Give 'em an inch (or two)

Today's batch of three finishes are made from tops, orphan blocks, scraps and yardage donated to Covered in Love. The tops were just a little too small, so I increased the size on each one, using three different techniques.

This pretty purple and green quilt came to me as a jelly roll race top made by Priscilla and was about 42"x64". The length was fine, but it needed a little more width.

So I cut it vertically and inserted five purple and green blocks stitched by Jan. To get the length right I had to add a few cream spacer pieces. For some reason, my camera just cannot capture these colors accurately! But trust me, Jan's fabric are a perfect match to the jelly roll.

And the jelly roll fabrics were a delight to work with! My favorite is this watery green that looks like the end papers of a hardbound book.

The back is some purple and green chunks, many of which were also donated. 

The quilting is floppy feathers. Finding just the right dark purple for the binding was a challenge. I recently received some free fabric from my guild-mate Carol and the right purple was in that batch. It takes a village to finish a quilt!

Next is this soft, neutral Ohio star top, which arrived a bit on the small size at about 40" square. 

Jan donated some simple brown and tan rectangle strip sets and they made just the perfect checkerboard ends for the Ohios. I used every one of the little pieces and nothing needed to be adjusted. It was meant to be!

A dark brown stop border set the stage for this sky blue floral border. It has little song birds on it and I am totally in love with this fabric. Kat sent it to me over a year ago and it has waited patiently for just the right quilt.

I was in a free motion kind of mood when I quilted this one, so it has lots of texture.

The back is big chunks in autumnal colors.

These leaf fabrics are so, so pretty in person. I used a lot of my favorite fabrics in this quilt! I hope they bring a little beauty and comfort to a grieving family.

The third quilt is Christmas-themed. The original top was sewn by Priscilla. It was only 7 rows tall, which made it a smidge small. But she included a few extra scraps with the top so it was a simple matter to add a bit from my own stash and sew up six more flying geese + rectangle blocks. 

After that, all it needed was a border. I had a sparkling metallic white fabric with bare winter trees on it that was just right.

Aren't these fun fabrics? Angels, snowmen, Santas and more! For the quilting, I did simple zig zagging straight lines that echoed the flying geese shapes. In the border I did a motif of holly leaves and berries that looks fancy but is actually quite easy.

More donated chunks on the back, including parts of a panel with snowmen and stockings. I would have never thought to use panels as backings, but someone in my guild did and now I think it's a great idea.

All three of these quilts have been shipped off to Kat, ready to go to work. Many thanks to the folks who donate tops, blocks and fabric to the charity!