Rainbow HeartStrings

Our Maine sew-in was canceled this week but we still worked on our Rainbow HeartStrings quilts and I thought I’d share some inspiration here for those of you thinking of making your own quilts. You can click on the photos below to see larger versions.

You can find brief instructions for the Rainbow blocks on my website at this link. Jackie used HeartStrings blocks with half neutrals and half rainbow strings for two of her quilts shown at the top of the gallery.

365 Project quilts

One of our HeartStrings challenges for those that want to participate is to make 365 HeartStrings blocks … some do it over a single year, others just keep track and take more time. Marianne, one of our members passed away earlier this year and as she wasn’t able to participate in the challenge as she typically did, we’ve been finishing 365 blocks for the year in her memory. Here are a few of the tops and quilts we’ve been working on. So far we’ve hit 750+ blocks and we’ve surpassed our goal.

Rainbow Strings

Are you making Rainbow String blocks? Sharon is and she just shared a photo of her top with me. Doesn’t it look great? These blocks can be assembled with or without sashing but I love how the black sashing with the colorful cornerstones looks.

We’re doing a Rainbow Strings project for the Maine sew-in this September and we’ve been working on blocks at home. If you’re interested in participating you can find the details by clicking here.

We’re still quilting

I haven’t posted here on the website in a while but we’re still making and donating HeartStrings quilts. If interested in joining us, come on over to our discussion group on Groups.io.

We’re still making our regular Red and Blue centered HeartStrings blocks but we like to play with variations too. This one of mine uses lights on one side of the center strip.

And I recently finished quilting this Sharon inspired HeartStrings quilt pieced by Barbara … a real group effort! Our Sharon inspired quilts are more planned and you can find instructions at this link.

A New Project

The Maine sew in is done and we’re already thinking ahead to next year! We decided on two projects and you have options!

You can always make our red or blue centered blocks and send them to Sue or Stephanie but we’ll plan on working on the rainbow blocks and RWB blocks this year and you can sew along with us making and donating quilts locally or you can send blocks to Maine, to Sue, or to Stephanie!!

First up, Rainbow blocks … made like our regular HeartStrings blocks on a 10 inch muslin foundation and trimmed to 9.5 inches only we’ll use a single color in each block. I have some brief instructions on my website at this link.

We’ll also work on quilts for veterans … using a blue center strip and then a variety of red, white (or beige or tan), and blue strings. Again, using the same guidelines as we do for our HeartStrings blocks.

So how many blocks can we make in a year?! Make a stack and then let me know when you need a mailing address. If they’re coming to Maine, Brenda has agreed to collect and bring them in September but Sue and Stephanie are looking forward to receiving blocks too.

Karen got an early start at this year’s sew-in!

Who’s who?

Ginger wanted to identify the quilters in the Maine photos and since there isn’t an easy way to do that in the photo galleries I’d posted, I thought I’d try to do it here.

Mary – that’s me on the right … I’m one of the coordinators for the HeartStrings group.

Bev is our hostess … she organizes the sew-in each year in Yarmouth Maine and is on the right in the photo below …. and Brenda from NH is on the left.

Ann from PA brought SOOO many quilts to donate and hand sewed the bindings. We were so jealous of how fast she worked!

Jackie from NJ

“Little” Mary from Maine (not to be confused with me!) in the front and Brenda’s friend Barbara in the background.

It was Susan’s first sew-in

Jackie’s friend Karen from Virginia Beach was playing with crumb blocks.

Sharon (on the left) and Mavie (on the right) are also from Maine