Commitments

Hello Everyone,

It's been awhile and I'm excited to share good news with you all.  Some of you may know that I was co-chair on the MQG Charity Quilt challenge last year for our Valley MQG.  Many hands were involved on this project.  We all were very happy that our charity quilt was beautifully finished and hung in Nashville.  Since I got all the blocks that our guild members made, I set out to use them up by making both a lap size and a baby size charity quilt for our Philanthropy group which I wrote about them here.  With a happy dance and a big smile on my face, I'm very happy to say that the quilts are finally DONE.

I used a Juki TL-98E to quilt this project because my Janome 6500 was in the shop.  I wanted to get the quilts done in time for our local quilt show in May, but then I got really sick in March.  I resumed working on the quilt after I got well but the quilting didn't come out right as shown in the picture below.  The real quilt looked worse than what is shown in the picture here. A friend suggested using steam but the ripples wouldn't go away.  The small area at the bottom right wasn't so bad but the whole thing looked terrible to me.

I picked out all the quilting lines. Yes, all of them!  I brought the quilt to our March guild meeting to find answers to the problem I had.  One of the ladies in the guild gracefully volunteered to finish it for me, which I was very thankful.  She used her long-arm machine and followed the same theme with circle motifs all over but then she had to have a shoulder replacement surgery.  I got the quilt back on the last week of April.  I stared at it on my design wall for a long time and tried to decide how I was going to finish it.  I didn't want to do circles again, fearing that I would have the same problem.  I saw that all the circles were on the right side of the quilt so I decided to do some wavy line and straight line quilting on the colored blocks and straight line quilting on the background as in the pictures below.  This time around, I used my Janome 6500 to do the quilting. 

 

Details shots of the quilting.
 

When I was done with the big quilt, I worked on the baby quilt right away.  I decided to conquer my fear and did circle quilting on it.  It's a smaller piece, and with my Janome 6500, the quilting came out perfect.

After the quilting was done, I did machine binding on both quilts to speed up the process.  I'm very pleased with the way the corners turned out as shown in the picture below.  I found excellent tips on machine binding at Julie Cefalu's blog called thecraftyquilter.com.  I want to give a shout out to Julie and thank her for all she has done for the quilting community.  Check out her blog, if you haven't already, for more helpful tips and techniques.  There are a lot of things going on at her website.  The instructions were very clear and straight forward which I followed except that I used left over 3" strips as binding.  I sewed 3/8" seam allowance on the back in order to have a wider finish at the front.

Now that my commitments are done, I can move on to other projects.  I have a few patterns in mind that I want to make.  I'm crossing my fingers and hope for the best that they will come out good......


Have a great quilty time everyone!!!






Link to Sew fresh quilts: letsbeesocial,  Midweek Makers@QuiltFabrication
Also link to Can I get a Whoop Whoop and Finished {or Not!} Friday

Charity baby quilts

I used to volunteer at the Twin Vision Library which is a part of the American Action fund before it was closed and moved to Baltimore.  I posted about the quilt that I made for them last year in this post here.   I was asked by Ever Lee Hairston, the president of The National Federation for the Blind of California (nfbcal) for a quilt for their fundraising event this year.  This is what I made for her.

I love to make Faux Rag quilts for this event because not only that the quilts are warm and soft, they also have texture that blind children can touch and feel. 

I would like to tell you more about the organization called the National Federation of the Blind.  It's comprised entirely of blind people and headquartered in Baltimore.  They work to make things easier and better for blind people.  You can go to their web site nfb.org for more information.  They are the ones who get laws passed (like beeps at light signals) and pressure companies to make things accessible and safer for blind folks.  Each state has an affiliate.  And each state has a convention each year to keep local folks updated on what's new, what they're working on, and just as a social way of getting together.  I'm happy to be a small part of this organization.

Last month I also finished a baby quilt for the Philanthropy group at our Valley MQG guild.  I talked about it here.  I finally quilted it and here's the finished quilt.

I wish you all HAPPY QUILTING!!

 I link to Sew Fresh Quilts: Let's Bee Social

A new commissioned baby quilt and a WIP

I just finished a commissioned baby quilt.  I had great time picking out boy prints from my flannel stash for the HST (Half Square Triangle) blocks.  Did I tell you I love to make baby quilts from flannels?  Here is the layout I chose.

Here is the finished quilt after I gave it a Faux Rag Quilting touch, of course.

I also made four matching burp cloths as baby gifts from me to the couple.  I got the pattern from Abby Hersey.  I made a minor change by using three layers of flannel instead of batting in between.  The printed fabric on the top 2 burp cloths is also on the quilt back.

They're all finished and delivered.  A happy dance for everyone.

Now I'm working on a charity baby quilt for the Valley MQG Philanthropy group.  I was given a panel and some fabric.  The panel is 17"x 20" and I got 5 dark fat quarters, 5 light fat quarters and some strips and backing fabric.

I used one dark fat quarter to frame the panel as in the picture below.

And now the top is done.

I bought black and orange fabric for the binding and can't wait to put it on after the quilting is done. 

I'm also a part of a group project for the 2019 QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge at our Valley MQG.  We have about 20 people joined in in this endeavor.  We are using Jean Wells' quilt as our inspirations which she gladly granted our request.  I'll tell you more about this as the project developed.

I'm having a great time doing what I love.  I wish y'all the same.

Ciao

 

Notes:  I learned something new today.  While searching for how to spell the word ciao to say goodbye, I found this: je ne sais quoi ( zhə-nə-ˌsā-ˈkwä ) which means something (such as an appealing quality) that cannot be adequately described or expressed.  Wow! What a great find for me!  But I bet y'all already knew this expression.

 Life is a great fun!!!!

Link up to Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Let's Bee Social

Charity Quilt

I love the idea of giving back to the community.  Wherever I live, I always try to be helpful.  Now that I live and have a family here, it's only fitting that I am a good citizen in this great country.  Besides church, I volunteered at both my children's schools from day one until they both went to college.  Along the way I made a lot of friends and learned many good things from the moms and fellow volunteers. 

After my surgery, I cut down some places of volunteering but one.  Every week I go to help at the TwinVision Library.  TwinVision is a part of the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults: The Kenneth Jernigan Lending Library in Tarzana, California.  This is a very amazing place.  They have books from preschool through high school and young adults.  Their books are sent postage free to individuals, schools, and itinerant teachers.  They also produce braille calendars too.

Books are available in two distinct formats: Twin Vision or Braille.  Twin Vision books contain adjacent pages of print and Braille, making it the ideal form for teachers and parents to read to pre-school to fourth grade children.  Many of their Twin Vision books contain colorful pictures that can be enjoyed equally by sighted children with blind parents or by students with limited vision. 
Braille books are produced for the use of more advanced students and for upper grade readers.  Titles in this category contain many classics.

I enjoy working there so much.  Not only is it a worthy cause, all the volunteers there are super nice and really fun to be with.

Next month they're having a fundraising event.  I decided to make a Faux Rag quilt for them.  I don't know what quilt has more texture than a faux rag quilt!!

The front of the quilt

The back of the quilt

This is a very soft and warm quilt and gives a very nice feeling when touched.  One of my quilter friends who volunteers at the same place made a quilt with many texture fabrics so that the children can feel the different types of fabric.  Too bad I don't have a picture of her quilt, it looks amazing.

Have a great week and have some fun!

I link to Sew Fresh Quilts: Let's Bee Social and Kat & Cat Quilts: Sew Some Love.