Making a charity quilt

Recently I received a call for craft items for an auction at work to benefit a local cancer charity. And since I had been thinking of making a simple quilt from some fat quarters I had, I suddenly found myself with a deadline.

Not a bad thing, since I seem to need a fixed deadline to finish a project these days...

So I started cutting...

Making it a challenge to cut as many blocks from a Fat Quarter, I managed to make five blocks out of most of them, ending up with 59 blocks. Of course it should have been 60, but well, let's say mistakes were made...

I decided on a 7 x 8 layout, and used the remaining 3 blocks on the back.

I quilted with straight lines on my domestic machine, bound with a solid light green, and of course finished with a label.

The auction was a great success, and the organisers donated the money last week. I have no idea how much the quilt itself made in the auction since I wasn't able to go to the auction myself. However, I have no illusion it will have fetched as much as it would be worth commercially.

But this is the way I look at it:

• I have made a quilt I loved making
• I had the opportunity to refresh my memory of a pattern I enjoy
• I have used fabrics from my stash
• I have contributed to a great charity
• I have contributed to the success of a fund-raising event which is now to be repeated next year
• Someone has ended up with a quilty hug to enjoy!

 Win-win-win in my book!

Also, I am considering writing the pattern for this, would anyone be interested?!

Details:
Size: 46" x 52" approx.
Fabrics: 12 (metric) fat quarters for the top
Wadding: lightweight cotton
Threads: Aurifil 50 wt colour 2479, used for piecing and quilting
Photos: phone camera in poor indoor lighting (sorry, the weather isn't on my side these days)!

This is a finish from my Finish-A-Long Quarter 4 list, too, and is linked up with the Finish-A-Long. My full Q4 FAL list can be found at this post.

Sandra

Finish-along 2016 Quarter 2 - The Result

Just a short one this time. I thought I had not finished one single item, but looking back at what was on my list, I actually did have not one, but even three finishes!

Here I show you the charity quilt I finished with the help of the Library Quilters, the group I teach in our local library:

The quilt is very much like the previous one we made, they were more or less made in tandem, though one was finished before the other. To show you that there are indeed two, I got a picture of them both together:

If you remember in the finish-along goal setting post, this quilt was just a set of blocks.
I trimmed them to equal sizes, added sashing, layered the quilt. Then I machine quilted along the sashing to stabilise the top. It could now be passed around for quilting without any pins.

Several ladies passed the quilt amongst themselves to hand quilt the blocks. As you can see in the top picture, they all quilted circles over the blocks, apart from the appliqué Sunbonnet Sue block, which was outlined in quilting.

I then received it back to stitch the binding on, and add a label.
A few weeks ago I handed both quilts to someone who organised a whole load of quilts to go to Crumlin Children's Hospital in Dublin.

We're all hoping the quilts get enjoyed and will comfort and give support to two children going through a hard time, and beyond.

And even though I have not done every stitch in this quilt myself, I think it deserves being mentioned in the finish-along, because without the support of the finish-along this quilt would most likely still be in twelve blocks.

My goal setting post can be found HERE.
Linking up with 2016 Q2 finish-along.

Sandra

Charity Quilt - A finish

- This is a finishalong post -
If you want to see an overview of all my finishes (and non-finishes) in the first quarter of 2016, see my overview post.
My original goal setting post can be found HERE.

My second finish is this quilt:

Taking the opportunity for photographs while the sun shines

The quilt has been a collaborative effort of members of the Library Quilters, the same group holding an exhibition at the end of February. And yes, this quilt was part of that exhibition. After it was decided that the quilt should be in the exhibition, I finally speeded up my needle and thread and finished it.
It seems I need strong incentives to finish a project. Even when all that's needed was hand stitching down the binding...

But, in the end only the result counts! And this has turned out to be a lovely quilt if I can say so myself.
The 12" blocks have been made by the different members in fabrics and a pattern of their own choosing. The only requirement was to use (some) blue, and some of us used a piece of the same blue-grey fabric. In the end there were enough blocks for two quilts, so I divided the blocks between the two for the most pleasing combination. The fabrics for sashing, backing and binding have also been donated by different members, and the wadding was "found" in my own shelves.

As you can see most blocks are pieced, but each quilt has one appliqué block. The blocks were cut to a uniform size or marked up to the same size in the case of a hand stitched block. I attached the solid cream sashing to the blocks according to this tutorial for a smooth finish to the quilt.

After I stabilised the quilt by machine quilting in straight lines around the blocks, the quilt was passed around the group to add their hand quilting to it. Each chose a block or two and quilted it as they liked.

an example of the hand quilting

It is surprising how well blocks from different makers with different ideas can come together into a cohesive quilt with only a couple of predetermined "rules".
The binding was made from a check fabric and to get the diagonal effect of the print I cut it on the bias contrary to what I usually do. I attached the binding (method here), then trimmed the quilt and, as mentioned in my goal-setting post, I hand stitched the binding to the back.
To complete the project I attached a label to the quilt (made according to this tutorial) in anticipation of its purpose to bring in money for charity.

quilt label, and the lovely diagonal check binding

I also attached a sleeve to the quilt, but I removed it again after the exhibition.

Tadaa!

Linking up with #2016FAL:

Sandra