I Think I Need a Bigger Box

I finished up two quilts for donation to Wrap-A-Smile, a partner of Rotaplast International, a non-profit organization that treats children with cleft lip and palate anomaly who otherwise would not receive surgical intervention.  Some of the hospitals where the missions take place have no linens so the quilts cover the operating table during surgery, keep the children warm after surgery and they then get to take their quilt home with them. Sometimes the quilt is the only item of value other than the family's cooking implements. 

See that box? Do you think they will fit? 

Aliens

40 x 58

It consists of a couple of Lotto blocks I won last year from Sunshine Online Quilt Guild's monthly lotto, a few orphan Happy Blocks, some scraps left over from a Quilt of Valor and some 2.5 inch scraps and and some alien fabric from stash. 

Hearts

40 x 58

It consists of a few scrappy heart blocks, another block lotto winning block and some 6 inch orphan blocks along with some 2.5 inch scraps for sashing. 

I had made both tops last year but had to finish some other UFOs in order to have enough left over batting to piece together for these.  I usually buy Queen-sized batting on sale and piece leftovers for these smaller quilts that I quilt on my plain Jane DSM.  I quilted Hearts with flowers and Aliens with stars. 

The last time I put the quilts in a box for mailing I decided it wasn't quite full enough and I could make a couple more quilts to fill it up.

And now I think I need a bigger box. 

I need to find it soon because these are sure taking up space in my sewing room and I now need space for Christmas gifts!

Have You Heard of Wrap-A-Smile?

Last October Mollie of the Heartstrings  Quilt Project and Yahoo Group challenged us to make heartstring quilts in black and white.  I added a few polka dots and ended up with three tops 40x58. 

I used some flannel with cats for the back and finally got them quilted and bound. 

I am donating these to Wrap-A-Smile.     Wrap-A-Smile provides quilts for kids who undergo cleft lip/cleft palate surgery provided by Rotaplast. 

Some of the hospitals where the operations take place on these Rotaplast Missions have no linens and the quilts cover the OR tables.  

The hospitals have no electric warmers to keep the children warm after surgery so quilts are used.   And each child gets to take a quilt home after surgery - a home where often the quilt is the only item of value other than the family's cooking implements.  

And what was in the grass under the clothesline?  One single crocus I almost missed.  Finally some sign of Spring. Whoop, whoop! 

Speaking of Whoop, Whoop...I'm linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict where everyone Whoops it up on Fridays. 

AND

Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Two Tops

Heartstrings Quilt Project is hosting a black and white challenge. Here's my first top of 24 blocks with green centers.  

I've also finished assembling a top using orphan blocks and some scrappy hearts. 

Both quilts, when finished, will go to Wrap a Smile  - quilts for kids undergoing cleft lip/cleft palate surgery. 

Linking to:

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

There's a Hole in the Barn Door

48x60

Hole in the Barn Door

I used up some 6.5 inch squares I've accumulated over the years from various I Spy swaps. 

Quilted with spirals on my plain Jane DSM.

It will go to Wrap-a-Smile  which provides quilts for kids quilts for kids undergoing cleft lip/cleft palate surgery. 

Unfortunately I forgot to put Color Catchers in the laundry when I washed the quilt and some of the reds ran on to the back.  I have read some places that they can be re-washed with Color Catchers after it has run and sometimes the reds will come out.   I will have to see.

Linking up today to Confessions of a Fabric Addict...Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?    You may want to see what everyone else is Whooping about this week and Sarah is having a Giveaway. You won't know what it's all about if you don't visit her blog!

What Are Little Boys Made Of?

Snakes, Snails, Puppy Dog Tails !

36x48

I gathered together a bunch of 6.5 inch squares of bugs, frogs, snakes, dogs, spiders, bees, cats, crabs, etc. from scraps or that I have acquired from various swaps over the years.    It has been a flimsy (UFO) since last July.  I followed a video  for a 10 minute quilt block  

I finally dug it out of the UFO pile to quilt because I wanted to practice some spider web quilting. I'm working on a bigger project I want to quilt with spider webs so why not practice on a baby quilt. 

I don't have a longarm....just a plain Jane Janome DSM and my fingers sometimes don't work right and my eyes don't see right but I usually end up with an acceptable end result.  I tried to interconnect all spider webs and when washed it gave the little quilt just the right amount of soft puffiness that I love in a quilt.

Sometimes I didn't back track along all lines well enough.  (Poor kitties stuck in those spiderwebs.)

And sometimes the web went a little past where it should have connected. But what little boy is going to notice or care?   And, I got in some spider web free motion quilting practice and a finished quilt.

I used this wild fabric from my stash.  I probably found it on sale somewhere since that's how most of my stash gets here. 

I was going to give it to my 4 year old grandson but instead I think I will put it in the baby-to-be box for the next boy baby to join the extended family.  I'll be ready for a change!!!!

(Actually, one of my 8 year old tomboy granddaughters fell in love with this quilt. I gave her some scraps and crumbs to work with to incorporate into something of her own. )

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict?  And why not give a few others a Whoop Whoop while you are there.  (Oh, and what a surprise to see my last week's finish as Sarah's fav of the week!!! I'm blushing.)

And, since I've got another UFO finish I'm going to link up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

Design Line Monday

44x56

Fall Lottery

This quilt will be donated to Wrap a Smile- quilts for kids undergoing cleft palate/cleft lip surgery.  It is made from 6 blocks won in an autumn color block lottery hosted by the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild and some other miscellaneous scraps, pinwheels and wonky stars. 

Isn't that Scottie Dog cute? They are looking for more "boyish" quilts so hopefully this could be appropriate for a girl or a boy. 

I quilted it with loops and stars on my plain Jane DSM. Looks like I should have gotten a little closer to the edge with my quilting  but that's the way it stays now. I'm also getting better at machine binding. I actually enjoy sewing down binding by hand but I do understand that machine binding is better for kids.

40x52 

 "Happy Cats"

This quilt will also go to Wrap a Smile and I think either a boy or girl would enjoy it. Who doesn't love a happy cat? 

Looks like I hung the quilt upside down so maybe the cats aren't that happy now. 

I think I have a bottomless box of happy blocks in different themes waiting to be made into quilts. 

Quilted on plain Jane DSM with spirals. Looks like I made it closer to the edges on this one with my quilting. And, again, binding is sewn down by machine. 

And now I'm linking to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. But I guess since I don't have a design wall but do have a clothesline now you know why I titled my post today Design Line Monday. 

The Answer is Blowing in the Wind

What did I do with my yellow scraps- the color for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge?  Well, there weren't many so I had to combine them with orange and red...

...to get enough for 24 - 8 inch crumby bow tie blocks...

...which are now a quilt top blowing in the wind (which makes it difficult to take a photo) that needs some borders. Then it will be a quilt for Quilts Beyond Borders or Wrap-a-Smile. 

I needed some yellow spools for my collection (now I have 150 spools) so I cut into some yellow fabrics for those and I found enough yellow in my postage stamp box (1.5 inch squares) for a yellow patch.

I also decided to cut into some yellow in my stash to work on my Floribunda quilt which is a UFO. I added 13 more blocks for a total of 25.   

So, this month I used up most of my yellow scraps and then started making more.  To check out what everyone else is doing with yellow visit SoScrappy's blog for Scrap Happy Saturday.  I'm going to go check out everyone else's projects and then go work in the garden. It's finally a sunny day and that wind felt so good while I was out taking pictures and the strawberries are ready for picking (and weeding). 

Using Up Yellow

Yellow is the color for June  for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC).   I don't have many yellow scraps. I used some 2.5 inch pieces in this yellow/brown top I finished this weekend. The twelve inch blocks I won in a block lottery on the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild Yahoo Group. I have many more but I used 6 in this top. 

I made some 6 inch wonky stars and used white/cream and yellow as background and brown scraps for the points and centers. 

The middle row I just sewed together brown/yellow/cream/orange 2.5 inch scraps. And for the bottom row I used 2.5 inch yellow scraps for the 6 inch snowball corners.  This quilt, when finished, will go to either Quilts Beyond Borders or Wrap a Smile. 

Yellow doesn't look so bright when used with brown.   

On the other hand....

...yellow looks quite bright in these 8 inch blocks.   I made bow tie crumb blocks but since I didn't have many yellow crumbs I combined yellow with orange and red crumbs. 

I used more 2.5 inch yellow or orange scraps for the rest of the bow tie...

.

..and used some hot pink for the background.   This is waaaaay too bright for me but I think some kid somewhere will probably like it.   My 4 year old grandson likes it so far.  He was here this weekend and to keep him busy and out of his sister and cousin's hair I asked him to help me pick out little red, yellow and orange scraps from a giant box of little scraps. He did a great job and had a lot of fun and was ready for me to give him another color but the sun finally came out so we worked in the flower garden instead.  I'm so lucky to have such a sweet little helper. 

To see what other's have done with their yellow scraps visit ScrapHappy Saturday at SoScrappy's blog. 

I think I've used up most of my yellow scraps already!

Nothing But Crumby

I've finished three more crumb quilts for Quilts Beyond Borders (QBB).  I first heard about QBB from Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict as part of her Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge.  Since then the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild (the only guild to which I belong) has decided to also sponsor QBB in addition to Wrap-a-Smile.

I challenged myself this year to 1. Finish up some of my 73 UFOs and 2. To see how many donation quilts I can make this year from scraps.  I've been following along with the color of the month with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge  this year so that keeps me motivated. So far I've completed a donation quilt in all the colors of the month...hot pink, orange, purple, green, sapphire blue

The latest finish is a fish quilt- the Sapphire Blue Fish. Someone with Sunshine posted a link to a Flickr picture of a fish quilt and I knew that would be my next crumb project. 

With my quilting on plain Jane (my DSM) I tried to simulate waves and bubbles in the deep nether regions of the sea and did some loops in the fish.

Crumby Orange Stars is my next quilt.  You can see a secondary pattern and no stars at all if you look at it for too long.  I actually didn't think I had enough orange scraps for a quilt. Surprise, surprise! Where did all that orange come from? 

 I quilted with some orange thread I didn't even know I had in my thread drawer and made an attempt at stars and loops.  I can tell you I'm not an artist!

And this one I'll call Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dream Quilt and it uses scraps of many colors+ muslin.

Oops...I hung it upside down! Oh, well. You can still kind of see the stars and loops I quilted it with.   And, now, after the fourth quilt I'm finally getting a little better at machine binding....just a little. Guess I'll just have to practice a lot more.

So, I've found a box just perfect for these three quilts and the Green Bear Tracks I finished last week. As soon as I get the labels sewn on they will be in the mail.

Feeling really crumby! How about you? 

May I get a Whoop, Whoop, please?  Others are whooping it up over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. What are you whooping about? 

This Memorial Day weekend I will be working on my Quilts of Valor Quilts and doing a virtual sew along with Heartstrings.  You are welcome to join in also!!