Charity quilts

At the moment I'm working on 40 lap quilts for an old folks care home. I have had a lot of stuff hoarded for charity quilts but lacked the enthusiasm to do more than one every six weeks or so. Now I have a definite goal as there are 40 residents.  

Most of the flimsies are done, I finished webbing these tops and putting on scrappy  borders today. I cut the borders at 2 1/4", same as the binding. I love a scrappy binding! 

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A sample batch of 6 have been delivered, including these .

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I bound these two this week

There was a hiccup with this one, I cut the backing tooo small, so some orphan blocks came in handy! 

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These broken dishes blocks are my leader enders, cut from 2" strips 

I have been doing these for months now and have quite a stack, the aim is a queen size! 

Eclipse

• Eclipse is finished, 6' x 7'.
• crumb quilt that has been waiting for 5 years to be quilted!
• four different backings from the stash
• binding is a Micky Mouse cotton duvet cover 
• seven motifs hand appliqued, all from one fabric (useful!). Two of them were to cover poor seams, I had to add more to balance the design out. 
• wavy line quilted to stablise all those seams  with 0.33 miles of scrap threads in cotton and polyester. 
• batting is a 1/16" loft Hobbs polyester, bought in a sale

Hours of peaceful binding in the garden 

Linking for
 Move it Forward Monday
Oh Scrap!

Last push!

I have completed the last three play mat quilts for donation to a local charity. If they want them all, there are thirteen. Any remaining will go with the three I have reserved to Linus.  

I have several cot size to quilt  for Linus, but three doubles have to be quilted first. 

Then it is about time I made myself a quilt! 

•  scrappy broken dishes
• border and backing from the stash
• quilted back and front with tangerine cotton
• white border top stitched in the ditch in white poly core. 
• Scrappy binding from gifted poly-cotton duvet cover, backing trimmings and recycled cotton sheeting. 

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•  broken dishes blocks
• backing form the stash
• quilted in Gutermann variegated green on the front, gifted pale blue polyester on the back
• white border top stitched in the ditch in white poly core. 
• white border recycled sheeting. 
• grey border and binding was leftover 2"  strips from moth in a window.  

 

• broken dishes blocks
• both borders are recycled bedding
• backing from the stash
• quilted with white poly core on the back, Gutermann brown-yellow variegated on the front
• border stitched in the ditch with white poly core. 
• scrappy binding made from backing trimmings

Two more complete

 Today I am working on a broken dishes quilt with a new FMQ design. I like this, it's really quick and secures all the seams. 

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I tried it out on the border for the last one, binding completed this morning. That border fabric that I was determined to use up was tricky to quilt and match for binding.  I don't often quilt the borders, just stitch in the ditch as I like the fluffiness of un-quilted space.  This one was too wide not to have something in. 

• orphan blocks
• quilted on the front in mid green variegated, white polycore on the back
• heavily FMQ for practice
• borders and backing from a bargain bundle that needed using up
• scrappy binding: I had to cut some extra green for this as the border fabric wouldn't take my usual multicolour scrappy binding from off-cuts.

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Another finish, more moth practice

• Deep stash borders and backing
• Variegated green cotton on the back; cream poly in the ditch, gifted yellow poly on the borders, various experiments on the moth shapes.
• orphan blocks
• binding from a stash I made up a year ago

 Loopy balloons in the borders and sashing

Variegated thread looks awful on the moths! This was my original intention for the big quilt, glad I tried it out.

Roundup without curves

I have been working on hexies for the last month. Piccies later. 

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I gave up on Perkiomen Daydreams as I wasn't happy with my accuracy on earlier blocks. I have pieced the finished  blocks into a cot sized flimsy, as cot sized people are no the quilt police! I will quilt this when I need a baby quilt in a hurry. 

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I have started another postage stamp quilt, from the 1 1/2"  bin. I am not using this size, so I sewed some strip sets together and will sub-cut a few at a time- blocks of colour when I need a quick fix. Teenny bits help me with my accuracy. 

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I have done a few of these flying geese strips, from 2" scraps in sets 1-8, again, to work on my accuracy. They will probably make a scrappy border for something. 

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These two charity quilts are pinned and ready for quilting, all orphan blocks. I have several filmsies of the moth blocks in this size, I am practicing with the fancy stitches on my Bernina before I quilt the king size version! 

This one is part quilted. 

Much more to do to shape the moths.

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A charity quilt finish today, about 1m square.

This one was frugal:

• Backing was a new gifted polycotton duvet cover
• Many shirts were harmed in the making of the blocks
• All the thread was gifted polyester from my dressmaker mum's stash
• The stripy border was a charity shop cotton duvet cover
• The white border is recycled cotton sheeting
• The scrappy binding is made from off-cuts from previous quilt backings 

=happy!

Orphans, thimbles and uglies

This solid silver thimble is unblemished. It came into my possession from a house clearance. I was told it was worth £25 so paid it on the spot as it is a perfect fit.

The modern S, M, L, sizes don't fit me properly.  

As  a girl needs more than one thimble, I started looking on Ebay for antique thimbles in a 16 or 17 size. 

I bought two plain thimbles in sterling silver very cheaply. 

If I had cash to spare I could really get into collecting these, but of course only in the sizes that actually fitted!

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This small quilt is now finished for Linus, about 45" square

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I finished this flimsy that will go to a small local charity

 whilst watching Bonnie on archived Quiltcam

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I cut borders and binding for the next big quilt I will be working on

 I also chopped this UGLY (what was I thinking!) for binding and some mini broken dishes blocks (cut it small says Bonnie).

 This ugly will be used as a border on a charity quilt at some point.

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The trimmings from the binding were made into mini broken dishes blocks immediately in an effort to control the crumbs.

 I trimmed them to size guided by the neutrals cut with the easy angle. Looks like you can't cut that reindeer fabric small enough!

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I found two old spiderweb trials-I tried sewing to old sheeting but the result was too thick for a quilt, even if the look was good.

 I put a border on one, cut some heavy duty fabric for a back, and turned it into a cushion cover.

 Antique buttons on the back, and the raw edge of the fabric turned out for interest on the button flap.

 In this trial I didn't like the blocks completely random, The flimsy I made has sections in colour family, this has been a UFO for about 4 years!

I have been working on the rainbow hexie in the evenings. 

Linking for Scraptatsic Tuesday

OQD

This week I have had obsessive quilting disorder, I finished another one!

Half and half backing..............

Last stitch in, aagh! A buried safety pin. Just have to sew the seam back up. Rest of the quilt now checked for other spiky prisoners. Loving the border and binding.

Quilted in the ditch with some surface detail. Not bad for orphan blocks.

I think Paddy will like it.  

The pink and blue log cabin is a duvet cover I made over 20 years ago, still going strong, though I had to replace the recycled sheet backing once.  It's nicely faded and soft now.

Quick work

I have to be quick, I have lots to do by March. 

Lengthened stitch,  number 4 on my Bernina, walking foot, sewn in green and white variegated thread  on random diagonal lines to match the colour movement of the patches: charity quilt for Portage, West Sussex.  I quilted across the border too as the thread blends with the fabric, so no sewing ends in!  Awaiting binding.  I'll use this stitch again.

Large  'single', lots of ends to sew on this one. The picture is from the layering process at work.  I will heavily free motion quilt the purple border. 

Quilted with King Tutt variegated thread, hides the wobbles nicely!  Not the best quilting, but this was the largest thing I have stuffed under the machine so far-by the end I had the hang of it!  Like the King Tutt thread a lot, but its pricey!

The reverse thread was Guttermann variegated pink, blends nicely with the fabric and picks up the directional pattern.   LOVE this backing fabric.

Now off to Leah Days site to choose a pattern for the border quilting, and cut some binding. .