What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

After the question about a future quilt design, the responses let me know that many quilters have a supply of bonus/waste triangles sitting around. This did include me.

I pulled out leftovers from the Big Diehl Quilt and trimmed them down to 1-1/2″.

After trying a few options, I settled on a broken dishes block.

Thirty-six blocks later, I had a mini quilt.

It has been delivered to Jennifer, who loves mini quilts. So glad to have the triangles working and off to brighten someone’s day.

PS–I am working to share a variety of projects featuring ...

I have a bin of assorted 2-1/2″ x 4-1/2″ rectangles. They are handy for a leader-ender quilt. Yes, it is a little crazy, but someone will like it.

Here is THE BLOCK. This one finishes at 60″x72″.

Always fun to have a sneak peek at the backing.

It goes in the donation pile to brighten someone’s day.

Imagine my delight and surprise when I opened an email last week:

Greetings,

I took your quilting intensive about three or four years ago and, at the time, didn’t finish my project. A few months ago, I found it tucked away in my closet—and I’m happy to say I’ve finally completed it.

I’m not sure if this is something you’d be interested in, but I thought you might enjoy seeing the finished quilt.

That year a project option was to build a Potato Chip Block for a donation quilt, and additional ones (as many ...

 I put together a year's worth of 3.5" leaders and enders to create six quilts for donation. Each is 62" x 74".

Closer to the 2025 holiday season, I will take them to a local agency that helps children and adults with developmental disabilities.

When the call went out for donations to support my youth sewing class, Susan sent, not only fabric, but a quilt top that needed to be finished.

And now it is. Finishes at 45″ x 60″ Great use of stripy scraps. You can even see where some of the coins were pieced. Whimsy!

The back is a little wild, and I used scrappy binding from my stash.

It will bless the life of someone soon. Thanks to all of you for the generosity you offer the world. I am fortunate to be part of such a community.

I love it when you share!

Charlene made this striking version of Calico Rose.

Sandy built this 100-patch quilt. And I love that bedframe!

Mary Q. made the cheerful version of Stutter Steps. She was particularly pleased that the math worked out and it was 36″ square when finished.

Mary Q. also made her version of the 100-patch quilt. So much fun!

Cheryl made this stunning Film at Five for her niece. I love the way the center patches are pieced.

Mary made this astonishing version of Irish Stars and entered it into a quilt show.

Marilyn made this baby ...

Two interesting piles came to me in scrap bags: Binding. But not just any binding. A lot of binding. Both were 2-1/2″ wide. The pink was scrappy from a variety of fabrics. The gray was jelly roll strips stitched together.

They languished in my bindings box, constantly overlooked. But, they had potential. Ironed out, I cut 2-1/2″ squares. And pieced 8-patch blocks.

Joined together (and bound with the remaining pink binding) they will keep a baby warm.

I plan to make a larger similar quilt in the future. Great use for a jelly roll. Or a layer cake ...

Last weekend, my husband and I went to the Camp Kintail Crafter's Retreat--Christine, my usual accomplice at retreats, had other plans for the weekend so my husband agreed to go with me.  He did some reading and worked on weathering some model train cars.  We also went for several walks--it was a gorgeous sunny weekend. I finished off the last three blocks for this quilt.  I have not decided what to name it yet... The blocks are not put together yet as they have to be all trimmed to the exact same size first.   They are bigger than standard ...

Thursday was the last day. In the flurry of excitement I didn’t take as many pictures as I planned.

The students gained confidence in their sewing.

And had a consistent enough seam allowances to make a high precision project, like a mini wallet.

And go freestyle with their own ideas and create things like stuffed rubix cube.

A good time was had by all!

Thank you for your support and encouragement. The most common remark at the end was, “I need a sewing machine.”

Today (Wednesday) was the day of many baskets. Creating something three dimensional, and strong enough to hold many other things, was amazing for the children.

And hard. And worth it. They took great pride in sharing their work.

Even the Principal and Vice Principal stopped by to see the progress. They were impressed by the effort, focus and patience shown by the students. You can see some rough seam allowances and hand stitching, but two days ago most of these children had never sewn a stitch. They have many works in progress and a few big goals for tomorrow. We ...

Sorry I didn’t get a post up yesterday specifically about Day ONE of the Sewing Intensive. It was a good, but long, day. The first 2-3 hours are always the hardest. More than half of the students have never touched a sewing machine before. They are excited. They are 11-14 years old.

But, we got them started and a lot of coasters and bookmarks were made. Unfortunately, I didn’t even think about pictures until after the students headed home.

Today (May 20), I did better. The students were much calmer and more independent. Today was potholders and tissue ...

I have three active Works In Progress:

Wedding Quilt for Young Son (wedding in September)

Random scrap quilt–playing with low volume backgrounds.

Patriotic 6″ blocks–part of a seasonal quilt set in the works.

None are close to a finish, but they are closer than they were a week ago…