Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Down to the wire

It is Sunday afternoon, and my mind is going a HUNDRED MILES a minute!  I am trying to think of all of the things I need to get completed prior to boarding the plane bright an early on Wednesday morning.

So right this minute I am making myself write two blog posts to take me through the time I am in Alaska. With that being said there won't be any posts on my adventures in Alaska until March 11th.  I normally only post about our quilts, but I will break tradition and share some of my outings with you on that post.  I DO PLAN to frequent at least a couple of quilt shops while visiting my little sister. My anticipation is that I will see fabric there that I can't find locally in Iowa.  Time will only tell if I am correct or not.

Now back to your regularly scheduled post:

Can I just say that quilters are the very best people in the world!

Remember the post from 2/4/14.  The little cowboy quilt?  Well Nancy H. went through all of her beanie babies in search of a horse for that quilt.  She couldn't find a horse but she found this adorable little cow to go with that quilt.  So those cowboys are out on a trail drive now!


As long as she was going through her collection, she boxed up all of these little guys for future Hope Quilts.  




Aren't they just the cutest things in the world! And as if that wasn't enough Nancy bound two Hope Quilts for me, and supplied us with beanie babies for them also.  Check them out:



Both of these quilts were pieced together by the women of the Adel Christian Church.  These women also create children's quilts for a local hospital. I truly appreciate all of their generosity, thank you one and all!  And don't those two stuffed animals go perfect with each quilt?  I think so.  

And last but not least, when Nancy finished trimming the quilts....she cut down all of the scraps for the doggy beds! Yippee these scraps go from this bag directly into a doggy bed when I get home from Alaska.


Thanks again Nancy and the women of the Adel Christian Church for all of your help and generosity.

Hope everyone has a great week! I know I will in Alaska visiting my sister and husband.




Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Fabric Donation!

First thing I want to say is that I am still not accepting fabric donations....that being said there is an exception to every rule and this was it.

I received a call from Colleen T. that Fons & Porter was doing some shop cleaning and she wondered if I could us some fabric for Iowa Comfort. I was told that most of it would be designer samples that the shop had not used.  You just can't say no to that, or at least I couldn't.

Colleen dropped off a box and a large shopping bag one night in January.  It took me several days to start sorting through it... but when I did I was amazed at what I found.

There is no way that I will be able to show it all to you in one or two posts...so depending on whether I have completed projects to show you, the posts on this donation may be split up. 


As I started to unpack the donation I realized that I new nothing about how sample fabric is sent to shop owners.  What I received was several pieces of varying lengths of fabric from a line. Sometimes there was a panel with coordinating fabric.  Other times it was the same design in a different color way. 

I have to admit I was dreading the idea of having to go through the box and getting everything wrapped on to my mini bolts for storage!  Imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when I realized that each sample had little hangers attached to the fabric. (BIG SMILE! NO FOLDING) 

Once sorted these pieces were promptly transported downstairs to my walk in closet (also know as Iowa Comfort storage closet) to be hung up next to the quilt tops patiently waiting for their turn on the longarm.

I now have more fabric, batting and quilt tops in that closet than I do clothes, and it is my main closet.

I am going to show you a couple more photo's before I close off this post.


There were a lot of fat quarter bundles in the donation.  It appears to be from four different lines.  I am going to keep them all together and try to come up with a quilt top that  works well with fat quarters.


This box is all Christmas fabric.  I have some other Christmas fabric that I haven't used. I just wasn't sure that a Christmas quilt would be appropriate for the center.  I will talk to them about it next time I go in... but as I sit here and type this post a thought just popped into my noggin.  Maybe I could use this fabric to make Christmas stockings for the residents of center...that might be truly appreciated. (of course if I do that I am going to have to find a super easy pattern because I don't sew, I quilt!).

This post is getting long so I will show you more of the donation in future posts.

Thank you so much Fons & Porter for the generous gift.  We will make some beautiful quilts with this fabric for people in our community!


Tuesday, February 11, 2014

I see cowboys

I promised a completed project for this post so here is is.


Joyce S. created this quilt from her own stash and donated it to us. 

The top was made out of flannel, and is so warm and cuddly.  You can't really see the print of the blue and cream fabric in the picture above.  I wanted you to see how cute this quilt is going to be for some little guy...so check out the close ups of the fabric.





I see cowboys and busting bronc's.  Won't this be such a fun little quilt for a little boy?  Right now I have a buffalo beanie baby to attach to the quilt.  I do have a new supply of beanie babies coming in so if I find a better one (like a horse) I will switch out the buffalo.

As luck would have it I happened to have some bandanna fabric that we could use as a backing material for this quilt.

  
I think the red bandanna fabric was a good match for the quilt top.

The only thing that might have made it better was if it had been flannel also.

My generous friend Celia took this quilt top home and  quilted it for me on her longarm.... which I so appreciate!  After she finished quilting the top, she passed it back to Joyce.  Joyce also bound the quilt for me.

Meaning that all I need to do is get a label on it and complete the paper work.  I love it when I have donations like that!

Thank you so much Celia and Joyce for all of your kind gifts to Iowa Comfort.  All of your talents and generosity are truly appreciated.

I also want to thank Deb Y and Kathy B who volunteered to bind my last two quilt tops that I had waiting for binding.  You guys are the best.

I can hardly wait to show you all those two completed tops.


Have a great week everyone!


Tuesday, February 4, 2014

A little of this and a little of that

I sure hope you are all having a better time than me being productive.  Even with using my schedule book, I did not accomplish everything I had wanted to this last week.

I am pretty sure that I am distracted.  You see I leave for Alaska to visit my sister at the end of the month, and my mind keeps drifting off task.  I also have two customer quilts that need to be done before I leave.... with a ton of other chores.

So this post is going to be super short so I can get back to it.

We had these pillowcases dropped off at Adel Quilting and Dry Goods.  I recognize the fabric.  These pillowcases were kitted at our last community day.  And I think that maybe Sherry put them together for me.  I know that Sherry asked if I had any kits and that I sent several to her.  Jacque didn't know for sure who had turned them in....so if it wasn't Sherry, let me know and I'll get you the credit you deserve.


The center can always use pillowcases.  For twenty years they used the same 20 cases.  Two years ago with the help of Adel Quilting and Dry Goods we started a pillowcase drive.  The last two years we have donated at least 75 each year.  That means that not only does a new client receive a new pillow when they arrive at the center, they also get a brand new case for it.  

So if you have that yard of fabric that you just don't know what you are going to do with it, please think about making a pillowcase for the center this year.

I also picked up these bags of donations.


The ladies at quilt circle save their scraps for the doggy beds.  Jacque, Joyce, Nancy and Celia all brought me a bag of scraps already cut down into usable stuffing.

So this week I plan on working on getting this stuffing into a dog bed......along with some of the other overflowing bags of stuffing I have hidden around the house.  ( I really need to get it in to projects prior to leaving for Alaska on the 26th!  Who knows what would happen if Hawkeye happens to get a hold of it!)

Next week I have another finished quilt to show you.

I also have two quilts ready to be bound.  If there is anyone one out there that loves hand work or that would be willing to machine bind, I would greatly appreciate the help.  Both quilts will need to be trimmed.  One is a queen size, the other is slightly bigger than a twin.

Have a great week.