100 Quilts for Kids Annual Charity Drive

Posted on October 14, 2016 by jeanswenson

This year’s 100 Quilts for Kids annual charity drive is being run by Alyson this year, who blogs over at The Hasty Quilter. In checking it out the other day, it looks like there is still a ways to go! In 2015, the quilting community donated 119 quilts, yet this year, there are only about a dozen quilts linked-up so far. Knowing how generous the quilting community is, let’s try to exceed last year’s number! There is still time, as this year’s drive will run through the end of November.

I encourage you to pull out those tops you have lying around that you can’t decide what to do with, add a fleece-back (see my Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 tutorial here), and donate them to foster kids in your community through your local government’s Family Services department.

Mon-star

Posted on October 11, 2016 by jeanswenson

Mon-star (pronounced ‘mon-sta’)
October 2016

I will be linking this to this year’s 100 Quilts for Kids annual charity drive, which Heather over at Quilts in the Queue used to oversee. This year, Heather turned the reins over to Alyson who blogs over at The Hasty Quilter. In checking it out the other day, it looks like we still have a ways to go! In 2015, the quilting community donated 119 quilts, yet this year, there are only about a dozen quilts linked-up so far. Knowing how generous the quilting community is, let’s try to exceed last year’s number! There is still time, as this year’s drive will run through the end of November.

Mon-star is a friendship star quilt pattern. The inspiration for this quanket began with the monsters fabric, shown in the lower right corner – another new fabric that was too cute to resist. I chose the other fabric colors based on the colors in the monsters fabric, and while the colors are all rather saturated, I felt putting focus on the teal-blue star brought the contrast that was needed.

The pronunciation of ‘Mon-sta’ is intended to be based on a North Eastern United States accent. Many years ago, we had the opportunity to travel to Maine, and I Iove the way the locals pronounce Bar Harbor, Maine, as well as lobsters 🙂

This was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, for a foster child in October 2016.

Sweet Slumber

Posted on September 13, 2016 by jeanswenson

Sweet Slumber
September 2016

Such a busy year! This is only the fifth quanket that I have completed this year. My personal goal is to make two per month, and I am far from achieving even close to this number for 2016. When I start to get down on myself for not hitting personal goals – perhaps self-inflicted, non-rational would be better words than “personal” – I hear the words of advice my mom used to give to me: “everything in moderation, Jean”. So, I must cut myself some slack. Time is at a premium this year: from helping daughters with house projects and moving, to welcoming our new granddaughter, Ivy, to hosting a baby shower for other daughter’s first child, and we still have two major holidays to squeeze into what has already been a full year.

Sweet Slumber is a log cabin quilt design, based on an interpretation of Jean Ann Wright’s, Bonnie Blues Quilt. The log cabin is such a versatile block pattern: a simple rotation, or an intended placement of repeating fabric can create such a unique design! While the majority of fabrics I used are new fabrics, I was able to incorporate a scrap fabric piece inherited from Granny, which is the teal polka dot fabric that is used in the simple four-patch joining blocks in the sashing.

Although busy and at times chaotic and physically tiring, it has been a fantastic year! Maybe I will hit that personal goal of two quilts per month in 2017 🙂

This was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, for a foster child in October 2016.

Hakuna Matata

Posted on June 11, 2016 by jeanswenson

Hakuna Matata
June 2016

Do you ever purchase a super cute fabric that you just can’t resist, but then find that it sits in your stash, and for some reason, you seem to be avoiding it? In this case, the fabric is a beautiful Julia Cairns African inspired design. Each time I saw it there in my stash, beckoning me, I wasn’t quite sure how to do justice to the fabric, as each of the animal blocks is a different size. But then the idea finally came to me: a 9-patch might be the answer.

A standard 9-patch is such a perfect block pattern because it so flexible. The color palette was pulled from the animal print – blues, gold and greens – taken from a variety of leftover pieces from other past quanket projects.

The name Hakuna Matata was inspired by the animal print, and from a Corrie ten Boom quote I recently came across:

Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength – carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.

This quanket was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, for a foster child in June 2016.

Maypole

Posted on May 30, 2016 by jeanswenson

Maypole
May 2016

The quilts I make are not traditional “quilted” quilts. I like to refer to them as quankets (pronounced ‘kwang-kits’). Quilted quilts are when the patch-worked top is then “quilted” onto a backing piece of fabric, with a layer of batting in between. This is typically done using a long arm sewing machine (which I don’t have) or by hand (which I don’t have the patience for). I love the aspects of piecing, and backing my quilts with blankets allows me to focus on piecing, while not stressing (or spending a lot of money) towards having them professionally long arm quilted.

It has never been my intention for my quilts to be works of art: they’re pretty, and that works for me. I find that by not undertaking each quilt with the notion that it has to be a work of art, it liberates me to explore new ideas, and experiment with colors, patterns, and textures – I LOVE textures. In Maypole, the white fabric is a polyester that I inherited from Granny: no doubt, fabric she had intended for a pant suit – Granny loved her polyester pant suits! It has a fabulous line and texture detail. I have had this fabric on my shelf for years, shying away from it for a quilt project since it is polyester. But, it is super soft, and after experimenting with wool in my Virgie’s Wagga quilt, I figured that I should give the polyester a try.

I follow several blogs, and many bloggers lament the market for quilts, and how overseas mass production has made selling homemade quilts more difficult. I am fortunate that I have the time, resources, and ability to make and donate quilts. I only hope that more quilters out there, that are ‘stuck’ in the place of not knowing if they should quilt for profit, artistry, or charity, choose the later 🙂 Don’t let unused quilts lie in your studios, hang on walls, unused, perhaps in the hopes that they will some day be a work of art. Just donate them – the act of letting go is so fulfilling!

This was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, for a foster child in June 2016.

Baby Bear

Posted on April 25, 2016 by jeanswenson

Baby Bear
April 2016

Baby Bear is the final quanket in my Three Bears series, and I am thrilled to have it finished in time to include it, along with Papa and Mama Bear, in this year’s Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge.

I have had little time to spend at the sewing machine over the past few months, however I did take some time recently to better organize my scraps. While I am not quite as organized as other quilters in cutting my scraps into commonly used sizes, I do keep my scraps together by colors. My prior method of keeping them in plastic bags was beginning to get out of hand and needless to say, it looked tacky. So I purchased some cute photo boxes that were on clearance, and have now organized my scraps into these. They look much cuter on the shelf and work much better than the plastic bags did. During the process of organizing, I found that my blue scraps were overflowing, which is what inspired the fabric selection for Baby Bear.

Designing a scrappy quilt, while challenging, is fun and rewarding. Challenges include finding enough scraps in similar or complementary color values and/or saturation, and designing the layout. For me, the layout is usually dictated by the amount of scraps I have that work together. In Baby Bear, I had a lot of country blues – leftovers from the 80’s – and darker blue leftovers from my quanket, Celebration. Using a design wall is great for exploring options in how to arrange blocks, sashing and borders. My design wall is a closet door covered with felt which works great, as it lets me place pieces without the use of pins. For pieces that have more seams, it seems that a pin is needed, otherwise I end up with a pile of pieces on the floor in front of the closet door!

Papa Bear

Posted on December 22, 2015 by jeanswenson

Papa Bear
December 2015

I recently read a quilter’s comment that there are “so many quilts to try and so little time“, which I can totally relate to! Papa Bear marks my 57th quilt donation – not counting the numerous family and friends quilts I have made over the years – and this is the first time I have done a Bear’s Paw quilt design.

The inspiration for the name and color palette came from a family trip to Big Bear over the Thanksgiving holiday: the crisp blue sky, the evergreen pine trees and the snow that fell all day on Friday. Living in Southern California, it is a treat to be able to drive only a few hours and to enjoy a few days in the snow. Yes, we are spoiled. The majority of the fabrics were pulled from my scraps bin and represent too many past projects and pieces of the past to list here. Overall, there is a lot of good mojo that is at work in this quilt!

This quanket, along with Baby Bear and Mama Bear are being donated via the Hands2Help Challenge 2016 and will go to the Yukon Women’s Transition Home in Whitehorse, Yukon. I am inspired by these words on their website, “Kids deserve to feel safe“. These are words that fuel me to make and donate quilts for kids.

Marigolds

Posted on November 29, 2015 by jeanswenson

Marigolds
November 2015

In October, during a road trip around Oregon, I had the opportunity of visiting the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center in Tillamook. If you are a quilter, and are visiting this area, this is certainly a “must see” for the itinerary. The museum includes beautiful quilts on display, as well as numerous other textile arts. They also have a gift shop where I acquired the centerpiece for this quilt.

The cross-stitched sampler centerpiece had an identical twin, each measuring about 12″x12″, and while the orange and brown stitching was complete on both, the background had not been finished. Like my Lovely Flower Baskets in the Window quanket, I was amazed at the time someone must have spent on these, and wondered at their plan for them. As a fan of re-purposing, I knew that these were destined to make their way into my Love Hugs (Pieces of the Past) quilt project. So, I scooped up these beautiful little treasures, and figured I would finish cross-stitching the background.

I chose to do this as a medallion quilt, as I wanted the cross-stitched center block to be the main attraction. The Fall-colored leaves material used in the last large border and throughout, was a leftover from my sister Lynn’s donation for my Country Fair quilt, and the large gold triangles was material I had received for participating in the 2015 Hands2Help Challenge.

This quanket was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, for a foster child in December 2015.

Virgie’s Wagga Rug

Posted on November 16, 2015 by jeanswenson

Virgie’s Wagga Rug
November 2015

I am intrigued by hexie quilts, but doing a Y-seam or paper piecing method intimidates me. For this quilt, I used the 60-degree angle method, although I think I conceptualized it a bit different than how I have seen others use the 60-degree method. I cut my pieces so that I could work with blocks, since I am so accustomed to block quilting (shown in pic below). If you are looking for a good hexie tutorial, check out Kim’s blog over at Magnolia Bay Quilts.

The fabric I used is wool, which I do not consider to be a very traditional quilting material – I suspect this way of thinking is perhaps influenced by my American upbringing. I had come across TheEclecticAbuela’s blog a while back, and was thrilled to learn that it is not uncommon to use wool in making quilts. And, the story and origin of Wagga Rugs is fascinating.

Years ago when my brother-in-law’s mom Virgie passed away, I had been given stacks of wool that she had planned to use in making men’s suits. Over the years, I had used some to make a pair of slacks and a jacket for myself, but I still have stacks and stacks of this beautiful wool. I am so excited that I can put this wool to use in my Love Hugs project, and I suspect that Virgie would be excited as well that this quilt will give a foster child warmth and comfort. I was amazed by the finished weight of the quilt, which is considerably heavier than the usual cotton blend quilts that I make. I look forward to making more Wagga Rugs from Virgie’s wool!

Virgie’s Wagga Rug quanket was donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services in December 2015.

Don’t Fence Me In

Posted on September 16, 2015 by jeanswenson

Don’t Fence Me In
September 2015

This is my 54th quilt donation to foster children, and it, along with my last two quankets Country Fair and Flower Power, will be donated to the County of Ventura, Children & Family Services, via the Children’s Services Auxiliary of Ventura County this month.

This fence rail block pattern went together pretty quickly. Using the strip quilting technique and having very few intersecting seams make this a really nice pattern for beginners. I liked how the design used different strip widths, and by randomly placing the fabrics, it turned out very different from my Switchbacks quanket that also is a fence rail pattern.

The solid green fabric was a leftover fabric from Edith, while the rest were new fabrics from the local fabric shop’s remnants bin. The inspiration for the name came from the old Cole Porter song, Don’t Fence Me In. As someone who loves backpacking, sailing and road trips, I feel a personal connection to the lyrics,

Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies
Don’t fence me in
Let me ride through the wide country that I love
Don’t fence me in

Don’t Fence Me In will be included in this year’s 100 Quilts for Kids program, which runs through the end of September.

Love Hugs

from Pieces of the Past

Tag Archives: foster