Hands 2 Help 2022

Another year has flown by!  It's time for a quick update to show you the quilts I sent to Hands2Help this year.

The first quilt was a Card Trick pattern made with an older Sandy Gervais line of fabric.  I loved this line - it reminds me of the Caribbean with all the corals and turquoise!

This was a nice lap size and went to Em's Scrapbag for Happy Chemo.

The second quilt was made from 9-patch blocks and an assortment of scraps. It's a nice long lap size and would be great for a tall person.  This quilt was a collaboration - my friend Donna from Brynwood Needleworks provided a pretty green backing for this quilt.

This quilt also went to Happy Chemo.

Last year, Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts gave all the Hands2Help participants one of her patterns as a thank-you for helping.  I chose Hello Foxy and got him made.  He is just so cute and was so quick and fun to make - I think this may be one of my go-to donation quilt patterns.

Hello Foxy will get put in the donation closet as a head start for next year's Hands2Help.  Since postage is so expensive, I wanted to wait until I could send a few together to one place.  I've got my eye on the camel pattern at Sew Fresh Quilts, so there may be more than one animal quilt done by next year!

So that's my update - two quilts sent this year, and a head start for next year.  I've enjoyed seeing all the wonderful quilts everyone has donated to Hands2Help this year!

Hands 2 Help Reveal!

Hands 2 Help Reveal

How the world has changed since last year at this time!  We've just come out of our two months of social isolation, which came on the heels of a long, cold winter.  I've spent a lot of time in my sewing room the last seven months.  Quilting really helps me cope with all the things that are going on, and I'm very blessed to have a large stash of fabrics so I can continue to create even when I can't shop.  Thanks to all the staying at home we've been doing, and some nice donations from friends, I have 14 quilts to donate this year.

Before the pandemic hit, I was part of a group that made supplies for Days for Girls.  I've been gathering up the scraps from that, and making quilts to donate back to the project.  Each batch of liners we make leaves a 4" x 4 yard piece, plus a ton of triangles, so I've been trying to make creative triangle quilts out of the leftovers.  My goal is to make one a month, so here are April and May.

These will be donated back to the Days for Girls project in Fond du Lac.  Some of the quilts are sold to purchase more supplies for the project, and some are donated to other charities.  Either way, it's a great use of the scraps! I'm hopeful that the group can continue our work in the new environment we have.

The next five quilts were sent to Little Lambs Foundation.  I got on a kick of making elephants from Elizabeth Hartman's Spectacular Savannah pattern, and made three of them:

 

 These are all about 38" square, so a good size to put in a backpack.  I also finished two cute panel quilts for Little Lambs.

I don't know why everything is posting sideways - they look fine before I add them to the blog!

When my mother passed away, I inherited her considerable stash of precuts.  She was a big fan of Missouri Star's Daily Deal, so I have a lot of Layer Cakes and Charm Packs.  Two of the Layer Cakes became quilts with the free Moda Love  pattern.  I love this pattern because it gives me lots of space to put free-motion quilting. This first one is purple with Kaffe Fasset prints - very colorful.  It looks much better in person than this picture shows.

 The second one was a Layer Cake of daisy prints from Kanvas.  It's very bright and cheerful. These quilts both have a lot of feather quilting! Both are about 72" square, so just right for a lap size quilt.

 This strip quilt is also bright and cheerful.

 This quilt was made from a Moda scrap bag, which had 3" strips of camping and fishing fabrics. I think this was probably a Holly Taylor line of fabric.  It's a great quilt for a guy.

I really like making the canning jar quilts, and still have lots of the food fabrics left.

These five quilts all went to Em's Scrapbag, so they will go to cancer patients.  I hope it will cheer up their day when they get them.  All of them are a good lap size.

Last but not least, the last two (sideways!) quilts were a collaboration with Donna at Brynwood Needleworks . I made the tops, Donna supplied the backing, I quilted them, and they are going back to Donna for donation to a quilt guild she belongs to.  The guild supplies nap quilts for a Head Start program in Florida, so these are headed to that project.  They are 40" x 50" = perfect size for a preschooler to nap on!

So that wraps us my Hands 2 Help effort for 2020.  The quilts that were to be mailed went out to their recipients today.  Hope you are all staying well and having fun quilting!

Hands 2 Help 2019 Reveal

It's that time of the year again!  I always enjoy putting the pictures for the Hands 2 Help reveal on my blog - it helps me remember from year to year the quilts that I've sent off and hopefully someone else is enjoying.  After last year's reveal, I decided to challenge myself to a goal of quilting one quilt per month to give during Hands 2 Help this year.  I'm retired and have a longarm, so it should be an achievable goal.   Also, I've had many friends and relatives giving me fabric in the last couple years, so I really have no excuses about making quilts.  And this long, miserable winter was a huge help - we had no end of snow days this year.

So, with that goal in mind, here's what happened. This is a long post, so grab a cup of something if you're going to read it all!

The first two quilts will be going to Carolina Hurricane Relief.  My friend Donna from Brynwood Needleworks gave me a large bag of fabric that her friend had passed along to her, with the hope of someone making some quilts for donation from it.  Inside were two sets of a block of the month from Joann Fabrics from several years ago.  Each month's block was precut, and I have to admit these blocks went together amazingly well.  Donna donated a backing fabric for it, and I quilted it with an allover swirl pattern.  This quilt is about double bed size.

The second quilt to go to Carolina Hurricane Relief was made from a quilt top with Jacob's Ladder blocks made several years ago when I was in a Thimbleberries Club. I got it out and quilted it with allover feathers for my second quilt to give to Hurricane Relief.  It's a huge quilt - at least queen size and maybe even king.  It will make a good bedspread for someone.  I love all the fabrics in this one!

I enjoy making baby quilts; very quick and easy compared to big bed quilts!  I made six to send to Jack's Basket.

In past years, my mother has helped with my Hands2Help efforts.  Sadly, she passed away in November, but I brought her considerable stash of precuts home with me, so her fabric will continue to participate for years to come.  This Moda Love quilt was made with some of the cute nursery rhyme precuts Mom had in her stash.

The next quilt is a string pieced quilt.  The black paw print fabric was donated by a friend, and I added the brights and animal fabrics.  I quilted it with a paw print pantograph. 

 

This quilt was made from fabric I had left from a previous Hands2Help quilt a few years ago.  It's turtles, frogs and bugs, and a little boy would like it.

The next two quilts were made from the Illusion Quilt tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  I love their tutorials, and I loved this pattern because the cute kids prints could be kept in large pieces!  I made one with pastel fabrics, and another one with darker prints.  I'll use this pattern again in the future.

And, last but not least, this guitar quilt went to Jack's Basket.  This pattern is found in the book Fat Quarter Baby by It's Sew Emma.  Fun to make, and another one I'll probably do again in the future.  I had a pantograph that I thought looked a little like musical notes to quilt it with.

The other four quilts I got done went to Mercyful Quilts.  The first is a rainbow quilt made of half-square triangles left over from another project.  I did some fun feather quilting in the white areas.  This is lap quilt size. And I STILL have a box left of half-square triangles.  I think they replicate overnight.

I've gotten into the string quilt craze a little bit, too.  The next quilt uses some of the string blocks.  I thought this quilt had a more modern feel, so it's quilted with swirls and a mid-century modern motif.  This picture is sideways, but the quilt is a generous lap size. There are a lot of fun TV-theme fabrics in this quilt, so it's very interesting to look at up close.

The next quilt is Boxy Stars, a free pattern by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.  I've made several of these out of 2 1/2" strips.  They always turn out very nice.  The 2 1/2" strip box is still overflowing, too!

I found a sampler quilt top I pieced a few years ago in a Thangles class, so I got it out and quilted it for this challenge.  It's from some older Jan Patek prints, but I still love them and hope someone else will, too.  This picture is also sideways, but it's a nice lap-size quilt.  Since it's a sampler, all the blocks are quilted differently.

So, goal achieved!  Twelve quilts were mailed to their destinations on Tuesday, so they should be there by now.  I feel bad that I didn't send any to Em's Scrapbag, which I've sent to in the past, but I thought that in the interest of postage, I'd limit the number of places I sent to.  Hang on, Emily!  I've already started some quilts for your group for next year, so you'll be hearing from me in 2020. 

I've had so much fun making quilts for this challenge this year, and have a lot of ideas for new quilts, and a number of pieced quilt tops just waiting to be quilted and go to a new home.  And, in spite of all these quilts getting done, I can't see any difference at all in my fabric stash!  How does that happen?

Thanks to Sarah for coordinating this effort.  I really enjoy participating each year!

Hands 2 Help Reveal!

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict has a program each year called Hands2Help where she enlists the help of quilters to make and donate quilts to various charities.  It's a great program and lots of fun to participate - I think I've participated every year, and the program grows each year with many quilts going to deserving charities.

This year, I had lots of help, so have several quilts to send.  I also got an A1 Elite Longarm last year, so have spent the past year learning and practicing.  Some domestic machine skills transfer over pretty well, and others not so much!  But it's been a lot of fun, and my donation quilt closet is overflowing.

I also had some help with fabric.  My friend Donna at Brynwood Needleworks offered me a big bag of fabric from her friend Shelly.  Of course, I couldn't say no to that.  I added some of my fabrics to them, and Donna supplied the backings, so between the three of us, we have two quilts to donate.

This first quilt is Creepy Crawly (named for the bug print fabric) and is quilted with a cute ABC pantograph.  It's a nice size for a child, about 36" x 44".

The second quilt I called "Sunshine".  The print squares have smiling suns and flowers in them.  It's quilted with a pantograph called Animal Crackers, and it turned out very cute.  It's about 40" x 40".

There is still a huge amount of fabric left in that bag Shelly gave me, and I've already pieced two more tops from it, so there will be future donation quilts from the Shelly/Donna duo.  Donna quilts and blogs, and also makes fabulous purses and wallets from cork fabric.  Be sure to visit her Etsy shop here if you're in the market for a new purse!

My mom has been piecing up a storm, and now that I've got a longarm, I can finish them for her.  She sent several tops which I finished, as well as a completed quilt.

This first quilt has a Mother Goose theme - the print fabrics are all from Mother Goose books.  I did lots of fun freehand quilting on this one.  It's a little bigger, maybe 40" x 50".  I didn't measure any of these, and they are already boxed up to mail!

This ABC panel quilt is a lot of fun, too.  It got some custom quilting around all of the motifs.  The color in this picture isn't very good - this quilt is much cuter in person!  It's a little smaller size for a young child, around 36" square.

And Mom made this pretty pink and gray quilt that some small child will love - it has a satin binding and a fleece backing with pink elephants on it.  This quilt is also about 36" square.

These two quilts are my contribution to H2H this year.  They are Morning Glory Farm panels, with blue dot borders added and a flannel backing, and lots of quilting!  They are each about 38" x 48" and have lots of cute animals on them.  I think some children will love to snuggle with these.

So the final tally for H2H is seven this year!  I'm hoping to have even more next year, now that I'm warmed up on the longarm.  These quilts are all much prettier in person - the pictures never do them justice, and I'm more skilled at quilting than photography.  😉  All seven quilts are boxed up and will be sent to Little Lambs Foundation for Kids tomorrow.  Thank you to the sponsors who donate such wonderful prizes for this program, and to Sarah for all her work in setting this up and running it.  I'm going up to the sewing room now to get started on next year's quilts!

Hands 2 Help 2017 Reveal

Well, another year has rushed past, and it's time to show our quilts!  This year, I made two quilts and will be sending them to Camp Hobe.

The first quilt is Fancy Fox.  These foxes are bigger than you think - each one finishes at 19 1/2 x 23 1/2.  That's a pretty big block!  I machine quilted it with a woodgrain design.  I hope some little boy will like these plaid foxes!  The wind was blowing when I took the picture.  The lower right fox looks like his left eye is too small.  Trust me - it's the same size as the other one.  The baseball backdrop I hang these on to take pictures is bent, so it bends the quilt at the bottom if the wind is blowing.  I love the glasses on the foxes - gives them a very studious look, don't you think?

The second quilt is also going to Camp Hobe.  This quilt was a mystery quilt I made at the Pieceful Gatherings retreat this March.  They have a neat way of using Snippets (pieces of fabric that are smaller than a fat quarter - I can't remember the exact size), which are then shuffled and cut.  The process is pretty fun, and this quilt is the result.  It's mostly primary colors and music prints, so I hope this goes to a child who appreciates music!  I quilted this on my friend's longarm, and am very happy with the way it turned out.  It should help to brighten someone's day.

Hope you enjoyed my quilts!  Thanks to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for putting together this opportunity for us to make quilts to donate.  I wanted to give a little shout-out to Inspired LED lights, too.  I won these last year after Hands 2 Help, and they are wonderful!  It's just a little strip you stick on above your machine bed, but what a difference they make!  I can really see what I'm doing now, and they aren't in the way like some lights.  If you need more light on your sewing, be sure to check them out.  I'm so happy they are donating again this year - I know some quilters are going to be very happy to win them.

Hands 2 Help

Well, this is embarrassing!  Apparently I haven't blogged at all since last year's Hands 2 Help Reveal.  I've been here, and I've been quilting, but I guess I just haven't told all of you about it!  I'll try to do better in 2016.

Anyway, on to the Hands 2 Help reveal!  It was a long winter, and I enjoyed a lot of time in my sewing room and had more time to devote to charity quilting.   One of the advantages of living in Wisconsin, I guess.

Last year, in the drawing for the prizes after our reveal, I was lucky to be the winner of a jelly roll of fabric from a line called What's Bugging You.  It was a line of very cute bright bug fabrics, along with black and white bug fabrics.  I separated them out, added some other fabrics and made two quilts from this jelly roll.

This is the quilt from the bright fabrics in the line.  I added some white squares and the blue print, and ended up with a bright and cheerful quilt.  I don't have a pattern name for this quilt; I saw it on Pinterest and made up my own measurements.  It's quilted with a flowery-type design.

This is the bug print in the black and white strips.  Aren't the bugs cute?  I made 9-patches of the black and white prints, and set them with this orange dot fabric.

This is the final quilt.  No pattern for this one, either; it's just 9-patches with alternate squares and setting triangles.  I had to get a little creative with this one to get it big enough!  I machine quilted it with  meanders and loops.  Both these quilts ended up about 48" x 56", a good lap size, and went to Happy Chemo.

I'm a big fan of Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville, and have used her ideas for lots of leader and ender blocks.  I had a large stack of nine-patches made from 2" squares, and decided to use Bonnie's Tumalo Trail pattern (from one of her books) to make a couple more Hands 2 Help quilts.

 This is first one - a fun scrap quilt with lots of reds.  This might make a good Christmas quilt for someone.  It is meander quilted.

This is the second one - less red and more blues and greens. This one I "custom quilted" with a feather-type design in the half-square triangles and other motifs that fit the squares and borders.    These quilts were about 56" x 72", so also good lap size.  Both of these quilts went to Covered In Love and will hopefully bring some comfort to the recipients.

So, the final tally is four quilts for Hands 2 Help this year!  All four quilts were mailed out a couple weeks ago and have arrived safely at their destinations.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's quilts again this year.  Thanks to Sarah for putting this project together for us!

Hands 2 Help Reveal

 

It's time to blog about the quilts we sent for Hands 2 Help!  There were two quilts that I quilted last winter that were sent to Happy Chemo.  The first quilt is this Northern Star quilt.  I made the top to teach a class several years ago, and finally got around to quilting and finishing it over the winter. This was a Quilt In A Day pattern and used the Eleanor Burns Flying Geese ruler.  They work really well!

 The quilting on this one was a loopy meander with stars.  This quilt ended up 60" x 77", so it's a little longer than requested, but I think it would make a great lap quilt for a tall guy.  The fabric was a Holly Taylor winter line with lots of moose, bears and pine trees.  I loved the dark red in that line - it looks like suede and is the perfect shade of red.

 

The second quilt I sent was Mix and Match, a quilt I made last year in a Labor Day Quilt-Along presented by Denise Russert.  This was a fun, easy pattern and one that I will probably make again with I Spy fabrics for my next kid's charity quilt.  This quilt ended up 55" x 67" so it's the perfect size for a lap quilt.  It's much prettier than this picture shows - the fabrics are mostly from Me and My Sister.  I always love their bright and cheerful prints.

 This one is quilted with freestyle flowers and dragonflies.  A lot of the fabric on the front is flowers, so that seemed to fit.

These were fun to make!  I mailed them to Emily at Happy Chemo on Friday, so they are supposed to get there by June 6.  It's kind of nerve-wracking to put quilts in the mail - I always feel a lot better once they get there.  Thanks, Sarah, for organizing this again this year!