What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

      A while ago, I bought some batiks on Etsy that were very reasonable. I think they were Boundless. I bought a layer cake and some jelly rolls. The jelly rolls made an Upstairs, Downstairs and I sewed the layer cake to kind of grunge white 10" squares. I made HSTs by sewing around al 4 sides, and then cutting diagonally twice. The trimming is the long part, but I used the Clearly Perfect slotted trimmer ruler and I had to cut only 2 sides. I showed the layout before. I was able to web it during the fall quilt retreat ...

      Finally, after a lot of sweat and tears, six kids quilts are quilted, bound and labelled, ready to go to my friend. One more is at the longarmers and the binding is ready. Fronts and backs. The first finish is on the previous post, so 5 are here.

      I was only able to quilt one of the kids quilts because I had to keep sewing backing, bindings and quilt and I have not been able to do two things at the same time. This quilt seems appropriate to show today as the Buffalo Bills won their game, which is big news in this city; doesn't matter to me. The whole mood of the city rests on the team's performance which is really not an ideal situation, especially if you know Buffalo's history.

      As promised, here are the rest of the kids quilt tops. I previously showed 1 and 2. Here are 5-7. As I am typing this, 1 through 6 are quilted and bound. Number 7 is at my friends who are the longarmers. The done quilts are going one at a time through the washer.
     Miles of stitching and pressing. The big squares are 5" and the small ones 2.5" unfinished. Borders are 2.5 and 3.5 unfinished. Choosing that many borders and making all those backs and bindings has drained the brain for the time being which is ...

    This is another wonderful comfort quilt top gifted to me by Quiltdivajulie. I did some rearranging, adding the skinny dividing strips. There was enough fabric left that she sent so I was able to put a skinny light border on, holding all those HST seams closed. Here is the process.    
    When it came time to quilt, I again printed a B&W photo and put it in a sheet protector to figure out the quilting. I had a hard time because there is not a lot of regular repeats. I ended up quilting diagonals in the corners, a center repeating ...

    A great thing about making comfort quilts a mainstay effort is that other people help me at times, totally unsolicited. In this case, my friend Elizabeth gifted me this quilt all quilted she made so I could finish quilting my quilts for the guild quilt show in October. They are done.     
    I did get a request from a friend for her friend, Barb, who is undergoing cancer treatment again. She is a former elementary principal. I thought the colors and leaves were perfect for her and calming. After sewing on a label, sewing a pocket on the bag (orphan block ...

     Years ago, Craftsy used to have great deals on kit closeouts. I don't usually buy kits, but sometimes the price with fabric was too good to pass up.  One kit had batiks that seemed just to not jell together, so after I made the 16 patch blocks, it sat in a bag.


    Then I got the bright idea to make 2 quilts and add borders to make them a good size. The orange and gray one has been made and is waiting for someplace to call home. The more pastel one has been a top, but when I got ...

      Not the home Ludic came from (QuiltDiva Julie), but its forever home to do its work. The quilt package went to a woman with ovarian cancer that is the wife of a friend's coworker. I don't know her, but honored the request for comfort. I trust it made the mark like all great quilts do.
     I added 2 borders to it to make it a bit larger. When I was searching for binding fabric, the resident quality control inspector tested it out.

     Oh boy, is this is an oldie WIP. I pulled it out of the bag to web and remembered that recently I found leftover HSTs from this layout and it wasn't enough to make another decent sized quilt. I dug those out and added them to the webbed, sewn top. I was able to add a top row, two bottom rows and two side columns. This made it a large sized comfort quilt (72" x 84"). I used to make comfort quilts under 70"  long. Yes, it takes less fabric and time, but really, a comfort quilt to really ...

     No, not horses like Alicia , but fabric horses on a quilt. The Horses Quilt was delivered to its girl Wednesday and her mom reported she was cuddled in it although we have a heat advisory. The quilt was the pattern, Crown and Anchor, by Doug Leko and the fabric line was by Ann Lauer, Horsin' Around. I blogged about the start here. It was not an easy or simple quilt to make. It was fun to quilt. I used Glide thread for the top and Superior Omni for the bobbin. I had major tension issues the last part of the ...

    Despite all the goings on here, I was able to get the Big Chevron Star to its home. My daughter's roomate from college has a little girl that has big medical issues from birth, especially heart problems. She has been back and forth to Boston, MA from Rochester, NY too many times. She was scheduled to go again, and I thought of her older sister who was going to stay with grandma and grandma again while the little one was in the hospital. I asked her mom what big sister liked and she said anything and the color blue ...

      When I asked a mom to tell me what her daughter liked so I could make her a comfort quilt, she said, "Purple, Black, and Horses." Yikes, I did not have any of those fabrics. I am sure Alycia would know what to do about the horses, but I started browsing fabrics. I have been supporting Quilted Twins because of their dedication to helping Ukranian refugees, both with quilts from the US and supplies from Becky in Poland. So, I started with them and found a line of fabric by Ann Lauer called Horsin' Around. I admit that I am ...

      A little while back, Quiltdiva Julie sent me some tops to finish as comfort quilts. As soon as one gets finished, a request comes in.

A great combo

This past weekend was no exception. I finished Blithe, a man from my cardiac rehab group, who had a heart transplant 12 years ago, received a kidney last week at the Cleveland Clinic. They let him come home to Buffalo for the weekend, and then he had to go back on Monday.
     I had just finished quilting Blithe and binding it. I quickly scrambled to make a bag, card and wash the ...

      I love to sew. Sew quilts. I hate to write, it is like giving blood. I have all kinds of photos taken, labelled and ready to post, but it is tough for me to do.
     So, let me start with two quilt finishes. They are comfort quilts and not claimed yet. The first has blocks of 30s fabric that were given to me about half done.  I thought about putting them on point and adding lots of neutrals- cream, white and then a muted periwinkle blue. I wanted it longer, so I added the white strip top and bottom. The ...

      Yesterday, I finished a smallish comfort quilt that I put together from some small squares of 30s fabric someone donated to me. There was not enough squares for a big quilt, so I set the blocks on point with cream squares between them and white triangle for the row endings. I had this great periwinkle print I had bought to use as a border in my stash. I wanted it longer since it will be a comfort quilt, so I added the cream with tiny flowers, which are exactly the same color as the border. Here is the original post ...

      During the big quarantine, I did the quilt along with Gudrun Erla on Elvira. I thought it was a fun quilt and made a nice large one to give as a comfort quilt. It was pretty bold from fat quarters I had brought together as bright patterns.
     I found out that a secretary that worked at my last school had a rough summer battling a long running blood cancer disease. She always loved bold, lots of color. The quilt reminds me of her. I messaged her on Facebook to see if she would like it. I sent her the link ...

Amanda’s Comfort Quilt, A Fidget Quilt for DementiaMaking a child-like activity quilt for my...

      The quilting had to be done quickly although the top was done awhile ago. I received a referral for a woman undergoing chemo and right after I dried up all the art show stuff, I started quilting the floral 2 by 4. So far, this is the third quilt I have made with this pattern. It uses strips and is so adaptable to any style of fabric. I believe the backing came from a donation by Gwen.
     I did a different type of quilting in each row the long way. I figure if you are sitting for hours during treatment ...

      One of the hardest things this past year has been the lack of being with friends and family. Fear was mass communicated to keep us "safe" and locked down. People have not fared real well with this strongarmed message. Some have cut off all connections, watch news nonstop and review the numbers every day. I feel I lost them. Others will not get together even outdoors, distanced. 

     I am grateful I have this blog to communicate with dear people that I have not met or met briefly and they are willing to keep in touch. I have sent many cards ...

      The requests for Comfort Quilts has not slowed. Cancer and illness (non-COVID) are too much with us. This Disappearing Hourglass (MSQC pattern) needed a border to make it a smidge bigger. I had a piece of yardage that never went with anything, but is perfect for the backing. I quilted it, just changing the center motif in each block row. It actually went flawlessly on the longarm. Sometime, I have to write a post on all my trevails and adaptations to make things work on the longarm.

All quilted, just need to decide binding

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Detail of quilting

Final with ...