Paper Pieced Philanthropy Quilt

Sometimes when I pick up fabric to make these philanthropy quilts I find someone's UFO.  This bag literally had my name on it in big letters. The lady in charge of our group was once a quilting teacher and she taught me how to paper piece. At a silent auction, she bought one of my small quilts not knowing it was mine. Needless to say I was honored. Over the years we have shared conversation about paper pieced projects, so can understand her challenge delight in passing this project off on me.

Don't you love those bright colors and the way the mottled black makes them pop? To me black is never right on a kids quilt but this works--and this is what I had to work with. One block was nearly finish and two others started. I had to switch fabric around to get enough for nine blocks. No pattern came with the package and there is enough left to make a potholder.



The flying geese were that far along and that's about where I called it quit. (Or quilt)



There was another strange thing about this quilt. The foundations were all printed on fabric. My choice is paper so I copied the rest. While working with the fabric foundation I found it not to be true. It isn't as stiff and stable as paper.

Since I spent nearly a week on this quilt, I decided to just do some straight line quilting and call it a day. You will notice, we "pillowcase" our children's quilts. Quite a time saver for sure.

Marcy 

May's Quilt Doodle BOM Blocks

Oh my gosh are these cute and just like May. This month there are two blocks at
Quilt Doodles for the BOM. The block for each month is free. After the month is over you have to pay a minimal amount for the pattern. It's been one of the most fun BOM's. I wait for the first of the month to come and find the new block(s).

There's a setting pattern, but you can always change it to your whim.

 

The best part is digging through my stash for just the right color fabrics. After that I visit buttons and beads. Sometimes there is a bit of optional embroidery. It's just enough and then other embellishments can be added.

For the garden shovel I used the fabric used to make ironing board covers. Not Insulbrite, just this thin, flat, metal-looking fabric. I found a wood grain brown for the handle.

Since I wanted chocolate cake, the color for the cake had to be white for contrast. I made French knots for the chocolate chips. The big mistake was not having candles with enough contrast. I tried adding more outlining and glitzy thread.

But this little bee is probably my favorite part of the blocks. It's just the right touch with the flowers.

Marcy

 

 

Friendship Braid Using Binding Tool

Does this every happen to you? You have lots of strips leftover from projects and need a use for them.

I saw this tutorial by Jenny from Missouri Star Quilt Co. and grabbed up my strips. However, I didn't have a binding tool so I made mine from cardboard. This method eliminates the waste of fabric. These are some of my leftover 3" strips and there's lots of 2.5" waiting to be used.

The scraps are from the philanthropy stash of fabric and it will make a bright baby quilt. When I dropped of my quilts last week the leader gave me some more fabric and I added it to the "new arrivals" stack. I couldn't sleep that night thinking of patterns and blocks I could whip together.



Now I'll see if there are some softer colors.

Marcy