Fruit Loop Quilt

Many of you know that I have nine grandchildren that I adore. This is Jane who is a second grader and recently turned eight. Getting her ears pierced, finally getting to wear glasses like her sister, and getting a new quilt from her Lolly are three top things on her "This Makes Me Happy List"! Her little brother, Edmund, looks pretty happy too!

I try to always have a Leader/Ender project that I'm sewing on as I make another quilt.  The nine patch blocks for Jane's quilt were pieced as leader/enders way back in 2011. They waited patiently to become a finished quilt...so glad it works that way!

If you've never used leader/enders, but would like to try it with your scraps, there is a tutorial in my sidebar that explains the process. It's a great scrap buster and just takes a little planning and organization.  It's a habit that I don't want to break!

This was Jane's reaction to her new quilt....it makes my heart burst with pleasure! Right away she began looking for fabrics that she recognized from clothing I've made for her. I remember doing the same thing with scrap quilts that my grandmother made!

Fruit Loops is a twin size quilt and machine quilted with an edge-to-edge circle design.There's nothing better than a washed and dried quilt in all of it's crinkly goodness!

Jane agrees.

Quilts Matter

Fifteen quilts. Fifteen young people on the other side of the world.  A match made in heaven, I think.

It was a special day. My husband, Fred, and son, Drew, called each child up to the front one at a time and presented them with a quilt. Fred explained that it had been made especially for them and that no one would ever take it from them. I had labeled each quilt with a name.

Quilts are not the norm in Nepal. These kiddos had never seen one before. 

I think the happy faces tell you what they think of quilts though!

The children are learning English and many of them wrote me handmade notes of thanks.

A common theme among the notes is how much I must love them to make them a quilt.

One young man wrote that this is the first gift that he has ever received and how happy that it made him.

I will treasure these notes forever.  They bring a lift to my heart but at the same time a lump to my throat.

I feel like I have a bond with these children now. Kids that I may never meet personally have become some of "my kids" now. Because of quilts.

These children are all disabled and lead a much more challenging life than I ever will. Because of the cultural caste system in Nepal they are usually overlooked.

And yet their joy for life and thankful spirits are evident and contagious. I could learn a lot from them.  

Being a part of this project has been such a pleasure. I see why Drew cares about them so much.

I'm convinced more than ever that quilts matter. Giving matters. Kindness matters.

Often I've heard quilters comment about a quilt they are giving away that it is JUST for charity, usually said about a project made with fabric that they dislike or is of low quality. I have a different view and want the quilts that I give to always be beautiful and ones that I would be proud to gift to family or friends. 

You just never know what a difference you are making in someone's life when you give a quilt away. I feel that you are giving part of yourself.

Thank you again to my quilter friends who helped make this all happen for these children by giving of your time, talent.....and quilts! You made a difference.

Quilters Make Good Neighbors

 You may recognize this quilt as being made using the "Village" pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company. It was a lot of fun to create each little house using five inch charms from my stash collection. 

My favorite houses have fussy cut windows or doors with fun surprises like bunnies, a mushroom, a flamingo or even a goldfish, to name a few.  I quilted it with meandering wavy lines and bound it with the same black/white dot used in most of the roofs.

The builder went on strike before the entire village of 132 houses were constructed, so my village is more of a hamlet, I guess, with 64 homes. As written, the quilt would have been quite a bit larger if I had kept going and made spaces between my buildings. 

This size perfectly fits the wall at the end of a hallway in my home. Each time I see it, I am reminded of the enjoyment of building the houses along side my sewing buddy, Vicki. I named it, Quilters Make Good Neighbors because, they really do!

Thank You, Susan

During a quilt guild show-and-tell, I displayed a couple of my leader/ender quilts and explained my motivation to send quilts to Nepal.  Afterward, Susan approached me and expressed a desire to create a few simple tops as gifts for the children living in the Nepal home.

 This I Spy quilt will be fun for four-year-old Grace who has Downs Syndrome. I can just imagine the hours she will enjoy identifying all of the colorful pictures!

 My grand-daughter, Lois, loves this sweet 30's print medallion style quilt and picked it to go to Ganga, who is thirteen and in fifth grade at her school in Kathmandu. I quilted it with a simple loopy pattern.

 Kashiram, who uses a wheel chair due to his disability, will enjoy sleeping under this happy quilt each night. Susan did a great job of creating a sweet quilt using a simple design and just a few fabrics that she had on hand.

 It has been my joy to organize an effort to bless some dear ones living on the other side of the world. Thank you, Susan, for coming along side of me. 

 My husband and son have made it back home from a successful medical mission to Nepal and delivering the quilts. I'm hoping to soon have more photos of the kids with their quilts.

Lisa's Quilts

 Quilters are some of the most generous people in the world. I see it all the time, don't you?
Lisa is the perfect example, stepping up when she heard that I was wanting to gift quilts to sixteen children in Nepal.These are the fabulous creations she handed to me one evening before a quilt guild meeting.

 This Plus and X quilt was not a quick quilt to create and yet Lisa was happy to give it to Bijay, a young boy disabled in the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. 

 I'm betting that fourteen year old, Milan, is loving this improv quilt as much as I do. Lisa is an art teacher and her quilts are an expression of her talent.

 This third gifted quilt is made with hand-dyed fabrics and Lisa told me that she would like for the quilt to be given to someone very special. My daughter-in-law and I decided to pass the beautiful quilt, which is a bit larger than all of the others, to Bikash and his wife, Bijata. The young Nepali couple have the responsibility of caring for the kids who live at P. G.

 Lastly, I want to feature a couple of lap size quilts given by my friend, Patty. The Kansas dugout top as well as the modern liberated top, both pieced by Sharon, were beautifully quilted by Patty and passed along for the kids. I made the quilt on the right below using a pattern by Cindy, LiveaColorfulLife. 

I'm excited to have been given a photo of two of the lap quilts, at home with their new owners, Raj and Sanu. Both boys are wheelchair bound and will enjoy having warm wraps. That handsome guy on the right is my son, Drew.

My next post will feature the last three quilts for the Children's Home.  Thanks for taking a look!

Candy Box Sampler

If quilt blocks were chocolates, it would be difficult to pick just one favorite from this box of deliciousness!

 Once again, I am featuring blocks created by my friend, Sharon, and generously gifted to me by her family following her death. Each one is uniquely modern in style and color choice. I do not know the pattern source. If you recognize the designer, please let me know.

Sharon had already started sashing the blocks with light grey solid on two sides. Staggering the blocks this way is a fun setting for the six inch blocks. 

By adding a darker grey border and wide strip to separate some of the rows, I was able to lengthen the quilt to 80 inches, long enough to cover a child's cot at P. G.

Mod quilting with a light grey thread and backed with bright green print, I was very tickled with how this quilt turned out....perfect for a thirteen year old girl named Somati.

Festivity

This easy Bohemian quilt is a cinch to make...perfect recipe for a quick charity project.

I used a layer cake of Amy Butler fabric plus some random fabrics from my stash with similar style. Each ten inch square was simply cut in half to create rectangles and then pieced into rows.

My friend, Sue, offered to quilt this project to help me meet my deadline for sending it to Kathmandu. What a blessing to have quilty friends who stepped forward to help. Eleven year old Shristika is blessed as well!