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A friend handed me two layer cakes and asked me to make two quilts.

Sure! Any excuse is a good excuse, right?!

The first step was to decide how to honor the pink but at the same time make quilts that were large enough. And maybe not JUST pink.

So, I added green. One quilt got light green (this picture doesn’t capture the color well).

VERY mini-tutorial: Cut the 10″ squares in half to create bars 5″x10″. Add 5″ squares. This idea would work with any layer cake. Uses 33 10″ squares. Finished at 59″x71″.

And one ...

Maybe all of us fear leaving this world with loose ends left behind. I don’t think too much about my own loose ends, but I do seem to get the chance to help others rest maybe a little easier by tidying up some for them.

The several quilts I have finished for Susan Nixon are examples. Also the unfinished quilts by my Great Grandmother (SEE HERE and HERE).

Recently a neighbor contacted me about some fabric, batting and projects of her father’s deceased wife. Some of it wasn’t for me, but I knew people who could use ...

Time for a new round for the Many Hands Many Hearts block drive. This time I am sending 21 blocks.

They don’t have an official name yet, but I call them Friendship Bracelets. Cynthia does a great job with the tutorial, and it was fun sorting out both the low volume prints and bright scraps.

The quilt is simple–Half Square Triangle blocks alternating with Four Patch blocks.

It is the colors and the layout that make it special.

You can make the design with a couple of charm packs, or a combination of scraps cut into 5″ squares and 2-1/2″ squares (I cut them in pairs). The finished size is 36″.

It was a treasure hunt, searching for this scrap and that one to see what would really work. The finished quilt is in the donation pile for the children’s hospital.

Yes, I have made several Potato Chip Quilts over time, but they are perfect leader-ender quilts and use up common scraps–at 2-1/2″x4-1/2″, the bricks can be cut from jelly rolls, leftover binding, charm squares, etc.

And they are so cheerful.

At 72″x84″ it covers a twin bed with room to spare. This one will be donated to the children’s hospital.

This, like several quilts I am sharing right now, is the result of a piecing frenzy that went on here through the early spring. Nothing horrible was happening, exactly, but I was feeling “off,” and sometimes I quilt to cope. Some of the quilts are a little “off,” too.

Looking at it now, I wish I had used the border fabric in the corners of the 16-patch blocks. I think I would have had enough fabric to do enough blocks then…Ah, well. It is what it is. And it is finished.

These blocks are pieced with 2-1/2″ scraps ...

Susan is still leaving a mark on the quilting world. This small baby quilt started as 7 blocks from her. Seven blocks is not an easy number to turn into a quilt, unless you set it on point. That was the big insight for me.

I had two add a few more blocks and setting triangles and an outer border.

Matching the binding and the sashing on some of the blocks helps to tie it together.

I do hope it will find the right owner. Someone who will love the quilt, and who will love this country, as much as ...

Consider joining me, and many others, in making blocks for Many Hands Many Hearts.

These are a truncated version of the potato chip block. Fun use of scraps. Go together quickly.

Mine will be in the mail very soon–24 blocks.

No, this isn’t quilting, but this is a service project my students are working on. You need: gum box (The kind that contains 35 sticks of Extra gum), 2″x4″ labels, tiny notebook, colored pencils, pencil sharpener. (Links below)

We have collected the boxes for a while and have 50 tiny art kits ready to go. What I really wanted was to include post it notes, so the art could be given away and hung, but they wouldn’t fit.

The students wrote positive quotes on the label and included some art of their own.

They will go to ...

Spring Intensives are coming up in May. What are Intensives? At the school where I teach, the week before Christmas and the last week of school in the Spring, students don’t attend regular classes. (Honestly, what really gets done in classes at that time?)

Rather, each student selects from a menu of classes and attends that one course for the entire week. I am offering SEWING (AKA Non-Fiction Reading Comprehension) once again.

The students really seem to enjoy making a series of small projects, building skills along the way. We spend time on sewing machine basics, seam allowance, pressing ...

I had seen something similar (without a pattern I could identify) on Pinterest . It turned out to be a good idea that didn’t work.

I am very pleased with the solid flying geese blocks. But, the background…If it had all been the flowers, or the other bright print. But, mixing the two with some leftover scraps…Not successful.

That said, I am going to try again with a single print. The idea deserves a second chance.

ps–I have been calling it the Ugly Geese Quilt, which isn’t fair, because the geese aren’t ugly at all.

They are so much fun, you can’t make just one.

So, I made 27. I pulled an assortment of cool color 2-1/2″ squares and warm color 2-1/2″ squares from my precut scraps bin. The black and white borders came from the black print scraps bin. (Yes, I have a lot of bins).

Ta-dah, before I knew it there were blocks ready to mail off to  Many Hands and Many Hearts. You still have time to join in. They are accepting blocks until the end of February.

I learned about Many Hands and Many Hearts from Quilting JetGirl. She recently featured their current project: Black and White Framed Charity Blocks.

Yep, I’m on board. And cutting scraps. And gathering squares. I hope to have a good number (maybe between 20-30) to send in by the deadline (end of February).

If you have scraps, why don’t you join us? It is fun to have fun, but you have to know how…

In a scrap bag were small pieces of some super cute farm fabric–chickens, sunflowers and text. They aren’t the kind of prints where cutting them smaller would be a good solution. But they could be combined with something else.

I added the gold geometric print in the 4-1/2″ squares and built 4-patchesout of 2-1/2″ squares using coordinating fabrics.

I even had some matching sunflower fabric for the back.

It is even cuter in person, but this at least gives you an idea. Cheap and cheerful, but it will go in the donation pile for next year ...

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 ...

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.

In a hand-me-down bag there were these little bits. A 1-1/2″ strip with 6 1-1/2″ squares attached. Twenty of them. Such cute little bits. They wanted to be a quilt.

Adding 6″ stars in matching colors and some sashing fit the bill. I like the way it makes the stars shimmer with movement.

The polka dot binding was an unexpected decision, and the backing is a little odd, too. But they do work, and it all came from stash, so that’s a win.

Second Chance projects can make one dig deep to find a solution. I do ...

Spring Intensives are coming up in May. What are Intensives? At the school where I teach, the week before Christmas and the last week of school in the Spring, students don’t attend regular classes. (Honestly, what really gets done in classes at that time?) Rather, each student selects from a menu of classes and attends that one course for the entire week. After the success of last year, I am offering SEWING once again. How does an English Teacher get to teach sewing. Well, it is officially “Non-Fiction Reading Comprehension.” Doesn’t that sound like sewing to you?!

If ...

This is becoming a go-to pattern for baby quilts. (It just occurred to me that it could be done with two charm packs. I may have to try that soon.)

I found the yellow floral print during my cleaning just before the new year. There was only a little, but it seemed a shame to throw it away. 

I love the bright and happy results.

The plan is to donate it to the local children’s hospital. Ta-dah!

The Half Square Triangles were cutoffs from a quilt I built several years ago.

I wasn’t sure what to do with them, until the perfect backing showed up in a thrift store haul. Yep, I’ll pay $2.99 for that!

I wanted to connect the mostly navy front with the back–putting a few squares of the backing in the front helped.

Also, intentionally visible, bright pink quilting. It isn’t my usual look, but it really ties the quilt together.

The quilt finished at 34″ x 38″. It is planned as a donation quilt. It will find ...