Global Garden - Hands2Help Comfort Quilt

Here is my second H2H quilt for this year, the first being my SAHRR which you can see here. Hands2Help, in case you don't know, is an annual comfort quilt drive hosted by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I named it Global Garden as a nod to the Trip Around the World corner blocks, the floral fabrics, and the centre garden-themed appliquéd block.

After I rummaged through my drawer of lonely blocks aka orphan blocks to choose one for my SAHRR, it hit me that I really should make an effort to work more of them into a couple of quilts. In the drawer were these five blocks, the centre appliqués one and four Trip Around the World ones. I ‘won’ them in a bidding activity we did in the local guild I belonged to at that time. That was more than six years ago! Out they came and I let them percolate a bit on the design wall until I ‘saw’ the idea of using big, 15” finished, QSTs to frame and pull them together. 

A note about my Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL: that post will be out this afternoon.

So Much to Say!

There is a lot in the post today, but I'll keep it short so I can get back to work. I've been busy, though not crazy busy. I have a few irons in the fire as they say, and I'm here to tell you all about each one. First of all, the Villa Rosa Designs blog hop begins this week; my day to post is Sunday, January 22. My top is done, and it has marinated on the design wall overnight while I contemplate taking off the extra row I did, which is sort of but not quite, a border. My gut is leaning, though only slightly leaning, towards taking it off. It does add that bit of unexpected, wait, let me look again, idea. Here is the block you may have seen on Instagram.

There are a ton of prizes to be won during this hop which begins tomorrow, January 19! The schedule is below.

Hands2Help Gingham Quilt

This is my third quilt for Hands2Help this year, and my eighth year of participating. This one was a DrEAMi, as in a Drop Everything And Make it project. It is not a true DrEAMi, in that I did not drop everything until it was done, but it did definitely take me away from regularly scheduled sewing for two separate chunks of time: cutting and constructing. From starting to piece until finished quilt it took just 24 hours!

It started with making a string placemat for the RSC challenge, which happens to be forest and sage green for this month... I had the squares all cut and on the design wall on May 9. And then a couple of other necessities preempted its completion: La Mer (I behaved, and finished up a UFO) and making the Pop Star flimsy for my QAL.

Whirling Petals - A Hands2Help Quilt

I am happy to report that my second H2H quilt this year is a wrap! Hands2Help is being hosted this year by Mari at The Academic Quilter.

I had a goal this year to use up a bunch of leftover floral scraps, and some stash that I knew I wasn't going to use for the intended purpose. I made a dent, albeit small, in the pile.

English Garden Hands2Help Quilt

This is one of those quilts that say, 'meh' with the flimsy, and then say, 'Yay!' with the quilting. And yes, all it is is a simple jigsaw-style meander, but wow, it just melds all the floral prints together, and it's like looking at a veritable riot of an English Garden.

Early morning as this was, or darling evening are perfect times for quilt photos

I just know my mum would love this one. Speaking of early morning, have you ever truly contemplated how marvellous dew is? It's really quite the miracle, that every morning plants get a sip of pure water to start their day. This morning it was like a film of little beads of glass coating the grass. Sparkling and fresh. Hopeful. I needed that.

English Garden and Whirling Petals for Hands2Help

When it comes to making comfort quilts, for me they are often Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts that I make all year according to the colour of the month as set by Angela at soscrappy. Sometimes it's a DrEAMi (Drop Everything And Make it!) moment where I've seen a fun fast pattern that I just HAVE to make, and make now. So, fast and fun are often a key for comfort quilts, along with using scraps. When Mari of The Academic Quilter, who is hosting H2H this year for Sarah, asked if I would write up a tutorial for her this year I said no problem! With fast, fun, and scraps in mind, here is the first of two comfort quilts for you today.

This first one is English Garden, and it is, as my mum's garden was, rather a riot of floral crazy. It was born of a need to use up (haha) allll my floral scraps and pieces from when I was into colour wash quilting. I don't know about you, but I have an embarrassment of floral fabrics. Often these are the trimmed off strips from quilt backings, a ton are .25 and .3 metre cuts for colour wash quilts, some were scraps from a feature fabric around which I built a quilt, still others are leftovers from making bags or even (head hanging in shame) scraps from clothes I made my girls and myself, even scraps from balloon shades I made for our bedroom in the 90s (the mostly white one with scattered blue and pink flowers on it)!

TGIFF - Friendly Fences, an H2H Quilt

Welcome to TGIFF! This is a linkup to show our finished quilt projects. And oh yes, pass on some inspiration.

I have finished the quilt for my neighbour who is an essential worker at one of our local grocery stores. You can read the story behind the quilt in this post. That will help you see why I named the quilt Friendly Fences, which may seem to be an oxymoron. It isn't, because our dogs becoming good friends through the chainlink fence between our yards led to us getting to know each other more.

I was really pleased to read that Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict added this category to the Hands2Help comfort quilt drive. Unless you know someone who works in a grocery store or a pharmacy, I don't think we tend to think of them as people like ourselves, with families and homes and lives, you know what I mean? And I don't know about your governments, media, and rich fat cats who own these grocery and pharmacy chains, but mine here in Canada started out regularly highlighting their contributions. One even gave them an hourly raise at first...and then took it back. Now we don't hear so much about their continued efforts, though CBC TV runs a very poignant ad about nurses.

Hands2Help Check-in

This is the first check-in for H2H at Confessions of a Fabric Addict this year, and I have a flimsy finish!

I was dodging the rain showers and bright sunshine, but I managed to run out and get this photo in high cloud. Wind is often a factor here, and it was playing a bit with the flimsy today too, so it looks a little wonky.

Rainbow VIP

It's the end of the month and time for an update on my PHD (Projects Half Done) programme. I'm happy to report that it's the end of the first quarter and I am still right on track to complete this. This is a UFO from last year, one of my two RSC projects, which I've called Rainbow VIP. It's also my OMG for March!

I love how it turned out! Each month last year, I made ten blocks, a 6-patch with a white bar on one side in the colour of the month. This is a pattern in American Patchwork & Quilting April 2006 by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. They did theirs in just six light colours. It's a bit of an improv way of assembling the quilt top, chopping off parts of blocks so the white bars purposely do not align and the side edges are random.

Delia

Delia, the strings Card Trick quilt you've seen a few times, is done.

This is actually a very true photo as far as the colours go; the sun had just set.  This was an unplanned RSC project, from the book Classic to Contemporary String Quilts by Mary M. Hogan. It's a great book: my trees quilt, The Final Season was adapted from it, and my main RSC project is also from the book. I am focusing on strings this year because they are exploding.

They are still exploding. I loved the movement in her quilt, loved the black, grey and white with the pink she had used. I planned to switch out the white for another RSC colour.

Elvira Hands2Help Comfort Quilt #3

Back in March I participated in the Elvira QAL hosted by Gudrun Erla. Although I didn't sew the entire weekend with everyone, I did get my top made within the week that followed. I knew this would be another H2H quilt.

Smooches 2

I dunno, these heart blocks are definitely addicting, and, like Smarties, you can't have/make just one. I knew I was going to make my next Smooches quilt in rainbow colours, with all cream backgrounds, and that it would go to a healthcare worker. I started making it when I was the guest blogger at Sarah's blog, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, as one of the tutorials she offers as potential comfort quilts for her Hands2Help comfort quilt drive.

Well, I made a few blocks when I was writing the tutorial for Smooches. They were easy to do, chain-piecing-wise when I was piecing Storm at Sea.

Good Vibes Only H2H Quilt Finish

My third quilt commitment is fulfilled for H2H 2019, and I have also fulfilled another of my Q2FAL goals. My list is here.
This lap quilt is destined for a boy, and is made using Allison Harris's 'Positive' pattern she recently released. She blogs and sells her patterns at Cluck Cluck Sew. I own a few of her patterns, as well as her book, Growing Up Modern, one of the first modern quilt books I bought. This is, again, another quilt with a clever block construction. I named my quilt 'Good Vibes Only' and I filled it with positive words and thoughts of healing as I made it.

Autumn Winds Winner and H2H Update

First of all in case you haven't checked the Autumn Winds post where the widget has the winners displayed, I am happy to announce that Susan S. won the bundle of eight fat quarters of Thankful by Amanda Murphy, and Dawn K. won a copy of my pattern, Blue Skies and Sunny Days, which is still on sale for half price, at $4.50CA, and I'll leave it there for a couple more days. Here it is again, in Thankful and in the original two colourways.

Thanks to those who did purchase a copy; each sale pays for one month of linky parties, no lie! Both sizes are included within the pattern. The Autumn Winds one is the bigger one. Speaking of the purchasing patterns department, there may be some notifications of a couple I've bought this past week, so feel free to leave now if you don't want any temptation because I'm about to throw a couple more squirrels your way!

Hands2Help Check In #1: Fern

Once again this year, I committed to making two quilts for H2H at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I'm happy to announce that one is complete and that I've made a third commitment! This completed quilt is on my Q2FAL List. Oh! I actually am ecstatic that I won a prize in Q1! I've been part of the FAL since January 2015, and have never won anything, so when I found out I won a $50 gift certificate to Mad About Patchwork, I might've said 'Oh YAY!!' aloud. Too funny: last year this great little shop curated a beautiful kit for the Plus Playtime QAL, as well as offered a prize, both unsolicited, so kind of them, and this year they are once again offering a prize! I love small quilt shops, and try to support them as much as I can. This Wednesday the cutting instructions come out for this year's QAL, Beothuk Star. 😊
Anyhow, back to the subject of the post:

Sorry for not the greatest photo, but it has poured all day.

Moovin' On Up

This is the second quilt I made for Sarah's Hands2Help charity quilt drive at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. It's also my finished quilt for Roseanne's No Stress Sew Along at Home Sewn By Us. It's also on my Q3FAL list which is here!

The pattern is a free one off Sew Mama Sew and was one of Roseanne's three choices you could do for her SAL. It's designed by Alyssa of Pile o' Fabric. I had the flimsy done back in July, and the quilt in the first few days of August during my blog-cation.

Hands2Help

Today is the final day to show your quilts for Sarah's Confessions of a Fabric Addict Hands2Help charity quilt drive. This is one of the quilts on my Q2FAL list.

I have one of my two almost ready (just needs binding) to be dropped off for Syrian refugees coming to Canada, who are making a new home in the Windsor area.

Hands 2 Help Check In

I haven't written much about my Hands2Help quilts, but trust me, they are in production, both of them. I wanted to do a quick post to show you the flimsy of the first one.

Here's how it evolved:
Last year Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts won a $25 gift certificate to Sew Sisters Quilt Shop (big sale this weekend, no affiliation, just enabling, as per usual). Well Preeti gave the gc to me because she said the postage would take the majority of it. I said well, I'd put it toward some Canada fabric that I wanted to use for a Syrian refugee quilt as one of my 2017 H2H charities. She approved! So I spent it and then some ha, and got a bunch of Canada fabric. However, the quilt didn't get made last year; I made the originally planned one for refugees.

So this year is the year. I just hadn't decided what pattern to do, and was letting it percolate, and getting a few ideas.... Then came the Humboldt bus crash tragedy. I made a half dozen blocks for the call for quilts. That pattern was it!

I played with arrangement: all the same orientation, or twist and turn?

Not only are mine and Preeti's fabrics in here, but also there is the Canadian cities fabric my brother sent me, leftovers from a jacket he had made for a Canada 150th Sesquicentennial thing at work. You will also see more Canada fabric he sent me which I'm using for the backing, in my finish post. Or maybe it will be an added pic or two to this one as it's about to be loaded onto Avril my longarm.

I settled upon alternating every other block and sewed up the twelve blocks in no time at all, entirely pieced on Tillie my little '51 Featherweight. It's her turn right now to work; Billie, my little '47 girl, is resting, but wanting to come out to play and keep in gear, nice and oiled and smooth too!

Oops, I see I have it upside down there; I aimed to have the big blocks of text fabric all one way.

Here is a funny outtake that I wish you could see 'live' in the Photos app, typical of often windy days here by Lake Erie.

I might not be on top of responses to comments this next little bit, so I hope (well I know) you'll forgive me. Brady will be 'in the house' in a few hours! I made him some new pj shorts as he's grown right out of his Frozen ones I made him a couple of years ago.

They turned out great! Sure hope they fit him okay but I made size 12 hoping they'll be baggy, as pjs should be. This is some of the fabric I bought off my friend who is de-stashing.

Speaking of her fabric, here are two pics of some more of it, 'Woodland' by Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches for Lecien Fabrics.

Please shoot me an email ephdra(at) gmail (dot) com if you are interested in buying any of this. It has been pre-washed, but is from a non-smoking home. $4/yard, minimum half yard cut. Postage extra!

A quick note:💥💝🎉🎊Starting today, this weekend is a free Watchathon at Craftsy (no code necessary) that I know I'll be partaking in... well, I hope to, here and there, especially when MacGyver and Brady are pounding away in the new garage that is now complete, well, inside it they'll be putting up drywall...

All done but finishing off the inside!

Linking up with the last check-in at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Oh, and one more thing: this is the final day for Week 3 of the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop. Go here for the links to the blogger in my hive and the co-hosts, and the giveaway. Winners will be announced on Sunday.

Welcome to Canada!

So glad that the quilt finally read red (lol get it?) in these outside pics! This is my second finish in the new sewing space, second Hands2Help finish.  Let's toss it over a bush, shall we?

I am SO excited to tell you that this quilt was pieced entirely on my Featherweight girls.  They shared it.  💕 The backing was pieced together on them as well.  It went from a pretty cool flimsy to a perfectly cuddly finished quilt!  Love the texture.

DrEAMi! Linky #5

I can't believe I am about to write this, but I am glad that May is drawing to a close, and it is usually one of my favourite months of the year. This year it has been colder than normal, with 4" more rain than normal, and gloomier as well. I would definitely not make a good vampire: for one, I'm vegetarian, so drinking blood ain't gonna happen, and for another, I need and crave sunshine and blue skies, and finally, I am most definitely not a night person.

All right how did I go from starting a DrEAMi! post to talking about vampires? (shakes head to clear it)

Two months in a row. TWO MONTHS! and no DrEAMi!  The only time I think that has happened in my quilting life is when I had to pack up my sewing stuff before we made the big move from Alberta to southern Ontario. I'm staying focused on two projects, the 150 Canadian Women and my two charity quilts for Hands2Help.

I'm behind in both.

Sigh.  One quilt is complete and written about in the previous post; the other has made it to flimsy stage and is currently on the frame and will be quilted this weekend.

Apologies for this horribly-lit photo, but it was raining and gloomy outside that day, and so this is an indoor shot. The solid is really a gorgeous rich burgundy, not brown!

I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I am even more pleased that the entire quilt, top and back, was sewn on my two Featherweight girls. This will be going to Windsor for a Syrian refugee family. There are some very old fabrics and some very new in it, something I love even more about it.

I apologize for the tantalizing teasers for post topics for this past week, and not one of those posts written.  I've covered extra yoga classes for the other instructor all this week with one more to go on Monday night, so it's been a bit more hectic, with disjointed days.

If you aren't on the Connecting Threads (affiliate link) email list, then be aware that all this weekend, Memorial Day for my neighbours to the north in Michigan and to the south in Ohio, (take a look at a map where Kingsville, Ontario, is if that makes you go, 'say what?') they are giving an extra 20% off your entire order.  That is pretty sweet. They have some pretty nice patriotic fabrics for $6.96/yard.  Minus 20% of course. Just in case.. you know...you might need a squirrel for a certain July holiday.

All right, let's see what has turned your head, made you stop what you should be sewing, and dive headlong into a new, all-consuming project this past month!