Community Quilts from Karin

I always love getting email from charity quilters.  It just warms my heart to know that good things are happening.  Today’s quilts are from Karin.

She writes:
“Good morning Jo! Hope your Christmas was merry and bright and everybody was healthy. We don’t generally have a big celebration, as the family is all spread throughout the country, as are our friends, so I spent quite a bit of time at the long arm. That’s okay though because that’s my happy place.

I was able to finish up the quilts that came from Patty K, down in West Palm Beach and I used quite a bit of the backing material that Linda W from Williamstown New York sent me back last winter.

First up we have a beautiful and well-coordinated patchwork of charms that were provided originally by you, Jo. I know that neither of you could possibly know this but purple hydrangeas are my absolute favorite flower. And purple and green is one of my favorite color combinations.

I quilted this one with the light lilac backing that Patty included and purple thread in the bobbin and on top. The quilting motif was loops and leaves, one of my favorite ones to do.

I practiced my circles in the thin solid purple borders, but it appears I still need more practice, as some of them turned out more like eggs than circles.

This beautiful quilt finished up at 32 by 42. I really loved this quilt and loved working on it, and if I didn’t have a better place to put it, I probably would have kept it, lol.

The next quilt in today’s parade was …

noted to have been made with dog fabric that originally came from Gail C, whereabouts unknown.

I backed it with the remainder of that super soft flannel that came with the panel of stacked animals from last week. It is still super soft and quilts nicely. This quilt finished up at 36 inches square, which I found perfectly suitable for a square and a square block.

This large quilt was pieced by Patty K, using fabric from N Kratz, way back in July. Patty calls it Spoolin’ Around, as the block construction appears to make up spools of thread.
There are all different tone-on-tone fabrics, as well as solids and florals.

This quilt finished up at 52 by 56 inches. As you can see, I have it shown on a queen-size bed, so it is almost big enough to fully cover a twin-size bed.

This final quilt was a cutie. I am a sucker for ladybugs, and always have been. I think this is one of your free patterns Jo, maybe the bricks pattern? Whatever the name is, it turned out cute as can be. The ladybug fabric is flannel, while the accent white, purple, and orange bricks are cotton, so I knew I had to keep the quilting rather dense so as not to allow much shrinkage. I decided to just quilt swirls and loops in a random fashion, trying to get several stitches in every brick. I used alternating swirls in the outside border. My top thread was white and my bobbin thread was purple, to coordinate with a large piece of peace sign fabric that was again donated by Linda W of Williamstown New York. This was another large one, finishing at 56×60 inches.

A great big thank you goes out to every lady involved in all these quilts, from donation of fabric to piecing, to donations of money for shipping and batting. None of this would have been possible without your village Jo. With our recent freeze, we have had a few house fires in our county, where people are using old space heaters and stoves, just trying to stay warm. I know that we don’t have it so bad, just having 4 nights of freezing temps, and no snow or rain, but that is a tremendous challenge for a lot of our older and homeless folks, and those who have left been left homeless due to fires.

I am so happy that these are all out and on their way to helping others.  I can’t imagine having a house fire.  AH…I would be so sad.  I love that Karin has teamed with the local fire department so that these quilts can get out and be helpful at a moment’s notice.  Many thanks to Karin and to the many who helped with providing fabric, tops, and needed items.