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.