Binky Sunday

 Today was Binky Sunday.  I never know what to expect because some days it is only me and some days we have a full house.  I guess with the new year, people made a resolution to help out more because we had a very full house.

 One lady came with her three daughters from far away to help out and get some community service hours in.  I put them in charge of cutting all of the fabric to make more quilt kits.  We tend to run in spits and spurts.  We will have 50 kits and then we will have none.  It's always nice to have a kit ready to hand off to someone who needs something quick and easy to work on when they pop in to a meeting, but don't have time to stay.

 We use the quick strippie quilt from Maryquilts.com a lot.  If you haven't made one yet, you really should.  It uses three coordinating fabrics and can be made in under 3 hours from start to finished quilt, including the binding.  And that includes the quilting.  If you need a quick baby shower gift, it is a great quilt to make and our group has probably made 2,000 of them over the years.  Sometimes I wish I was better at counting things.

 We used the Accuquilt Studio cutter, which was one of the best investments ever.  I can trust an 8 year old and a teenager that when they leave, they will still have all of their fingers intact.  Not so with a rotary cutter.

 We used every square inch of the classroom space and worked on lots of different things.  Here, the ladies are squaring up some string blocks that the middle school kids made.  Nothing gets wasted, ever.  We sent a huge bunch of strings down to the middle school home ec department and they worked on sewing them together.  Great practice for the kids to sew and sew and sew and get the machine going in a straight line and we get the fruits of their labor.  We finish off the blocks and then sew them together into quilt tops.

 Carla and I will quilt up those tops and then eventually the quilts will go back to kids needing hugs.  Some of the ladies were working on string blocks as well.  We have lots and lots and lots of strings from all of the cutting we do.

 Some of the ladies were working on tumbler quilts.  We like the 3 1/2 inch block for cutting some of the smallest pieces of fabric we have.  The girls actually cut through a whole bucket of fabric that my daughter sorted about 2 years ago.  Quilt making is a long process.  Not that each step takes a long time, it's just that after you do one step, it takes time for the fabric to age properly before moving on to the next step.  SO, you might pick out the perfect fabrics, but then you can't cut them right away, they have to sit for a year or 17 before they are ready to be cut into.  There are other projects that are so important while you are waiting for the fabric to reach the perfect stage to be cut.  Then, it gets cut and sometimes has to sit for another year or so before it is ready to be sewn.

 After you make the quilt top, sometimes it needs more time to sit and wait for the perfect backing fabric or the perfect mood to strike you so that when you add the quilting, the finished quilt will be just right.  Of course, the person you bought the fabric will probably have moved on, or you forgot who you were going to make it for, but that's ok.  A new perfect person will come along.

We would love to have you join our little party next time.  We meet the 2nd Sunday of the odd months at A Quilted Heart in Vacaville from 1-4pm.  If you can't join us in person, you can join us virtually.  We take fabric, batting, thread, quilt tops or finished quilts and will find everything a perfect home.  This month we are working on getting quilts to kids at the local schools.  One is going to a student who lost his home to a fire over the break.  Another to a student who had heart surgery and one who tried to commit suicide.  You can also donate to your local elementary, middle or high schools.  Take the quilts to the front office and just let them know you want them to give them to a child who needs that extra hug.  I promise you that there are many hurting children who need to feel special out there and your efforts will be appreciated.