Team Basting

Last night was designated by my quilt guild as a Basting Extravaganza, and my basting floor (which doubles as my Living Room) got a big workout!

First up:  my Design Opportunity Quilt (see this post for more about this project.  Hint:  it was supposed to look completely different!)

I often baste this size quilt myself but as long as 6 friends were around to help, why not enlist the troops?  Like most of the quilts we basted during this session, it only took about 15 minutes to complete.





Next were several charity quilts:

Pictured at right:  I had made those house blocks YEARS ago, and they had hung around forever and I never did anything with them, so I donated them to be made into charity quilts.

Looking at that quilt, I almost regret giving them away.  Almost.

It was a fun and productive evening!

Going Once, Going Twice. . .

A new opportunity came my way recently.

I was contacted by the St. Petersburg Opera Company  (the one in Florida, not Russia!) to donate some quilted items to the silent auction that they're having as part of their "Bella Voce" fundraiser being held next week.  It's one of those Fancy Shindig events that a lot of non profit organizations hold yearly to raise money and have a nice social event for donors. There will be dinner, musical entertainment, plus a silent auction. (More details on this event here).

It wasn't a shock to be asked by them-- I've known their music director FOREVER.  Before he was an opera conductor we were co-workers at The Florida Orchestra, where he was principal bassoon for many years.

One twist that made this a particularly interesting opportunity is that donated items aren't just a flat-out donation.  Proceeds are split with the artists, which makes this a really attractive opportunity, and I would imagine greatly enhances the quality of what gets donated.

At the suggestion of the folks at St. Pete Opera, I'm donating 2 items:

Music themed placemats seemed like an obvious choice!

 There's even music fabric on the back!

Also, this quilt:

I love this quilt and it's a big item to donate but honestly-- it's been for sale since the fall of 2011. That's a long time.  It's too big to bring to markets or shows (it's 78 x 92", a generous twin/double bed size) and it seems that lap size and baby quilts are the stronger sellers. A quilt this size is also really bulky to store!

So, this seems like a good opportunity to make room for fresh merchandise and donate to a good cause and who knows?  We'll have to see if any Opera-supporting quilt lovers come to the auction!

For Charity

It's important to give back!  I enjoy making charity quilts with my quilt guild, in fact we have another day of production scheduled for the end of this month.

I also enjoy the opportunity to donate my services as a violinist to good causes, like this one:

 

The musicians of The Florida Orchestra have put on a benefit concert for the past few years, with proceeds going to the St. Petersburg Free Clinic.  We'll have a rehearsal this afternoon, then perform tonight.  The program even includes Beethoven's 5th Symphony!  It's always been a fun concert, so I'm looking forward to it!

Charity Quilt Day

I'm always glad when summer rolls around and members of my quilt guild (made up mostly of orchestra colleagues) and I have time to get together for a charity quilting session.  (Click here for background info on this worthwhile cause).  We got together at Jackie's last Sunday and had a fun and productive afternoon.  In 2010 we completed 27 quilts, which were given to Metropolitan Ministries.  We're hoping to do at least that many this year.

Before hauling the big dining room table in for sewing, we basted 8 quilts.  There were six people there on Sunday, so it went pretty quickly.

Tabby narrowly missed being pinned to this quilt.  We simply rolled him around to get him out of the way.  He's a pretty laid-back cat.

A lap-size bow tie quilt

Pinwheels

VERY cute square in a square.

That's Easter egg fabric on the top and bottom borders.






I quilted this one.

I love Merrilee's new/old sewing machine.  It's her mom's from the late 1960's, freshly serviced and purring like a kitten.  It looks like it belongs on an episode of "The Jetsons", doesn't it?

Kathie was so pleased to FINALLY have this quilt of hers finished she brought it along to show.  Those blocks were given to her as birthday gifts.  The block on the lower right has the date printed in the middle of it (not visible in this picture):  1992.  So this has been a Work In Progress for quite some time!  It's all hand pieced and hand quilted, and even more beautiful in person.  Congratulations Kathie, and enjoy!

Also, a Work In Progress on Jackie's design wall.  It's the center of what's going to be a new quilt for her bed (she got a new one, and the mattress is much thicker, which means none of her quilts fit anymore!). Anyway, those flowers are all made of yo-yos.  Knowing Jackie as I do, I guarantee it's going to be awesome.  I can't wait to see the finished product!

As always, it was a terrific day!

A Quick Quilt

A  few months ago I helped another quilt guild member downsize her fabric stash.  After many years of living alone, she was getting married and moving into her new husbands house.  That meant she wasn't going to be able to use her entire house as a quilt studio anymore, she was just going to have 1 bedroom available.  So culling the collection was in order.

Most of it went to our charity quilt projects.  But you know how it is with fabric.  Some of it went into its own separate pile, and ended up in my car, and then on my fabric shelf at home.  One of these was a large piece of this absolutely adorable VW Bug fabric, which I made into a quick quilt last week.

 This is one of the fastest quilts I've ever made.   Here's how it's made:

12 10" blocks of the featured fabric

sash the blocks on 2 opposite sides with 2 1/2 x 10" strips

sew into 4 rows, 3 blocks in each row

The rows at the top and bottom get sashing on both long sides

The rows in the middle get sashed on one side.

Sew the rows together.

Baste, quilt as desired and bind.  When I was cutting the 2 1/2" strips for the sashing I cut extra for the binding as well

I'm getting  alot of mileage out of that peace sign fabric!  It's been in all 3 of the Bohemian Baby quilts that I've done recently.

I quilted this quilt with straight lines and a little decorative stitching in the sashing, then little free motion flowers to fill in the large blocks.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/67628903/volkswagen-fun-quilt

Another Charity Quilt Day

Yesterday was another Charity Quilt Day at Jackie's. (You can read about the previous one here http://thequiltingviolinist.blogspot.com/2010/08/charity-quilt-day-at-jackies.html )  We wanted to get one more of these day-long quilting sessions in before the orchestra members in the group go back to work (or perhaps I should say, HOPEFULLY go back to work.  But that's a post for another day.)  It was, as usual, a fun and productive day.

There's a big stack of quilt tops waiting to be completed.

 This was already taped to the floor when I arrived, all ready to be pin basted.  Jackie likes to have a hand applique project going at all times.  Those beautiful hearts were leftovers from a project of hers.

I had pieced these house blocks years ago and then never did anything with them.  So I donated them to the cause.  This top is still waiting to be basted and quilted (maybe next time!)







Here's a cutie with an applique left over from another project.  And yes, there was intense discussion of the political affiliation of this particular elephant (he's definitely an Independent).

And I got something to take home:  a big pile of selvages!  Jackie and Kathie had saved some for me.  Thanks ladies!

And I know this is the moment you've all been waiting for (you'll have to trust me on this one, it was worth the wait).  Today's cake was pumpkin spice, with chopped walnuts in between the layers and cream cheese frosting.   We quilters must keep our strength up, after all.

Charity Quilt Day at Jackie's

I'm in a small quilt guild made up of 2 other orchestra members plus a few other ladies-- one is a nurse at a local hospital, the other a professor at our local University.  There are a few other members who come and go, but we're kind of the "core" of the group.  We meet usually twice a month at a members house for a few hours of chatting and sewing.

A member of our guild died suddenly a few years ago.  Among her posessions was an absolute mountain of quilting fabric.  Trust me-- it's more than enough to open a shop.  If I see a fabric I really like, I might buy a yard of it.  If Mary saw a fabric she liked, she bought THE BOLT.  

She had very particular taste in fabric.  Namely, dark.  The darker the better.  And since she started collecting fabric in the late 1970s, alot of what she left looks like this:

Yeah.  Not exactly what we're looking for to augment our collections.  And like I said, there's a ton of it:

And that's just a tiny portion of it.  Jackie and Kathie have been making regular trips to her house (her husband still lives there) to slowly unearth the fabric and bring it back to Jackie's house for storage.  Jackie has a large spare bedroom to use as her quilt room (lucky her!) and it has a big closet, perfect for storing all this fabric.

So what to do with all this fabric?  Make quilts, of course!  We take a Sunday every few months and bring our sewing machines to Jackie's to spend the day making charity quilts.  It's a terrific way to spend the day, as it was today on a dark and rainy summer day.
We started by basting several quilts. 

Isn't that one with the letters cute?
There were four quilts basted in all today.  (That's alot of crawling around on the floor, even though most of the quilts are lap sized).
Then, it was time to get out the sewing machines.  Jackie has a long dining room table that can fit a bunch of sewing machines.

In the lower left hand corner you can just make out Merrilee's 1950's era Singer, which she hauled over in the cabinet (It's not a portable machine, although it was today!).  It looked like she was moving furniture when she got it out of her car.  I was amazed at the gorgeous free-motion quilting she did on it today.  

Of course, one must keep one's strength up for all the work involved.    A lunch break with cake is an important component of any Quilt Day.  Thanks to Kathie for bringing cake!

  Well, I think we've come to realize that none of us is going to live long enough to get through all of Mary's fabric.  But I think she'd be pleased with what we're doing with it.  And it's been a fun way for us to help out some less fortunate people in our community just a little bit.  So I can't wait for the next Charity Quilt Day!