Two more quankets for foster kids

Papa Bear ~ December 2015

 
Marigolds ~ November 2015
 
I recently read a quilter’s comment that there are “so many quilts to try and so little time“, which I can totally relate to! As 2015 winds down to an end, I am pleased to have donated a total of 19 quilts to foster kids this year, and each done in a different pattern ;)

Marigolds and Papa Bear mark my 56th and 57th charity quilts since beginning on this journey just over three years ago. My ultimate hope is to inspire other quilters to donate to foster kids, since in many instances, these kids have it rough and probably need a little extra love.

Quankets for foster kids

Flower Power
August 2015


Country Fair
September 2015


Don’t Fence Me In
September 2015


Virgie’s Wagga Rug
November 2015

Here are four more quankets that I donated to foster kids over the past few months.

In the U.S., there are over 463,000 children living without permanent families in the foster care system. This is a staggering number. Since beginning my Love Hugs project three years ago, I have donated 55 quilts to my county's Child Protective Services. The quilts are given to kids as they enter the foster care system, since a lot of these kids are literally pulled from their homes with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. I hope that the kids that receive one of my quilts feels comforted in knowing that they are loved by someone that doesn't even know them.

If you are a quilter looking for a new outlet for donating your charitable quilts, I hope that you will consider donating to your local child protective services agency.

Remembrance Quilt

I made this quilt for a friend from her late husband's shirts.  He loved his Harley and had many Harley Davidson shirts.   I used several of the Harley emblems in the block centers.

 He passed away earlier this year from complications from a fall, and leaves his beautiful widow.  I hope she wraps up in his shirts and rests her mind on his love and their good memories.

Two Quilts

These two are going to a reservation in Northern Minnesota, where they have an annual baby shower.

The farm scene quilt was a sample that I purchased in a quilt shop and then finished.

-Carol E.

Two more quilts for foster kids

Don Diego
June 2015

Don Diego is the 50th donation quilt I have made since I started on this path over 2 years ago. I typically like to finish one girl and one boy quilt and then drop them off at the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services. With the completion of Mr. Blue Sky, Don Diego was donated in July 2015.



Mr. Blue Sky
July 2015

The center section is based off of a standard 16-patch block. I played with the color saturation, making half of each block light blue and half dark blue, with the color change occurring on the diagonal. I also played around with the arrangement of the blocks. It was amazing to see how with a simple rotation of each block, the entire quilt shifted to read either as light or dark blue. I preferred it “reading” as dark blue, and I think it will be perfect for a boy.

For a Friend's New Granddaughter

On May 23 I got a letter from my friend, telling me that her daughter was due to have a baby in early June. Later in the evening on May 23 I got an e-mail saying that the baby had been born on May 22. So I sat right down and made her a quilt. Will put it in the mail soon.

--Carol E.

Around the Table

Around the Table
June 2015

This is a framed squares quilt pattern. The center of each square came from a donation I received of a book of tablecloth samples, which is partly the inspiration for the name. As I sat sewing this quilt, I thought a lot about the many fond memories I have of gatherings around a table: Birthday celebrations, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner with family and friends; times spent when my two girls were little playing games at the table and now with them and their families playing games around the table! The name Around the Table just seemed right for this one.

I donated this quilt to Diana Jasany’s Girl Scout Gold Award project. You can follow Diana’s journey on her Facebook page.

Eeek

Eeek
May 2015

This is a log cabin quilt. To understand the name I chose, you may need to zoom in on the picture to see the actual fabric – I think it’s perfect for a boy’s quilt!

I donated this quilt visa vie the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge 2015. I chose to donate it to Nita who blogs at Because You Matter since her goals and focus are similar to mine: to make and give a quilt to a person who is having a hard time and would be comforted by a handmade quilt to snuggle up in, particularly children in foster care.

Flamingo Floyd

Flamingo Floyd
May 2015

This quilt was inspired by Doris Brunnette’s (madebyabrunnette.com) Diamond Dust quilt which won 1st place at the Modern Quilt Guild’s QuiltCon 2015.

As someone who loves symmetry – and started quilting long before quilts with a modern aesthetic began gaining momentum in the early 2000’s – doing an asymmetrical quilt is quite a step outside of the proverbial box for me! While Doris’ design uses more solid color and negative space, I don’t have many “pieces of the past” fabrics that are solid colors. The white/black fabric was from Granny, while the flamingo fabric was a donation fabric.

I donated this quilt visa vie the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge 2015. I chose to donate it to Nita who blogs at Because You Matter since her goals and focus are similar to mine: to make and give a quilt to a person who is having a hard time and would be comforted by a handmade quilt to snuggle up in, particularly children in foster care.

Picnic Puppies and Poppies

Picnic Puppies
April 2015
I want to extend a big thank you to the kind folks affiliated with Center Veterinary Clinic in Mira Mesa (San Diego) for their fabric donations! In addition to their donated fabrics, I used scrap fabrics to create this Jean Ann Wright, Southern Comfort patterned quilt.


Poppies
April 2015
The lavender fabric used in my Poppies quilt has now made its way into 4 charity quilts, including: Skypilots, Lavender Ladies and Sassy Squares.

I donated these two quilts to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in April 2015.

Quilts by a Group

These are community service quilts made by my local guild. They are completed or almost completed. The red/blue and yellow quilts were our 2014 blocks, and now in 2015 we are doing nine-patches, so I have only one of those samples so far. They are going to a variety of local and global donation sites.

--Carol E.

Lumberjack Patches

Lumberjack Patches
March 2015

This is Allison Harris’ (Cluck Cluck Sew) Off Track quilt design. I donated this quilt to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in March 2015, along with my recent Calm Reflection quilt.

Calm Reflection

Calm Reflection
March 2015

I love efficiency. And, this block is all about that! I came across the instructions for this block pattern on wont-to-be quilter’s blog, and was intrigued by its construction process. When I finally got time to dedicate to quilting, this was pretty quick to complete.

The majority of fabrics I use in my quilts are leftovers and scraps. For this one, the pink and blue flower fabric is very 1980’ish and it had been a challenge trying to use it without making the quilt feel too dated. The blue fabric was also a challenge, as it is very thin and has a lot of stretch to it. But, the two were a perfect complement to one another, as the blue fabric has a ‘burn-out’ design of flowers, almost identical to the pink and blue flower fabric. The combination reminded me of reflections on water.

I hope you visit my blog at jeanswenson.org to see all the other scrappy quilts I have donated to foster kids.

Another Panel One

I don't know where she finds them, but my friend gave me another of the cutest panels.  This one is for our church group, St Anne's Sewdality.  We make baby quilts for low income, first time mothers and our parishioners.   I loved doing FMQ on it and around the dinos. Then another member took it home to further tie it to the back - that's what those orange dots are if you look closely.  Some lucky little one is going to be getting it this month and making some Mom very happy.

Remembrance Quilt

Hi!  After finding this great blog to display our charity quilts, I asked to be included.  I have a ministry to widows and those who have lost loved ones.  I will make them a quilt from their loved one's shirts at no cost.  I think I get the bigger blessing from it.  Below are a few pictures of ones I've made. The first was for a surviving twin, made from her sister's nurse scrubs. I used a free pattern called Bricks and Stepping Stones found on the Quiltville blog

The next one was for a widow married for 73 years. I made up the pattern after seeing many similar quilt patterns.

 This one was made for a widow whose husband died of cancer.  This pattern is called Strip Twist and also is free from the Quiltville blog.

I hope these have inspired you to get busy using your creative abilities to do something kind for someone else!  You can visit me sometime at my blog Around The Blocks.

Happy Quilting!  - Rachel H.

A Tisket a Tasket

A Tisket a Tasket
January 2015

While this is a basket weave pattern, the color choice and placement makes it look more like a maze to me! Making quilts from predominately scraps can be a challenge. I might start with a handful of fabrics I want to use, do my calculations, but somewhere along the way in the process, I sometimes run short and need to move to plan B. As with life, it’s always good to have a plan B, and it doesn’t hurt to have a plan C and D too!

My "handful of fabric" that I started with was the plaid fabric in the basket part of the pattern, which was a donation fabric. My "plan A" was that it would be 2.5" wide like everything else, but I didn't have enough. So, I moved to "plan B" and tried putting it as the center band in the weave where the green is, but it changed the dynamics of the colors too much. So, I settled with "plan C", and cut the plaid strips in half, finishing them at 1" sewn strips, which gave me enough. The fabric I used for the  border and edge binding were also scrap fabrics, while the yellow was new.

I donated this quilt and my Red Sky at Night quilt to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in January 2015.

Red Sky at Night

Red Sky at Night
January 2015

The colors of this quilt reminded me of sailing, and every sailor’s delight – a red sky at night! The picture below was taken on one of my (many) days out sailing.

The fabric I used for the sashing, border and edge binding were from my never-ending collection of scraps, while the rest were new fabrics.
I am finishing up one more quilt, and then this one and it will be off to the the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services for foster kids.

Love Hugs | by Pieces of the Past

All for Give-Away

I made and quilted five of these.
One was made by a friend, and I quilted it.
Two were made and quilted by another friend.

These are going to a variety of places, both locally and globally. I had a lot of fun photographing them on this fence in a historical part of my neighborhood.

--Carol E.

One for the Neonatal Department

Here's a one block quilt I designed for our guild to make neonatal quilts (one of our community service projects):

The pattern calls for 3 fabrics, but the first raid of my stash only found enough with 4.  You can go here to see the pattern.  Took me only 4 hours to make.

Pelé’s Bandeira

Pelé’s Bandeira
January 12, 2015

I appreciate all my followers in Brazil, who make up almost half of those that follow my blog! Their support inspired me to make this quilt that I am calling Pelé’s Bandeira. For my followers that are English speakers, bandeira means flag in Portuguese. If you are familiar with the Flag of Brazil, you might notice some resemblances.

This is a bordered diamonds quilt pattern. The fabrics used for the diamonds were all donations and leftovers from my past projects. The dark blue border fabric was a remnant piece that I purchased, before I had any plans of making this particular quilt. When I began conceptualizing this design, the remnant piece was the ideal fabric for the border, as the design on the fabric is of constellations – a perfect addition to this quilt!

I donated this quilt to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in January 2015.

See the other 38 quilts I have donated to foster kids at my personal blog, Love Hugs by Pieces of the Past.