CRISIS PREGNANCY QUILTS (10)

CRISIS PREGNANCY QUILTS:

My daughter volunteered to make 10 baby quilts for the local Crisis Pregnancy Center - she took them today and said the head volunteer loved them. Thanks to the people who donated the baby quilt fabric so that she (I only sorted, ironed, and cut the blocks) could make these for those precious little ones. A total of 5 girl and 5 boy quilts.

The tops finish at 36-37" square. To make them:

• 9 9.5" squares in bright fun fabrics
• The border is 6" wide
• 1.25 yard of fabric for backing
• Batting to fit
• These are all self bound meaning the front is folded over the front edge and stitched down.  I personally cut the back 1.5 to 2" bigger on all sides and then fold in half with raw edge to the inside and stitch down one side at a time making the corners as neat as possible.
• These are simple and can be made in about 1 - 1.5 hours each, including yarn tying. They can also be machine quilted if desired.

VETERAN QUILTS

VETERAN QUILTS: At the beginning of Feb. 2012, we sent 11 lap size quilts to Christians Serving Veterans who passed them out in Veterans Homes as they visit. We got in a hurry to box them up and only took pictures of 2 of them.

FOUR PATCH

FOUR PATCH: I made the blocks in 1994, and my son added the border and tied it in 1996. It is in his possession. Made of cotton fabric and poly batting. Size is 48" x 92". (#160)

AMISH CENTER DIAMOND (Handquilted)

I started this quilt in 1991 in honor of my Grandma's Amish/Mennonite heritage. I actually bought all the cotton fabrics at an Amish dry goods store in Arthur, IL - the ladies at the shop were great about double checking my math on yardage.  By the time I finished it in 1996, Grandma had died.

I did most of the hand quilting myself, but was able to have one quilting bee that involved LT, JG, BP, GS, EE, SS, MM, MK, TC, and BK. I tried to keep track of how much quilting there was in it, but after 400 yards of hand quilting decided to quit counting (and I wasn't to the outside border yet). I chose to quilt each of the outer purple borders a different all over pattern - fun, but definitely not traditional. It took so long to quilt because I would quilt for a customer, then put this one back in the frame until the next customer quilt arrived.

 It is cotton fabric with poly batting (I hadn't discovered wool batting yet). It won first prize in the local county fair in 1998, and was also shown in the local quilt guild show the same year.

The backing is a brown print with small black flowers.

The center square and green triangles were measurements from the book, Amish Quilt Patterns by Rachel T. Pellman. From that point, I adjusted the blue and purple borders to suit me. The top itself was quick to piece - 2 hours.

 Size is 96" square.

In my scrapbook, this is quilt #167.

MISSING THE CABIN

MISSING THE CABIN: Pieced in June 1997 out of rustic cheater blocks and coordinating fabrics. MG machine quilted it in late 1997. Size is 76" x 78". Cotton fabrics and poly batting. It was donated to a local charity in August 2002. Let's face it, we had a really hard adjustment to make to even like this area a little. We especially hate the weather (and still do) meaning the wimpy winters and horribly humid summers. We miss having the luxury of going up to the mountains to the family cabin in Montana when we need to get away. The Lord has left us here for a reason, so we do our best to just not complain about our continued dislike of the area and concentrate on the things we do like about it. (#191).

NINE PATCH

NINE PATCH: I found this really neat fabric that had bright colored masks on it and decided to make a quilt out of batiks and this fabric for my son, who is really enjoys theater. My daughter cut all the blocks and it was machine quilted by RLM. It was given to him when he was home in April 2010. He seemed a little disappointed because it doesn't match is more subdued decor in SC, but I still think it is a neat quilt. Guess he'll just have to hide it. Double bed size. (#611)

CHRISTMAS GEESE

CHRISTMAS GEESE: I pieced this in 1998 out of scraps that looked or were Christmas themed. It was made for my son and he wanted a navy blue background. It was machine quilted by MG in July 2000, and given to him for Christmas 2000. It won a blue ribbon in the 2001 county fair. Cotton fabrics and poly batting. Finished size is 67" x 92" (#283)