quilts for kids - warms your heart

I think I mentioned to you that I joined a local small quilt group which makes quilts for kids.  Thanks to Brenda, who lives near me and who I met through my blog (another benefit of the blog, thank you very much!), who told me about it and said I could join.

The All-Stars quilt group meets twice a month;  they are a prolific group of women and I always enjoy my time with them.

Today we met and worked on a group project organized by Brenda.  Brilliant idea.  We were going to all make string blocks for a large quilt;  several brought their strips along (I brought a pile,  I am delighted to report,  which got all used up today!  that's a first!).  Brenda pre-cut some lightweight muslin (for a stabilizer - what a great idea -- and black polka dot fabric for the middle of all the blocks!!).
This is some of what we made:


Here are some of the latest quilts the women made to donate.  They really are a talented group of women and produce quilt after quilt.  
















Not for kids but from the same group of talented women is this adorable quilt which Brenda has made through a round-robin she joined.  Not sure if you can tell that there are little foot-steps that someone made out of denim.  Really a great little quilt.


My sewing at home hasn't been super productive.  These little sew-alongs are going to be my end... I think next year I'll curtail my involvement in them.  But for now...
I made three blocks for the new little sew-along using the adorable Quirky Little Quilts book from Temecula Quilts.  Do you see that little wood box where I have my scissors and rotary cutters?  Isn't that adorable?  I bought that when we visited Temecula Quilts last month in San Diego.  Keeps my cutting table just a tiny bit more organized.


I head back up to San Francisco tomorrow afternoon to pick up my daughter's kids since she still hasn't found a nanny;  we also will be lucky enough to have them at our house this weekend (and little Eli will be here too since his mom is in town to pack up their house for their move to Quantico... ;-( ].  We will have 4 little grandkids all under one roof!  How awesome is that!!!!!

Pam Buda -- next one done! And a little bit of progress

Of course I opted for a simple and quick choice from the Pam Buda book and sew-along that Wendy Reed (constant quilter) is organizing.  I am enjoying this project especially since each item is really small so I can get it done!  And I do believe you can never have too many pin cushions.  Don't you agree? vbg




And I also did the optional block for the Cheddarback project.  I really liked this block, which helps the creative juices, don't you think??


I was also very interested in the tiny house quilt done by Missouri Quilt Company.  I went onto Youtube and found the tutorial to make them and whipped up my first block, in between sewing a gazillion 1" half square triangles for my Primitive Gatherings quilt project... (you can see why I'd need a diversion, right??)

It's a really bright and fun quilt so I think I'll enjoy making the blocks.

I'm getting a little frustrated with all these little sew-alongs---making blocks but not putting anything together.  I'm getting ready to take one of my large zip-lock baggies with a slew of blocks and sew them together so I can at least feel like I'm getting something done--know what I mean??

This should be a productive weekend as we don't have the kids.  It's very weird for us to be home and NOT have the kids so I'll keep myself busy.  I did go and pick them up on Thursday and we made our usual stop after school...ice cream!!

What? It's been weeks since I've posted but I did sew a bit

I wish I could say that I have lots to show for the long delay in my posting but I don't.  I've done a lot of babysitting since my daughter lost her nanny, so that explains where most of my time went.

I'll get straight to the good stuff.

I posted months ago that my son had decided he wanted to try to join the Marine Reserves in the Officer's Candidate School in Quantico, VA.  We were very surprised but definitely supportive.  This past weekend, we all flew back to DC to attend his graduation ceremony and events.  It was really momentous.  He has spent the last 10 weeks participating in the most grueling activities and tests.  Probably 40% don't make it.  So we were really proud.

What did I give him as a graduation gift?  My husband and other kids wanted to get him a knife.  I sent him a quilt!  And it really came in handy for the graduation since we reserved a row of seats using the quilt and it kept our butts warm during the very cold morning .


Here's the quilt laid out:

I had originally made this as a quilt of valor but never managed to send it off.  It is being put to great use by a newly commissioned Marine!  I thought it was perfect;  especially since my son's family doesn't have any of their belongings yet.

A proud mom has to share a picture!


I did work on the blocks for the Cheddarback sewalong and got those first 5 done.  I can even say that I really enjoyed the one with the set-in seams!




I also did finish my March mini, Wendy Reed (constantquilter).  This was a top I'd started several years ago with a Cheri Payne sew-a-long but never finished.  I added a border and added some little birds (sadly the top got some kind of a stain while waiting its completion so I decided to cover it up with birds!!).  The border fabric is an Edyta Sitar fabric that is fabulous!

This is a close up of one of the blocks with the birdie sewn on.  I think the blocks are maybe 3-4" so it's not very large.

During the past few weeks, I flew up to our cabin to visit my mom and encountered tons of snow.  I even had to shovel my way into the driveway in the dark because the plows had blocked it while widening the driveable portion of the road.  This is our house number, which is several feet off the ground.


It's warmed up since then and I suspect the snow will be gone this week.  There was quite a storm as you probably saw in my friend Lori's posts (humblequilts).

This week I'm only watching my grandkids on Thursday so I'll be getting some sewing done (and maybe even some  blog posting)