Quilting as Service and 3 Halloween Cards

Wanted to post this better photo of my son's quilt. Upright and in good light you can see it as it really looks.

Last week a new friend came over.  My mom and I have been busy making receiving blankets for our local hospital's NICU. A friend told me they were in desperate need so that's been another fun project. (Check out Jinny Doan's You Tube tutorial on the mitered corner receiving blanket.) My new friend wanted to help, so she took home some flannel and wanted to contribute some too so I'm glad to have been able to invite her to serve with me. I also invited my quilt guild, so hope to collect a lot at our meeting in Nov. While my new friend and I visited, we also made cards. The first one is for my own children (I made more than one of this design) and the rest are for others.

This is the last of the five quilts I've been teaching the young women to make at church. I laid this all out on my family room floor before I bagged up each row and had the girls sew all 16 rows. They got the rows  done, so now its sewing rows together, putting on the binding and backing and then all 5 will be done except for tying, which takes place the first week of Nov. Then in Dec. they'll give them to the homeless shelter in town. Its been a great year long project, and I'm proud of how much the girls have learned and how hard they've worked to make this happen.  Some of the girls want to go home and start making their own bedroom quilts now. Service can lead to so many opportunities for ourselves and others and how fun it is to be creative and helpful at the same time. I love it!

LittleBuddy's Quilt and 3 cards

I took a long hiatus from working on this quilt or any of my own (4.5 months to be exact) but finally got down to it and got it done.  LittleBuddy loves it. I had to take it off his bed and put it on mine where there is better natural light to photograph it this morning. Its a quilt about him. I think I'm naming it, "Happy," for this quilt represents the things that make him happy. It also is a reminder of one of my favorite high school memories with him, when he asked me to be his practice partner for a dance festival last summer. The couples dance was swing dancing to this song by Pharrell Williams, and we practiced every day until I was sweating and for several days until he was comfortable and had all his dance steps and motions memorized. It was so fun to do that with him and will always be a happy memory for me.

 This is the back. His school colors are orange and black. When I first got the Elementary, by Sweetwater for Moda, layer cake, it had blacks, browns, off whites, and some blues. When I showed it to him, he said I don't like the blues in it. I like oranges. So, I shopped around online and found some great oranges. This backing was from fabric.com for $1.99/yd. When you're buying 4 yards, its a terrific savings. I quilted it in long rows, using the back as the lines to follow which made it easy to keep everything parallel and saved me from having to make all my quilt lines.

 Littlebuddy is a science guy. The DNA helixes were his favorite fabric I found, so they went front and center. My son picked out this pattern from a book I have by Camille Roskelley. It feels masculine, yet is clean and simple which I like and is a good pattern to highlight large patterns as well.

 He plays viola, so the musical notes fabric I had worked perfect. Note circles all over. Those represent tennis, which is his favorite sport.

 There are math and science equations, letters, months of the year, circles, patterns from nature ( he loves being outdoors too,) some interesting patterns, and infinity patterns as well. The only thing I wished I thought of were map fabrics, as he loves reading those. He is a deep thinker. He thinks about spiritual things and how the universe works and how people interact and yet loves his friends, is happy to hang out with them and listen to his Spotify playlist. He's a normal teenager with a great heart and mind. I love this boy and was glad to be able to make him a keepsake quilt which he loves. Makes me sad he's already a Jr. in high school and will be gone in less than 2 years!!

 My mom's sisters were here all last week and my oldest, Cowgirl, here the week before, so its been busy and lots of fun around here lately. On Friday, the aunts, my mom, MyGirl, and I all sat down at the kitchen table to make cards. Here are a few of our creations.

I hope to blog more, but we'll see. My creativity next is going to be towards Christmas, so the gifts will have to wait, but hopefully I get another quilt done before December. I have to say that I am LOVING having my Halloween quilt over the railing this October. Sure adds a joyful feel to my decor. Happy October Everyone!