Love is Like Gluons

Posted on December 5, 2014 by jeanswenson

Love is Like Gluons
December 2014

This is made up of probably the biggest blocks I have ever made. There are a total of four Red Cross blocks, each about 20″ square! Since I wanted to optimize displaying the pretty white flowers, a donation fabric from Amber, I needed to go big – so big I went! The picture really doesn’t do justice to the flower fabric: in person, the flowers look like they were drawn with a Spirograph, or sort of like an atom nucleus.

The black fabric was in the bag of donation fabric from Jamie’s friend, while the white background fabric was new. The center black fabric piece is some leftover fabric from my Lovely Flower Baskets in the Windows quilt from August 2013.

I donated this quilt to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in December 2014.

Reflecting on 42°

Posted on November 25, 2014 by jeanswenson

Reflecting on 42°
November 2014

This is a windmill quilt design. All the fabric, except the edge binding, were from the Moms, Granny and fabric donations. Here’s my favorite rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow…

I donated this quilt to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in November 2014.

Tweedily Deedily Dee

Posted on November 18, 2014 by jeanswenson

Tweedily Deedily Dee
November 2014

This is a 16-patch quilt design. The star of this quilt, and inspiration for the quilt name, are the cute little birds that I have shown in detail in the lower right corner of the picture. I used a mix of Edith’s leftover fabrics combined with some new fabrics. I also incorporated one of Granny’s hankies in the lower right corner, shown just above the bird fabric.

This will mark the 34th quilt donation since I began this project close to two years ago now. It is my deepest hope that just one of the quilts I donate will make a difference in a child’s life. I donated Tweedily Deedilly Dee to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in November 2014.

Prehistoric Pennies

Posted on October 31, 2014 by jeanswenson

Prehistoric Pennies
October 2014

This is the Chinese Coins quilt pattern, which is a fun pattern since it can be done in so many different ways. I used a mix of leftover and new fabrics.

I donated this quilt to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in October 2014.

Rorschach van Gogh Mashup

Posted on October 23, 2014 by jeanswenson

Rorschach van Gogh Mashup
October 2014

This quilt was an interesting undertaking. To create the pattern, I started by sketching the butterfly on graph paper. Once I was happy with the outline of the butterfly, I chose the side that I liked best, folded the paper in half, and held it up to a window. I then adjusted the outline on the other half so that I had a somewhat perfect mirror image from left to right of the center fold.

The fabrics used in the butterfly were from leftover scraps of grey and black fabrics, while the white background was mostly new fabric. The butterfly is not appliquéd onto the white background fabric – it has been patchworked together. Many of the 3″x3″ quilt squares had to be custom made, since the overall shape of the butterfly is organic, to mimic an ink blot design. To finish the quilt, I hand stitched around the outline of the butterfly.

As I worked on the quilt, I knew I wanted to reference Rorschach in the name, but it wasn’t until I bought the fleece for the backing (shown in lower right where I folded the corner back) that I came up with the name Rorschach van Gogh Mashup.

I enjoy Fox’s program So You Think You Can Dance, and was inspired by the 2014 season’s performance of a Phillip Chbeeb’s hip hop routine that was inspired by Rorschach and danced by Zack & All-Star Fik-Shun.

I donated this quilt to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in October 2014.

Holy Guacamole

Posted on September 22, 2014 by jeanswenson

Holy Guacamole
September 2014

This is the Greek Cross design. The green was some fabric from Edith, and my guess is that it was from the 1970’s, when the color avocado was so trendy (yes, I remember!). The only new fabric was the blue edge binding.

Since starting my Love Hugs project, I estimate that I have used over 6200 yards of thread which is just over 3.5 miles!

I donated this quilt to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in September 2014.

Balancing Hippopotami

Posted on September 22, 2014 by jeanswenson

Balancing Hippopotami
September 2014

Life is a balancing act, and some days can feel more like a balancing hippopotami act!

This is Shar Jorgenson’s Crazy Quilt design. In the bottom right corner (shown in detail in upper right corner) is the pretty crocheted edging off of one of Granny’s hankies. I bound the top to the polka dot fleece backing by strategically tacking a ‘bow’ on each hippo’s head.

The majority of the fabrics used were leftovers from the Moms and Granny, while the star of the quilt – the hippos – was a new fabric.

I donated this quilt to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in September 2014.

Madagascar Foxtrot

Posted on September 9, 2014 by jeanswenson

Madagascar Foxtrot
September 2014

The design for Madagascar Foxtrot is based off of a basic 9-patch quilt. This one is a true patchwork quilt as I used scraps that were left from these prior Love Hugs quilts – Check This!, Shooting Star and Green Tetons. And, I still have more of these fabrics!

If you would like to donate a scrap of fabric to be used in a Love Hugs quilt, check out the donation form on the About page.

I donated this quilt to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in September 2014.

On a Coconut Island

Posted on August 30, 2014 by jeanswenson

On a Coconut Island
August 2014

This is the Winning Hand pattern. The solid teal blue and the blue polka dot fabric were from Mom and Granny’s past sewing projects, while the other fabrics were all new. The monkeys in the coconut trees gave the quilt the feeling of being on a coconut island, hence the name! Here’s a little something for your listening pleasure…

I donated this quilt to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in September 2014.

Twizzler Goes for a Ride

Posted on August 16, 2014 by jeanswenson

Twizzler Goes for a Ride
August 2014

Quilts seem to mimic life: you have a general plan of where things will go, and sometimes it doesn’t quite go that exact way. But, it is beautiful nonetheless. I had planned to carry the Irish Chain pattern all the way to the edge, but the fabric scraps I had chosen were just not going to stretch that far. So, back to the sketch pad, and I came up with the idea to use the animal fabric as a border. In the end, it turned out great!

The orange fabric was given to Jamie from her friend Jan, who likes the idea of my Love Hugs project. She gave Jamie a huge bag of all sorts of fabrics! The animal fabric was new, while the blue was some from Granny’s stuff, and the plaid was from the craigslist fabric I acquired last year.

As a big thank you for the fabric donation, I have named this in honor of Jan and her doggie Twizzler.

I donated this quilt to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County, in August 2014.

Love Hugs

from Pieces of the Past

Tag Archives: charity

Love is Like Gluons

Reflecting on 42°

Tweedily Deedily Dee

Prehistoric Pennies

Rorschach van Gogh Mashup

Holy Guacamole

Balancing Hippopotami

Madagascar Foxtrot

On a Coconut Island

Twizzler Goes for a Ride