Friday, February 19, 2010

Quilts!

Project Linus. I may have been neglecting my blogging, but I have not been neglecting my quilting. Tomorrow is Project Linus Make A Blanket Day and my car is loaded with 79 quilts/fleece blankets to deliver. And NO, I did NOT make them all myself!! My guild made some of them, and others were dropped off by various community groups.


But I did make lots of kits from my guild's donated fabrics. We had zillions of squares of all sizes, and we cut more. Here I tried to make a quilt for a child who loves pink.
I don't go for just grabbing any square and stitching it to the next, so I tried to lay out this quilt (limited by the squares I had available) to have lighter ones in the center. It's really fun to be forced to use only what's at hand.
And we're always looking for something simple but different so quilters of all skill levels can sew during our worknights, and I thought disappearing 9 patches might be fun. Right now we're making Project Linus quilts for Camp Coco (a camp for children with cancer and blood disorders). We had a few different watermelon fabrics and lots of greens among our donations, so I put together a Disappearing 9 Patch kit with watermelon fabrics as the main focus, the seeds as the constant center square (which gets cut into smaller squares) and a big variety of greens to form the rectangular "border" strips around the melons. And what is eating outdoors without a few ants?!?

If you know what a D9P is, you can imagine what this will look like when it's cut up and resewn. I'm actually working on this one myself at the Make A Blanket Day tomorrow, so I'll post a photo of what appears when a 9-patch disappears. We have several D9P's in transformation at the moment.

My stuff. I'm starting to treat my Project Linus work like a real "job," so that my other quilting time is just for me. Those projects will be in another post. After tomorrow I am putting away the Linus stuff for a few days!

Geometric abstract art. There was a wonderful slideshow of early 20th century geometric abstract art in the New York Times online this morning. The pieces are part of the Newark Museum's collection (not New York,  Newark!). I love this style, and I think many of them would make wonderful quilts. Take a look at the slideshow by clicking here, and check out the accompanying article here. I'd love to make a quilt modeled on the feel of this red and white one, which I pasted in here to encourage you to take a look at the others.


Winter. And finally, we have had snow, snow, and more snow. And even more snow is on the way Sunday and Monday -- another 5 to 7 inches! We weren't hit as hard as the mid-Atlantic, but I'm still sick of it.

This is what snow used to mean in our house 20 years ago! It's easier now, but not quite so much fun.

10 comments:

floribunda said...

I love those disappearing 9-patches -- and I can't wait to see how the watermelon quilt comes out!

sewkalico said...

Lovely to catch up with you again. Love the fun watermelon 9 patches! Wow!!! So many blankets and quilts for Linus - you are amazing!
Kids and snow - what more can I say!!

Tonya Ricucci said...

snow - yeck,sorry about all that. you're doing a great job on your "job" of linus quilts. that slide show is fun - definitely some quilt inspiration in there.

Nina Lise@Mrs Moen said...

Welcome back, Cheri!
Wow, that's a lot of donation blankets; well done! It's so great to get people involved in such projects, and your know the receipients will cherish them for ever.

Janet said...

Congratulations putting so many quilts together (yours & friends) for a very worthy cause. I'm not sure what a D9P looks like so I'll stay tuned. I can see some wonderful quilts coming out of the abstract show. Good eye.

Quiltdivajulie said...

Welcome back!

Congrats on the Linus work ... meaningful for so many reasons!!!

Spring is coming, one day soon I HOPE!!!

AnnieO said...

Just when I think the next time I click on your blog, it will have been taken down, you are back! Seems you have been doing good work and I applaud your dedication to a wonderful organization. Playing with fabric is the best part...

Your snow-prep pictures are cute!

Browndirtcottage said...

Hello there stranger.....I can see...nope...you haven't been lounging or loafing around!! Way to go girl!!

Mary Johnson said...

Those watermelon fabrics are cute -- I bet that quilt is going to look great.

Readersraisinghell said...

Good to see you back in blog-o-sphere! The Project Linus project sounds huge - but very rewarding, I'm sure!
People tell me that retirement keeps you busy... guess you prove that to be true!
And no, I don't know what a "disappearing 9" is, so I shall look forward to seeing it (or not, since it's disappearing!) on your blog!