Some charity quilting.......

Back when the quarantine first started, you might remember that I spent a few days getting quite a few kits ready for my guild to make for charity.  Well, our meetings have been canceled month after month.  I am still waiting to hear what happens with the June meeting.

If June gets canceled (which is our last meeting), I may put out a notice to come and get a kit or two from my house just to get some of these kits done. 

I put together two quilts that I cut from the charity stash and got them quilted recently, too.  These will be ready to donate once the hospitals are accepting them again.  

Red Alphabet quilt

I did a dragon fly motif on this one.

Bound it in the alphabet fabric (there was lots of that fabric).

Then there is the aqua flannel quilt with fleece backing.

Big daisy in the solid corners

Daisy's galore panto for the rest of the quilt

Finished top

Coordinating fleece backing.

I was busy for a couple of evenings hand stitching some binding down.

Last charity quilt is done now, too.

Charity quilts quilted.....(2)

Today I not only got all the laundry done, but two of the charity quilts that have been sitting here waiting to be quilted are on and off the long arm.  What a good feeling!

First one up was this kit that really didn't have any instructions in it and had so much more fabric than needed.  I pared it down to fabrics that went together and came up with this design.   I meandered the quilt using a tangerine colored So-Fine thread.  No sense in getting really fancy with the quilting on this one since it is already so busy.  

The backing is a Disney fabric.

Such a fun quilt.  I think some child is really going to love it. 

Up next is a kit I put together from the fabrics that are in the "charity closet".  Nancy came up with the idea of throwing in some checks with this big floral print and I think it turned out just perfect.  

I used the Denise's Rosebuds pantograph and a dusty pink thread (So Fine) to quilt this one. 

Since we didn't have a great fabric for a backing, I purchased this one to go with this quilt top.  

Getting two done in a day (40x50 each) I feel energized and ready to put a couple more on that I have.  After that, I have some personal quilts that need getting to; but for now, I am pretty happy with the progress made today.  

Of course, there is still the binding to tackle, but I like doing bindings, so I don't foresee that as a problem.  

SQUIRREL!!!! (organization of the charity room)

It's time to get the "charity room" organized prior to the first guild meeting starting next month.  

If you remember, I am taking over as Charity Chairperson for the guild and ALL the fabric was brought to my house.  We prepped a room by cleaning it out, painting, putting in a cutting table (old kitchen island) and made a big board for ironing some of the fabric as needed.

So this is where I started on Friday.

Day 1

After looking at those pictures once I have been in that room for almost 8 hours, I am thinking it was pretty neat.  It's not now!

My goal is to touch each piece of fabric and get it organized into "like" piles.

Sounded like a good plan, except when you have to empty ALL the bins before you can start putting it all back together organized.

It's getting worse by the minute.

Oh heck......squirrel!   

I found something that would make a cute pillowcase kit, so I had to iron that and cut it out.

I can't be doing that all day or nothing else will get done., but I couldn't resist.  Those fabrics were just calling my name.

I did get the solids organized.

I may have to lay the fabrics down in the bins ; otherwise, they aren't going to stay as neat as I had hoped.  

I, also, got the plaids in a bin, but couldn't lay my bin down so that the fabrics could be seen easily.  I'll have to see what I can do about that.  

But that's it for tonight.  I am bushed and it was really getting hard to move around in there.  So I will save the rest for another day.  At least it is headway.  One more day and it will be done and ready to start making kits, although I think I counted 27 kits left over from the previous gal

Day 2.....

Did I say one more day?  NOT....

I worked  several  more hours.  I took a lot of the fabric off the cardboard holders because I felt I could fit more fabric on a shelf without them; I refolded several pieces (yardage) of the fabric because whoever had them before folded them inside out (?);  started stacking the shelves; cut a couple more pillowcases (just because).....

Here's where I stand at the end of day two.

I'm getting there.   

Dare I say one more day?

Yeah!  Day 3 was short.

It's all put where it belongs.  I can move in there, Everything is much neater and organized.  That's the way I like it.

Here's a little tour of the finished project.

First the whites/ivories went from this to this.

All ready to iron.

There is still a bin of pre-made kits from the previous committee, but my committee and I will be going through those later this week.   I am just happy that all the fabric is organized and now  a day or two can be called my own and I can  do something for myself before the committee shows up this weekend to starting moving forward full steam ahead.

There is a UFO that will be completed within those couple  days  of me time and I am anxious to get it done and share it with you.  

Well, thanks for coming on the tour.  I'll share what we produce from  someone else's stash.  I don't foresee it to be like working from your own, but that's the challenge.  

Passing time......

Passing time has a bit of a double meaning for me right now.  

We put my mom in hospice at home this past week and have been staying by her side daily.  My folks live in a one bedroom apartment, so there is little for my sister and I to do while we care for mom (92) and watch over dad (94).  

After 11 days, I am going a little crazy not having anything to do with my hands while we sit and wait.  Even though we are caring for all their daily needs, there is a lot of free time in between.  

I bound my charity quilt before this all started. 

Today is the first day I had a break from sitting there, so I decided to put my stars into rows.

Next time I can sit at a machine, I will get my rows together and I will have this top complete.

I need some handwork and since all my UFOs right now are quilts that need to be quilted or require a whole lot of prep to get something going (like my Dear Jane), I pulled some Halloween fabric out and started cutting out a project that I have been gathering fabric for.  I have been wanting to do this for quite some time.  I don't expect that it will be done by Halloween, but at least it feels right at the moment and seems somewhat easy since my mind is in such turmoil right now.  

I managed to cut out 13 cats from freezer paper at dad's yesterday.

So today I pulled the fabrics that I had collected 

and some from my stash and then paired them up (bottom one is the background of each block and the top fabric is the cat.

Oh....and I even found some backing that I had bought when a local quilt shop was closing. I even bought the stripe for the binding. 

I may tea-dye this fabric since there will be creamy colors on the quilt top.

This is the pattern.

from this book.

  

A wonderful blogging friend was going to send me the cat drawing, but found this book which is out of print and sent it to me.  Thank you Sharon in Washington.  

So, I started cutting out the two pieces for each block.

Black background will have an orange cat and the orange backgrounds will have black cats.  I am going to try my hand at reverse applique. 

This will give me something quick and easy to do while I am at mom and dad's.  

So, please say a little prayer for me and my family.  It's a sad time, but also a blessing.