Kathy and Rhonda hosted another successful sew-in.
20 participants
Blocks were made
Tops were pieced
Finished quilts were distributed to Kathy and Teresa for donation.
Finished tops were distributed to various longarm quilters for finishing.
Birthdays were celebrated!
Marsha traveled the farthest … all the way from California. The rest of us were from WI and MN.
April 13, 2013 in Roberts, WI
The week of April 22nd in Yarmouth, ME
Contact us to request more information if you are interested in attending and watch the blog for photos.
It looks like I’m not the only one working with green in anticipation of spring. Cher’s HeartStrings quilt is also very spring-like.
I love the yellow in this one.
Sara is a coordinator for QOV in Nebraska and wrote to me during our New Year’s sew along. She wasn’t able to sew that weekend but she invited friends over to try and empty out her string bins. While they made a LOT of progress, they didn’t manage to use them all up.
She wrote
We had 8 sewers and we sewed our brains out for 2 days (everyone went home at night, of course). As you predicted, I felt as though no dent was made in the string bins, but it was fun anyway, I made all 120 string Flying Geese (see Bonnie Hunter’s stuff) for a QOV, and Julia got 60 made (but she only had one day to sew). We had others who made 48-block QOV centers and then 2 who did kid quilts (30 blocks). Two ladies took home more strings to make another quilt each, and one asked me to bring more strings to her this week.
Look at all these strings … They go further than you’d think!
And look at these gorgeous blocks!
We’re still finishing up tops and quilts from our New Year’s weekend sew along. Here are some more photos to inspire your HeartStrings quilting.
Cindy’s top
Kat’s top
And another finished quilt from Jackie
Isn’t it amazing how different they can all look?!
Our New Year’s weekend sew along is coming to an end. If you participated and need the address to send blocks or backs, please use the contact form on the right sidebar to request the mailing address.
I’ll leave you with a photo of this gorgeous top pieced by Beth.
Cathy has also finished a purple centered quilt. I love how the yellow binding frames the quilt.
There’s still time to join in – the sew-along continues through New Year’s Day. We’re making purple centered HeartStrings blocks and backings for HeartStrings quilts.
You can find the guidelines here , just substitute a purple fabric for the center strip. If you don’t have purple you can still join in by making our red or blue centered blocks.
Won’t you join in with us? We’re making purple centered blocks according to our guidelines between now and New Year’s Day. You can make a few blocks and send them in or you can make the entire quilt like Jackie.
You can find the guidelines here , just substitute a purple fabric for the center strip. If you don’t have purple you can still join in by making our red or blue centered blocks.
Jackie chose greens and pinks to go with her purple centers and made this lovely color coordinated quilt.
You can play with your own color combinations if you’re going to complete the entire quilt or make a full set of 48 for an adult or 24 for a child but if you are going to send them in to Sue or Stephanie for group quilts make them scrappy so they’ll play along well with the others we get.
Part of our project for our New Year’s weekend sew along will be to bust some stash making backings. You can choose to keep these for your own HS quilts or to send them in for our volunteer quilters to use. I’ve written some guidelines below but feel free to email if you have any questions.
Backing Options
▪3.5 yards of a single fabric seamed horizontally and is approx 63×84 (length =two widths of fabric so will vary some from backing to backing)
▪An Off-Center 4 patch made from 2 or 4 coordinating backings
▪A scrappy backing – these can either be multicolored or from one color family and should not have any seams that will fall near the edges of the quilt.
Backing should be approximately 62×80 after squaring for our standard HS quilt ( if you are using a single fabric and your backing is greater than 80 inches it is NOT necessary to trim it down. )
Scrappy backs or single fabric backs are most appropriate for tied quilts that will have the backing pulled to the front for the binding.
While I will leave a selvage on a top or bottom edge of the backing. They should be trimmed off where they’re going to be sewn into a seam.
If you tear your fabric, the torn edge should be neatened up with a rotary cutter and without strings before seaming.
Instructions for an Off Center 4 Patch can be found at this link.
An example of a single color family, scrappy backing can be seen at this link and I will be posting some more specific instructions for a similar backing just before our sew along.
