Community Quilts from Jazz

Do you remember a bit ago, I shared some Fall quilts that Jazz finished with you?  Today it’s time for the Christmas version.  I’m squeezing this post in as I’m guessing with Thanksgiving past, many of you are getting into the Christmas mood.  Here’s a Christmas parade of quilts.

Jazz writes:
“Merry Christmas, Jo! It’s too early to be sharing Season’s Greetings, but not to be dropping off seasonal quilts to Ben Taub Hospital here in Houston. I’ve been busy as an elf making these from donations from our friends.

You’ve seen this pattern before. It is …30” x 38” and the result of pieces from many of your followers. The peppermint stripes came from Jeanne M, of Tucson, Arizona. The glittery silver white sashing and binding was from my stash, and the rest were pieces left of Christmas scraps from many other Country Junction benefactors.

I was so taken with it that I repeated it in icy blues, some Christmas-y, others coordinated, also from scraps sent by your faithful readers. Both are stitched in the ditch and both are the same size. Each of these were remnants of bigger portions of fabrics I previously used in quilts and credited the contributors. As I cut the leftovers smaller and smaller it becomes more challenging to label the remainders with the givers names, but you can be confident that everything sent to me is reserved for baby quilts for the newborn nursery of Ben Taub Hospital in the largest medical center in the world. The back is a mottled light blue-grey from my stash. These were batted with the batting you provided, Jo.

Sometimes along with scraps Jo’s Country Junction fans send me orphan squares. This quilt is a sampler of Christmas squares sent by our friends. It finished at almost 36” square. I backed it with a swirly gold on cream I bought and practiced my FMQ’ing all over it.

Another scrappy is this four-patch I made from donations and more of the sliver glitter on white. I bought the red satin-looking solid at a local quilt show and used a stencil to stitch in the spaces. The red binding is from Marci V, from Moyie Springs, Indiana. I backed it with a white dot on red cotton from my stash. It’s 36” x 36”. Batting for all these quilts is from Jo.

Marci surprised me a few weeks ago with a box of mostly reds and some Christmas prints that I just knew would make up into quilts to delight new Christmas babies. She also included some iron-on embroidery patterns, transfer paper, a small flannel blanket and two pair of booties, a pink set, and a blue set. The booties are already dropped off at the hospital. Here’s what I made with the first prints, angel bears. I sashed each piece with the same gold on ivory I used to back the sampler quilt with and stitched around each one. The binding was from Marci, and the back is brown and red flannel from Becky M, of Alaska and Texas, who gave me a lot of it last year. 35” x 35”.

Marci also included some very cute Farmer Santa prints (he’s feeding pigs in one, calling the chicks in one, and milking a cow in another) and almost all the reds in this quilt. The black and white check was from Anonymous in March, and the rest was mine. I thought the rustic theme called for tying, which I did with some crochet thread Nelle B. sent me from Stillwater, Oklahoma last February. I used a solid green for the back. It finished at almost 40” x 40”.

The small white flannel blanket Marci included was just begging for a design, so I used an iron-on snowman pattern on one end and a snowflake on the other and embroidered them. I extended it with some red flannel and backed it with a red, white, and grey flannel.

Y’all have seen many of the embroidered star quilts I made from the kits Donna G. of Rogers, Arizona sent me in March. Here are some more. (I’ve really enjoyed them!)

Jeanne M. (Tucson, Arizona) sent me the Christmas/snowflake sashing and binding for the first one, and I used a matching blue and chilly lavender for the embroidery. The back is more of the silver glitter on white I used on the first two quilts I showed. I stitched over the star’s outlines in coordinating thread; I like the shapes to be distinct and fluffy. To facilitate the depth on all these, I used some thick batting scraps from Melissa R, of Gainesville, Florida on all the stars.

This one is also from Donna R’s kits. The embroidery threads are deeper colors than the first one, teal and purple to show off all the snowmen in similarly colored caps. You know the drill by now: make it downy with batting from Melissa R and heavily outline the stars. It’s bound with a purple from my stash.

The last star quilt in this collection is done in more traditional Christmas colors, red and green. The solid green back is from my collection. The Christmas star quilts are all 40” x 40”.

I deeply grateful to everyone who sent me the fabrics, battings, threads, and supplies I used to fashion these quilts for the Christmas season newborns of Ben Taub Hospital in Houston.

I hope everyone has a great holiday. Love to you all!”

Wasn’t that a fun Christmas parade of quilts??  I just loved it.  Many thanks to everyone who had a part in the making, creating, or donating that made these all happen.  They are sure to be special to the babies born over this holiday season.  Awesome work Jazz!!

Jazz has let me know that she is in need of fabric for quilt backing.  Most of her quilts are 45″ x 45″ or smaller so 1 1/2 to 2-yard pieces would work.  Does anyone have some they are willing to part with for a good cause?  You can contact Jazz at this email address if you do.  jazzpaz@gmail.com.