Finding Service Projects

I have been contemplating how I can use my quilting skills to benefit others.  There are local shelters, hospitals, half way houses, humanitarian projects, and other needy organizations.  I am going to try to be more giving this year.  There are those who have had such a great impact on my life, some of whom are no longer with us, that I want to honor them and their memory.  I hope some of you will be able to find someone who needs the gift of your talents, whatever they may be (we all have some kind of talent).  Imagine what a wonderful influence we can have on those around us.  Keep enjoying the journey.

Scrappy Basket

Our County Fair was good.  I won a "Reserve" ribbon on my wall hanging and a couple of blue ribbons and one red ribbon on my other quilts.  One of the exciting things to see was the generosity of the quilters in our County sharing their creations in the "Help Make A Child Smile" contest.  That has inspired me to make more quilts to share.  I delved into my scrap basket today and came up with some squares that I had cut out with the die cutter and packaged for a rainy day.  Boy did it rain today.  That meant yard work was out of the question and quilting was in.  I hope you are enjoying your quilt journey and sharing your love along the way.

Happy Quilting

It's all in the giving,

"Lavender Path"

These are the final 3 quilts that I have made for the Make A Child Smile special contest at our county fair this next week.  All fabrics were prewashed.  The designs are my own.  Keep your patterns simple if you have a busy life and a deadline to meet.  They will give the same comfort as one that has taken a long time to make.  Get busy and be creative.  Enjoy the journey!

"Flower Power"

Comfort Quilt

"Help make a child smile" quilts

The Sevier County Fair will have a new entry this year.  Make a quilt (or two or three) and bring it in for judging.  The quilts will not be returned to the maker as they will be donated to the Sevier Valley Medical Center and the New Horizons Crisis Center.  I hope you all will decide to get involved in a charitable activity this year.  Have fun and help put a smile on someone's face.

We've Got a Good Thing Growing

Our Sevier County Fair is coming up in a month and I wanted to make a theme quilt.  I found a pattern in Quilter's World and added a border, the theme in the border, and cut out flower petals and leaves using my Accuquilt Studio die cutting system.  It went together easily and I had a great time designing my flowers.  I machine appliqued the flowers and the letters with monofiliment thread.  The wall hanging will eventually hang in my studio.  Hopefully, you will be inspired to design something you can enjoy.  Be inspired by everything around you.

Chili Fixin's

Several years ago we were given a bag of Fartless Chili Makin's.  I loved the canvas bag and took the stitching out and pressed the seams as flat as possible.  The canvas bag sat waiting for me to find just the right project for it to be used in.  Finally, I found some fabric with outhouses printed on it.  I knew that I had to order the fabric and create a quilt using the canvas bag.  I am very happy with the results.  I hope you are inspired by the things around you.  Find joy in the little things.  PS - if you want to check out the products from "The Old Fart" just go to fartless.com

Fun with fabric

This quilt is made from the scraps of my original project (which I am still in the process of machine quilting.)  I call it "Room with a view".  The print fabric has outhouses in the pattern.  Yep, that's what I said.  Outhouses.  I thought it was the perfect fabric to go into the unfinished quilt (to be posted at a later date).  I made it this weekend to give to someone who has had a rough month and thought it would cheer them up.  The deer fabric is from the panel fabric that I used in a previous quilt.  Still have enough for 2 more quilts!  I machine quilted this quilt with a simple cross hatch pattern.  Next quilt projects will be for our Sevier County fair in August.  This means I have to get busy.  Enjoy your projects.

Twin's Quilts

I was asked to create quilts for a set of twins.  Their Mom purchased the fabric and her request was that they be larger than a crib size and smaller than a lap size quilt.  The backing fabric was to present itself on the front, an old pair of her Dad's jeans was to be utilized in the quilt, as well as using the worn parts of the jeans.  I hope she likes what I did.  It was fun to come up with a pattern for each one.  As you can tell, there is a girl and a boy.  I quilted the boy's with a circle and wave motif.  The little girl's is done in flower shapes to mimic the floral fabric.  I didn't want to cut the large print into small units as I thought it was a lovely print.  I hope you all have fun with your quilts!

Panels are fun

QUILT                                                               PANEL

I hit the clearance table at my local quilt shop and bought a few yards of the deer panels.  I decided to use my new triangle die cut shapes from Accuquilt and this is the quilt I ended up with.  I still have a little more of the orange fabric to use too.  More deer quilts to come.  But first I have an order for two toddler quilts for a friend's twin grandchildren.  Of course my trusty Accuquilt die cutter will be pressed into use to cut squares for those quilts too.

Scrappy IV

This is the last quilt in a series of four made from a one gallon ziplock bag of scraps.  Of course, I had to add more fabric for the filling blocks, sashing & border.  However, those fabrics were straight our of my stash and had been used in other quilts.  I even went one step further and opened up my containers of precut shapes and used what was left of those to give some dimension to this last quilt.  The cutouts were created using my Accucut studio die cutting machine.  I invested in this great product a couple of years ago and have great fun with it.  I love to let my imagination fly.  If anyone ever needs some precut shapes, just find someone locally who has an Accucut studio or GO cutter (a smaller version of the studio die cutter) and ask them if they would cut some shapes for you.  You may be so lucky as to find someone willing to let you use their machine (at their home, studio, or quilt shop) for free.  Remember, have fun with your quilting.  You can chose your own color scheme, decide on the pattern to use, and even the color of thread for the quilting.  Spread your wings and enjoy the journey!