100 Quilts for Kids!!!

hey, remember this quilt?



Kate at Swim Bike Quilt is coordinating a wonderful project called 100 Quilts for Kids, and she's asking folks to donate quilts to charities in their communities.

i'm donating the Bookworm quilt to an awesome local group called Caring Hearts, who provide handmade quilts/afghans and clothing to children in crisis. i volunteered with them a few years ago, so i know how many organizations they help. they send handmade goods to women's shelters, transition houses, community new baby groups, low income schools, women's centres, the children who witness violence program, and so much more. as they've posted on their website, they're no longer a registered society, but they're still helping as many people as they can. the group is primarily made up of senior citizens who like to knit, sew and crochet, but aren't necessarily able to sit on a board of directors, so it makes sense that they're scaling back that aspect of the organization and focusing on the important stuff.

in addition to the Bookworm quilt, i'm also donating these quilts for 100 Quilts for kids. i've never blogged these, and i won't go into a lot of detail now, because i do plan on blogging them, but i made them earlier this year, and have been planning on donating them somewhere before Christmas.





the LQS near me was running a project collecting quilts for charity back in August and September, so i donated the argyle version then. they collected almost 100 quilts! because there were so many collected, they split them up between charities - my quilt went to one of the following - Juvenile Diabetes Association, Surrey Mission, Surrey Christmas Bureau, and to raise money for cancer (not sure which charity that's through). some of the larger, fancier quilts are going to charities that are going to raffle them off, but i think that the smaller kid's quilts like mine are going directly to kids in our community.

i'm donating the lime and blue quilt to Caring Hearts as well, i'm dropping them off tomorrow.



do you make charity quilts? did you contribute to the 100 Quilts for Kids project this year? where do you like to donate quilts to?

Blocks or Strips?

which do you prefer? are most of your quilts block based, or are they an overall design?

i'm all about the strip piecing, so i don't generally make a lot of blocks. i made the wonky stars baby quilt last year (i've heard them called maverick stars, but honestly sarah palin has ruined that word for me!) and i've plotted out a few block based designs that i'll get around to eventually, and i've made quilts where the design is made up of basic blocks, like the Fat Quarterly quiltalong, my green Kona baby quilt, or my in-progress bow tie quilt, but none that make the blocks the focus, like a log cabin, or a churn dash, or something like that.

i'm completely swooning over Swoon, and i'm determined to make a log cabin quilt at some point, but my attention span works against me in regards to a full quilt made up of obvious blocks.


that's why guild challenges and bees are so awesome! i can make blocks, which are fun, but i only have to make one or two of each design, so i don't get bored. and i get to see if i enjoy that particular block, before committing to an entire quilt with it. it's perfect!


i've been working on blocks off and on for the past few weeks, catching up on a guild challenge, and working on bee blocks.

the June challenge for VMQG was a modification of a Bottled Rainbows block. i was super excited, because i'd really wanted to do that quilt-a-long, but i was too busy at the time. we changed it up slightly, so that the fabric requirements were a bit more practical, but otherwise, it's exactly the same.



the quilt-a-long instructions gave several options for how the ticker tape pieces were sewn down, but since we'll be making guild quilts out of the challenge blocks, we (or rather, Paul, our challenge coordinator extraordinaire!) decided to keep it consistent and have everyone zigzag their blocks.



have i ever mentioned how much i dislike zigzag? ha! i've seen it making a bit of a comeback in the last year or so, but i still haven't changed my mind. to me it feels cheap. i think it looks homemade, but not in a lovely handmade kind of way, more in a "i can't sew straight, but it's less obvious if it's not a straight stitch" kind of way! i don't mind satin stitch, it can look really polished when it's well done, but i'm definitely not a fan of zigzag!



i do like how my blocks turned out, but i'm contemplating making more of them for myself, and i definitely won't be zigzagging them.



despite how excited i was, i still didn't finish them until just before the august meeting. they require prep work before you can start the fun part, and i've realized that i'm not good with that sort of thing!



in addition to the guild challenge blocks, i mentioned in my WIP Wednesday post that Sarah of {So Sarah Sews} is organizing a casual charity bee, specifically for two teenage sisters who are in the foster system. the blocks are all pink, purple and white, and she's chosen two blocks to do, one for each sister. folks are posting their blocks in the flickr group as they finish them, and they're really looking fantastic!



i made two of each block, though i could quite easily have continued making them, especially the garden fence block by Hyacinth Quilt Designs. so simple and pretty!



luckily, i'd just picked up some purple and pink for my bowtie blocks, after realizing how little selection my stash had, especially in purple.



we're staying away from childish prints, because the girls are young teenagers. it's one thing when you're an adult, then you can love childish things unabashedly (or at lest, you should be able to!), but when you're 13 and trying to feel grown up, it's a whole different story!



the instructions for the star block came from a Moda Bakeshop pattern, the Charming Stars Quilt, designed by Stefanie from Little Lady Patchwork.


now that those are done, i can focus entirely on my improv block for Unscripted Bee! i've been working away on it, and i'm hoping to get it finished Monday or Tuesday of this week.


and in addition to the bee blocks, i also came across Block Lotto the other day, which sounds super fun. what do you think? have you ever participated? this month's african violet block could be really funky, if done right!

Queensland Flood Relief Update

i'm behind in posting this, but i wanted to say thank you to everyone who blogged about the Queensland Flood Relief, especially about my pillow, and to everyone who bid on items, especially my pillow! and a huge amount of thanks needs to go to toni at make it perfect, along with the others who helped her out!

the blogging community raised an incredible, staggering amount!

$99,089!!!!

that is INCREDIBLE!!

Queensland Flood Appeal Auction

This auction is for a quilted pillow cover made of solid teal linen and cotton from Moda’s new line “Hoopla”. The cover is sized to fit a 16”x16” pillow snugly, it’s about 15” square.

The pillow shows two rows of bunting across the pillow, my very first paperpiecing design. The back is solid teal, with the exception of a short row of bunting in the bottom right corner. These bunting flags have been used as the quilt label, and one has my name and country machine embroidered on it, and the other states “Queensland Flood Relief Jan 2011”. There is a lapped zipper across the back of the pillow. The inside of the pillow is all tidy, with the outside edges serged to reduce ravelling, and all the patchwork edges hidden by an extra layer of fabric. For more info and pictures of the pillow cover, please see the blog post i made about it. Feel free to comment on that post even if you aren't bidding!

The pillow form is NOT included, because it’ll cost more to ship than it would to buy a pillow form. it's silly, i know.

Bidding will start at $30 (let’s say Australian to keep it simple). If you need to calculate the difference between Australian dollars and your currency, xe.com is quick and easy to use, but right now Canadian, US and Australian dollars are practically at par anyway.


You place your bid by leaving a comment on this blog post with your bid amount and email address. Please make sure that your bid is higher than the previous bidder. You might want to refresh your page after you comment, in case you posted at the same time as someone else.

Your bid must be in whole dollar increments.

This auction is open to EVERYONE, though an extra charge will apply if shipping is over $10 - $12 cdn (ie, if you want priority shipping, etc). If you happen to be local (Vancouver, Lower Mainland), we can arrange a meet up instead.



The auction begins NOW and will END at midnight PST on Monday 24th January 2011.

I will contact the winner via e-mail. If you do not have your e-mail address in your blogger profile, you MUST have it in your comment. You will pay the winning amount directly to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal (they take international credit cards, but the charge is in Australian dollars, hence the bidding in Australian dollars) and forward me the proof of payment that they e-mail you or a jpg of the screenshot. If there is a shipping charge, you will paypal that to me. If payment is not completed within 24 hours, I will move to the bid below. That’ll suck, for me, but especially for the Flood Relief, since that bid will be lower. So please don’t suck, kay?!

Once payment is made, I will mail the pillow off to you via Canada Post.

Thank you for participating and happy bidding! Don't forget to to check out the master list at make it perfect, there are so many amazing things being auctioned off, and some awesome raffles too!

hoopla bunting pillow!

PLEASE BID ON THE AUCTION POST, WHICH CAN BE FOUND HERE


a little while ago i ordered some charm packs from one of my favourite etsy shops. they're all Moda, and most of them were lines that are just now coming out in yardage. i ordered Modern Workshop, Central Park, Hideaway and Hoopla, and i love them! (especially Hideaway, since i'm obsessed with cuckoo clocks!)

i really wanted to make something fun with them, but they're just 5"x5" squares... i searched around looking at patterns, but most of them required a charm pack PLUS a jelly roll or something, or were for things that are pretty, but so not usable (how do people keep their tables clear enough for runners anyway?!). i thought about a pillow, but i couldn't decide on a design. all of my favourite types of squares, like log cabins, need longer strips...

i hemmed and hawed a bit, reluctant to cut into the squares without the perfect project, and then i ran across the Queensland Flood Appeal that Toni at Make It Perfect is organizing, and i knew it was the perfect reason to use some of my fancy new fabric.

at the same times, i ran across another blog that inspired me to think about buntings (i'll post about that blog later), and i realized that bunting flags were the perfect use for charm squares. i decided to use Hoopla, since it has a lot of small prints that are cute regardless of direction. i found linen in the most amazing shade of teal, and knew it was perfect for the background.

and then, because i've been slightly obsessed with paper piecing patterns lately, i somehow decided that i should paper piece the pillow, and that this would be the perfect time to draft my very first paper piecing design. you know - when i'm on a deadline, and using precious fabric that i can't get more of immediately. i'm clever like that, you know.

and so, the epic paper pieced pillow that took longer than some quilts emerged!



i'm so in love with it. i was giddy every time i looked at it for the first few days (and then the giddiness turned to panic when i realized i was running out of time!).



i learned a few good lessons about paperpiecing while working on this project, a few that i was able to fix as i went along, and one that i wasn't, but it's okay. (i wish i hadn't made the patterns all the same size - if i'd split the top half less evenly, the centre flag wouldn't have a seam through it)



i thought about using plain white kona for the bunting string, but that seemed rather blah. the hoopla line contains a tiny white on white dot,and luckily the charm pack had two of them. i cut them into 1" strips and pieced them together, and managed to do all of the string out of them. barely! i think i had a 1"x1" square left over!



the back is solid teal, except for the short row of bunting in the bottom right corner. i used those flags for my quilt label, and machine embroidered on them. one has my name and country, and the other states “Queensland Flood Relief Jan 2011”.





there's a lapped zipper across the back of the pillow, i used one of my cherished dead-stock vintage zippers. it’s a lighter shade of blue, and says “lightning” on the cute rounded tab. (i totally <3 lighting brand zippers!)



i used a layer of cotton quilt batting backed with thin white cotton for the front, and a layer of flannelette for the back. i wanted to be able to enclose the zipper edges in the batting, and regular batting would have been too bulky to fold over. but i did still want the wrinkled look after quilting, so i didn't preshrink the flannelette.



i'm going to do a second post for the auction itself, to keep bids and comments separate. (cause i'm hoping you'll comment!)

soooo..... what do ya think?

a quick catch up!

hi!

i know, i know, it's been pretty quiet around here!

i've been feeling pretty crummy, so i haven't been up to a whole lot of crafty stuff.

i also promised my dad that i'd make some cushion covers for his boat, which i really didn't want to do. they're big and awkward and it's tough to control the vinyl pieces, so they make my back and shoulders ache. however, he does lots of things for me, not the least of which fighting with my disability company when i don't have the energy, so i of course said i would. that meant that i felt guilty doing any other sewing, when i should have been making the cushions, but i was totally procrastinating, so i ended up not sewing anything at all! i finally finished them up on friday, and realized i'd procrastinated for over a week, avoiding projects that took less than 2 hours each. totally ridiculous, i know.


i did get a little bit of other sewing done, secrets for friends (that are still in progress) and some sun bonnets for Caring Hearts, since it's that time of the year (though you'd never know it by the weather today!)/

the bonnets are soooo cute. so sweet. i got these two sets of 5 done, and i have more in progress as well.


yellow cotton eyelet








a little bit of elastic in the back


blue cotton eyelet, lined with a cloud patterned poly-cotton blend






i've been doing too much thrifting, and i've been having ridiculously good luck randomly finding things that i'm looking for, and i've also been going through my storage area, sorting out vintage goodies that i no longer need. i'm opening a second etsy shop, and hope to get some fun stuff listed soon!


(it's technically already open - and full of patterns! i'll do an official grand opening sale once i get more listed, but in the meantime - 20% off all patterns when you mention my blog in the note to seller!)



yesterday was father's day here (i assume it's different days in different countries, isn't it? i know mother's day is!)

we had a really nice day. my sister was down in the states for a wedding, but my brother came out and my parents, my brother, and i went out for brunch. later in the afternoon, after much drama, we went out on the new boat.

it was really fun, and was the first time i'd gone out with them. my dad bought a smaller boat last month, and they've all been out on it constantly, but i haven't been feeling up to it.

a few weeks ago my dad found another boat (on ebay, of all places!), and he and my mom road tripped down to utah last weekend to pick it up, so this was the first time we'd gone out on the larger one. we didn't go far at first, but it was really lovely. very VERY bumpy though, and my body was not at all happy. we had to dock to go pick up my brother's girlfriend from the bus stop, so i went home then, after about an hour on the water. i came home and slept, and woke up this morning feeling very very horrid. hopefully it'll pass soonish.

my dad driving the boat


the dash is AWESOME, it looks like an old school video game!

(the boat was made in the 80s, obviously!)

and a few taken just as we left, when we were still going slow enough that i could take pictures - i didn't need to hold on!