H2H: This Year's Quilts

 Every year Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict organizes a charity quilt give-away. She encourages quilters to think of the world community or the local community and give quilts to those in need. She picks various programs we can choose to support, or even encourages us to donate to a program of our own choosing. I have participated every year since I found out about it (ten+ years?) and always enjoy it a lot.

This is what I created in 2021. This one went to Victoria's Quilts in Canada. She wants them to be 50" x 70" and tops only. That helps with the extra expense of postage to Canada. Victoria and her crew finish the quilts and then give them to people who have cancer. This was made from a huge pile of floral fabrics I received free from a friend. Florals don't seem particularly great for kid quilts, so I thought they might be suitable for some adults who are undergoing cancer treatments. Not a big fan of florals myself, I was still pretty happy with how this one turned out. It's even pretty!

The next one is photographed twice. It is also made from the floral fabrics, and went to Quilty Hugs which gives the quilts to people in the U.S. who have cancer. Again, it seemed appropriate for an adult. I assume that's who it will be given to. My cousin, Beth, quilted this for me on her long-arm.

At the last minute I also decided to participate in the Hometown Heroes quilt gifting. Because it was a last-minute decision, it has not yet been quilted and not yet been given away. But this is the top which I made from a kit and will be finished soon, I hope. Pattern is Magic Carpet by Vanilla Latte Quilts. (This quilt is high-lighted in my previous post from May 26.)

To see other gorgeous quilts given out by generous quilters, click here and be inspired.

My H2H Challenge Quilts

This year I made two quilts for the Hands2Help Challenge. This first one went to Quilts of Compassion:

Another option was their idea to send a quilt to a local caregiver. I decided to give one to my friend who works in the mental health field. I'm sure it is quite a challenging job, and I'm betting that her patience and quiet approach are helpful to her clients and to herself. Still, no matter how well suited she is to the task, I'm sure it sometimes gets to be difficult. So I sent this one in the mail, and I will post her response below the pictures.

From my friend:
"Thank you so much for the wonderful gift that arrived today! You will never know how much that means to me. After a challenging week at work, this made my day. The quilt is so perfect in every way. I love that the animal print came from Panama."

The give-one-locally idea was fun as I got to experience her reaction. I'm very pleased that it was a hit.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

This year I am going to participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I have been meaning to do this for years.. just never got my act together. Plus, I thought it was more complicated than it is. Just make blocks of your own choosing, using the color she announces for each month. The idea is to "use up" your scraps. We all know how impossible that is, but it's a good goal anyway.

I put a button in my sidebar. When you get to her blog, click on the RSC19 tab for the explanation.

January's color is RED! Let's get busy using up our scraps (or at least attempting to make a dent in them).

Here's a picture of her Sampler made in 2018 from her monthly scrap blocks.

One year she did a rainbow Dear Jane! I'm not going to get this complicated. I don't know my plan yet, but it will be simple.

Ugly Challenge

I participated in an Ugly Challenge at my local guild.. we drew an "ugly" FQ from a bag and made something with it. I can't find my leftover swatch of the ugly I drew so can't photograph it for you. It really was ugly.. I said at the time that it looked like puke. Some of the so-called "uglies" were actually pretty! Mine truly was ugly.

This is what I made from my ugly:

I gleefully showed this to my Loose Threads group while at C's house last week. It wasn't yet quilted.

The "ugly" is the third fabric in, if you start counting at the darkest one.

Here it is, completed:

Do you see the kangaroo I added to it? I'm not sure I want to leave it on there, but I probably will, simply because I named this quilt "Boing, Boing".

To see photos of the other Ugly Challenge quilts, go here, the blog dedicated to our guild activities.

Loose Threads, Challenge One

I know it's Friday and I should have a book review for you, but I don't. I'm still reading To Kill a Mockingbird. So far 2015 has not been a great reading year for me. I have read some fabulous books, but not many of them. I have been a slow reader this year.

Instead I'll share with you some pictures of the first challenge we did in a new small group I am a part of. We call ourselves The Loose Threads. There are five of us, so far. We just got started in April, and we meet once a month. When we had our first meeting, I had purchased a piece of red floral fabric that said clearly "use me for a challenge." So I did. I cut pieces for everyone, and handed them out at our first meeting and said, "make something." Four of the five of us made something. Here's the photo of the results:

table runner by Karrie, small bag by Sally, table topper left by Sunny, wall hanging right by Carol (me)

My little people are paper-pieced. The pattern shows five of them, but I got tired of the tiny, putzy work after two. The woman on the left is wearing the challenge fabric, but I colored in the white spots with a pigma pen. And I also used the challenge fabric on the bottom right for the garden. Mine is called "A Walk Through the Garden." This was fun.

At our recent June meeting Sunny gave us some fabric by Kaffe Fassett which is for our next challenge, Challenge Two. Same rule: "make something." I have my thinking cap on. Maybe I'll let the ideas percolate while I ... finish reading TKAM?

My Hands2Help Challenge Quilts

I'm finally getting back to my real life after Australia, New Zealand, and then a 4-day conference in another town here in Minnesota. Whew!

It's time to post pictures of the quilts I'm sending to Hands2Help for their annual challenge. Thank goodness I was busy sewing before May, because I haven't had any time to sew since late April. And these quilts are the result of many hands, not just mine. I couldn't have done these without help from my local guild. Thanks to all of them!!

This one is going to Layers of Hope: Quilting 911 which gives quilts to 911 Dispatchers who experience vicarious trauma during tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina, natural disasters, and traumatic emergencies.

The next charity, Happy Chemo, is getting two quilts. These go to people undergoing cancer treatments.

The last one is going to a charity in Canada, Because You Matter. Quilts are given to any person who is having a hard time. Most of them go to children in foster care. Of all these quilts, this is the one that I worked on the most, and I love the colors; I also have a tender heart toward kids in foster care, so I'm glad this one is going to that cause.

I hope ALL these quilts will provide some comforting cuddles to whoever receives them. Thanks, Sarah, for organizing this fun annual quilt drive.

P.S. Almost forgot... go HERE to see all the gorgeous quilts others are donating to the H2H Challenge.

Hands2Help Challenge. Join Us?

Today is the beginning of sign-up days for the Hands2Help Challenge. You can sign up any time you want, but if you join by March 21 (or is it 22?) you are eligible for a nice "sign-up" prize.

H2H has run every spring for three years now. This is the fourth. This year they have chosen three charities. You can send a quilt to one of them, two, or all three. It has been fun to participate and learn about different comfort quilt programs around the world. It is inspirational to see so many people involved and to see all the gorgeous quilts they make.

Follow the button in my sidebar. When you get to the website, go up to the top left and click on "Home" to find the post at which you should sign up.

Join us? It's fun!

Update on Inside Outside Upside-Down

This post is in response to comments I received on my Wed., January 7 post and my Inside Outside Upside-Down challenge quilt.

Thank you for the comments, Readers. This challenge is not one in which someone wins. Instead, the quilts are gathered up in a group and are displayed at various venues around the state for the next year. When the next challenge is done, it replaces the traveling display. This means that a bunch of people will see my quilt alongside the fabulous ones done by the true artists in my guild. (There is some REAL talent there. Wow.) And soon I'll get back my challenge quilt from last year. It has been traveling around for the last year.

Last year I made that challenge quilt about four times before I had one that I felt was presentable. This year I didn't want to do that. But I might make a second attempt...

I really appreciate your encouragements for me to show it and participate. I might. I'm still contemplating.

One person mentioned that she liked the "skirt." Thought I'd show you what I really had in mind. It's supposed to be a window. That's our view of a window from the inside, looking at a curtain. Then under the curtain you see there is a kid outside, looking in with his hands up beside his face to see better. Really, that's kind of what I had envisioned... just making a window quilt... and I might still do that. And I'll make it more clear that it's a window and not a skirt.



I also like this upside down part: Down Under aka Australia.

The challenge isn't due for a while, so I have time to think on this and perhaps make another one.

Determined... and Making Progress

I am determined to get some of these UFO tops quilted and out of my house! I'm doing pretty well so far. I got these two done, and I have a third that is nearly done. These are charity quilts.

I also quilted this. I showed the top to you a while back.. maybe a month ago? It's supposed to be for my guild challenge, Inside Outside Upside-Down. I didn't like it as I had it. I decided to cut off the top row and take off the borders. I like it a little better this way. Then I got it all quilted and with a hanging sleeve on the back. I used the cut-off top row to make the hanging sleeve! (So clever, I thought.)

So it's done, but I'm just not that happy with it. I think I won't turn it in with the other challenge quilts. I'm trying too hard to be an artist, or something. And I don't feel like I truly am an artist. Disappointing.

I tried to watch the People's Choice Awards tonight, but I kept falling asleep.

I'm so sad about the attack and massacre in Paris. We live in a sad, broken world. Let's follow advice from Ellen DeGeneres: be kind to one another.

Inside, Outside, Upside Down

One of my quilt guilds is holding a challenge: create a quilt which reflects the theme "Inside, Outside, Upside Down." I've been thinking about it for quite a while, but didn't have a clear inspiration. I actually played with one idea, but knew it wasn't what I wanted to do. I abandoned that idea right away.

Then I got inspired.. and created this quilt in two days. It's not totally done, the border is not yet attached, some of the details aren't finished, but this is pretty close to done as a top. And everything came from my stash! This guild is full of really talented folks, so of course I'm already second guessing myself. I feel a bit intimidated in this group. I am trying to learn to not be so hard on myself. Whatever happens, I had fun making this one.

I made two pies for Thanksgiving dinner. They look pretty bad, but hopefully they'll taste good.

Hope you have a happy Thanksgiving, if you are celebrating it this week. We're missing our son! It's a regular work day for him, far away in South Korea. Have a happy day, Son!

My 4th Cycle

Remember last week I posted my Cycle quilt; I wasn't very happy with it and debated about turning it in for the challenge.

Thanks for everyone who encouraged me to turn it in, even though I didn't like it. Instead, I made another one. My 4th attempt. And finally I am somewhat satisfied with it. Believe it or not, I could still stand to change a couple things, but overall I am happy with it; it's definitely the best of my 4 attempts.

It gets turned in on Monday night at our guild meeting.

Here's a table runner I made from skinny scraps, mostly from my sister's donation of scraps.

And here's a weird picture.. it's a color catcher after washing some mostly blue fabric. It had a little bit of green in it.. I just thought the color catcher was a surprising color, so I took a picture.

Let's Help Kevin the Quilter With QOV

I added Kevin the Quilter's challenge button on my sidebar. He is doing a block collection.. they're super easy and quick, and they make a striking quilt. He's hoping to get several quilts made for Quilts of Valor.

And, from the kindness of his own heart and his own pocketbook, he is offering a $100 prize to some lucky winner! Your name goes in the pot once for each five blocks you send in. Let's see how many we can send!

Here's a photo of blocks by me:

Easy peasy!

Click the button in the sidebar, and it will take you to Kevin's blog and the instructions. Have fun!

I Give In -- I'll Join the Tea Towel Challenge

Tea towel challenge!! I guess I'll try again. I did one over at Bumble Beans, Inc., and never finished, because I wasn't happy with what I created.

There's another one going.. here:
http://sophiejunction.blogspot.com/p/tea-towel-challenge-2014.html

I'll try again. I don't have a towel at hand and have no particular design in mind, so this will be a complete mystery and adventure. Stay tuned!

a restaurant in San Diego... totally unrelated to tea towels, as far as I know! Maybe they sell giraffe tea towels there. I better go check.

An Artist or a Crafter?

I am participating in a challenge over at 15 Minutes Play blog. Take a photo of architecture.. anywhere, maybe right outside your window. Then make a quilt of that scene, 24" x 30". Use some "made fabric" in your quilt (scraps sewn together and then used as fabric).

Here is my photo. It is the Ice Palace built during the Saint Paul Winter Carnival in 1992. (This is a photo of a photo.)

I worked on my quilt. I liked it in my mind. I made it... and sorta kinda liked it, but I didn't love it. Here it is:

I am almost done quilting it, though that had not started yet when I took this picture. I'm liking it better as a quilted quilt, but still not loving it.

Then I thought -- maybe I should make another version. I'll make it a more modern, contemporary, representational version, not so exact. Maybe it will look very artsy and cool like the other quilters are no doubt making for their Architecture Challenge quilts. Maybe it'll be really cool like the modern quilts I saw recently at the Minnesota Quilters show.

So I made version two, and it just looked Stupid. I don't even like it at all. I stopped before finishing, and there it sits on my design wall, being ugly.

I moped about that for most of an afternoon. But I have to come to terms with my own style and what I do, and what I like to do. I can't expect to churn out a glorious piece of art... I don't think I'm really an artist. I think I'm good with color, and I'm creative, and I'm not afraid to work outside the box. But maybe I'm just working in a bigger box, and I have come up against my Big Box walls. I'm not sure if I can or even if I want to break out of the mold where I'm comfortable.

So does that make me a crafter and not an artist? Honestly, yes. Probably. But... am I happy with how I work, what I create, and the creative process? Yes, very much so. Maybe that's enough.

My March Goal

The Lovely Year of Finishes is asking me to name my March goal. What I hope to accomplish this month is to finish making, quilting, and binding this heart top.

I did not even start on my February goal. I thought about repeating it in March, but that did not sound very inspiring, so I went with this in-progress quilt. I would like to get it done and sent on to its destination (which for now is a secret).



Crossing my fingers!

See other folks' goals for March in the Lovely Year of Finishes here.

Checking In

Hi, World! I have spent a few hours wrapping Christmas gifts. And reading a good book. And knitting... I am working on a scarf. And avoiding cleaning my house. As usual. I so hate cleaning. Wish I could have a live-in maid!

Last Saturday I sat at work, knitting with a co-worker (we were both off duty). She has spear-headed a collection of hats, scarves and mittens to donate to a domestic violence assistance program for deaf people. I worked on this hat.

I like how it turned out, except it is much smaller than I intended. I wanted it to fit a child, but it is more of a toddler size... and made of wool. Who wants to put a wool hat on a baby?! If I'd known what I was doing, I would have lined it with fleece, but alas, I often don't know what I am doing.

Over at 15 Minutes Play blog I accepted a challenge and got some vintage fabric in the mail. I made this, so far. The four center strips are the challenge fabric.

I was disappointed that I didn't make something more creative than this traditional string block.. so I decided that after Christmas I am going to add more to it and turn it into a medallion style quilt. Stay tuned!

Be warm, be happy, and may peace and love fill your heart.

My gratitudes list:

1) good books and people who share them
2) generous quilters - such nice people!
3) being semi-retired and having time to enjoy my life
4) Christmas cookies
5) Christmas music

Sewing, Finally!

Even though I'm retired, and I work only a few hours per week at my semi-retirement job, my days fill up, and it is so hard to find time for the things I want to do! I used to only half-believe it when retired people told me this in times past, but it's true! Life is just as busy as ever; it's just that it's filled with other things that I couldn't do while I was working full time.

Anyway, I did manage to do a little bit of sewing. Some of it is a surprise that I can't show you yet. But here is some of it:

These blocks (above) were made along with Victoria at Bumble Beans Inc. She was running a color challenge, giving us a new color to work with each week. We created "made fabric" and turned it into blocks. My "made fabric" is in the centers of the blocks. She ran the challenge for 16 weeks, and I actually kept up, which is unusual for me. I even made some extras, so I had 20 blocks to play with. I'm going to put them together like in this picture, and I have pieced borders in mind to finish it off. It'll take a while for me to get to that next step, so don't expect a finished quilt photo for quite some time.

I also made these (above) blocks for the Block Lotto at Sunshine. Our gal, Tammy, will turn them into awesome quilts for kids.

Then, as I showed you several months ago, I made a quilt for a challenge called Earth From Above. The quilts for that challenge were terrific (except for my mediocre one)! It was a wonderful challenge and so fun to see the results! People are amazingly creative. When I was at Aunt Annie's shop, the place that sponsored the Earth From Above challenge, I snapped this picture of the shop owner, Lucy.

Then I went home and made this quilt and called it "Lucy From Straight On." (A play on words .. Earth From Above? Lucy From Straight On? ... that's how my mind works.)

Last week I gave Lucy the quilt, and she thought it was quite fun. At least she appeared to like it.

So that's what I have been up to! Among many other things. How about you? Does the busy-ness in your life ever slow down??

Be the Change

Today I watched Dr. Phil. Guests were the 41-year-old male teacher and his new live-in girlfriend, his former student, who is 18. Barf! He left a 20-year marriage and three kids to move in with an 18 year old girl. Her mother is understandably outraged.

He claims they are in love and just "following their hearts." With language like that you know he is wooing this child with romantic ideas, not real life. What he wants, it seems, is fresh meat. After he's done using her up, he'll dump her, too. He's selfish, cruel, and dishonest. If he truly loves her, he would be willing to give her time to grow up and make a decision based on experience and self/world awareness. He has to know that at 18 her brain isn't even fully developed, and she does not have the capacity to understand long term consequences. She is being fooled and is playing house. He is satisfying his lust for youth and using her, big time.

Her mother sees this clearly, but because she's the mother, the daughter can't get past the mother-daughter thing to see that her mother is right. So there is big time tension. Who is taking care of this girl's need for protection? This idiot teacher should know better and should be put in jail.



Another thing happened: today I heard a statistic that a shelter here in St. Paul, MN, which helps women escaping from domestic violence, took in almost 1,000 women and children in 2011. 1,000 women and children in need of protection from domestic violence in little St. Paul!? That is an outrage. Probably more were turned away, because we all know these days, there are not enough shelters and safe houses for the enormous need. What a sad, sad state our society is in.

I don't have the answers. Right now I only have outrage. Somehow we need to educate our children... girls, so they learn to see the danger signs in relationships and learn to protect themselves, and to love themselves enough to avoid those pitfalls; boys so they no longer feel this need to control and "own" the girls and women in their lives, and love themselves enough to accept life's ups and downs without fear of losing their manhood. Picture this: boys and girls, men and women, all strong and secure in themselves to avoid falling into dangerous relationships. They all value the friendships and talents that everyone provides. Friendships and love relationships are built on trust, respect, and equality. We could close the shelters and trust that our neighbors and we ourselves would all be helping protect our children.

Dream world? Maybe... but it's what a lot of other dreamers have seen as possibilities: Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Jesus, Sojourner Truth, Jane Addams, Paul and Sheila Wellstone... I don't think it's too much to ask. Let's think about our own lives and how we can each make a difference with our neighbors, friends, co-workers, and those we meet along our daily journeys. Speak up, take a stand, defend children, challenge stereotypes. Maybe we can start to turn this around and create a better world.

Earth From Above -- Amazing Quilts!

I talked about my Earth From Above challenge quilt here. I waited until past the due date to finally come up with an idea, and then made the quilt hurriedly in one day. The next day I knew I'd be driving past Aunt Annie's Quilts in Avon, on my way to visit my mother, so I had to finish and hand deliver my quilt.

They have received about 50 quilts, and believe me, they are super amazing and clever and gorgeous! Most of them were still on tables, waiting to be organized and hung, so a couple other customers and I got to look at them all, and Lucy even let me take pictures. It was so inspirational (and, I must say, humbling) to see these quilts!

These will probably hang in a couple of quilt shows; once in the St. Cloud area and once in the annual Minnesota Quilters show which happens in mid-June. This year it will be in Rochester. Here's a sneak peek, with a reminder that photos don't do the quilts justice. I hope some of my readers will be able to see these in person at Lucy's shop, or at one of the two quilt shows in which they will hang. They're worth the trip.

I have labeled the pictures of which I remember the subject matter. (Pictures are in plastic sheets, reflecting light and making them hard to photograph.) One quilt that was one of my favorites I didn't even post here, because both the picture and the quilt were just too hard to photograph. It was amazing though.

the blue strips are solar energy panels

the quilt representing above picture


don't know the story of this picture, but notice the small area of blue in bottom right corner

the quilt includes a small area of blue in bottom right corner - so cool!


the picture...

... and the quilt! Yeah, I know!


cotton bales, with a man resting on one of them (Imagine: our quilt fabrics are made from these giant bales!)

quilt is made of home-made cotton balls on a leaf-shaped "platter" with a fairy resting on one of them


post-tsunami destruction

and the quilt inspired by the above


cool patterns in the earth

and the very cool quilt inspired by those patterns


picture of roads

the "roads" are made from zippers, and it includes hand-printed sayings about journeys from Robert Frost, Dalai Lama, and Buddha


the picture of whatever - pretty colors and patterns

and the quilt made in its honor


There were lots more. Wish I could show them all to you. Wasn't this a great idea for a challenge? It really brought out people's creativity!