Wow!

Your collective response to my call for quilt blocks to make quilts for the victims of Hurricane Sandy has been phenomenal!  I'm so excited to get these quilts together and humbled that you would participate in my little project.  And it is certainly motivating to know that there are quilters all across the US, Canada and Great Britain who are constructing blocks for this.  Knowing that was the little extra I needed to head downstairs for an hour last night after putting the kids to bed, instead of heading to bed myself after a pretty lousy day (stress at work, it'll pass).

I made four more blocks, started construction on two more, and pulled fabric for about 6 more.  I hope to have made at least 20 blocks by the time the weekend is over.  (Maybe 24 since we get an extra hour as we move our clocks back?)

If you are just tuning in and want to participate, the block instructions are on my last post.

Have a great weekend, everyone!  You are THE BEST!

Taking action - wanna help?

EDITED 11/3/12 - Just a note, if you are a no-reply commenter, I can't send you my mailing address.  If you haven't heard from me, that is why - I have already emailed everyone that I could get in touch with, and have tracked some people down through blogs.    I can be emailed at ehutchinson@wlu.edu, and I'll get my mailing address out to you all.  Thanks so much!

While my kids were home from school on Tuesday, enjoying the reprieve that Hurricane Sandy afforded us here in Virginia, I got started on an idea for a baby quilt.  I wanted to make a spiral log cabin like I had seen on Beth's blog, but I was wondering if it could be done with some of my pre-cut 2" squares that are overflowing their tin.  In no time at all, I had four 9.5" blocks to play with.  It turns out, I like Beth's better, but I can do something with these...

Then I went upstairs on turned on the TV.  Sandy may have given us a reprieve, but she bashed the heck out of our friends north of us.  The images on the screen horrified and haunted me.  My first job after college was in NYC.  My first date with my now-husband was on the Jersey Shore.  He surprised me with a trip to Atlantic City for my 22nd birthday.  The first home that we bought together was in Hoboken, NJ.  All these places that played such a significant role in my past were cold and dark and underwater.  People were were losing their belongings, their homes, their lives.

I can't sit by and do nothing.  I'll donate money, to be sure, but I'm going to turn my sewing room into a sweatshop these next couple of weeks and donate some quilts, too.  My program with the school kids doesn't start until November 12, so I have a week and a half to concentrate on making quilt tops.

Do you want to help?  I wanted to make big block quilts, something interesting but simple.  I saw the disappearing 4-patch online recently, so that's what I chose to make.  One block takes me about 10 minutes to make, including the cutting and pressing.  If you want to make a block to send to me,   leave a comment and I'll send you my mailing address.  I will put the quilt tops together and either find someone to machine quit them or (gulp) machine quilt them myself.  We can't help everyone, but together, we can make a small difference in the lives of some.

Block guidelines:

Choose two fabrics: a multi-color FLORAL and a coordinating fabric that provides good contrast to the floral and reads as a solid.  Cut two 7" squares from each fabric.  Sew into a 4-patch.

Press the 4-patch, and then using a long ruler, make four cuts on the 4-patch, one at 1.5" to each side of the center seams.  Do not move your fabric after each cut; either rotate the cutting mat after each cut, or rotate yourself around the mat.  Once cut, you should have this:

Granted, I moved them a little bit so you could see where the cuts are. 

Move only the skinny center pieces from each side clockwise one space (musical chairs for fabric). It should now look like this:

Sew into rows and then into a 9-patch.

Your final block should be 12.5".  Don't bother to trim your block to size, send them to me as is and I will trim them all to the same size together.  This is a block that is pretty forgiving - when trimmed, you don't lose the integrity of the block.

Thanks so much for considering helping out.  I know that a subconscious reason for wanting to help is to ease this feeling of helplessness that I have as I think about what my fellow citizens are going through. But is that such a bad thing if, through the easing of my own discomfort, I bring comfort to others?

“Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” - Martin Luther King, Jr. “Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.” - Sally Koch 

READY to quilt!

During the Mountain Days Festival earlier this month, I was approached about teaching a workshop to kids through an after school enrichment program at a local elementary school.  Well, I'm doing it!  The school received a 3-year READY grant (I don't know what the acronym stands for), and there will be workshops offered to the kids each quarter.  For now, I'm just starting with this marking period - we'll see how it fits into my schedule and how well the kids and I like working together.  I'll be doing 2 workshops per day, twice per week, one with grades K-2 and one with grades 3-5.  My workshop is called READY TO QUILT!

I set up a blog to be able to communicate with parents about what we are doing and so the kids can show off their work.  I made my first post today (http://centralquilts.blogspot.com), outlining workshop goals and displaying my class samples (since Hurricane Sandy canceled our Open House on Monday).  Basically, I want the kids to:

1) make at least one take home project, either a pillow or a composition book cover.  In keeping with the season, here are my class samples:

I recovered one of my couch pillows.  I drew the design freehand.  If I were doing it again, I think I'd leave out the word EEK and make the spider bigger.

I figure the kids should be able to do a backstitch, right?

For the first time, I made the pillow cover small enough that the pillow is plump, without wrinkles or empty corners

Envelope back so it can be removed

 

Donald wants this composition book cover for himself!  I told him I'd teach him how to make his own.

I don't know where I got that skulls fabric, but I love it, and have been trying to figure out what to make with it for a while now.

2) contribute to a group quilt to enter in the quilt show at the 2013 Rockbridge County Fair, along the lines of this quilt that I made with my cub scouts two years ago

The boys won 2nd place at the County Fair quilt show that year.

They traced images and then colored the blocks with crayons

3) assist in making a denim rag quilt to donate to my guild's Comfort Quilt program.  I want them to understand quilting's history as a community building activity.

The denim quilt I made for Jason earlier this year

The back of the denim quilt

 I'm so excited!!!  One of the things I'm going to do is incorporate some children's books into my workshops, probably starting each session with a reading.  I know I'm going to use the following books, but if you have suggestions for others I can use, please let me know.  Since there are 8 weeks, I'd love to have 8 books to share.

Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt - to talk about how quilting is not just for girls, about entering quilts in fairs and how working together often allows us to make something even better than if we work separately

Reuben and the Quilt - another quilt that shows boys quilting and introduces the idea of giving a quilt to comfort someone else

The Quiltmaker's Gift - to talk about how it is better to give than to receive (and because the illustrations in that book are AWESOME!)

The Patchwork Quilt - showing how quilting is an intergenerational and a multicultural activity

The Keeping Quilt - I've not read this, but the READY coordinator really likes it and wants me to use it

Have any of you or do any of you currently teach quiltmaking to kids?  If so, do you have any suggestions for me?

Lotto, Love and Lollipops

I finally ran out of solid white fabric, so I am done making Block LOTTO blocks.  I ended up with seven, and I think I'll put 4 into the Block Lotto pot, and keep 3 for myself.  I figure, with 3, I could make a table runner, right?  But ideally, I'll win and have a bunch of blocks to put together into a fun, crisp quilt!  I really like the looks of these.

Hmmm, which to keep, and which to give away?

I received some LOVE in the mail this weekend from "my best friend that I've never actually met", Em.

This photo is from her Facebook page because my photo of it did not come out well. She did bind it, and it is awesomely textured with her creative quilting.

In addition to this quilted L, she included some cool novelty fabric,

and this iron on Cowgirl patch that I ADORE!!!

I've always wanted to be a real cowgirl.  I want to put the patch on something, but what?  I might need to make myself a denim bag just to have something to affix it to that I can use/wear daily.  Thank you, Em!

Saturday night, we went to the final weekend at Hull's Drive-In for a costume contest, Trunk-or-Treating, and to see Hotel Transylvania.  At the last minute, I decided to dress up, revisiting my vampire costume from 4 years ago.  Apparently, I wasn't very scary that time, so this time I added a scraggly wig, and put black make-up around my eyes, and painted my fingernails black, and put some blood dripping down from my blackened lips.  Then, I decorated my trunk as a graveyard, using some Halloween fabric as a backdrop and stringing some cobwebs for the kiddos to reach through to pluck a LOLLIPOP from my black cauldron.  There were a couple little ones who were afraid to approach me.  Hee, hee, hee!

Trunk-or-treating at Hull's Drive-In 2012

Halloween is so much more fun if you just go with the flow and dress up and act WICKED.

Speaking of WICKED, are any of you getting caught up in the Wicked Blog Hop?  Oh my goodness!  I spent several wonderfully wicked hours over the weekend visiting blogs and entering giveaways and bookmarking blogs I want to revisit or blocks I want to make!  Fun, fun, fun!  And they inspired me to make a new Halloween pillow cover for one of my couch pillows, but more on that tomorrow (when it will be done).  Until then, be well, my pretties!  Cackle, cackle, cackle!!!

(and Mobenda, if you are reading this, please email me so I can get your address and fabric preferences to send you your fat quarter for commenting on my last post)

Baby quilt ideas

I have TWO friends who are newly pregnant and expecting their very first babies in the summer.  You know what that means, right?

I get to make BABY QUILTS!!!

I am so excited!  I have some ideas, but am always looking for new ideas.  If you see or know of something that would make a wonderful baby quilt (think unisex not gender specific), leave me a comment with a link to a photo of a baby quilt I can make.  It can be something you have made, or just something you have seen around.  The first 20 people who leave a comment with a link to a photo will receive a fat quarter of fabric from my stash.  If you have a preference (a particular color and/or type - stripe/floral/dot/novelty/juvenile/calico/modern print/etc) let me know.  Otherwise, I'll just surprise you.  If I don't already have your mailing address (I have already mailed things to a startling number of my followers, and keep all those addresses in a "quilter's addresses" address book), then I will email you to ask for your mailing address.  I'll plan on visiting the post office with my packages on Monday, so leave your comments before the end of the day on Sunday.

My ideas so far include:

Finishing up this Summer Breeze quilt that I started.  I only have enough of these fabrics for a baby-sized quilt anyway.

The Summer Breeze pattern is by Melissa Corrie - click the link above to see her entire quilt 

Making another Lil Twister quilt, but much more colorful and scrappier.  Lord knows I have enough scraps, and that quilt was awfully fun to make.

I gave this one to my newest baby cousin, born July 2012

I go back to visit this spiral log cabin quilt by Beth at Love, Laugh, Quilt all the time.  I could finally have a good reason to make one of these.

Photo from http://www.lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/2010/03/two.html

I look forward to seeing what ideas you all have!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Rituals

I have rituals when I begin to sew.  First, I get something to drink, coffee or tea if it is cold outside, water or juice or tea with ice if it is warm.  It is a long way from the kitchen to my sewing room, and I usually don't know how long I'm going to be down there, so I like to be prepared.  When I enter the room, I light either a scented candle or incense.  If necessary, I turn on the lights, but since there is so much southern exposure in my sewing room, I only have to do that at night and on gray days.  Then, I wander around, putting away anything that needs putting away so that I have room to work on the day's project(s).  All this takes just 3 - 5 minutes, but it is a smorgasbord for the senses, getting me ready to be creative.  I've got taste and smell covered with the drink and the incense.  Part of cleaning up is practical, but part is so I can feel the fabrics in my hands and see what is hiding in my fabric drawers as I put things away - touch and sight.  All that is left is hearing, and while I used to always listen to music or a story while sewing, lately, I've been sewing in silence.  I get so much THINKING done while I am sewing, and it is easier to think with less noise.

Do you have any rituals when you sew?

After last night's ritual, here's what I accomplished.

I'm up to three completed Split Stars and 3 completed selvage blocks, but I have another Split Star nearing completion, and 3 more selvage blocks in various stages of completion.

Halloween brings its own rituals.  One, of course, is carving the pumpkins.  I cut the top, the kids scoop the innards, I separate the seeds for roasting, the kids draw on the faces, and I cut along their drawn lines.  It's such a simple activity, but the boys and I always have so much fun doing it together.  Then, we light them and wait for Daddy to come home from practice.  He always takes a picture.

For someone who loves spontaneity and change, I realize I also cherish my rituals.

A first and a second

Riel over at the Q and the U continuously inspires me with all her selvage creations, so I finally bit the bullet and tried a selvage block.  I didn't use her tutorial, but rather Jodi's at Pleasant Home, using some fusible interfacing as a foundation.

The only reason there is only one block here is that I had to come back to town for a Cub Scout committee meeting and a karate class.  Otherwise, I'd have made block after block after block.  It was much easier than I had anticipated, and so gratifying to use the parts that are usually thrown away.  I was momentarily skeptical about having a foundation in there - as a hand quilter, I'm not sure how that would work - but I came up with a strategy that I think will nullify that concern.  Nothing more on that until I give it a try.

While sewing the selvage block, I also sewed my second Split Star for Block Lotto.  I love how crisp and clean these blocks appear in solids and white.  I think I have enough solid white for 2 more blocks.

Lastly, I want to share an experience my children and I had on Monday night.  Several months ago, I met a woman at the Community Festival in my quilting booth.  We talked about quilting and flower pressing (which is her craft and home business), and eventually talked about the Community Table.  The Community Table is a weekly restaurant style meal (complete with 4 courses, waiters in red aprons, white tablecloths and cloth napkins and live music), served free of charge to anyone in the community.  Those who can afford to make a donation at the end of the meal are able to do so as they walk out the door, but anyone can attend these meals and eat a healthy, home-cooked style meal in a collegial, non-judgmental atmosphere.

We went for the first time this Monday, and picked up my new friend from the Community Festival (she is 83 and unable to drive) to bring her along, too.  There were professors there.  There were families there.  There were people from local nursing homes there, out for a meal in town.  My kids saw friends from school.  I saw some quilting friends.  It was AWESOME!  I am so proud of my community.  To me, this is a really ingenious way to feed people in need without segregating them or taking away their dignity.  My family and I will definitely be going back.

When we took my new friend back home, she invited us in to see some things:

• her flower pressing, but also how she has incorporated real snake skins and real cicada wings into some of her creations (she is super talented!) 
• her antiques - including a Victrola hand crank phonograph from over 100 years ago with the THICK records (my kids danced and danced and danced to the scratchy tunes)
• her many motorized chairs (she said she gives driving lessons to young people)
• her chair lift to take her down into her basement (I've always wanted to try one of those!)
• her play rooms that she set up in her basement for her grandchildren where they create fantasy worlds behind the fabric and beads that she has hung as walls

Can I just tell you, my kids were MESMERIZED!  She invited them to come back and play anytime, and they have asked to go several times just in the two days since!  I'm so glad that my kids 1) have active imaginations and 2) don't share the sentiment that so many young people have these days that older people have nothing to contribute.  They recognized my new friend for what she is - a vibrant, interesting, exciting person who is really cool to hang out with!