Quilts = Love and Comfort - H2H

Even if you don't know me, the title of my blog should tell you how I feel about quilts. 

I truly do believe that 

Everyone Deserves a Quilt!

I love to make quilts and I love to give them away. My goal is that the recipient of the quilts I make can feel the love and comfort that I try to sew into each and every quilt. 

I often quilt "secret" messages into my quilts when I'm free motion quilting. Actually, there's really nothing secret about it. Sometimes I just "write" the words LOVE, COMFORT, HUGS, or whatever is appropriate for that particular quilt. Even when I quilt following a pattern or panto, I often FMQ a message close to the edge, near the binding. If the quilt is to commemorate a special event, I quilt names, dates, etc. 

Sure, sometimes it's challenging and I know I'll never win any awards for my "quiltmanship" (that's quilt speak for penmanship), but I like doing it. It's especially fun for me when the recipients finds the message - sometimes a year or more later.  :-)     

No matter when the message is found (if ever), I love doing it. It's just my way to saying, "You matter!" and I hope it brings a smile or laugh. 

I participated in this year's Hands2Help Challenge 

that Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict organized and was even honored to be a guest blogger. I made four quilts this year and they are on their way to the charities. And yes, they all include a special message! 

Here are pictures of three of the quilts. It was raining when I was packing the quilts and packed the fourth one without taking a picture. Darn it! It's green, pink and white and I used the Stretched Star pattern. It was a pretty old UFO and I'm very happy that it's finally done and going to a new home where I hope it will be used and loved. 

The message on that one says "Reach for the Stars!"

Here's a Yellow Brick Road quilt that I made while teaching a class. These blocks were my "work in progress" so students could see each step more easily. When they put their quilt together, I put mine together - with a different border and I used a flange binding. :-) 

The message included here is "Live, Laugh and Love!   

This is the pattern I posted a tutorial for when I was the guest blogger back in April. I call it All Boxed In and it's a simple and quick pattern to use. 

The message here is "Sparkle Like a Firecracker!" 

And finally, this is a Disappearing Nine Patch quilt, set on point. (I love this layout for a D9P because it is a great way to showcase special fabrics, especially from charm pack.) 

The message here is "You Bring Color to Life!"

Thanks for sharing your day with me and remember,

Everyone Deserves a Quilt!

Tutorial!

I'm excited to announce that I am a guest blogger over at 

Confessions of a Fabric Addict 

today as part of the 

2015 Hands2Help Quilt Challenge.

and I've posted a tutorial for my All Boxed In quilt.

Check it out HERE and let me know what you think.  :-)

Design Wall Monday

I've been teaching a couple of "beginner-friendly" classes lately and decided to update my class samples. 

Since I like to provide step by step visual aids, I always have a bunch of partially constructed blocks and rows just waiting to be completed and used in a quilt. When I finish this quilt, it will be donated. 

I have two more rows to add and since the blocks are already made, I should be able to finish the top later today. Yippee!

What are you working on today?

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times

Be sure to stop back tomorrow for Tip Tuesday!

Backing Up a Little

I mentioned Claire's quilt in a previous post and have decided that I really should share a bit of a back story here. Claire and Ann came to visit for a couple of days, one of which I had a class (All Boxed In) already scheduled. While planning the visit, Ann and I had decided to give Claire the option of taking the class and making her own quilt. She decided to do it, so in order to bring her up to speed, I cut all of the fabric for her and made a few blocks.

Claire was a natural and did a really nice job finishing up the blocks and putting the top together. She even seemed to enjoy the pressing.



We took the quilt to Kare's house in order to use the HQ16 to quilt it. The machine can be quite daunting, especially for someone who has just pieced their first top, so Claire asked me to quilt it for her. I did, but she was responsible for helping load the quilt and reposition it each time a new pass was to be made. She also unloaded it from the machine and made and attached the binding.

Do you notice in the picture above that Claire is attaching the binding to the back of the quilt? She decided that she wanted to finish this quilt sooner rather than later and that meant machine stitching the binding down and not hand stitching it. (I think that was a good choice!) She did a very nice job, even on the corners and here she is adding a decorative stitch to the front.

I think she likes her quilt! What do you think?