Green/Gold HSTs

      The second gifted HST quilt is a green/golds one. I tried arranging the groupings of 4 in different directions, but I kept coming back to all of them in the same position. Somehow, that appeals to me. The varied tones of greens and golds seem to pull together this way. The quilt was a little small, so I added a 2" finished green border and now am picking a wider yellow one (4" Finished). I don't know why, but it reminds me of picnic tables in the park when I was a kid. They were always dark green.

Hoping for loads of comfort

      Ninety five percent of my quilts are comfort quilts. They are made to be given, by referral, to those in need of comforting due to illness, treatment, bereavement, or serious setback. Most of them tend to go to those undergoing cancer treatment because that is the most common referral. I received a message from a friend whose cousin had just found out she had stage 4 lung cancer and has a short time to live. Fortunately, I had a done quilt that only needed washing and bag preparation. I was able to get it to my friend so she could give it the next day. I prefer that the referring person be the deliverer, but that doesn't always happen. I prefer the focus on the message of the quilt.
     This quilt was made from a batik layer cake and 10" white squares. A batik to a white square, sewn all around, then cut twice on the diagonal. I love to use the Perfect Slotted ruler, because I only have to cut twice to trim to size. I used Glide celery on top.

This is a pretty large comfort quilt

The whole quilt package

Some special HSTs

       In looking over past posts and lack of, I realized that although I posted the bars and leaves quilt I sewed and quilted that was given me by Quiltdiva Julie, I never posted the extent of the gifted top kits. There were 4 quilt kits contained plus backings, bindings. Two were the strips/bars and two were precut triangles for HST quilts. I have been chipping away at the two HSTs ones. The orange HST arrangement is tall and skinny, but I like the diamond center. If I use wide side borders, it may work. I have a gray print on the wall to consider.

I changed the green strip between the triangles to a gray

Trying some layouts with HSTS

First attempt on wall. The top row is flopped over because my wall is not tall enough.

Full layout, gray side border idea

     I am going to rearrange all the HSTs again in a different layout to try another idea.

The floral 4 patch finally quilted

      This quilt has been a long time coming. It started inspired by a quilt I saw at a quilt show years ago. When I finished piecing it, it did not match what I saw in my mind. I was looking for some floating feeling from the floral 4 patches. I found a great border, but it still sat. Finally, I forced myself to quilt it. It was a lot of work as it is a big quilt and there was a lot of quilting.
     It is finished, but it still does not live up to what I had seen in my head. I think the black, even though I used black on black prints, ruins it. I usually never use black in painting or quilting.
     I think someone will like it. I was glad I could get the quilting done finally.

Finally, the H2H baby quilts done and mailed

       Even though I had sewn the Hands2Help baby quilts for this year's challenge, for many reasons, could not get them quilted and bound in time for Sarah's deadline (Sarah told me not to worry). I did finally get them done and then mailed out using the Give Back box postage plan for Little Lambs of Utah and was relieved. I made one girl one and two boys. I used the same pattern (Scrap Jar Stars), but different fabrics. I quilted each one differently. They are about 50" x 50". I printed the butterfly on the label with a rubber stamp and fabric ink then added words.

I used the same fabric for all 3 bindings- a wonderful stripe.

The box ready to go

Quilting takes

      The other night, I sat down to square up my calendar, receipts, etc and wondered where the time has gone since May. I have been sewing and quilting, but everything else has been all over the place. In May, after my first cataract surgery, I lost vision in one eye for a week. I did a planned trip to Ohio and then made a bunch of trips to my daughter's in PA to babysit. On July 1st, my grandson had an accident that sent him to the local hospital and then by ambulance to Children's hospital in Pittsburgh. All the serious scary neck/head trauma did not continue and he had surgery for a broken femur. Thank you to all my friends that I contacted for prayer. I believed it turned around from a scary first diagnosis. I am grateful I could help out with babysitting.
     I am going to do a series of posts on what I have been working on instead of one big long post. I had a quilt request recently for a woman who suddenly had stage 4 lung cancer, and when I went through the quilts, I found that some never got photographed when I completed them, so I made sure I got some.
    With the assistance of A Left Handed Quilter, I made a bunch of Upstairs, Downstairs quilts. One is quilted, the rest are waiting. It has no home yet.

The back shows the circular type quilting I did. I liked it even though it was a lot of work.