[chirp chirp] It’s been quiet around here.

I apologize for the silence around here lately. Life has been hectic, I started working for another Etsy shop, and my kids started in school. It’s been a mad house.

This weekend, I finally finished up my late birthday gifts and my late do.Good stitches quilt from JULY. It’s a little sad how late I am, but I’m glad it’s done! I had selected the color scheme based on the backing fabric, and then ordered and mailed out fabrics to all of the members of my circle. They got to work on the blocks, called Trellis Crossroads from the book Modern Bee. It’s a simple enough design, but the pattern isn’t super accurate, and as a result, we all had issues getting our blocks to line up correctly. In the end, it worked out fine and while it changed my plans for free motion quilting, it turned out well enough.

I used a variety of different fabrics for this quilt, and still asked the members to contribute some of their own scraps from their stash. Me providing some of the fabrics needed helped to create a cohesive and coordinating appearance to the quilt. I wanted everyone’s little stash bits so that each block represented who created it. It was fun to see what came in!

Quilt Stats:
Final Size | 50″ x 64″
Fabrics Used | Various member-contributed.
Thread | Aurifil 50 wt. in 2024 for piecing, Aurifil 50 wt. in 2024 for quilting
Batting | Hobbs Heirloom Premium Cotton Batting

do.Good Stitches | January quilt

January was a busy month! A whirlwhind of adventure, work, and life… but we survived! As a member of do.Good stitches, I had to choose the block and color scheme. I went with the Autumn Star Block from Fresh Lemons Quilts, and it was amazing. I set a color scheme as “ocean” and included a few samples. It was really awesome to see everyone’s interpretation and watch the quilt come together piece by piece.

1. Humility- January Block 1, 2. Humility block for do. Good Stitches January 2014, 3. January blocks., 4. January blocks., 5. january_2, 6. january_1, 7. January block 1 #humilitycircle #dogoodstitches, 8. January block 2 #humilitycircle #dogoodstitches, 9. Untitled, 10. Jan Blocks, 11. do.Good Stitches Humility Circle January, 12. Jan Bee Block, 13. Jan2 Bee Block, 14. January Block, 15. January block, 16. Humility block for do. Good Stitches January 2014

Here are all of the blocks that were sent to me, I think, and the ones that don’t show, have a setting on Flickr which doesn’t allow them to be used in the collage. But, you can click on the coordinating link below it and it should take you there.

Once I received all the blocks, around mid February, I started piecing it together immediately. I was really excited to do this quilt!

 

Then I hurried through basting and got started on quilting. I had a million ideas for this one, but ended up doing an intense quilting design over each block. I realized later on that I never got a great picture of the quilting. 😦

I’d say the quilting took me about 10 hours total. It really wasn’t as bad as I was expecting and I loved the outcome!

do.Good Stitches {a charity bee}

I’ve recently joined do.Good stitches {a charity bee} in hopes of being able to sew for the needy and less fortunate. I requested membership several weeks ago, but it took a while to hear back. Apparently, there are a lot of people requesting to be Stitchers, and not enough Quilters. I changed my mind (I originally wanted to be a Stitcher) and decided to become a Quilter. Which in turn meant we were able to begin a new circle, Humility Circle.

Each circle has 10 members, 5 of which are Stitchers, and 5 are Quilters. One Quilters is also a Host, or essentially the leader. Every month, each person makes 2 blocks to form the quilt. Then all these blocks get sent to one Quilter. The Quilter then has a few weeks to assemble the blocks, piece the top, baste, quilt and bind. Then the Quilter mails it off to the Charity that was chosen. So I will be quilting in January and again in July. Part of being a Quilter also means I get to decide on the style of block chosen, as well as the colors used. If I specify a certain solid Kona, I must provide this certain solid Kona for all members. The aim is to use what’s in our stash, and not buy a whole lot. At the end of the year, we’ve provided 11-12 quilts to a charity.

The Humility Circle (which I’m a Quilter of), mails all finished quilts to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. This reservation actually houses approximately 18,000 Native Americans. The reservation is poverty stricken and the unemployment rate is 80%. On average, one in four children will be born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. The name Humility was chosen because our leader Vickey, was told that in Native American culture, to give a blanket shows Humility. Our quilts will go to those in need in all stages of life but the social worker who delivers these is aware that our focus is more toward the children and teens.

So there you have it, a heartbreaking story, and our little group’s way of trying to help in any way we can. It is such an honor to be part of this, and I’ve waited a long time to build my skills and hone my style, as well as waiting for another group to be formed. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity.

For November, our leader is Quilter, so she decided on one Wonky Log Cabin Block, and one Wonky Star Block. No white. All colors and cheery.

Here are mine.

I can’t wait to see the final quilt at the end of each month, and I’ll be happy to share here. 🙂