April Fourth Week

Hope y'all don't mind, but this month's "Fourth Week" got hi-jacked.

It's my finals week, and I only have so much sewing time available. In response to a call for relief to tornado-torn Alabama, I dedicated sewing time to this other charity project. (Sure would be great if you could pass the word along on your own blog for the Bama Bound project.)

~*~*~ Straight from my personal blog ~*~*~

Bama Bound Quilts has asked for baby/children's quilts for tornado relief in Alabama. (Can you pass the link along on your blog?)

My brain was on overload, anyway, so I put my books down and went to my long-term UFO pile, where I saw a promising cheerful piece peeking out. . .

Pulled it out and found that it's almost queen-sized, but just a boring 12" checkerboard (albeit with a really cute purple floral fabric). 

Hmm, but these scraps of brights coordinate well (although the colors are all off thru the camara's eye). . . 

Frogged it and rearranged a couple pieces to yield two baby quilts and a cuddle blankie size.

Got my daughter to trace out flowers on fusible web, while I cut and fused. . . And now she's very sweetly pin-basting all three for me:

I'm going to do the quilting simultaneously with stitching the flowers down. Due to time, I'm just going to do a simple straight stitching about a 1/8th inch in since the edges are fused on. Think I'll use white shiny thread and do spirals in the big centers. Will do a meander on the rest of the quilt. 

Not sure if I'll have issues at the machine. I didn't have backing fabrics to go with this, no time to go to JoAnn's (an hour away), but I did have pretty purple fleece (which I think kids would find comforting, anyway) and a piece of pre-quilted pink flannel. I've never worked with these with quilting before, so I'm hoping the machine doesn't care.  :D   Wish me luck!

P.S. This camera really has issues these days  :/     It just can't read colors properly anymore.

Just Made It!

Whew! ::wiping forehead::

I just put together block 3 and block 4 for my answer to Michelle's Lent challenge to make four different blocks for the Valor Quilt Bee.

I don't do Lent - it's not part of my religion - but I respect what folks around me do for it, and Michelle's challenge was a worthy one. Little did I know how very challenging it would be! I mean, I regularly do quilt work, so how hard could it be to make 4 blocks instead of 1 in 6 weeks' time?

Well, Life exploded for our family, and I do have my master's coursework, so finding the time for even just three extra blocks really has been a bear. I really considered asking to be excused - almost all my other BOMs got shelved for April - but I set the books down this morning and did these two beauties up.  :)  Feels good.

4th Week March Makeup, a Lent-challenge block, and donations

I didn't abandon you guys!!  Last month was blasted away for our family between 3 different spring break weeks and a serious medical event. I apologize for not being able to do March's 4th Week on time, but that is fixed today. 

I wanted something simple but cute, and this fun blue with the heart roosters lent itself well to an easy block. 

I got eight 6" blocks from 3 sets of strips. These blocks are PERFECT for beginners or quilters pressed for time. Just cut 1 1/2" strips the width of the fabric, sew three strips together side-to-side, cut them into sections every 3 1/2", and sew those patches together like this:

They can easily be adapted to other sizes, and you can sandwich fabrics like I did or use three different ones altogether.

I also hadn't been able to work on Michelle's 4-block Lent challenge until today, so I'm happy I was able to get another block done, too. This one is a 12-incher. The design would be a lot more apparent if one of my fabrics had been less busy, but we'll find a place for it in a grouping that has more subtle, water-colory, gardenish blocks.

The other fun thing to share is that we got some donations today from my local quilt guild!  Betty brought me a sack filled with what we're now calling Scraps of Valor:

And Ginger brought me odd-ball blocks from the guild's Quilts of Valor program to use at 

Valor Quilt Bee. The guild's program is set up to use only 12" blocks or a full-top pattern, so these would be more difficult for her to incorporate. They're perfect for us, though! 

Check them out: