Cara's Basics Charity Challenge

Last year, Cara of Cara Quilts issued a challenge on her blog to encourage people (of course quilters are people too) to donate the basic needs of life to local shelters for women and children.  She was inspired to start the challenge when driving past her local women's shelter that had a sign out front asking for donations of paper towels.  She expresses her thoughts so much better than I can.  Please click the button on my right side bar to visit her blog and read all about it.
I participated in the Basics Charity Challenge last year and donated 3 tote bags with the every day items we all take for granted; toothpaste, toothbrushes, liquid hand soap, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, hand creme,  and deodorant.  We also packed some extra food and household cleaning items in a shopping bag and dropped if off at the same time.  When we dropped them off, the woman at the reception desk was very grateful and told us that they were really in need of  all kinds of basic cleaning and personal hygiene supplies because donations drop off after the Christmas holidays.  It wasn't a big deal for us since we try to buy a few extra items when they are on sale to donate through our church.  Last year, over 200 people answered Cara's challenge to help.  Cara has recruited sponsors that will be offering all kinds of quilty goodies to participants.  The challenge runs through the month of February so you still have time to participate.  We all know someone who has needed help; now is our chance to extend a hand to a woman or child who is counting on us.

Pass It Along Box Finds A New Home

In case you're wondering how the "Pass It On" box is doing, it's ready to move on to its new home.

I removed 2 books (Scrap Basket Surprises and Miss Rosie's Floral Quilts), 1 Dance of the Fairies  fat quarter pack,1 tan print fat quarter,  a Clover yo you maker (large and small size included), and 1 applique pumpkin pillow pattern.

I added:  1 Riley Blake charm pack, 1 Curio charm pack by Basic Grey, 2 packs of 100 two inch squares, 2 packs of wash away foundation paper, 1 quilt pattern, 2 books (Make It Simpler Paper Piecing and Spring Cleaning , 3 Moda fat quarters (Lumiere de Noel, Aster Manor, and Roman Holiday), 1 Keepsake Quilting Die Cut Assortment of fifty eight 4 inch squares, and 2 one yard cuts from the Buttercup Line from Robert Kaufman.

Unfortunately, it no longer fits into a medium size priority box so I'll  be shipping it in a larger box to the lucky winner Miki Willa of Miki's Fabric Creations and slipping in a few more surprises.  Congratulations Miki.

Cut The Scraps Challenge

Warning!  This post has a lot of pictures so it may take a while to load.

Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict heads a quilt ministry that makes quilts for people who need a special hug.  When Sarah  announced a Scrappy Block Challenge using the methods described by Joan Ford in her book, Cut The Scraps!, I was ready and willing to try it out.  Joan's method recommends cutting your scraps into squares of 2, 3.5, and 5 inches.  Try as I might, I couldn't come up with anything original.  In spite of the fact that my idea is far from original, I had lots of fun playing with my scraps.  The block/blocks I came up with can actually be very versatile.  It is based on the old reliable 9 patch using 4 patch blocks made of 2 inch squares in the corners and varying the center.  In 2 of the blocks, I used a solid in the middle.   The 2 patch strips are made from 2 strips of fabric 2 by 3 1/2 inches cut from 5 inch squares. The solid square used in the middle of 2 of the blocks is 3 1/2 inches.  Each of the blocks is 9 1/2 inches square.

Sarah is hoping to use some of the blocks that were designed for the challenge to make quilts for her ministry.  The blocks above are obviously not sewn together so that I could demonstrate their versatility.  I'll be cutting more so that I can sew all of the samples and send them to Sarah.

It's Here

I'm so excited!  One of the Traveling Stash boxes has arrived at my house.  With Sharon V's  help, I have been tracking the boxes and hoping to get a chance to open one and touch everything inside.
This box originated with  Brandie at ABC then went to Sunny at Sunny-Quilting Dream and now to the very lucky me.
Inside are:  wonderful quilting books, applique patterns, fat quarters, some blocks, a magazine, and some yardage (the scissor is mine, I used it to open the box).  I promise I will update this post tomorrow with the items I am removing as well as the items I will replace them with.

 

If you want to be the next lucky recipient of the "Pass It On" Box there are a few rules you need to agree to

You must be a blogger so you can "pass it on" to another blogger and keep us posted about where it's going.

You must be willing to ship it on to the next person.

You may take anything you like, but for every item you remove, you must replace it with another item.

Items do not need to be new, but if they are not new, they must be gently used.

You may fill the box with:  orphan blocks, books, patterns, notions, rulers, and definitely fabric.

There is a note in the box that logs where the box has been.  Please add your info and place the note back in the box.

Sorry, but because of shipping costs the box cannot be shipped internationally.

You know you want to see everything inside.  Leave me a comment and I will announce on Wednesday who the next lucky recipient will be.

When I Should Have Been Quilting

I just wasted a perfectly good morning playing with word pictures on this site.  Taxedo allows you to make word pictures using template shapes.  You can choose your blog or come up with a word list that you would like to use.  These are a few I came up with.

The first image was from a list of words I typed.  The next 3 were made using the blog choice.  Unfortunately, if you use the blog app, you don't have control over which words it chooses.  As a tea addict, the teapot and cup were a perfect choice for me, but there are lots of others.  Maybe I'll play some more another day, but for now, I'll sew a bit.

2012 NewFO Challenge

It's the last day of January.  Time to take inventory of projects that I began this month and to make plans for February.  Barbara at Cat Patches has invited quilters to start one new thing every month as part of NewFO Challenge 2012.  Luckily, the challenge is to only to start new things, but you're not required to finish them.
This month, I started 3 new quilts and worked on  2 UFOs from 2011.

I enjoyed making the quilt for Marcia's Scrappy Quilt Challenge so much that I made a second quilt from the same tutorial.  Once again, no yardage was cut for this quilt top.  All of the fabric was from my scrap box.  The other 2 quilt tops I made are shown below.

I also worked on blocks that I originally made for the Charity Quilt Smackdown on Debra's blog back in August.  The star pattern used was scrappier than I am used to so I decided to make my blocks more uniform.  I put them away because I didn't really like some of the fabric combinations I used.  Debra said to sew them up into a top and send them down to Texas.  She will quilt it on her long arm and give it to a local veteran's group.  I'm sure her expert quilting will perk them up a bit.

I've also been putting together blocks I started back in August that were designed by Sharon of Vrooman's Quilts.  She used a jelly roll.  My version uses strips from my scrap bin with a polka dot print. I should be able to finish putting the top together tomorrow.

Luckily, this picture was taken before all of the blocks were sewn together because a few are facing the wrong way.
I am linking up to the 2012 NewFO Challenge at Cat Patches' blog.  Stop over and see what other bloggers have started this month.

Marcia's Crafty Sewing and Quilting Scrappy Quilt Challenge

You may remember that I wrote about Marcia's Scrappy Quilt Challenge on January 6th.  I showed you the scraps I planned to use.

Now it is time to see the finished top.

I love it.  My daughter said, "That's a great quilt!  Some little child is going to love that."  Two minutes later she burst my bubble saying, "Do you realize that none of those blocks are the same?"  I tried explaining about using the pattern from the Scrappy Challenge, but she wasn't buying it.  She decided that she prefers quilts that use the same blocks throughout.  Boring!
I didn't cut into any yardage for this quilt.  The strips for the borders were cut for another quilt and misplaced.  There they were waiting in the fabric closet.  At 33 x 41, this will be a good donation quilt for a small child.  Thanks Marcia.  Whether I win the long arm quilting or not, this was a fun quilt to make.  I've already cut some focus fabric to make another one.