Astonishing!

This title was the reaction a fellow Magpie had when her gift from the Robert Kaufman company arrived after she sent them a quilt for the CA quilt drive. The hand-written thank-you card was what really made her tear up: "Lordy – these folks put in so much time (and yes, $$, too, at least from Kaufman) organizing and completing this drive, and to take the time to write a thank-you card?  I’m astonished, delighted, and inspired...."

I deliberately waited until the drive was over (12/31/2018) before showing these gifts I received from them. I didn't want to corrupt anyone's motives.

Astonishing, indeed! 

I didn't keep the note that accompanied the spool because it wasn't my gift--it was supposed to go to someone named "Aggie". The unintentional irony of that spool is this: in this part of the world there are two well-known schools. The students of one of them are called "Aggies", and that burnt-orange thread is the school color of the other, their bitter rivals. If Aggie is true to her name, she most likely would have HATED that color! It has a good, loving home with me now, and Aggie has a generous gift warming her heart in return. Happy endings all around.

I'm very grateful for the time, energy, and effort put forth by the Robert Kaufman Team that made this quilt drive so successful. Reading the comments on the #quiltsforCA Instragram account assures me the 1,000+ quilts are absolutely needed and loved by the recipients.

CA-bound #7: Handsome

Quilt #7 sent to Robert Kaufman for the #quiltsforCA drive:

Virtually awesome. Actually huge: 73" x 90"

This woven pattern was one I'd been wanting to play with for some time. I didn't have a place clear enough and big enough to lay the finished quilt out for its photo-op before mailing it to California. I was in a hurry--TFI's government shut-down was imminent and I wasn't sure how our postal system would be impacted.

CA-bound #6: Simply squares

Quilt #6 sent to Robert Kaufman for the #quiltsforCA drive:

60" x 76"

This was an experiment. The large print was from a stash of polished cotton(?) light-weight upholstery fabric I've been carrying around for decades. My former sister-in-law worked for a while in a fabric store, and would often bring my mother and me upholstery fabric and sample swatches from discontinued lines. I had several 11"x12" rectangles of it, far too many to use up in this quilt (the rest were used in CA quilt #7). Counting the border, 25 rectangles were used from this stash.

CA-bound #5: Card Trick

Quilt #5 sent to Robert Kaufman for the #quiltsforCA drive:

44" x 58"

This top has been sitting quietly in one of my project drawers for over 20 years. Twenty years! I have proof of this, thanks to my defunct Geocities page:

I made both this top and its twin at the same time; the quilted twin was donated to a woman active on the RCTQ newsgroup at the time, for a charity called "Sisters".

CA-bound #4: Sinewy Spiderweb

Quilt #4 sent to Robert Kaufman for the #quiltsforCA drive.

Yep, I still like spiderwebs!

Rummaging through drawers of half-finished projects/mind's-eye projects/extra blocks from exchanges, I uncovered a starter stash of these triangles, the grey center fabric secured to the phone book page with the black strips. That was all. The rest of each triangle was empty, ready to be filled with random strings. This was done before the MaDan Stacked Blocks, so I still had an ample supply (this top barely seemed to make a dent in the string bins).

I had seen this intriguing layout on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville site, on this blog entry. This design is featured on the cover of her latest book (no affiliation, despite that impression with all the links I'm putting in this post), but she was generous enough to share her process back when she was making that cover quilt.

It caught my eye, and I was determined to try it out some day.

CA-bound #3: Squares

Quilt #3 sent to Robert Kaufman for the #quiltsforCA drive:

65" x 88"

I eked out every last bit of the blue fabric, piecing one of the edge triangles to finish the top.

Two boxes of sorted 2" squares contain my go-to leader-enders. Medium-hued and novelty fabrics make me fret when trying to decide whether they 'should' be paired with light or dark fabrics (for clear contrast in value), so I was happy to have a project in which I could pair the squares with impunity. The outer border was created from my stash of 1.5" strips and squares.

CA-bound #2: Teal String Spiderweb

Quilt #2 sent to Robert Kaufman for the #quiltsforCA drive:

42" x 64"

 

I like spiderweb string quilts. Not only is the design different, but I can use up smaller strings in the making of them. Another I've made is here. I obviously used up several short segments in the creation of the borders too.

The quilt pattern is from Full Line Stencils, #30466 "Sweetheart Meander".

I finished this last year and set it aside to donate. I was glad I had it ready to throw in a box and send immediately!

7 December update: 

This was posted on December 6th on the #quiltsforca Instagram account. There's my quilt, seen just below the rear-view mirror:

Squee!

CA-bound #1: Reversible Quilt-As-You-Go (QAYG) String Quilt

Quilt #1 sent to Robert Kaufman for the #quiltsforCA drive.

This is a QAYG (Quilt As You Go) reversible quilt, using strings and chunks of fleece fabrics I had either intended to make sweats with, or had made sweats with and saved the scraps. Since the likely targets of my intentions (a couple of little boys) are now in their 30s, it was pretty ridiculous to keep hanging on to these.

With the fleece were coupled strings, scraps, and chunks of non-100%-cotton (n1c) fabrics. For each fleece triangle, strips of n1c fabrics were used to fill the opposite corner. Likewise, for each triangle of n1c....

Typical QAYG blocks have you sewing strips onto a whole-cloth backing fabric. Somewhere along the way I learned a different technique, one in which both sides of the block were stringing along. I didn't take pictures while I made this with an eye toward creating a tutorial, but I'll try to drop enough hints that anyone interested in the technique could probably piece together enough information to duplicate this method.

On the pinning table

Once completely pinned, this will be going under the needle for the Robert Kaufman #quiltsforCA drive:

Recently, while casting a critical eye over and around my cutting table, I noticed the book "Heirloom Machine Quilting" by Harriet Hargrove. I hadn't opened it in years. I did then, flipping through it to see if there were gems I could still pluck from the pages.

I was surprised to see her description of this very technique of pin basting, mainly because it wasn't from her book that I got this idea. It was from seeing it in 'action' on the blog "Making Scrap Quilts from Stash". Mary's blog suffered a meltdown recently and she's gradually rebuilding it; otherwise, I'd link directly to the post that inspired me to take my basting to the table (instead of crawling on the floor or taping it to a large, tiled bathroom wall).

It was a revelation and a back-saving technique. The 1" binder clips can be purchased in a package of 3 or 6 from Office D*p*t (I recommend 16 clips, minimum). I have 6 rectangles of cardboard taped together that I slide under the quilt sandwich before pinning. This protects the table's finish. If you have a table less than an inch in depth, I highly recommend this method of pin-basting your projects.

The book? It was donated to the library. It's a great beginners' guide, but I'm far beyond that stage!

California bound

As a native of California, the current fires bring back bad memories of fearful times. When a Magpie sent the nest the following information, I leapt into action:

"Robert Kaufman is running a quilt drive from now through the end of the year. If you send a finished quilt (baby/throw or larger) to:

Robert Kaufman, attn: Elisabeth Hardy, 129 W. 132nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90061

and include your name and address with the quilt, we will send you a thank you gift, and will make sure the quilts get into the hands of those who are affected by these fires. #quiltsforCA"

I've been carting around a couple of quilts in the back of my car, and just finished a third one last week, so I boxed them up and mailed them out today. Their stories will follow in another post. I've got more tops to get quilted!