Tag: Doing Good

May Donation Blocks

As I did last month and for previous months, I made more donation blocks. After April’s work, I had a stack of 24 blocks. Now I have XX. Peggy, the community quilt organizer for BAM, I hope, will be happy.

Sewing the Windmill means that I was also churning out donation blocks. Using leaders and enders between each Windmill piece generates a lot. I have to keep the Windmill pieces in order, thus so many donation blocks. I am thinking about making another Traffic Jam quilt instead of more of the 16 patch donation blocks, but we will see. Until I decide, there will be more 16 patches.

I had to spend some time cutting scraps for new 2.5 inch squares as I was running out. You can see that some of the blocks don’t have a lot of contrast, use a ‘different’ background or look unlike my normal meticulous monochromatic blocks. I guess I am making due. I didn’t really want to cut more foreground squares until I really need them.

I am pretty fond of the red-violet block in the second row. The background is made from a shirt I made for DH a few years ago.

April Donation Blocks

Here are some blocks I made during April. During April we were still under a statewide Shelter-in-Place order. DH and I are fortunate enough to continue to be employed. I didn’t have time off work and I didn’t take any time off work. As a result, I didn’t have much extra time to sew, but since I wasn’t going out to lunch or shopping, I had a little extra time. I worked on everything you’ve seen this month in the various posts, mostly Frolic! and also some donation blocks.

I am tempted to make a donation quilt out of these random blocks.

The two Spiky 16 Patches are from Flame, but I forgot to include them in the tally for last month. The third one is an extra I made that I will send off to Sue S. We are doing a donation quilt collaboration.

My bin of 2.5 inch square patches that was overflowing is now getting a little pathetic looking. I am kind of scraping the bottom of it to make blocks.

New Blue Spiky 16 Patches – Again

Design Wall: Spiky 16 Patches
Design Wall: Spiky 16 Patches

I finished the 4 blocks I need to make another Spiky 16 Patch donation top.

In the image you can see the extra pink/red/orange one I didn’t use in Flame. It is a lone, sad orphan right now. I don’t know what to do with it. I could combine it with the blues and make another 5 block quilt, like Spiky 16 Patch n.3. I can’t seem to generate much enthusiasm for veering away from my monochromatic road. I should lash out, but so far I haven’t.

Another idea is to send the pink/red/orange Spiky 16 patch to another guild member to build upon. That is very appealing. I don’t sincerely dislike the idea of including it with the New Blue blocks.

Since I haven’t done anything with the blues yet, I can still decide.

Pandemic Pet Bed

Pandemic Pet Bed
Pandemic Pet Bed

As you know from other pet beds, I have made, they take awhile to fill. Since I can’t bring a partially filled piece to the meeting to have someone use their scraps to fill the rest, I had to wait until I had enough scraps. I filled it up at Virtual Craft Night the other night and also sewed it closed. Now i is piled up with the other things i need to take to guild the next time we have a meeting.

I am concerned I filled it too full, but it will be nice and plump for some small pet.

 

New Spiky 16 Patch Blocks

New Blue Spiky 16 Patch #1
New Blue Spiky 16 Patch #1

While sewing the Frolic! top together I used the New Blue Spiky 16 patch blocks as leaders and enders. I felt like I had quite a bit of Frolic! to sew together, but I only ended up with two Spiky 16 Patch blocks. I guess the Frolic! top work seemed like more than it actually was because I feel like I have been working on it forever.

I haven’t, of course, but it feels like it.

New Blue Spiky 16 Patch #2
New Blue Spiky 16 Patch #2

In any case, these Spiky 16 patch blocks are coming along well. They are the same, or similar to Spiky 16 Patch #1 and #2. I’ll probably do the same kind of setting as Flame just to get this top finished. I’d like to try something else with the HRTs.

New Blue Spiky 16 Patch

New Blue Spiky 16 Patch in progress
New Blue Spiky 16 Patch in progress

As soon as Flame was off the design wall, I dug out some HRTs I had made last year (?) when I made the other Spiky 16 Patch tops.

I am thinking about making a donation quilt with just the HRTs, but don’t think I will do that yet. I think I want to just make another Spiky 16 Patch quilt. I think I want to make the HRT version (no 16 patch) with a variety of different colors – not monochrome or warm/cool.

Finished: Flame Donation Top/Back

Flame Donation top - April 2020
Flame Donation top – April 2020

I decided to call this donation quilt ‘Flame’ to make things more interesting. I guess we all need a little ‘nice’ interesting right now rather than alarming interesting. Enough of that going around.

I am feeling kind of bad that I am still working on donation tops rather than making masks. I think I will need to make some soon, at least for my son. I wonder how many are being made at the moment?

Flame Donation back - April 2020
Flame Donation back – April 2020

I used a pretty large piece of Jay McCarroll fabric for the back. I had to add a strip to it to make it large enough, but it will be fine. I still worry about labels. I think I might use stitch lettering to put my name and the year on the back and note that it is from BAMQG. I sort of want people to know I existed down the line. Of course, who knows if the quilt will exist for very long?

Flame Donation top - April 2020 (annotated)
Flame Donation top – April 2020 (annotated)

There is one thing that is interesting that is going on with this top. If I pay careful attention to the placement of colors, the piece looks woven.

I didn’t plan this, but it has design potential. The overall design might work better with more variety in the colors, so a viewer could tell where the colors were weaving. I suspect that too many colors wouldn’t work.

Weekend Donation Blocks

While I was sewing Frolic! over the weekend, I made a bunch of donation blocks as leaders and enders. I am getting quite a collection to turn in when I finally get to back to guild.

I counted all the donation blocks I have made in 2020 and the total came out to about 76. Not bad. Not 30 per month, but not bad.

March Donation Blocks

Here are some blocks I made in March. I made the 30 in a month I set as a goal last year. I think it might be the first time. Yay!!

Warm Spiky 16 Patch Block

Warm Spiky 16 Patch #1
Warm Spiky 16 Patch #1

As I said the other day, I am working with HRTs again. After getting re-oriented to the Split Recs ruler (By Deb Tucker). I followed my own advice (for once) and watched the video, which told me what I needed to know to get going.

I am using these as leaders and enders, though I also seem to be sticking in some regular 16 patches as well, while I work on the Frolic!

I am really loving these warm colors, which is an antidote to staying home most of the time and the rain (no complaints; we need it). They look so happy. I have used 5 blocks to make a quilt in the past, but might try 4 this time. It will be easier to make the corners.

 

 

 

 

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Warm Spiky 16 Patch

The other day I talked about making some HRTs with the intention of making a new donation top. I got inspired by some 16 patches that I made while my subconscious worked on Frolic! I also have the Warm Windmill on my mind.

Warm Spiky 16 Patch on the design wall
Warm Spiky 16 Patch on the design wall

For the past few days, I have been cutting and sewing HRTs and trying to relax. I am coming up with a quilt top that I really like.

Snip! Snip!

Cutting from Craft Night
Cutting from Craft Night

The other night we tried Virtual Craft Night. I think it worked pretty well and I got some cutting done. Usually, we do handwork, but I wanted to get those Frolic! pieces cut. Since I was in my workroom with the computer, I decided to rotary cut. I balanced the computer on my cutting table and cut away.

The blue pieces are sets I need for the Frolic! half and quarter blocks. I still have to figure out the last few pieces. There are some blue and pinwheel pieces I need to cut as well; I am just not sure what exactly I need to cut.

Bonnie‘s directions are great; the problem is that I have already done part of the cutting for the full blocks. This means I need to figure out what I have left to cut. I couldn’t do it while on the virtual session with my friends. I had to think and that requires being alone.

The beige and orange pieces will be used to make another Spiky 16 Patch quilt. Yes, this will be another another non-Color Strip donation quilt. Some recent orange and red and pink donation blocks inspired me. I had to figure out how to cut those spiky rectangles all over again.

Traffic Jam Top Finished

Traffic Jam top finished
Traffic Jam top finished

I finished Traffic Jam. This was an easy pattern and the quilt really went quickly, much more quickly than the Color Strip quilts.

This doesn’t mean I am giving up on those Scrap quilts. They are clearing out my scrap bins for something good. I just needed a break and wanted to play along with Vicki Holloway.

I made a back as well, so I get more fabric usage on my spreadsheet.

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Blue Strip Donation Top/Back Complete

Blue Strip Donation Top
Blue Strip Donation Top

Last Friday, I think, I finished the top and back of the Blue Strip Donation quilt. the piece is going in my bag to take to guild if the meetings ever start up again. I am feeling a bit lonely today. I know the social distancing is important for the health of the country, but I need a little more interaction than I am getting.

Anyway.

I am really pleased with the way the top came out. I had a half yard of two different yellows. The one I used on the border is Califon by Mark Lipinski. I like it, but it was languishing, so I thought I might as well use it.

Blue Strip Donation Back
Blue Strip Donation Back

The back was super easy! I had one large piece of blue and just needed to add a little bit to make it bigger. WHEW! No back drama this time.

Traffic Jam in Process

No pinching the blog! There is green in these blocks. 🙂

In between piecing Frolic! over the weekend, I used the Traffic Jam pattern as leaders and enders. I used up my stash of Marmalade Dreams mini-charms as well as two other packs of mini-charms. I had to scrounge for additional mini-charms, because I was a little short of the Marmalade Dreams I needed to make a small donation quilt. I think it will be fine once it is finished.