Bold Elvira

 

Way back in March, designer Gudrun Erla sponsored a quilt along with her pattern "Elvira." She offered the pattern for free for a few weeks to help lift spirits in the early part of the Covid lockdowns. Several members of my online quilt guild, Sunshine, joined in. I pieced my own Elvira in just a few days, and finished it last month.

Someone donated this bold, bright fat quarter bundle to Covered in Love, and it was perfect for Elvira. I know Gail donated the extra yardage of poppies, but I'm not sure if the entire bundle came from her. The large rectangular blocks really highlight those big poppies, especially. Between the top and the pieced backing, I used up pretty much every scrap. Don't you love the black and white animal motif? Such an unusual and effective foil to the reds, greens and oranges.

I used a red thread to quilt a simple stipple meander over the entire quilt except in this one solid black block. There I did a floral motif that mimicked the poppies, just for a little added interest.

It's not often that I learn anything about the recipients of my charity quilts. But Kat helped deliver this one herself to a mother whose daughter is really struggling with COVID. My heart goes out to this family and I hope the quilt offers some comfort.

On the few occasions where I do have some information about recipients, I try to share that here on the blog (while protecting their privacy, of course.) I love when other quilt bloggers do this, too, so we can all feel a piece of the satisfaction that comes from seeing our work in action. Usually we get to revel in seeing a new baby napping on a happy quilt, or a favorite nephew delighting in a graduation gift. Rarely, a charity quilt's forever home is revealed. Especially now, we sometimes sew in isolation. It's so good to be reminded of the connections that thread across time and space, with friends and family and strangers, too.

Grateful

Happy Thanksgiving! Today I am grateful for the photographer who captured some of my quilts hard at work in Guatemala. What a special treat to see them comforting patients before and after surgery!

As you know, one of the charities that I donate to is Wrap-A-Smile, which provides quilts to Rotary-sponsored medical missions. The quilts are used on the operating table during surgery to keep the patients warm. The quilt wraps them up afterwards, too, and goes home with them. Most of the people receiving the free surgery are children, so I focus on making bright, happy quilts for them. In September 2019, Rotaplast had a mission in Guatemala City. And at least three of my quilts were there!



The two little I-spy quilts in the photo at the top of this post were made in fall of 2018. They traveled together to Guatemala. The blue one on was backed with a big dinosaur print that was given to me by Sean's aunt Graciella. If you click through to this photo, you can see those distinctive dinos folded up behind the doctor's back as he listens to the little boy's heart.



The pink quilt also has a unique backing: hot pink/magenta with bright jungle animals.



Recognize it? I sure did! This was the first photo I saw with one of my pieces and I admit there was shouting, and clapping, and even some happy tears. This patient looks to be a bit older than most and is probably a bit more worried, pre-surgery. I hope the procedure was successful and the recovery speedy!



As you can see, documenting the backs of the quilts here on Ye Olde Quilt Blogge can be vital to identifying them later. So I got really lucky on this next piece. The top was finished last fall, like the others, but I never took any photos of the finished quilt with its backing and binding.



It was made of crumb blocks alternating with these cute animal panels and sashed with a tiny black and white polka dot. Each animal is surrounded by an oval "frame."



And here it is, folded up under the shoulders of this child, post surgery. What a wonderful destiny for a funny little quilt! I hope it continues to bring you comfort, small person!

If you're interested in learning more about Rotaplast, you can read about their
current mission on their blog. Each mission is a little different, but the essence is the same. The quilts are a small part of a very organized process of bringing high quality surgical care to under-served populations.

I leave you with this photo from Guatemala, which is not of my quilt. But I love the smile on this cute girl! It captures what I hope for each of my donation quilts, that they will make a child happy. I'm so lucky to have the time and resources to spend hours doing a hobby that I love. And I'm grateful to the huge network of volunteers who bring these vital medical missions to distant countries. It feels good to be a small part of this important work!

Gracious Geisha

It's another gorgeous day on the Erie Canal! I love how flat calm the water is in the mornings before the breeze picks up. I have another little finish to share with you.

Gracious Geisha might look a bit familiar. I used the same panel in a larger quilt earlier this year. My preference is to only buy one of any given panel, since there are so many available. So many panels! So little time! But occasionally I find them two-fer-one on eBay at killer prices. So. Here she is again.

This time I combined her with two lotto blocks from Sunshine Guild members, and one of my own orphan blocks. This is a small, wheelchair sized quilt, about 36"x48". You can tell it's lightweight by my jauntily deployed pinkies. Yes, that's me in the photo, and Sean climbed off the boat with camera in hand.

I chose this lotto block because the purple lilacs matched the purple wisteria.

And this one has a combination of colors that felt quite Asian to me. You can see the simple big stipple quilting in purple thread, and the purple and red striped binding.

This one is my orphan block, made of pre-cut hexagons. Sewing these together requires Y-seams, not my favorite, so they'd been marinating in my stash for over four years. That's a bicycle handlebar shadow on the right. This one is my photo, can't blame that on Sean. Just keeping it real, y'all. If you're here for my photography skills, then perhaps you need to go outside and clear your head.

The back is a mish mash of Asian-inspired scraps pieced together. It felt like time to use these up and get them out of my stash. Sometimes those ziplock bags of random fabric take up more mental space than they are worth.

Gracious Geisha will be sent to Doris, my friend from the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild. Her local group, Joyful Stitchers, makes and donates wheelchair quilts to nearby nursing homes. I really love making these smaller pieces, and while most of my quilts are kid friendly, it's nice to also skew a few toward more adult interests.

Finding a local senior living center or nursing care facility is tricky for me. Just showing up somewhere with 2-3 quilts doesn't seem like the right thing to do. Which residents would get them? Having enough for everyone is good manners! So I'm grateful to have found Doris and her group, and add to their local efforts in Alabama. I had thought I might donate this quilt to a place mentioned by another blogger. Several of us asked in the comments for more information about the nursing care center needing the quilts, but the blogger never followed up. That made me a bit irritated! But rather than rant about that, this is a great time to say how grateful I am to the folks who DO follow through.

One of the reasons I continue to give to my favorite quilt charities is the positive feedback I get. At the very least, they all let me know when the quilts arrive. I'm not doing it for the thanks, but it's really nice to hear that the darned things at least made it to their destination! But most also send a sweet card or email with kind words. Joyful Stitchers, Covered in Love, Wrap A Smile, Quilts Beyond Borders, Little Lambs, Victoria's Quilts, Happy Chemo, Mercyful Quilts, Jack's Basket, A Doll Like Me: each one of these has been great about acknowledging my donations.



And speaking of Joyful Stitchers, Doris sent me this photo of one of my quilts being used on their bulletin board. Remember the one I made with train panels? Here it is, folded so just the trains are showing and being used to promote their sewing group. All Aboard! I'm just tickled pink!

Care and feeding of volunteers doesn't really take much, yet makes a huge difference. Many thanks to those who do it right!

Quilts in the wild

One of the things I really enjoy when reading quilting blogs is seeing your finished quilts being used. So I thought I'd share a few of my finished quilts "in the wild," where they are being used by their recipients. The lap quilt in the top photo was given to my friend A back in August of 2015. (Those are DH's knees, not A's.)

A recently moved to a new home, and the quilt decorates his bedroom. It's really a small quilt. I make them a bit bigger now, but this was pretty early in my quilting career.

As you can see, the quilt and matching mini quilt are the only sources of color in this room. I'm glad I chose fairly subtle batiks for this piece. He's a true minimalist, so I'm really touched that he chose to put my quilt in a place of honor. 

This baby quilt was made in August of this year. I sewed it because the pretty fabrics whispered in my ear to be used, but I didn't know who to give it to. Usually I donate baby/toddler quilts to charity, but this one wanted to live with me for a while. In October, I learned that dear friend J became a first time grandmother to little Ryleigh, who was born just a few days before I finished the quilt. Well! Clearly, this is Ryleigh's quilt! Right now it is living at Grandma J's house, waiting for the next visit.

She's a cutie patootie, for sure! I hope Great Grandma Dee will send me a photo of the baby on the quilt, because those are the best pics, aren't they?

This little quilt was made for my artist friend, Maria, who had her first baby just a few months ago. I was inspired by the paintings of a tree in each of the four seasons, created by Maria, her hubby, her mom and her MIL. Maria chose to hang the quilt with the paintings and I'm touched that she considers it wall-worthy! We'll be meeting Maria and her new family in the next few weeks.

And finally, I gave this funky cat quilt to my fun and funny cousin Renee. Like me, she's a maker (knitting is her groove thang) and a bit of a crazy cat (and dog) lady, so I knew it would amuse her. She sent this photo of it draped across her special knitting chair where it lies ready to cuddle under on chilly evenings in her northeast city.

Got any photos of your quilts living in their forever homes? I'd love to see them!