Sunday, April 21, 2019

Hands2Help and quilting along


Hello, quilty friends! I have a couple more finishes to share with you today. 


Moroccan Ornaments was made using the Quick Curve Mini ruler and a pretty charm pack. The metallic-accented fabrics feature flowers, gingko leaves, and butterflies. The charm pack made only 7 blocks, but they are fairly big at 14"x17". Offsetting the columns gave a bit of symmetry with the odd number of blocks, and a border of shiny gold brought the whole piece up to a smallish lap size.


I quilted it using a big hook and swirl motif. The backing is most of the last of this green Laura Ashley print that looks nice with a pale green Fairy Frost binding. Moroccan Ornaments will be donated to Happy Chemo as part of the Hands2Help charity challenge.


The next two quilts are quite small, only about 36" square. They are destined for Jack's Basket, which celebrates families with new Down Syndrome babies. This panel says "The day you were born, the world became a brighter place," which I think sums up the JB mission very well!

 

The Laurel Burch panel features cheerful pets and a big smiling sun face. It needed about 12" more in width, so I added some other Laurel Burch rainbow cat fabric, and a column of bright scrappiness left over from another piece.


The backing is this turquoise plaid. A quick, soft stipple of quilting and a reddish orange binding finish this piece up in a way that works for any happy baby!


The second baby quilt is my first ever tumbler project. I won a 5" tumbler template and a charm pack from Selina Quilts last year. It was fast and fun to trim the charms to the trapezoid shape and stitch them together, and the resulting patchwork is just a teensy bit fancier than simple squares.


In a bit of serendipity, this fabric featuring coffee cups was sitting out on my cutting table and I realized the colors matched the charms perfectly. It makes a fun border, doesn't it?


When I remembered I had the utensils to match the cups, of course that had to become the backing. The lime green polka dot makes a fine inner border and binding. Just darn tootin' cute, if I may say so myself! I'll definitely be making more tumbler quilts and have already started cutting scrappy ones for the next go-round.


Are you quilting along with Sandra and making her Beothuk Star pattern? It's fun and free, and not too late to join in. Five interlocking stars make a dynamic design, pretty neat! This week we are cutting our fabrics. My piece will revolve around the bright butterflies. They will be the center star and the yellow will be the background. 


But what is this? Looks like another fabric pull. My nephew and his lovely wife are expecting their first baby this fall, so of course I must make a quilt for the wee one. Beothuk Star finishes at 42" square, perfect baby size, so I figured I could just as easily make two quilts as one. The Mom-to-be loves teal and asked for gray as the neutral, so I pulled some fun aqua for the outer stars and the darker teal batik will be the bold center star. The gray Essex linen will be the background.

In other exciting news, our boat was hit by lightning while we sat at anchor Friday evening. My husband wrote up a blog post about the experience, including some video footage of the strike. Long story short, it went BOOM!!! but the damage was pretty minor. No fabric or sewing machines were harmed and the boat is operating at about 90% right now. In fact, as I type this we are underway between Fort Pierce, FL and somewhere in Georgia on a calm, lovely ocean. All is well!

22 comments:

  1. Lovely quilts, Louise! You sure add flair to all your makes. And wow, that was sure a scary (to me) lightening strike. Glad the damage was minimal and not overly expensive. Be safe!

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  2. What great finishes! Love the Moroccan ornament quilt. Such fun and colorful baby quilts, they are always fun to make.

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  3. Wow Louise, these are so beautiful! I love the saying on the panel quilt. A good friend of mine has a twenty-something son with Downs and he is delightful, so that sentiment resonates with me. I will also be donating to Jack's Basket. Your lightning strike sounds scary, glad all is (mostly) well.

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  4. The Moroccan Ornaments is a show stopper! Love the colors and arrangement. Glad all is safe on board after the hit.

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  5. These are great finishes, sure to brighten up the day of those that receive them. Those charms look like they were made to go with the coffee cup and utensil fabrics. Got to love it when it all comes together so perfectly. Where you on the boat when the strike happened?? I would have peed my pants :P

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  6. OMG I am glad you are okay and that the damage wasn't to bad. Congrats on a job well done for your first tumbler!!

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  7. First of all,I’m glad you are safe and sustained little damage. When I think of how much worse it could have been, I cringe! Your finishes are adorable, each and every one!

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  8. Sometimes, you need a little excitement in your life. A lightening strike sounds a little too exciting. Glad you're safe and the ship wasn't too badly damaged.
    Love the Moroccan Ornaments quilt. I would never have guess it was made using a charm pack. The panel quilt is perfect for Jack's Basket. It's always a pleasure to see your finished quilts. You create such an interesting variety of styles.

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  9. I haven't read the post on the lightning strike yet, but I'm heading there after I type this. So many cute quilts! Love the coffee cups (as I'm sipping my coffee)! Tumbler quilts are such fun to make. You're doing two Beothuk quilts -- hmm. Now I'm wondering if I should! I have way too many projects going on though. You've had a productive streak lately. Glad your sewing machine, etc. weren't damage in the lightning strike.

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  10. So glad you and your machine survived the strike. The scream says it all in the video. YIKES. You seem to have the perfect spirit around all this - which you must if you live life on the sea! Love your projects - as always and the pull for the Beothuk star QAL looks fab. I don't know if I have photographed mine, but plan to cut later this week. And of course, the Hands2Help quilts make my heart sing!

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  11. Love your Moroccan Ornaments quilt, Louise!!! Thanks for sharing your quilts with others. Glad you and your sewing machine survived the strike!

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  12. So glad you are safe, Louise. I watch the video and I jumped out of my skin when the lightning struck. Your first quilt is beautiful I lovely design. And the Jack’s basket quilts are really cute. You seem to have so many sweet fabrics! Have a fun week!

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  13. Love that Morrocan quilt! It would be a great one to use for a Christmas quilt too! It reminds me of ornaments. After seeing your Laurel Burch fabric I got to wondering if she is still around. I thought I had heard she passed away. I really like the color scheme of your tumbler quilt and so glad you and your boat weren't horrifically damaged after that lighting strike. YIKES!!

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  14. Love the quilts. I have used the big curve ruler before but not the mini and seeing your ornaments is tempting! Great to see how good the tumblers look too. Gosh that lightening strike was a bit too close for comfort... glad your clever Hubz can deal with the repairs.... Happy sewing....
    HUgz

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  15. Love those fabrics for the Beothuk Stars, the deep blue will be stunning as a POP fabric.

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  16. Glad everything is pretty much okay after the lightning strike! What an adventure! Your quilt finishes are all just great - I really like Moroccan Ornaments especially. Good for you working on two versions of Beothuk Star. Both fabric pulls look like they will make a pretty version of it! I really like the butterfly fabric!

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  17. OMG that lightning strike! Glad you're safe and sound! Scary stuff!
    Love all your quilts - both the finishes and the ones in progress! Luscious color and fabric play!

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  18. Okay well now I know where you are! Yikes on the lightning and PHEW! on no sewing machines being hurt, or peeps. Or cat. Love all these finishes, love LB and I spy some woodland fairies, and YES! that you are joining but making TWO! And both pulls I just love, can't go wrong with blue, and then oh, the butterflies one!! Be still my heart. :-) I spy Amanda Murphy purple there...

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  19. Lightening strikes are scary things. Glad there wasn't a lot of damage. Love your Moroccan Ornaments, that's a gorgeous quilt. The Tumbler quilt is bright and fun. Enjoy your stitching time this weekend.

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  20. That Moroccan design is stunning. Love the tumbler blocks too. I haven't done those yet and always like the way they look. Fun donation quilts and a generous gift of your time and creativity!

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  21. I love all your quilts, Louise, but that Morrocan themed one is beautiful! Thanks for being part of H2H again this year!

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  22. Those quilts are beautiful. I love your offset setting of the Moroccan quilt. And your description of how the cups and saucers and utensil fabric were selected for that fun tumbler quilt just makes me giggle. Sometimes how a quilt goes together just materializes (pun intended) before our eyes. Safe travels.

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