Community Quilts from Karin

Good morning, Jo, welcome to the Parade, brought to you by the generosity of your readers and loyal followers! First up we have fussy-cut Easter bunnies meticulously appliqued by the prolific Peggy K, of West Palm Beach, Florida.

She writes that the block border fabric was provided by Gail C of Georgia.

My very favorite bunnies are the one that has sparkle ribbons and the single bunny with roses on his butt. Cute, cute, cute. I didn’t want to detract from the adorable appliques so I just did a tight stipple around each one, wishbones in the sashing, and my breezy, vines swirl in the butter-yellow border.

My neighbor conveniently supplied the matching backing fabric, just last week.

Isn’t it amazing how different sources from around the country can come together at just the right time, and everything fits so perfectly?

This is sure to brighten up someone’s day! It finished up at 40 by 42 inches. 

Here we have another perfect collaboration, with a top created by the Cresco ladies and a backing supplied by Polly B, of Pensacola, Florida. 

Polly writes that she found a bunch of rolled fabric remnants at her local thrift shop, and they were half-price, so she bought them all up. How cheerful are these parrots! A lot of people here in Florida actually keep parrots on their lanai as pets, and you can hear them throughout the neighborhoods. Personally, I find them charming, but I know they can get quite loud at times. What a tremendous find, and I am fortunate that Polly thought of me to share her blessing.

I wanted to keep the movement of the purple pinwheels, yet accent the pieced center block and the two corner applique blocks, so I put petals (orange peels/pumpkin seeds??) in each pinwheel and a stylized lotus flower in each triangle of the 3-star blocks. That didn’t look like enough quilting, so I added wishbones inside each petal. That seemed to do the trick and then I added scrolls in the sashing for even further stability. Wishbones all around the outside border brought it all together. It seems that the more thread I add, the more interesting the quilting becomes. This quilt is finished at 42×44 inches.

Here we have a tween’s dream! Adorable black and white playful kitty cats, color blocked with bright oranges and yellow, as the Cresco ladies do so well, go perfectly with the cute mustache fabric sent to me some time ago by the lovely Susan McC, of Austin, Texas.

I am quite sure she has been wondering about whatever became of her generous donation. I’ve had it for some time now, but I have been waiting for just the right quilt top to come along. I was thrilled to see the black and white kitty cats and I knew the black and white mustaches would coordinate so well. She sent another piece of colorful mustaches, and that is waiting for just the right top as well. Don’t worry Susan, it will just be a matter of time before that piece comes off the shelf too. :-) I decided, in a moment of insanity, that I wanted to try some ruler work to coordinate with the geometric blocks. I didn’t want swirls, and I thought triple triangles would do the trick. However, I did not realize that 2 hours would be spent, wasted actually, trying to figure out how big to make the triangles so that I would have four across each block. 

 Enter my loving husband, AKA Driver, and also my calculator. Once he understood what I was trying to accomplish, it was just a matter of minutes before he figured out how I should mark the quilt and what the distances should be. Keeping with the geometric style, I quilted straight lines in the orange separating sashings and more triangles in the buttery, yellow border. Truthfully, by the time I got to the wider orange sections at the top and bottom, my brain was fried, I was tired of premarketing, and I wanted to do something a little more fun and a little less restrictive. Hence, random swirls. They kind of reminded me of balls of yarn getting batted about by more playful kitties. Plus, it was kind of windy yesterday, when I was stitching this one up. ;). I used a variegated brown and rust thread on top, paired with light silver in the bobbin. This quilt finished at 44 x44 inches.

I think the Cresco ladies must have been having one of their themed days, because next in the stack was this cute puppy panel.

The ladies bordered the panel with solid black, and then another thin border of a brown print, followed by a wider border of grayish gingham check. Let’s see, what motif will be most suitable? Oh, I know, a stipple, in the shape of dog bones, sorta. I think we can credit Ray with that idea, what do you think? Obviously, since I don’t have the luxury of pantagraphs or software, I have to freehand my dog bones, and I’ll be honest, only some of them appear to be dog bones. Most of the time, it’s just a random meander, but I’m okay with that, and it gets the job done.

I used the same variegated brown and rust on this top, but I substituted a deep gold in the bobbin, because that coordinated better with the fabric that has been donated by my local quilt shop, Beyond the Stitches (www.beyondthestitches.com). The backing fabric is what influenced the Turk’s caps I quilted in the gingham border. Again, after the first go around, it didn’t appear to be enough stitches for the batting not to bunch, so I added another round inside each motif. That seemed to do the trick. This top finished up at 42×56 inches.

Rounding out our parade of quilts, we have this bright and colorful string quilt. Each block has been foundation pieced, and it appears that some of those foundations were originally sheets.

Yet another example of how useful sheeting is, and how determined we as a community are to keep unnecessary waste out of our landfills. I am quite sure this is a product of the amazing Cresco ladies, and it is one that has been on my shelf for quite some time, I’m sorry to say. As new quilts came in, they were piled on top, and this poor thing just got deeper and deeper in the stack. But, now I have almost all of my flimsies quilted, and this one finally rose to the top.

I don’t believe that there is a single fabric repeated in this amazing top. Colors range from very bright to dark burgundy, and everything in between. There are florals, stripes, geometrics, solid, more florals, even some Christmas and wild wild west found its way in. There is even one strip made up of little 1/2-inch squares, just amazing! I used burgundy thread on top, and quilted just random swirls, every which way, because I figured whatever I quilted was going to get lost in all that color anyway. My medium blue in the bobbin matched the backing fabric that was generously provided by Ellie L, of Indianapolis, Indiana, some time ago.

Again, it has been on the shelf for probably every bit as long as the flimsy, and it was just biding its time to shine. This quilt ended up being rather large, at 50 by 60 inches. I am quite sure it will be somebody’s perfect snuggle buddy during our colder months.

These five quilts have all been through the washer and dryer and will find their way to the firehouse by morning. Thanks again to all the lovely ladies who had a hand in covering Citrus County Florida with quilts. I sure couldn’t do any of this without you all, and I am constantly being reminded of how generous and kind-hearted fellow quilters are.

Wow…what a great batch of quilts!! There are so many beauties in the bunch. I just love seeing them all. Many thanks to everyone who has been sending tops and sheets and backing Karin’s way. Karin doesn’t mind using sheets so if you are looking for somewhere to pass along your gently used sheets, Karin is the perfect person. You can connect by using this email address: kcallander989@gmail.com
Also a huge shout-out to the Cresco ladies. You all are the backbone of this project!!

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