these three are fun

 This is made with the churn dash block from the Accuquilt Studio.  I sure wish they made this die for the Go! cutter.  It is small enough for the Go! cutter and cuts all the pieces for one block at the same time.  Those are my favorite dies.  I love this quilt because depending on where you look at it, you can see squares, or diamonds, or the churn dash.  I just love the scrappy quilts.  I have so many scraps right now that I'm swimming in them.  We are having a quilt day next week which means lots of scrap cutting.  That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on if I can get some volunteers to take home those cut pieces and sew them together into quilts.  Getting lots of people together to work on different parts of the process really helps when you want lots of quilts finished up in a short amount of time.

 I love the bright colors of this quilt.  Perfect for a little boy.  The border fabric has bugs on it.  I know some little boy is going to love it.  Of course, I would have loved it when I was little, so maybe a little girl will get it and love it too.

And a simple half square triangle quilt with red, white, blue and grey.  Sometimes simple is nice too.  Easy and quick and perfect to cuddle under.

a few quilts this weekend

 to go along with the pouring rain and the headaches, I got some sewing and quilting done.  A few blocks for the memory quilt and some quilts quilted.  I ran short of backing fabric on the top quilt so will have to cut the top a bit shorter and finish it off.  You will never know once it is done.

another memory quilt

 This is for my sister in law's best friend whose son was a Marine.  He came home and passed away in his sleep.  The star points are pieces from his fatigues.  There are more pictures and another marine fabric for the center of more blocks.  It's still evolving in my mind as I sew.

That unwanted phone call

 My son called this morning to say he crashed into the Physics building at school.  He hit the gas instead of the breaks.  Hopefully our insurance covers everything and the school gets a new wall.

edit:  Yep, he's fine, just shaken up a bit from the whole experience.  And a bit embarrassed.  I told him to sign the wall.  Joey was here.  He said he didn't want the whole school knowing he did that.  I told him, "Trust me, the whole school is going to know you did this."

When I emailed the principal to let her know what he did, she asked if he could drive by the wall to her office.  She's hoping to get a new office as well :)  At least she has a sense of humor.

Hearts of Hope for Margaret's Hope Chest

Can you help make Heart quilts for Margaret's Hope Chest?  If you want to help out, but need help finishing up the quilts, you can send quilt tops to me and I will finish them and send them on for you.  You can also send just blocks using the patterns on the blog.

http://northhillsquilter.blogspot.com/2012/10/i-really-like-this-one.html

Here's a link to my blog where I have a favorite heart quilt.  It's an easy 16 patch block made with 3 1/2 inch squares and alternate heart blocks.  The hearts are made with 6 1/2 inch squares and 6 1/2 inch half square triangles.  The corners of the hearts are 2 1/2 inch half square triangles.

Here's the instructions for the heart block.  I make mine differently because I use the Accuquilt Studio to cut things so there's less waste with the corner blocks, but they turn out the same.

This quilt would be great for a boy or girl.  Most charities need lots of boy quilts because most quilters are women and we like to pick out flowery fabrics.  Sometimes we forget boys need quilts too.  I'd like to encourage you to make 2 boy quilts for every girl quilt this time around, just because boy quilts are always in such short supply and it makes you think outside the box.  I'm going to make another one of these, just because I love this quilt so much.

little cutie

Simple 9 patch quilt but look how cute it is.  Quilted up quickly and when bound will be ready for a warm cuddle.

another memory quilt

 Another memory quilt finished and crossed off my to do list.  One more to go for my sister in law's friend.  This one is for my friend's dad.  I made one for my friend already.  As I've said before they are not my favorite quilts to make, but I'm glad to make them and give them to people to bring them comfort.  I'm glad I've been blessed with a talent that can bring comfort when someone is hurting and know God wants me to use it to help others.  I just wish I didn't have to use it so often.

They were in a square dancing group and had matching sweatshirts.  I didn't notice until tonight, but they were opposite designs, guy on the left and then on the right.  How cute is that?  They were from a USSR/USA square dancing trip.  Now, that's a long time ago.  Russia hasn't been called the USSR for a long time.

And I pulled out some of these quilt tops made by the middle school kids last year because I need more quilts fast.  I love the plumeria quilting design.  It's cute and fast and doesn't use up a ton of thread.  It was a free design and is easy enough you could do it freehand with a bit of practice.  Once I remember where I got it, I will post a link.  There are so many different quilt design places, I have a hard time remembering things anymore.  I should write them down somewhere :)

 Finished the quilt for my friend who had surgery on her colon.  I'm hoping another friend will deliver it tomorrow for me.

Here's the back, flannel chemistry.  She was a chemistry teacher up until this year when she became a vice principal.  I just love this quilt and hope she likes it too.

Couldn't have made it so quickly without the help of my Accuquilt Studio Fabric cutter and the Churn Dash die.  I cut it out in under 30 minutes.  I will be writing it up as a pattern, either for a tutorial or as a pattern for my book I'm working on.

Super Sewing Sunday

How are you spending this SuperBowl Sunday?  I'm working on this memory quilt for a friend's dad.  I made my friend one and her dad wants one too.  I have one more to make for my sister in law's friend whose son passed away.  He was a marine who came home and then passed away in his sleep one night.  They aren't sure why.  I really don't like making memory quilts but know they are needed and appreciated.  They are just hard to make because I want them to be perfect and there's too much pressure there.  My friend has been asking about this quilt for a couple months.  Other things have come up and pushed this to the back burner.  I finally decided I couldn't wait any longer to get this done.  I'm hoping to get it on the quilting machine later today.  I have one coming off as soon as I get off the computer.  I just have so much grading to do.  I have three TA's, but even with all the help, we just can't keep up.  I've been out so much and when you have a sub, you have to leave a lot of work for the kids.  It's work I would have them do normally for homework, but this way everyone turns the work in.  With homework, not everyone does it.  Oh, to balance everything.

I swear I didn't blink

 And he grew up anyways!  My son is off to winter ball tonight.  Where does the time go?

And here's a cutie for Margaret's Hope Chest.  It's the 3rd one sent to me for quilting that I will be sending back soon.  I am just waiting for one more quilt to come back from my binding buddy Judy and I will see how many more quilts will fit in the box before shipping out later this week.  I've got a quilt on the machine now and am grading lab books.  What a way to spend a Saturday.