Thursday, August 1, 2019

Other people's scrappy blocks


Once again I've been busy sewing and not so busy blogging, and it's time to play catch up! Today I want to share with you two quilts that were made with blocks that other people made. My task was to put them together and finish the quilt.


Aren't these colors pretty? Melinda stitched up the scrappy string blocks from her stash. She has some gorgeous fabrics!


Each block has the same white center strip. I set the blocks into diamond shapes.


The quilting is a simple petal shape in each diamond, using pale green thread, plus ditch stitching around the white sections.


These blocks were all donated to Covered in Love, and Kat sent them to me. She also gets donations of yardage. I thought this zigzag fabric looked good for the back.


The binding is a lime green with tiny white hearts from my own stash.


I also used that green to piece between the zigzag yardage. This allowed me to piece in the CiL label and more importantly, avoid matching all those tiny jaggedy lines!


This quilt was super fun to puzzle together. All the blocks are left over from CiL's annual red, white and blue star block donation drive.


This star is made of appliqued hearts. So pretty and clever!


Some of the blocks were odd sizes, so creative use of sashing, borders, and cornerstones was necessary.


This one reminds me of a buzz saw blade. I really like the bandana-esque fabric, too.


Kat included some larger chunks of red, white and blue that I pieced into the backing with the label. My goal is to use as many of the donated pieces as possible in Covered in Love quilts, with only the tiniest final scraps ending up in my own stash.


I put these three blocks on the back, along with a large chunk of donated yardage. If you zoom in, you can see faint blue and red stars and swirls printed on the white. This is actually the reverse side of the fabric. The front is printed in really pretty, sparkly metallic ink. However, the ink was quite rough feeling, and I decided that the smooth backside would feel better against the skin of the recipient. 


A thin red inner border, a scrappy squares outer border, and a scrappy dark blue binding complete the piece. Most of those fabrics were donated, too, with a few additions of my own.


I had so much fun putting together these quilts and the ones I wrote about last month! I told Kat she could send me her Covered in Love orphan blocks any time. She has since sent me more blocks, over 10 pounds' worth. We think there could be a dozen quilts lurking in there! More on those in another post.

19 comments:

  1. You balanced those blocks so well- not easy with the variety. The string blocks are lovely. Shows how useful white is to unify colours. More great work!

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  2. You did a great job of putting those orphan blocks to good use. They are both really beautiful quilts. Have fun with the 10 lbs of orphan blocks. I hope they work as well together as these.

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  3. You are obviously the perfect person for this job of puzzling the blocks together to make a cohesive quilt. Nice work Louise!!

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  4. You do such a fabulous job with these orphan blocks! It is quite a special talent to see the beauty in the mix. And I adore your thoughtful design and selection of backings. You make each quilt special and often a two-fer! Great job on both of these. You have found a special niche to fill.

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  5. The colors in that string quilt are so pretty and bright! It's sure to make someone feel so much better, just being covered in that quilt :-) You arranged those blocks well, and I'm sure it took some thinking! Will be fun to see what you create with the other blocks! What a wonderful thing to do, Louise!

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  6. So nice to hear from you again. You have become a great help to get things quilted, Louise. These red white and blue quilts have such an endless variety.

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  7. Those are great quilts, Louise! I love how you finished them. You're are the most generous quilter I know! I'm curious where you guys are now - will have to go check the travel blog!

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  8. Kat will be so happy to get these two finished quilts. They are just beautiful & will cover someone in much love. You do a fantastic job of making something simple look so beautiful. Thanks for all you do for Covered in Love.

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  9. What pretty quilts, Louise! You took a great variety of blocks and put them together with beauty. Brilliant idea to flip the scratchy fabric over. Great colors in the string blocks.

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  10. You do great orphan block work! Love that string quilt, the colors are so pretty. Looking forward to see what you make of the latest orphans.

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  11. Absolutely fantabulous, Louise! You blow me away, not with just your generosity, but your ability to always make everything play nicely together.

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  12. You have a knack for pulling orphan blocks together into cohesive, pretty quilts! I look forward to seeing what you do with the next 10 pounds' worth!

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  13. :) FYI I'm featuring all your recent CIL finishes on the blog this Friday so you might get some traffic from it.

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  14. You are so talented and kind! I’m happy that there are lovely people like you working behind the scenes for CIL. The Stars quilt is totally amazing! I can’t wait to see what other quilts you come up with.

    I’ve finally found (earlier this year) a fun local Quilts for Kids charity group where the women are so friendly. Since we have a backlog of over 200 quilts to be quilted, that seemed the best place to focus. The longarmers quilt the larger youth quilts, and several of us DSM quilters tackle 4-8 quilts each per month (quilting and then self-binding with the backing fabric).

    You always provide such great inspiration, Louise!!

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  15. I do like how you've set the blocks from Covered in Love's donation drive, also how you've incorporated a few in the backing. I love the string quilt, a real girlie one, are they both large quilts? Cn't wait to see what magic you work with the next lot of quilts!

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  16. I'm popping over from Kat's post about your latest CIL contributions. Your work with the orphan blocks is a blessing (I once put together a group project of 16 patch blocks and swore I'd never do it again). And even more amazing is that you do all this fantastic work while living on a boat! Like everyone else, I'm looking forward to what you accomplish with the next batch of orphan blocks.
    Pat

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  17. Nice job with all those orphan blocks. I'm amazed at your generosity. You make more charity quilts than anyone I know. Bless you.

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  18. What a wonderful contribution to Covered in Love, Louise!!

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  19. A great post about some great work. You did a fantastic job!

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Please feel free to leave a comment and I'll reply as soon as I can.