Charity Baby Quilt in Blue and Pink

Each year I make a list of 12 projects I want to do that year. The hope is to do one a month, though reality is that I have to try and get as many done before school gets out because that tends to be my slower time in my business. I also want to quilt one charity quilt each month. On my list I prioritized the first 5 or 6 and got 4 ready before New Year’s Eve. January first rolled around and instead of grabbing the most important one, I grabbed one I could finish quickly. And . (That quilt top will be posted when I finish quilting it next year). Then, January second I grabbed a small charity quilt and whipped that out and got that done. again. I love marking things of my list!

 

Charity Wedding Quilt

A few days before last Christmas, my daughter, Monica, called and asked if I had an unspoken-for charity quilt lying around that we could give a family in need near her. Unfortunately I had just had the last of my large charity quilts go to homes just days before. However, I had this quilt top, found by Elizabeth and given to me by Gail. I figured if a border were added we could make it a queen size instead of double, so Emerald took fabric given to me by Cynthia, enlarged the front and make a back.

I quilted it with my Baroque Filigree pantograph using white Glide thread. Scrappy binding. A real group effort to help a Colombian couple expecting a baby who had nothing to stay warm at night. We are sending it with one of the baby quilts I made this year.

 

Antique Crazy Quilt

This antique/vintage crazy quilt in silks on a muslin foundation, was found my by client. She wanted it minimally quilted in a way that wouldn’t detract from the embroidery.

With invisible thread (Essence) I quilted 1/2” from the seams. It was a lot of stops and starts, but I think it was worth it.

 

Mary Ellen's Memory Star Quilt

This is a memory quilt made by Mary Ellen, the president of my quilt guild. Each of those stars are pieced from clothing of a loved one and Mary Ellen really wanted to finish it in time for Christmas, so I pushed through to get it back to her by December 15th so she’d have time to bind it.

I quilted it with cream Glide thread and quilted my Forever Filigree pantograph on it. I think it turned out great.

 

Maureen's Geometric Squares Wedding Ring Quilt

This quilt was made by Maureen, I think for a niece’s wedding.

I quilted it with a pantograph from Urban Elementz called “Easy Orange Peel” in white Glide thread (Glide 60 on the back).

 

Hexagon I-Spy Quilt

This fun I-Spy quilt I made to use at the preschool I teach at. We look for colors, holiday designs and will eventually more specific things. I bought a partially started quilt kit at our guild auction. Someone had cut out about 2/3 of the hexagons and triangles to make a small quilt, but I wanted it to be big enough to be useful and more than just I-spy game way.

 

I quilted it with invisible Essence thread on the top and Glide white thread on the back, stitching in the ditch and stitching across the hexagons like a large asterisk.

Refugee Charity Quilt Tied by Teenage Young Women

Here is the second quilt the young women (teen girls) and their leaders finished for a refugee. I made the top from precut fabrics on the free table at my quilt guild and the girls tied it. It was delivered last December to a family that had just arrived in the states.

Refugee Charity Turning 20 Quilt Quilted by Teenage Young Women

A friend, and the leader of the teenage girls youth group at my church, asked if I would be willing to teach the girls quilting. After some discussion of what aspect they wanted to learn (she said to tie a quilt to donate to some Afghan refugees), I offered to make 2 quilt tops and backs. We could then set up a quilt for tying in the living room and another on my longarm and the girls and their leaders could finish two quilts.

This is the quilt they quilted with wavy lines. It is quilted in Mocha Glide thread. May I just say I love my workhorse of a machine that can handle newbies quilting on it.

 

Cynthia's Tula Sunrise English Paper Piecing (EPP) Quilt

Cynthia made this beautiful Tula Sunrise quilt using the EPP (English Paper Piecing) method. Which means it's all hand pieced!

She wanted the same thread as last quilt which was Glide Essence (invisible) on the top and light pink MicroQuilter on the back.

Custom quilting, but not too dense. It's almost easier to see the quilting on the back than the close up shots.

But I give them to you anyway. It turned out really well.

Star Wars Empire Strikes Back Sleeping Bag Quilt - Reversible Antique Car Comforter

My sister, Emerald, made this quilt for a friend of a friend’s husband. Growing up, he had a bed cover with antique cars and an Empire Strikes Back sleeping bag that he loved to snuggle under, and though they were worn to nearly thread bear rags, he didn’t want them gotten rid of. It took untold hours to plan and over 80 hours to put together.

Realize that the polyester fabric of the Star Wars sleeping bag was super thin and slippery to work with, so cutting it into the squares on point was a tricky. She had to fix it to the living room floor, mark the ends of each line and then use several large rulers and a chalk line (the kind used in woodworking), to snap the cutting lines on the fabric.

Each square (which didn’t want to keep its shape) was then adhered to white cotton fabric. And that was just the beginning and only one side. The other side she fussy-cut around the cars, added coordinating colors and made it patchwork-y, preserving as much of the original bed cover as she could.

I had the easy part of quilting it with white Glide thread using the Contempo pantograph pattern by Urban Elementz and then binding it.