It's Hands 2 Help Time

If you're interested in making a charity quilt for some great causes, it's time to sign up at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Sarah does a great job of putting this together and getting some charities set up for us.  It's a fun way to help other people.  There are prizes and lots of tutorials on the way, too, so be sure to sign up!  I've done this the last few years and it's always a lot of fun, and hopefully the recipients have enjoyed their quilts. I need to look in the charity closet and see if any of the quilts I've made in the last few months meet the needs of the charities this year.  If not, I'd better get going!  The quilts don't have to be sent until the end of May, so I've got time.

Last weekend I got to attend a retreat in the north end of the Chicago area.  It was held at the Techny Towers Retreat Center, which is a religious retreat center.  The retreat center was a very neat, well-preserved old building.  It was really cold there last weekend, so I didn't get to explore the grounds as much as I would have liked, but maybe I can go back sometime and do that. 

This was the door to the rooms we stayed in.  As you can see, the door is at least ten feet tall.  I've never stayed in a place with such a huge, heavy oak door before!  It was a really neat place to stay.  The retreat project was a log cabin/courthouse steps quilt with some wool applique.  I don't have it done yet, so no picture of it, but hopefully that will be coming soon.  It was a fun retreat and a nice getaway.  My plan was that, after this retreat, it would be spring, and that seemed to work pretty well, as we have had 50-degree weather all week and the snow all melted. 

I did finish a couple quilts in February that I haven't shown yet.  I made a modern quilt for my older son for his birthday.

This is BQ4 by Maple Island Quilts.  This isn't the greatest picture, but you get the idea.  The quilt was king size by the time I was done with it, so it was pretty hard to get it in one picture, and pretty hard to hold it up, too!  The large rectangles are a print fabric - that isn't all pieced.  It was a fun artistic print with squares of color with the name of the color under each square.  I quilted it on my Juki, so that was quite a project. 

The other quilt I finished in February was Urban Cabin by Atkinson Designs.

This was made in brights and batiks and was sent to a friend who is undergoing some health challenges.   I think she liked it!  This pattern is one I would do again.  The rectangles are made from a striped print fabric here, but there are also instructions to make it from strips if you want to.  I like making the fabric do the work for that, though.

So that is the report from here.  I'm hoping to have my retreat quilt together and ready to show next week.