!

 

The center is meandered and the strip below the template has clamshells that can barely be seen here.  The outer borders have wave-like channel quilting.

It was fun to do this one.  I’ll have to take another detail shot that shows the binding – it is a yellow/white stripe that looks good with both sides.  Another photo in daylight tomorrow…

Today’s Quilting

Today’s quilting was actually Quilting!  A friend in the Sunshine Quilt On-line Guild sent me three of her finished tops to quilt and send on to Wrap-a-Smile.  These are such cute fabrics to work with … if I had seen them in the store I would have snatched them up, too.  This was the first one that I finished up today:

 

The fabric with those colorful jungle animals is just so soft.  And I had a confetti print for the backing that seemed just right.  It is just meandered in the middle panel and channel quilted in the borders.  Done!

And this is the next one up to quilt:

 

Aren’t those fish with snorkels and masks a hoot?!!  And I have multi-colored sanddollars for the backing that is just perfect.  I might finish another one tonight – I’m on a roll today!

Be sure to check out Beth’s Beachgirl’s Blog for some wonderful quilts and nature shots.  This photo of a barred owl posted last year is one of my absolute favorites:

http://bethspcgallery.blogspot.com/2012/12/barred-owl-cape-may-point-sate-park.html

  

Travelin’ Wednesday

I went on a mini-road trip today and had a great time.  I met a fellow Sunshine Quilter (we make children's quilts to donate) up north of Tampa at a new quilt shop, Sweet Darling Quilts, and then we went for lunch.

Oh, did I skip over the part where I went wild in the new quilt shop?!  I had taken a few fabric samples to match for my next venture and I found exactly what I had in mind.  I have some half-yard pieces of a fabric line that has strangely different colors (for me) and a really different design.  The design concept is computer circuits and robots and zigzags, so I’m going with the simple attic windows pattern.  I’m not showing it yet because it’ll look weird, I’m sure, with just the fabrics lined up  – here's hoping that it turns out!

Then I found their sale area and, of course, had to snap up a bargain.  That's just astute shopping, not splurging!

And then, *B* and I went for lunch and she brought her “show and tell”.  She had the neatest stuff – two scrappy baby quilts that were just darling.  I wish I'd remembered to take pictures of those.  And she brought me my Round Robin top that she was assigned to do the last round on.  I think it turned out great!  It’s going to one of those that will be hard to let go!

That's *B* holding my finished top

And lastly, I stopped by another quilt shop by me and gave this top to the lady that donated all of that fabric to me.

Not a 30s print backing, but it's what I had on hand

Her shop collects quilts for Project Linus and she’s going to donate it to them.  I wanted her to donate it in her name since she was kind enough to give me all of that fabric!  I loved this one, too.  I think I’m becoming attached to these quilts … so easy to do!

Rotoplast Does Great Work

The Rotoplast organization sends official photographers on their medical missions and sometimes, if we’re very lucky, we can see one of our donated quilts in action. This organization sends medical teams to countries around the world to aid children with cleft lips and cleft palates and we try to ensure that every child receiving surgery will also receive a comforting quilt to keep at the hospital and when they go home.

I donate quilts to Rotoplast thru the Sunshine Quilt Guild, facilitated by Terry Hoskins in Wells, Maine.  Our on-line guild welcomes new members to join us in this worthwhile cause.  Check us out at:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sunshine/

Recently, I was very fortunate to read about a little girl named Marina.  She and her family live in Guatemala and she and her father had to travel over 9 hours by bus so she could receive surgery.  They learned of Rotoplast and the medical mission through Marina’s school teacher, who saw an ad in the newspaper place by the Guatemala  hosts - the local Rotary Club of La Asuncion in Guatemala City.

The photographer of this particular mission was fantastic.  Marina is shown here in her pretty dress:

The indigenous people of Guatemala are descendents of the Mayans - and in rural towns and villages, they still often wear traditional clothing like Marina’s.  Their fabrics are handwoven from natural materials such as cotton or wool.  The blouses are called “huipils” and the skirts are called “cortes”.  The colors and designs have a variety of meanings, from designating their home village to their marital status.  It takes anywhere from one to three months to complete an outfit, working several hours a day.

Here is Marina going into surgery with a quilt that I made:

Here is the entire quilt:

Here are Marina and her Dad leaving the hospital grounds to return home after her succesful surgery – Bless your heart, Marina, and may good fortune follow you always:

All of the fascinating information above about the clothing was provided by the wonderful official photographer of the Guatemala mission.  My thanks go out to this talented individual for his evident compassion for the people of Guatemala.  To read his entire report, check out this link: http://rotaplast.typepad.com/missions/2012/03/guatemala-2012-meet-marina.html#comments

Wild Wednesday

Today’s wild things include what’s blooming in the area.  The first is Firecracker Bush down by a local school.  These bushes require a little more water than these appear to be getting, but we should be going into the rainy season soon.

And the water plants are blooming  This one might be a pickerel – I tried to look it up, but there are a bazillion types of water plants that grow in Florida.  Yep…I said a bazillion and I meant it!

And to finish it up:  What’s your philosophy of what constitutes a weed?  This one has flowers of such a pretty color - are you sure it's a weed?

And that brings me around to what I’ve been sewing.  One of the members of the Sunshine Quilt Guild has started a Round Robin.  That’s where one person makes a center block or medallion and sends it to another person who adds rows or blocks all around.  That second person sends it on to a third who does the same.  That third person then sends it back to the originator to finish it up.  We have two groups going, so I should get quilts-in-process or centers from three different quilts.  This will be a creative challenge for me!  This is my center that will be mailed out soon:

And I made up a few lottery blocks, but the fabric is so thin that I think I’ll just keep them and not send them in.  Maybe I can toughen them up enough to endure the hard life of a donation quilt if I back them with muslin.  We’ll see.

Second Sunday Sewing

Today (Sunday) is what my on-line quilt guild calls “Second Sunday Sewing”.  It’s just a designated day in the month when we might all pause and catch up on some charity sewing, especially if we haven’t had time to do any, and we chat on-line about what we’re working on.

On the Frame

I did some actual quilting today and yesterday.  My tops have been piling up (since I consider that the fun part) and I have needed to get some done for a long time.  I finished quilting these two, but don’t have the borders on yet.  I’m liking how they are turning out - simple meandering on both.

And on the nature front, I saw a Painted Bunting at our bird feeder!  I have seen these very colorful birds over on the east coast of Florida, but I don't remember having seen one here on the west coast.  The bird book actually has it on its cover since they are so cute.

Painted Bunting on the cover

The description says they are probably around here and will come to forested bird feeders like mine.  Maybe I finally hit on just the right birdseed that they like!  I usually have the kind of seed that cardinals like (and doves and squirrels and raccoons …), so I see lots of those, but this was special.

My photo is very bad since he was skittish and I had to shoot through the screen, but if you look closely, you can see his blue head and yellow back and red underbelly - very bright colors.  Too cool!

Back in the Swing of Things

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post that the leaves had not really begun to change much in NC when we visited, although I did pass this gorgeous tree on one of my walks (walk up the hill, down the hill, up the hill, down the hill, repeat until you drop!).

There was also this amazing twisted tree trunk:

It must have had a very tight vine growing around it for much of its life that has now died off and left the trunk unscathed.  Very architectural – what a survivor.

And there were a few wildflowers around the courses that I found very attractive … I’m going to break down and get that identification book on one of my book swap sites one of these days when I remember!  I really liked the orange flowers that looked sort of like lady slippers.

Today, I got back into the swing of sewing again.  One of the members of the Sunshine Quilt Guild (we quilt for children’s charities – see button on my sidebar) issued an “ugly fabric” challenge.  On request, she would send members a fat quarter of a certain “ugly fabric” …The challenge is to “beautify” this fabric by adding your own fabric and making any 12 ½ inch block(s) you desire.  Then you return the blocks to her and she will assemble them into quilts.  This is a close-up of the designated “ugly fabric”:

Personally, I liked the fabric and the muted colors in it, so I didn’t have any problem making up these blocks today.  I really like them!

PS  Happy Anniversary, Mr. Ed!

Oct 1^st is the 50^th Anniversary of the debut of the popular talking-horse show.  I’d sing the theme song, but it would probably be stuck in your mind for a week, so I won’t!

Another Top for Bev B

Continuing the memorial to Bev B – a dear friend and leader of the Sunshine Quilt Guild that passed away last year:

Yesterday, I finished up another top from blocks I was given that had been in Bev’s stash – Bev had the four big blocks and lots of little matching fabric 4-patch blocks - my job was to assemble what I had into a pleasing pattern and to find some similar or blendable (is that a word?) fabric for a border to bring it up to a good size for the kids that Sunshine supports.

The squares aren't as pink as they look here -
 they're more wine-colored.

Of course, I never remembered to take a block along when I was in a fabric store, so last week, when I saw this heart fabric, I thought I’d just wing-it.  The colors looked pretty close to what I remembered about the blocks and I thought the hearts theme would make it more kid-friendly.

This is the finished top – I think I did ok!  This one will go to WAS (see my sidebar).

A Big Kiss and Little Hugs from Bev B