Monday, June 1, 2020

Hands2Help 2020 Quilt

Hi friends!  It's been a minute (a year, almost) since I last wrote anything here.  Between the many months that have elapsed and a different Blogger interface, I had to stare at the screen a little while before I figured out how to create a new post!

Things have been mostly fine here, personally, aside from the pandemic and other recent happenings in our country, which hurt my heart and mind and spirit.  But things will change, and hopefully for the better, sooner than later.

I've made only a few quilts during the past year, including a couple of commissioned baby quilts, but altogether haven't been super productive in that area.  When the coronavirus happened, I started making masks for various community organizations as part of a grassroots volunteer effort.  I also gave a few to family members and friends required to wear them for work and/or in public.


Then in late April, I got laid off, not due to the pandemic but because of a business sale which resulted in a different work model for the company. So now I've got a little more time on my hands.  Not a bad thing, just unexpected in the overall scheme of things.

For this year's Hands2Help charity quilt drive, I made a "Bricks and Stepping Stones" quilt from the free Bonnie Hunter/Quiltville tutorial.  This is the second one of these I've made.  The first was over 10 years ago and I gifted it to my sister, who still uses it on her bed.  I saw it there in January when I was visiting her house and thought to myself, I need to make another one of those.

Bricks and Stepping Stones Quilt
I had a pile of scraps sitting on the end of the cutting table, so I started cutting those into bricks, 3-1/2 x 6-1/2 inches.  Then I moved into the scrap containers for some more variety.  Had all the bricks cut and ready to go pretty fast, as well as the strips to make the black/white four-patch stepping stones.

Back
Had fabric in the stash for borders and a pieced backing, and was able to piece together a couple big chunks of batting.  It's quilted it in a multi-color thread in a lazy meander. 

This is being sent to Mercyful Quilts.