Thank You, Long Arm Quilters!

I love quilters who have long arms! Don't you? Of course, I mean long-arm quilting machines.

Another long-armer has volunteered to finish some tops. These will be going to Wrap-a-Smile. I so appreciate offers like this, because I enjoy making tops but not finishing the quilts. I do what I can to finish some, but I'm slow and very basic, and I can't afford to send them all out to be done professionally. So I rely on volunteer long-arm quilters to help save the day. When a new long-arm volunteer steps forward, I rejoice!

Today I sent these four tops to our new volunteer:

Rainbow

Mendota (made at the Sunshine retreat last June)

8-patch (I copied a block I saw at Covered With Love blog)

Random (made from leftover squares)

Also, my cousin has a new long-arm and is helping. I sent her this one recently. It is for Quilts Beyond Borders:

When these quilts are done, I will bind them and send them off to cuddle some kids.

Here I Am! Still Sewing!

I know I have not posted much lately, other than a few book reviews. Well, I have been busy sewing, and will show you below some of my projects.

In this first bunch you may recognize some duplicates. These are tops I made in the past (and may have shown here) but other people machine quilted and bound them (or I may have bound a few of them). It is so helpful to have a team of people who provide options to help start or finish our projects! It takes a village to get this volume of quilts made, finished, and sent around the world. I still have a small pile of quilted but not yet bound quilts. I plan to concentrate on bindings at our next gathering of quilting friends. (Then I will have more photos to share.)

Here are some that I have made and finished, or they are hoping to be done soon. The first one is for baptism at church; the others are for either Quilts Beyond Borders or Wrap a Smile:

These are my most recent GE Designs blocks for her Stroll in Paris mystery. If you are doing the same project, you can see how far behind I am! This is block #2, and tomorrow she will reveal block #6! I better get busy on these. If I fall hopelessly behind I will feel...hopeless.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and I love sewing on a Sunday afternoon, but tomorrow I will have Bonus Grandson visiting, so not much sewing will happen. Luckily I have six other days in the week to do whatever I want.

The Children

When I make quilts for kids, I picture this in my mind:


two girls in Guatemala:

a boy in ? (I think Guatemala, but I'm not sure):

a boy in a Jordan refugee camp for Syrians:

This is why I continue to make quilts for kids.

Wrap a Smile

Quilts Beyond Borders

Sunshine Quilt Guild (online)

Join me?

And More Sewing

two quilt tops I made for Quilts Beyond Borders .. both from Lotto blocks and orphan blocks

Two quilts I made for Wrap a Smile. They were quilted by CM. Thank you, CM.

Join Us at Sunshine Quilt Guild

Being helpful to others makes one happy. If you want to get in on the happiness, join us at Sunshine Online Quilt Guild and help us make quilts for kids and teens. We support two programs: Wrap a Smile (make quilts for kids having cleft lip/palate surgery) and Quilts Beyond Borders (quilts for kids in underserved areas, often in orphanages in hard-to-reach places). We have a lot of fun, and the service is rewarding. Join us at our group at MeWe (similar to Facebook but no ads and no privacy invasions). Here is the link:
https://mewe.com/join/sunshineonlinequiltguild


Examples of some of the fun we have:

Round Robin quilts

Block Lotto challenges

Quilts made from the Lotto blocks

Just for fun quilts

Occasional Retreats

Best of all, the kids who receive our quilts are comforted at a scary or unpredictable time in their lives. We are happy we can help them in this small but beautiful way.

(This quilt was made at our 2017 retreat in Omaha.)

(This quilt is the one shown above at Quilts made from Lotto blocks.)