Hands2Help - Welcome our first Guest Blogger, Carol!!

Hi, all!

It's Sunday again and time for a little Hands2Help action - and I have a treat for you tonight!  One of our wonderful H2Hers has agreed to do a guest blogpost for us, sharing some great quilt ideas.  Please welcome Carol from Fun Threads - this is her first year participating in Hands2Help, and she's jumped in with both feet!  You're going to love this post!

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First I want to say a big THANK YOU♥ to Sarah for hosting the Hands2Help Quilt Challenge and having me as a guest blogger

My name is Carol and FunThreads is my blog. Making quilts for charity is a passion of mine. Giving a quilt is like sending a giant hug to somebody. It’s wonderful.

There are two approaches to donating quilts and neither is right nor wrong. The first is to grab a pattern, buy some fabric and make a lovely quilt. Bam, done. The second, my favorite, is to grab your scraps and think outside the box. This is where the fun is!

Everyone has piles of scraps tucked away in closets, drawers and under beds. So I created an easy peezy rainbow themed quilt that you can whip up in a weekend without much extra expense. I’ve also added links to two more of my easy rainbow quilts at the bottom of the post. All of these can easily be made into larger quilts. Just think how happy somebody will be snuggling under a bright rainbow!!!

  I♥Rainbows
Designed for this challenge
Uses 5 1/2 inch squares to make 9-patch blocks and includes a fusible heart applique

Finished size 47” x 47”

Another color idea

Supplies
(9) 5 1/2” squares of red, orange, yellow, green, blue-green, blue, purples, pink
(1) 15 1/2” square black
(1) 14 1/2” square red
14 1/2” piece of paper for drawing heart1/2 yard of fusible like Steam-A-Seam-2-Lite or Wonder Under
1/4 yard for borders
3/8 yard for bindingapprox. 53” x 53” backing
approx. 53” x 53” batting

1/4” seam for all piecing

Step 1 – Create the Heart Applique
If you don't know how to do fusible applique click  here for an easy tutorial

Fold the 14 1/2” piece of paper in half and draw or cut out a large heart that fills the paper.

When you are happy with the heart shape trace it to the steam-a-seam fusible.

Peel the backing paper off and place on the wrong side of 14 1/2” red square. I like to hit it quickly with the iron to tack it in to place.

Cut out your heart.

Peel the remaining layer of paper off and center the heart on the 15 1/2” black square. Remember to leave a 1/4 inch seam allowance on all sides of the shape.

When you are happy with the placement fuse it in place following package directions.

Stitch around the edge of your heart using a zig-zag, satin or applique stitch to keep it from coming loose.

Step 2 - Make the 9-patch Blocks
Sew colored squares into rows of 3.

Press seams in opposite directions. This will make it easier to achieve perfectly matched corners later.

Sew rows together to make a 9-patch square and press.

Step 3 – Create the Quilt Design
Sew (3) blocks together to form a row.

Press the row seams in opposite directions. This will make it easier to achieve perfectly matched corners later.

Sew rows together.

Step 4 – Cut and Attach the Borders
Cut (5) 1 1/2” wide strips selvage to selvage across the width of your fabric.

Piece strips together to make
(2) side borders 1 1/2” x 45 1/2”
(2) top/bottom borders 1 1/2” x 47 1/2”

Attach the side borders.

Attach the top and bottom borders.

Press borders neatly.

Step 5 – Baste, Quilt and Bind
Baste, quilt and bind using the method of your choice.

Zippy Rainbow

Uses 4 1/2” squares and solid white strips make a fast quilt

Pattern can be found HERE

Finished size 46 1/2” x 46 1/2”

Scrappy Zig-Zag Rainbow
Uses 2 1/2” x 4 1/2” strips for a lively quilt

Pattern can be found HERE

Finished size 40 1/2” x 44 1/2”

Have a Scrap Happy Day
and
Thank you for making a quilt for charity!

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Thanks so much, Carol!  I can't wait to give some of these patterns a try!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Lions and Tigers and Templates, oh my!

Hi, all!

It's Friday again - the first one of May, can you believe it?  Time sure flies when you're having fun!  I hope you're ready to get your whoop whoop on!!

Last Friday I had the opportunity to take a class from Kimmy Brunner at the AQS show in Paducah, and it was amazing!!!  The class was titled "Playing With Plastic" and Kimmy taught us how to use templates in long arm quilting.  Now, this has always intimidated me - but after a bit of instruction, I headed over to the machine and created this...

Now, I know it doesn't look like much, but it amazed me how really simple it was - once you know the tricks and aren't afraid to try it!  

So I came home and was dying to try out all I had learned - but only had ministry quilts ready to quilt.  One of them, though, was a man's quilt that really needed straight line quilting - and I thought I'd give it a try on the long arm, using my straight edge template.  (I didn't get my melon templates until yesterday - can't wait to play with them next!)

And here's what I ended up with!

Now granted, it looks a bit better from a distance - it was my first time using the template, remember?  But it worked up fairly quickly and certainly faster than it would have if I'd had to wrestle it through my tabletop machine!

I love the cross-hatching on this quilt - it was the perfect finishing touch.  The charm squares Pam and Deb used on this quilt had loads of texture - homespun, flannel, linen, pintucked - and this quilting didn't interfere with that at all.

And here's one last shot, showing the back - a gorgeous flannel print that we found a bolt of at a yard sale.  All in all, it makes this quilt very cuddly, yet manly!   It has found a new home with a man who was diagnosed several years ago with sinus cancer, and unfortunately the cancer has recurred.  They tell him he will have to be on chemo for the rest of his life....  I sure hope this quilt reminds him that folks are praying for him and his family!

So that's my whoop whoop for the week!!

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And now it's your turn!

What are you whooping about this week?

What has made your heart sing?

Do tell - we want to whoop right along with you!!

The party will remain open until Sunday midnight - 

Be there or be square!

Hugs!

Sarah

PS - Kimmy has a class on Craftsy now - if you're interested in quilting with templates, check it out!

What's Cookin' At The Sweatshop?

Hi, all!

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted about the quilt ministry, so we've got several quilts to tell you about.  Let's get started!

This quilt was given to a woman who just lost her mother to brain cancer...

And this one, pieced from blocks made by Kathy, went to a man who was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic and liver cancer and given a year to live.

This next quilt, pieced by Deb, was given to a woman diagnosed with breast cancer.  She is currently going through chemo and radiation.

This beautiful quilt was pieced by Joanna using donated blocks.  It went to a local coach who had a six-way heart bypass surgery.

This top, donated to us by Audrey, was finished off and given to a gentleman who had to have back fusion surgery.  He faces several months of recovery from his surgery.

This lovely top, pieced by Pam J. and Deb, features lots of texture in the charm squares.  It has been given to a man with a recurrence of a rare sinus cancer.  He will have to undergo chemo for the rest of his life.

This quilt was donated to us by the lovely A.D., and is finding a new home with an older woman who has been in declining health, most recently a broken hip followed by mini-strokes.

And this quilt, also donated by A.D.,  is going to an older lady in a nursing home.  Our church has been ministering to her and her husband, who live in the community.  They recently moved here from California.

This pretty flannel quilt, made from a donated flimsy, was sent to a little 4-year old girl dealing with liver cancer.

And the weighted blanket went to a special ed teacher for use in her classroom!  If you missed it, there's a super-simple tutorial for this weighted blanket here.

We also gave a baby quilt to a little 6-month old girl who is part of a family our church is ministering to out at the local campground, but I didn't get a picture of that one!

I'm late getting this up, so I'm going to stop there.  Thanks to all of you supporters of the quilt ministry out there - we couldn't do it without you!

Hugs!

Sarah