More donations


Nine HeartStrings tops arrived today from Sue and her Oroville/Chico California group which has been meeting once a month since January. They’ll be quilted and donated by me and other HeartStrings volunteers in the coming months.


I’m constantly amazed at the generosity of quilters who have participated in HeartStrings over the last 2 and a half years and I love the grassroots effect of the project with quilters working on their own within their communities and groups to make these quilts for those in need.

An upcoming sew-in —- Roberts, WI

The Roberts Sew-in is August 22, a Saturday, from 8:30 until about 3 (we stop a little early so we can visit a local quilt shop on the way home!)


We’ll do the usual potluck lunch. Bring your sewing equipment and we’ll make blocks and quilts and have a great time. There is a database set-up on our Yahoo list so we can see what others are bringing for food and sewing equipment – you don’t need to belong to that group to attend — just email Kathy to let her know what you’ll be bringing and for directions.

We’ll be at the Warren Town Hall just outside the village of Roberts.

Mark your calendars and come to the wonderful Wisconsin countryside to see some HeartStrings friends and have a great sewing day.


Email Kathy (kwmiller@pressenter.com) privately for directions. It’s easy to find.

String Quilt Inspiration

In addition to our typical HeartStrings quilt, many patterns can be adapted for use with strings. I’ve compiled a list of inspirational links from HeartStrings members and readers of my blog to share with you.

Don’t forget to take a look at the HeartStrings Photo Albums for even more inspiration!

I got a lot of Flickr links emailed to me and rather than listing them all here, I’ll link to a Flickr search for String Quilts — check it out there’s lots of good inspiration there.
And finally, some links from my own quilts. These quilts have instructions sheets posted on my website in case you want to give them a try.
String Tumblers
Amish Stripes and Strings
Chinese Coins with Coins border
Chinese Coins – Easy version
Chinese Coins – Easy version #2
Chinese Coins ~ Uneven Version
Strings ~ Half Square Strings
Strings ~ Patriotic Star
Strings ~ Purple Project Quilt #1
Strings ~ Purple Project Quilt #2
Strings ~ Rectangle Strings
Strips and Strings Log Cabin
Strings ~ Hearts

This Coins quilt doesn’t have instructions but it’s based on a quilt by Karla Alexander on the cover of this book.

Here’s my String Courthouse Steps quilt based on one by Sandy Bonsib on the cover of this book.

This is my HeartStrings quilt with green centers — instructions are available here and here’s my Pink version. As you can see, our typical HeartStrings quilts can be adapted to just about any color scheme and still look great!

Creative Quilters – AZ


I received an email from Mary today sharing this gorgeous HeartStrings group made by her group. She wrote:

I just wanted you to know how much good the heartstrings pattern has done. The picture included in this e-mail is of a quilt that our group did earlier this year. We live in a retirement community and our visitor’s center need to raise some funds, so we decided to make this quilt and let them raffle it off. It was such a delightful project. All the ladies made the blocks, one lady sewed the blocks together, I quilted it, and another lady did the binding. It was really a group effort.

Thank you for all you do.

Mary Holland

Creative Quilters

Sun City, AZ

You can find instructions for making your own HeartStrings quilt at this link.

Sew-ins


We had back to back sew-ins in MN and NE and worked on assembling the Happy Blocks sent in from all over during our January and February project. Eight tops were assembled and sent home with quilters and even more block sets were taken home with members to be assembled, quilted, and donated.

Thank you so much for participating — there will be many very cute quilts for kids finished in the coming months as a result of your generosity.

Click on the links below to:

See photos from the MN sew-in on April 25th

See photos from the NE sew-in on May 2nd

Look at our completed quilts for 2009 to see finished happy blocks as well as other quilts finished so far this year.