Community Quilts from Karin

Oh, my word.  Our gal Karin has been busy, busy.  You might remember Karin broke her hip not long ago but already, she’s back to community quilting bringing her own special flair to the quilt tops she works on.

I’m adding in an extra Community Quilts post as this is coming from Karin and she is hoping these quilts will be used by people dealing with the aftermath of the Florida hurricane.

Karin writes:
“Gooooood morning Jo! Remember I told you that a big box had come whilst I was hospitalized?  From Terri McE, in Johnson City, TX.  Well, you’ve already seen a couple of quilts finished from that box, and today, I have five (5!!!) more to share! And, NO, I have not reached the bottom of the box yet!! Lol. There is another one on the frame today, and I believe there are two more to go after that!  She has truly blessed us with her generosity!!

First up we have American Daisies.  The tag read “red, white and blue charms on point.”  Yep, that’s exactly right. And EVERY POINT MATCHED PERFECTLY.

I couldn’t do that to save my life. Can you see that one red square with clothespins? Man, I do love that one!! The daisies inspired the quilting, and the colors inspired the gold top thread.  This is the only top in the box that didn’t come with its own backing (but the binding was there!!), but luckily, Linda W, of Williamstown, NY saved the day, with more of her red and white circus tent stripes.  I calculated it would be just shy of enough, so I kept digging in the box and came up with a long scrap of blue, red, and white fabric, with, say it with me, daisies and on-point lattice work!


The ladies must have collaborated!!! It was juuuust enough to add a row at the top and bottom.  However, you know my math isn’t great, ah, who am I kidding, it’s not even good.  Truth be told, my math skills are about non-existent, soooo, you will note, there is no matching row along the bottom photo.  Yeah, about that.  The top didn’t extend to the bottom, so I got to trim that section off, and I’ll save it for another project.  I was going to say, save it for a rainy day, but with Ian’s rapid approach (think turtle speed), today IS a rainy day. Anyway, on with the show!  Oh yeah,  this stunner finished up at 56×56.

This cutie from… Terri is about as close to Fall as we get here on the Gulf Coast of FL. I think this is called a Plus Sign block, and it appears to be made out of stripes or a layer cake, not sure which. But, I don’t believe there are any two fabrics alike in the entire top. Yet, they all coordinated beautifully.  And, can I mention those perfectly joined seams again please???

The floral prints inspired me to quilt meandering leaves and flowers, along with some loopy doodles. The backing and binding were provided, already pieced and pressed, so it was super quick and easy to assemble.

This one finished at 52×48.

This sweetie was right up my alley, with lime green and purple turtles and flip flops!! TURTLES!! and FLIP FLOPS!!  I have no idea what the block name is, but they appeared to be set 4×3, turned 90 degrees each time.

I wanted to keep focus on the TURTLES, so I kept the quilting simple and used an arc ruler, alternating directions for each block, and then twice around the outside border.

And yes, lime green thread on top and purple in the bobbin. The pieced back was fun, too, though I didn’t get a good photo of it, sorry.

This one finished at 40×48.

When this top came out of the box, I knew there was something different about it.  Didn’t know what, but, something.  Then I read the label.  These are all Kaffe Fasset shirtings. What an expensive project for Terri to just give away.

Again, I wanted to keep the focus on the fabric and the amazingly perfect hourglass piecing, so I used a simple arcs ruler to create orange peels in each block, and a wave ruler to go around the outside. To honor the stripes of the fabric, I free-handed piano keys inside each arc of the wave.  That was pretty fun, actually, trying to stay inside the lines.  Wishbones in the skinny orange border really made it pop.  I used a burgundy thread on top, which blended in quite well, and a variegated brown in the bobbin, which totally disappeared. (Yay!)  I don’t know how or why, but this beauty finished at 62×64.  Math again?

And finally, we get to the last one of today’s stack. This one was absolutely adorable, with little neighborhoods, trees, grids, stripes, fun text, and bubbles. And colors, lots of different colors!  And get a load of that scrappy binding!  I think this was made from a jelly roll or two, since the prints were the same, but in different colorways.  I don’t know what this block is normally called, but, to me, they looked mirrored.

I studied it a while and couldn’t come up with a good way to quilt each block separately, so I went with a meandering double bubble loop. In the end, I think that was just right. I used a charcoal thread on top, and bone in the bobbin to match the wide back Terri had provided.  This one finished up at 56×60, and is sure to provide comfort and be treasured for years to come.

Terri, and Linda, thank you both so very much!  After these get a quick run through the wash, I will take them right over to the FireHouse.  I bet they get snapped up before the week is over!! I know there are a lot of folks evacuated from our coastal areas, and, unlike our East coast residents, they likely cannot afford to just go out and easily replace what gets destroyed by flood waters. All these quilts will provide warmth (it was a chilly 70 degrees this morning!!) (Yep, when you are used to mid 90s, 70 becomes chilly!) and comfort for quite some time.  I can’t thank you enough for blessing us with your handiwork.

WOW…all of these quilts are so nice and I agree.  They will likely get snatched up right away.  I know I would pick any one of them.  The colors are great…the piecing is great and the finishing is fantastic as always.  Thanks to Terri, Linda, and of course, Karin!