Community Quilts from Karin

Yahoo…I have three quilts from Karin to share with you today.  Karin was working on these as Hurrican Elsa played with Florida.

“So, this first one appears to be charm squares combined with light cream or white rectangles, an easy pattern with random color placement and quick straight stitching.

I used the floral squares as my inspiration for a quilting motif and got a little rambunctious in my stitching!  I did loopy doodles and hooks, around which I built a flower, then echoed the flower petals and threw in a few random leaves before moving forward.  I used a light silver thread on top and navy blue on the bobbin. It took me quite some time to get the tension right, so a lot of stitches show the bobbin on top as well.  

Ever since I got my longarm, I’ve been very cautious about making sure I had enough backing, but apparently, I wasn’t careful enough, as I ran out of backing about 6 inches before I ran out of quilt top.  Oops!!!  I’m glad it was no bigger, else it would have been a lot more difficult to fix. This finished up at 52×44 and will surely be a comfort, probably very soon.  Our county is bracing for severe wind and flood damage next week from the hurricane.

I know you will recognize the yellow as yardage you provided, and the blue is all that’s left from the yardage I used on the quilt I made for our daughter but kept because it looked so good in our camper. :)

Here is the next quilt from Karin…

Now here’s a quilt top that fits right in with today’s current events!!  As you can imagine, rockets and space exploration are very popular subjects here, as we are only about 2 hours from Cape Canaveral, and we often actually get to watch the rocket launches from our campground.  I can only wonder how the approaching hurricane will impact next week’s scheduled launch.  I guess we shall see, when the time comes.

This top finished up at 40 x 44, I believe, and is quilted in simple meandering loopy doodles. I thought I might try to mimic the swirls of the space blocks, but I couldn’t quite get comfortable hooking them together, so just loopy doodles got the job done. The backing is leftover from our camper quilt.

The backing shows off the quilting stitches much better than the front, don’t ya think?
This little quilt, along with the other two, are going to our fire station, and will probably get used very soon, as we are expecting some residents will be displaced from damage due to the approaching hurricane.

What a new and fun challenge this flimsy presented!  It’s just a larger pieced of focus fabric, with border upon border added until it was big enough or the coordinating fabrics ran out!

I’m sure you will recognize these backing fabrics as ones you so generously and thoughtfully provided.  But I bet you’ve never seen the binding before! That’s because I used some leftover seersucker that was originally used in the making of a sun dress for my granddaughter. When she was three!  And she’s 11 now, so that’s tells you how long it’s been around, waiting for its time to shine.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide some comfort to my county’s residents. Unfortunately, the need is great, but with your help, along with your generous blog readers, we are making a difference.”

WOW…these all turned out great Karin.  I’m so glad you are having fun working on your longarming skills.  I’m a little jealous. I’d love to have the time to do that.  I think you’re reaching pro status pretty fast!!

I believe these tops all came from the Cresco Ladies.  Thanks to them and all who donated fabric to them.  It’s a village we’re all in and I love being a part of it.  Thanks!!