Ask and you shall recieve

Or a better title to this post might be "I have ship for brains".

Either way we now know AGAIN who donated all of those wonderful quilts that I featured in my last post.

I got a message from Jacque J. that she was suffering from short term memory loss.  She quickly explained that those adorable gingham quilts had been made for Iowa Comfort  by JoAnne S. from the Scranton area.

As soon as I read the message I knew that Jacque was being kind.

You see I do not know JoAnne personally....but her name rings a bell, which means that it was me suffering from short term memory loss.  Jacque told me but I did not get it written down and I did not retain the information.

I apologize JoAnne!  I also want to thank you for your generosity.  Most of your donation has already been distributed to a child in need. Your talents have brightened a little person and their parent!

I told you last week that I planned to stay warm.  So this is where I decided to play all last week.

The warm waters of the Caribbean Islands.  Now the alternate title may make a little more sense. I have been in vacation mode and on a ship of some kind for most of the last week.

Now it is time to get back to reality. I have seven customer quilts coming in this week.  That will give me a nice boost to the 2015 budget.  My hand is feeling a little better so I also hope to do some binding this week.  We will see how that works out for me.

Everyone have a great week!

Hope quilt donations

I just don't say this often enough.  Quilters are just the best people in the world!  They have generous hearts that reach out and help whenever they can.

Mid December I got a call from my favorite quilt shop owner, Jacque Johnson from Adel Quilting and Dry Goods.  She was alerting me to another donation waiting for me at the shop.  

BTW if you are dropping off for Iowa comfort at the shop, could you also send me an email to let me know.  I just don't want to take advantage of precious space at the shop.

I headed out to pick up the donation.  Much to my surprise, I had 6 finished Hope quilts waiting for me.  Much to my dismay there wasn't a label to let me know who donated these quilts.  PLEASE DON'T DO THAT!  At the very least give me a first name and last initial so I can thank you properly.

Jacque wasn't able to help me out either, so the best I can do is say "Thank you to the generous quilter that made these quilts, whoever and wherever you are.  I appreciate your talents and generosity.  And there will be several little ones that will love their new quilts!"

Lets take a look at the donated quilts.

Here is the first quilt.  So soft and cheerful.  Very similar to a rag quilt, except done in strips. The fabrics are fabulous and could be considered gender neutral.  But for what ever reason it read boy quilt to me.  So the yellow teddy bear is accompanying this quilt to the center.

This is the second quilt.  Very simple a blue checked fabric backed with a solid light blue flannel.  This is a little boy quilt hands down, and I sent a long a little blue teddy bear with it.

The third quilt is a piece of red checked fabric, backed with flannel

I sent the red cardinal along with this quilt.

The fourth quilt is the same fabric choices as the last quilt.  I sent along this beautiful toucan with this quilt.  His red breast matched the color on the back perfectly.

These three quilts are a perfect way to manage your stash.  Not a lot of time piecing but the finished results are going to provide a lot of comfort to a little person, and probably the adult in their life.  I know I will be doing inventory on my fabric very soon to see if I can put together some Hope quilts like this. 

 This quilt was so bright! Done with checked fabric and white sashing.  The backing was an orange and white floral flannel.  Our little biker mama is sticking with this quilt top.  I thought her little jacket went so well with the black checked squares.

Here is the last quilt from this donation.  Do you see the theme of these quilts?  The quilter liked checked fabric, or had a bunch left over from her projects.  And I am so happy she did!  This quilt was  backed with light blue flannel....so it received a biker guy for its toy.

All of these quilts have been delivered to CIAC.  The director of the center happened to be there at the time of delivery.  She immediately honed in on the two red checked quilts.  She explained that they had a set of twins that had just entered one of their facilities.  She loved that they were red, almost identical and I know that those two quilts were ear marked for that set of twins.  Kind of makes me think that someone had a hand in making sure they arrived at the right time.  :-)

As I have sat and written this post, I realized that I may know who donated these quilts.  I seem to remember a quilter working on checked projects.  I also know that the quilts were longarm quilted.  The person I am thinking about has a longarm.  Please let me know if I am correct.  (it will drive me batty, if I don't know....and I don't have that far to go!)

I can properly thank Nancy H and Theresa H for the toys that were donated.  The center tells me that they bring a lot of joy to the children that get them.

Make sure to stop back next week.  I will have pictures  for you all!

New Year - Hope quilt donation

The first donation (to the center....it arrived in Dec.) of 2015.

This quilt was donated by Nancy K..  It was dropped off at Adel Quilting and Dry Goods for us.

 I have spent the better part of 30 minutes trying to deconstruct this pattern.  I know I am weird!  But I have all of these 1/2 square triangles made up that I thought I could use in this pattern.  I am tired and I finally just gave up trying to figure it out.  First I thought it was two HST and then a square....but then there were three, and then there was a row that was alternating one for one.

It made my head hurt so I gave up.  

Then remember my New Years resolution?  I was going to try to balance the hope quilts.

This quilt actually read neutral gender to me at first.  Yes there is pink in there....but there is plenty of green and blue also.  Only a couple of small pieces of fabric that had flowers on the top.  Then I turned it over to label it.

I think this one is going to go in the little girl pile.  Don't you?

I think the whole quilt is fabulous!  Oh did I forget to mention that the finished quilt was the donation.  Nancy pieced, quilted and bound this quilt for us.  

I really love how she bound it also.  Go back take a look, that is a scrappy pieced binding.

Some little girl is going to love this act of generosity.  Thank you Nancy for donating this beautiful quilt.

Each of our Hope quilts get a small toy attached to it at donation.  I decided this little guy belonged to this quilt.

Thank you again Nancy K for the generous gift.  Also thank you Nancy H for supplying us with little toys.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week.  Stay warm.... I am going to. (wink, wink)

Do I have Gibb's DNA????

I am beginning to think so.  I have rules and exception to rules.

And if I am perfectly honest there have been times I have wanted to reach out and smack someone upside the back of their head.

The rule is I try to post on Tuesday..... so here is a random Friday post.  The truth is that last Tuesdays post has generated a little buzz.

Nancy H. reached out to me and explained that her woman's church auxiliary group would like to do a community project.  Nancy thought of Iowa Comfort.  We had a nice discussion yesterday and we decided pillowcases was probably our best project for them.

Bad news was I didn't have any already kitted for them.  Good news was Nancy was okay with me giving her bolts.  She thought they could get them cut and kitted themselves.

So I went through the vault this morning can came up with this pile.  I delivered it to her this afternoon.  The stuff on the top will be very easy to use as the body and cuff of a pillowcase.  There should be fabric inside that tub that can be used as the flange of the case.  Now since I was not prepared.  I told Nancy to use what ever fabric she wanted and to send back what she didn't use.

Nancy also told me that she might have people help that did not sew.  So the bottom half of that tub is filled with fabric that just needs to be pressed and folded on to a mini bolt for me. I can not tell you how much help that will be!

Then this afternoon I had an email from Sue D.  she was sifting through her fabric and had some Hope quilts projects percolating. I mentioned that if she had fabric that she no longer could remember why she purchased it ( come on you know we all have that fabric deep in our vaults).  That pillowcases was an efficient way to make room for new fabric.  I quickly heard back from Sue!  It appears that she is allergic to pillowcase sewing! (wink wink)  Okay so I took poetic license there... I think her words were more like refuse to do that kind of sewing. Which got me thinking, a very dangerous thing for me!

We are all creative and generous, but as I tell anyone who asks me to mend something for them.  I am a quilter not a sewer.  Sue is a quilter not a pillowcase sewer.  Perhaps there are more of you just like Sue.  So I think I need another exception to my rule of not accepting fabric right now.

SO HERE IT IS:

I will accept one yard cuts width of fabric  (36 x 42 ish) that are made of cotton or flannel for pillow cases.  You do not have to cut it, just lightly press it make sure that it is a yard cut.  Please make sure that it is exactly a yard cut.  When I get it I will cut the body and the cuff, and find a coordinating fabric for the flange.

I have a couple of people who like to sew pillowcases for Iowa Comfort if I have kits available. This could be a win win for those of you wanting to expunge that fabric from your closet.

If you decide to take advantage of this rule exception.  Please makes sure to tell me who the donation is from and that the fabric is for pillow cases.

Alright back to my regular schedule of posting.  New post on Tuesdays.  An awesome Hope Quilt!

Stay warm!

First donation of 2015

Okay so that isn't quite the truth.  The donation actually came in in December, but after I had already closed out my records for 2014.

SOOOOOOO this is the first donation to the center in 2015.  (See what I did there?)

I love the fact that the first donation, is something they really need and something that needs replenished on an on going basis.  

I am talking about pillow cases of course.  Every client that enters the center is given a new pillow.  With our donations they are also given a pillowcase that they will also get to keep.

This donation came to us from Mindy R.  and was dropped off at Adel Quilting and Dry Goods for us.

Aren't these just adorable!  I love how all of these could be considered masculine.  The last time I was at the center one of the staff members commented on one of our Hope quilts that was being donated.  Something to the effect that this quilt could be for a little boy.  I went back and checked out the photo gallery.... and there is a lot of pink and purple in those quilts! 

This years resolution is to try as best as I can to balance the donations with equal numbers feminine and masculine quilts.  At least with the hope quilts.  Hope quilts go to small children and aren't used on beds. 

I am going to try to do the same for the pillowcases.  Which means I need to get 6 girl pillow cases made up ASAP.

So if by chance fabric management was on your New Years resolution this year.  The center could really use new pillowcases.  It is a great way to clear out some of your smaller cuts of fabric and is a quick and easy project.

Here is a link to a tutorial if you need it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrYWCma9wgM

Thank you Mindy for your generous gifts of time and talent!  I can already see the smile on a little persons face!

Special thanks also to Jacque of Adel Quilting and Dry Goods for her continued support of Iowa Comfort.  I appreciate the fabric that you have donated over the years and that you will act as a drop off center for Iowa Comfort.

Have a great week everyone!