Pillowcases for Sandy Hook children

Becky at the Quilter's Corner in New Milford, CT has requested pillowcases for all the children in the Sandy Hook Elementary school, approzimately 600. That plee was put out the day after their terrible shooting and she has received 1,689 and 5 quilts!!! They are still taking in more as they'd like to give them to all the other elementary schools, first responders and teachers. Marilyn and I went to Fabric Place Basement in Natick, MA to see what bargains we could scoff up and we have quilte a bunch to make with what we came home with. They even gave us 10% off what we bought.

The call was put out to our group to make some and bring them to the Jan 5th event, We'll send them down on the 7th. How wonderful the response has been. They've been coming from all over the country. I'll post how many we end up sending, with photos!! (I may even deliver them in person on the 6th!!)

April mtg

The April meeting went really well. Since it was on April 9th and we were heading to Marden's (discount fabric store in Maine) on the 17th, we needed to organize which quilt tops needed to go with us to find a complimentary backing for.This one was started at our Log cabin 6-hr event (Cabin Fever) years ago, but never finished. I took it home and added the outer border and cornerstones so we'd know how large the top would be. We found a vibrant red print (with black) that I'm hoping to sandwich to it, in June, and wrap the edges around to be the binding. It should be stunning! I'm naming it, "When I get old, I'll wear purple".

This adorable one by Mary Ellen (gray center strip-vintage material) was taken home last month and bordered with Dick and Jane material. It is so old-fashioned!

 I name it, "Look Dick, See Jane Quilt"

This one Enid made using a black batik print for the center strips. She was gonna take it home and add a border (thin) using a similar black batick print, then we'll see where we go from there.

Mary Ellen made this one completely during this past month. Cute fish fabric on the back!! Some little boy will love it... Name: "Boys a-Fishin' "

This is the back of one Marilyn made, but  I forgot to take a photo of the front. Name: "Double Brown Derby".

Thsese are some of the pillowcases that will be going to Alycia in CO, who handles our QOV quilts. Kathy S did them in honor of her son being in Afghanistan.

 We had a total of 7 quilts that went to Maine with us for backings, although I didn't take photos of them before we went. We'll put them together in June. Great accomplishments!

Pillowcases finally delivered

Marilyn and others made many pillowcases last year for us to donate to our usual charities. Today I delivered 7 fun 'kids' prints to Conkerr Cancer organization of which the local quilt shop, Quilting by the Yard is the drop-off center.

We also have 15 more that I'll be dropping off tomorrow at the Manchester Shelter on Main Street. (Done!)

Feels good to get them dropped off, but they had 30 people at the shelter last night, so maybe we can get more made for next month.

March Madness...?

Well, this was a productive mtg!! First of all, the pillowcases we made for Jan and Feb (for the http://www.allpeoplequilt.com's/  1,000,000 Pillowcase Challenge) gave us a total (made from the group) to be....(da tah dah daa!), 89!! Thirty-seven will go to the Con-Kerr Cancer organization, 20 will go to the local shelter and 32 to Alycia (member of HeartstringsQuiltProject) for her QOV quilts. I had the ones we made, prior to this mtg, blessed in last Sunday's church service, so I'll deliver them this week to the respective places.

These are some quilts that one of our members donated to our cause. The Drunkard's Path is more for my reference to go with a set of plastic rulers she gave to me. The Black/White and the other green one are Lasagna Style quilts, and the red/green one looked like a slice and dice quilt. (Note the pillowcases in the baskets? They're already blessed.)

This one really just needs a border (I think they found a gold fabric), but it also needs a larger one (maybe teal?)... We'll see. It's for a 9-yr old girl swimmer with bone cancer (relative of a parish member). Do you see the star? "Swimming Star"?... Get it?

We had quite a few members last night and it was good, because we needed to find a few things for upcoming quilt requests (one for a premmie), so Anna & I sorted (some even took strings/crumbs home to sort), and got rid of some fabrics we know we'll never use. We'll use them for more heartstring quilts.

Muriel, Marilyn and Enid worked on Chandler's quilt. Marilyn donated the pretty blue binding for this quilt. It just set it off beautifully! The pattern is a Wonky Happy Block put together by Janet G. Nice work, Janet. Even the back looks beautiful! Mom has one more side to finish. I'll post that photo later.

One of our members, Enid finished a beautiful yellow heartstring quilt. Not sure where it's going yet, but once we get it blessed this coming Sunday, we may have a taker.

I also, finished fixing a border on this beautiful quilt  made by one of our members (it was "waving at us"). It was nice to go there a little early (2:30-3pm-ish) to set up and sew in the quiet of the church hall. It's no longer waving so frantically, lol.

This one was found in our quilting area, must have been done by a quilt fairy... We're gonna donate it to Heartstrings Quilt Project. It's bigger than we feel we can quilt. Great QOV quilt, though when Mary gets done quilting it.

We are also planning a trip to Marden's - right after Easter- to buy fabric for backings (mostly), but I'm sure those that come will be spending some money to fill their own stash. It's a great place to get fabric (although it's in Sanford, ME- 3.5 hrs away) at a really reasonable price ($2.00-$3.50 vs. $10-12 a yd, for the same designer fabrics... RJR, Kaufman, Timeless Treasures, etc). I'm gonna hit it again in May when I'm on vacation, but this one will be a 'field trip' for the group. We set aside 4 quilt tops that need a back...we'll bring them with us. What fun!

February mtg-- Can you say... "productive'?

Well, we had a good turn-out and boy, were the girls productive!! Marilyn brought another basket full of pillowcases and Margaret brought in the seven that she took home the 'parts' for. I tried to separate them into kids and non kids, as the non-kids will be going to a local shelter and Alycia's QOV NSF project. The kids ones will go to Conn-Kerr Cancer (drop-off at the CT Children's Medical Center in Hartford).

This group is for the kids...

Here are more for the kids (think we have 29 so far)....

These are the more adult ones for the shelter and Alycia.... I think how we talked about dividing them was to bring all the adult ones to the shelter and have them choose, since they would know how many women and men they usually have stay there....

I found a few more for photos..... I think we ended up with close to 60 pillowcases.

I, originally, thought I'd get the Gold/Purple HS quilt sandwiched, but I realized the ladies were diving into making a back for Chandler's quilt (this is a little girl with Leukemia, who loves the turtle across the street from her house-lives in a pond. Her mom and one of our members know each other from a book club). ... And they were having such a good time with it, I let them go. They found a great block and added a border around it, but then I had to tell them they needed the back to be slightly bigger (at least 2-3" a side) than the front. I should haven't taken a picture of their faces.... :-( We had plenty of the back's border material, so we divided the center panel into quarters.... It worked out fine! And we have a wonderful quilt shop owner, Laura McCarrick, who will be quilting Angel Wings design into it.

And THEN we tossed around a few ideas for our Strips and Strings Log Cabin blocks, pattern from Mary's Heartstring blog. This was one idea...

Or we could do furrows...(is that the name of this pattern?)

Here is Janet's Purple Log cabin.... I'd love to call it Lilac Garden or Lilac Logs. Not sure what it will be til we're done. Isn't it a beauty???

We figured out we have enough to make a 4x6 block purple, a 5x7 block size scrappy and more scrappy blocks for a smaller size, maybe 4x6 blocks (we always add some borders to it to expand them). Works for us!!

Great day even having "Cabin Fever"!

Well, I must say the "Cabin Fever" was a success!

We had some things worked on at home before the event ( 19 Pillowcases by Marilyn alone), but all in all, it was very productive. Here are some of the pillowcases that were done by the end of the day.

We had 13 women show up, and while some had to leave at noon (party animals!- one being my mom at the age of 82!!) and Cricket and Ginny (and son Steve, who I kept calling Scott!- hey, Steve, that's a compliment, since I have two sons in the family named Scott) got delayed by the tractor trailer accident on I-91 in Enfield, they still got a couple of hours in. I even extended it until 4pm. It was even nice to see an old friend, Linda H from my old guild chapter. Thanks for inviting her, Marilyn! Here Linda is showing Donna how to make her first pillowcase.

We had lots of goodies that people brought to share and thanks to Jane P who knew how to set up the coffee machines, we had great coffee. Everyone kind of had their lunches when and wherever they were.

We had some strips already cut before we started. Some donated and some we cut up there. Marilyn's shoulder wasn't doing well after surgery, so she was kind enough to come just to cut 'pillowcase kits' to be ready when we switched over to making them.

After getting some brief instructions on Mary's Strips and Strings Log Cabin pattern, everyone kind of dug in to the strips and started spitting them out. Janet found a lovely bunch of purples and put them together with the cream strips. They came out nice. I think she ended up making 11 blocks (I'm sure we can add one or more to that and put a border on it. I personally have TONS of purple to add.) Cricket and Ginny still had some work to do on their's (12) , although they got 14 done between them that were finished. They will add the 12 to the pile by the NH sew-in  at the end of the month.

Here's Anna getting started.

 Once they started, they found they had to keep track of which color strip to add next. We did take Mary's advise and just 'cut' off the mistaken strip vs. seam ripping it off. Much faster. I did find each table having a sample was beneficial and I even printed off a few copies of the instructions. That helped, too.

Ginny and Cricket gave some great advice to the group regarding the care of our sewing machines which I know I for one, found VERY beneficial!! (I'm a bad woman, I don't think I've ever oiled mine-- the saleswoman said I never had to !!) After the NH Sew-in, I'm sending mine to be serviced!!Jane and her friend Peg had fun, but,... Peg, don't I see you seam ripping??... NIX on that! LOL

I found putting the irons at the ends of the table groups worked out much better than at the far end of the hall.

Janet finally got to the measuring stage... how much more will she need for those last sides? I LOVED her jacket!! Those colors are my favorite.

 

Here is my mom heading off for a birthday party for her 90th yr old 'beau'. ( I heard she had another party on Sunday!! She's more of a party animal than I EVER was !!!!)

Linda's pillowcases were hanging off everywhere, while Peg and Jane diligently worked on log cabin blocks.

I think we ended up with 35 blocks done and trimmed, but Janet had a little more to do for her 11, and Cricket, the same with her and Ginny's 12, I had a little more to do on my 8, so I think we may have ended up with enough for 3 log cabin quilts (24-30 blocks each, if we put borders on them). Hopefully, we'll get them tuned in at the Feb. mtg.

By the end of the day, this is what was left for making pillows. I scooped them all up and may make the rest of them by the weekend, depending on the babysitting schedule. If I can't get them made, I'll have them cut up into kits, so we can sew them at the Feb mtg.