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A group of 10 met Saturday in Shoreview MN to work on a variety of HeartStrings projects. In addition to assembling a couple blue centered tops, we worked on yellow blocks and tops for our current project, Quilt as you Go blocks, other HeartStrings blocks, and tying and binding quilts. It was a very productive day!

Other photos from the sew-in

Sunday a small group of us gathered in Hayward MN at the Calico Hutch quilt shop to work on HeartStrings projects. This was the first sew-in that I’d attended held in a quilt shop and what a pleasure it was. Carolyn (the owner) had everything set up so nicely all we had to do was plug in our machines and start sewing.

More photos can be seen in our online album.

Helen has been playing with setting some of her yellow centered blocks and here are a couple of my favorites. Visit Helen’s blog to see more settings.

Julie and some of her blog readers are making string quilts for HeartStrings. Read more on Julie’s blog.

Not only productive but fun, a group of us gathered at Ann’s near Harrisburg PA this past week to work on HeartStrings projects.

Other photos from the sew in

For April and May we’ll be working with YELLOW, how’s that for welcoming Spring?

If you decide to participate, you have two choices:

1. Use a bright yellow center strip (cut 2 inches) and then add bright colored strings and strips to create blocks for children’s quilts. Other than the yellow center, these are made just like our guidelines. This is the set I’ve got started.



2. The second option is to use blue and yellow strips and strings and again, they’re pieced like our guidelines except these DO NOT need to have a consistent color center string, use blue or yellow and they don’t even need to be cut 2 inches – it doesn’t matter.
   • I suggest that you NOT alternate the blue and yellow but place them randomly to avoid creating a striped effect.
   • We won’t be sashing the blocks, but this quilt by Petra will give you an idea of the look we’re going for.

As always, we continue to accept blocks made according to the guidelines for those that choose not to participate in the special projects.

To send blocks in for group quilts, email me for the mailing address.

Linda and Jennifer were at the Nebraska sew-in and after piecing a bunch of blocks, both them started assembling a set of QAYG blocks. They were smart and decided to use the basketweave setting that Sheree and I figured out the night before which decreases a LOT of bulk.

On the same day the New Hampshire group met, another group was working in Fremont Nebraska and assembling Quilt as you Go blocks.

A big challenge with the QAYG blocks is the bulk in the seams when assembling the blocks. We worked on developing a basket weave variation that would decrease that bulk but still look good.

Last week a group met in New Hampshire to work on HeartStrings blocks and tops and the photos below show them hard at work. They have plans for another sew-in sometime in May.

Although we’re mainly an internet based group, we do try to hold sew-ins when we can gather a few of our members together in person.

This Saturday, we’ll have two groups meeting – one in Nebraska and one in New Hampshire – and we’ll celebrate National Quilting Day making quilts for those in need.

A few of us met a day early in Nebraska to get a start on assembling the Quilt as you Go blocks being made the last couple months.

See other photos from our day.