Showing posts with label charity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charity. Show all posts

Friday, February 10, 2017

Quilt #74: Russian Spinning Squares


A few years ago, as a new quilter, I made a Bears quilt for my nephew. It was the first time I wanted to showcase a larger print, so I needed to avoid small pieces and triangles. I went through several design ideas before coming up with this one. 


I knew I wanted to revisit the pattern at some point, I just didn't know it would take this long. The Bears quilt was the 18th quilt I made. The quilt I'm showing today is my 74th! I liked this pattern even more the second time because I was able to complete the whole thing in 5 days thanks to the magic of chain piecing. 

I bought some of this Matryoshka doll fabric a couple years ago before our family went to Russian camp. I had planned to make a pillowcase before we went, but ran out of time. 


When I learned that our church's quilt ministry would be making quilts for an orphanage in Russia, I knew I could finally put this print to good use. I didn't want the dolls to get too chopped up, so this pattern, which I finally named Spinning Squares, was perfect. 

The print is so colorful, I had a hard time deciding what three colors I wanted to highlight. 


I'm still working on my En Provence mystery quilt. All the units have been made so now I'm starting the blocks. SO many little pieces, but I'm on a mission to finish it this month! 


Once I added the teal border it was just the right size.


I used simple straight line quilting. 


I had planned to use a black solid for the binding but found this colorful polka dot at Joann when I was there for something else. 


Speaking of binding, I save all my leftover binding. Eventually, I'm going to use all the bits and pieces for a "oops" quilt made of all my messed up blocks and extra units. I bought some slap bracelets from Amazon to hold them together. They work perfectly!


The other idea I put into practice while making this quilt is that I bought a piece of ironing board cover fabric large enough to cover my entire craft table (80" x 36"). The 36" by 36" piece I have been using since building my craft table 3 years ago was getting pretty ratty. By having the whole table covered, I could more easily iron larger quilts by removing my cutting mat.


The labels we use for our charity quilts are pretty simple, but knowing that this one is going to Russia, I reached out to one of my friends from camp to add "You are loved."


I didn't get a fancy photo shoot for this one--unless I have time in the next few days!--but I don't I can improve on this one of my little guy giving the quilt the snuggle test.

To see more pictures of this quilt in progress, look for  #RussianSpinningSquares on Instagram. If you'd like to see what I'm currently working on, follow me at de Jong Dream House.

Posted by Jen @ de Jong Dream House at 10:04 PM 6 comments
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Saturday, September 10, 2016

Quilt #67: Ruff Patch


After taking a few weeks to recover from the king-size wedding quilt I finished last month, I took a few weeks off to work on some small non-quilting projects, enjoy the Olympics, and get my baby ready for second grade!

I'll be focused on baby quilts for the next little bit, but first I wanted to finish this charity quilt I started about a year ago. The patter is called Ruff Patch. It's part of the Patch Pal Collection from Quiltmakers.

This is the first charity quilt I've made in a while, other than the Pulse quilt I made earlier this summer. I've gotten away from my goal of doing a charity quilt every one in three quilt. Hopefully I can get better at that. I'm part of a quilt ministry at our church and this quilt will be added to our collection of quilts, so I'm not sure where this puppy will end up, but I hope it bring some comfort and warm nights to whoever sleeps under it.

You may have seen a peek at this quilt a few months ago when I posted my craft room tour.  Those 2.5" squares have been serving as a not-very-effective reminder to work on this quilt for so long that now those little design walls look so empty and forlorn. 
  

I was about halfway done with the blocks for quite awhile. After I made my Trinity Celtic Knot quilt using this tutorial from Elizabeth Hartman, I realized how quickly I could finish it. My husband made a comment about not seeing the dog's eyes so I considered making the eyes blue, but decided to stick with the original colors. I should mention that I had the pattern, not the kit, so this was a fun way to use up some of my scraps. My blue bin, in particular, is overflowing, so this made a bit of a dent. (I could make about 10 of these quilts before I make a big dent!)


The hardest part of the quilt was putting on the dog's mouth. The instructions say to make it with a satin stitch. Mine didn't turn out very well, so I ripped it out and used my Silhouette Cameo to make an applique mouth.


I knew I wasn't going to follow the pattern's border because I thought it was too busy. And by this point, I was ready to be done because I'm excited about my next quilt. (Here's a hint: it's a new take on this one.) Instead I made three borders of 2", 1" and 3" thick to finish the top.


I worked outside my comfort zone for the quilting. I didn't want to stitch in the ditch because the seams are pressed open when using fusible interfacing. I found inspiration in this mini quilt from Alice at Alidiza. 

Source
I cut a 2" circle out of freezer paper and ironed it on the puppy's nose to get me started.


I used my new Pfaff Multi-Line Decorative Foot. It was my souvenir from our last trip to Ontario where I found a great Pfaff shop, Sew Etc. 
Once I sewed around the initial circle, I used this foot to make a 1" inch by lining up the edge of the foot with the circle.


I tried quilting in circles many quilts ago, and I ended up ripping the whole thing out. Hopefully that means I'm improving. Of course, I think quilting with my Pfaff Quilt Expression instead of my entry level Singer Curvy makes a difference, too. 


I kept the label simple. We have labels that we use as a group. Usually I write my name on the label. Today I decided to to make labels I can use for my future charity quilts at church.


Posted by Jen @ de Jong Dream House at 9:51 PM 5 comments
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Monday, July 25, 2016

Thank You Blue

Ever since our son was little, when we saw a first responder on the road or responding to a call, we would take a moment to prayer for the situation: that the first responder would know just what to do, that he or she would be safe, that the offender would accept responsibility for their choices, that victims would full recover, that families would find peace.


This has been a hard summer for our first responders, particularly our law enforcement officers. Our son is only seven, yet we have had many conversations about how, in general, police officers are helpers. If he is in trouble, if he ever gets separated from us, he is to either find woman with children, or a police office to ask for help. (We direct him to the mom first because people can impersonate police officers. They are less likely to pretend to be a mom of young kids or fun aunt). Our city puts on Safety City for incoming kindergartners where they meet first responders from the community and learn how to be safe and ask for help. I want my son to trust the people called to serve and help.


Increasingly though, we are seeing more examples of people in helping professions cause harm. Police officers are not alone in this. We hear about teachers, pastors, doctors and others abusing those who believe they are safe with them due to their job title. We tell our son that some police officers make bad choice, but not all of them, and not enough you should show respect to someone in uniform or expect that they will be more helpful than not. We don't pull our son out of school because a few teachers take advantage of their student's innocence. We don't skip church because some pastors betray the trust of those they are called to shepherd. We don't avoid the doctor because sometimes doctors harm when they are meant to heal.


One of our family rules is that we choose to define others by their best moments, not their worst. We choose to do the same thing with those in the helping professions. We think it's important to support the vast majority of first responders who do their difficult jobs well, who risk their lives in ways we don't know or understand, all for our benefit and safety.


As we kicked off 2016, I wrote that instead of focusing on a word, I choose a phrase, "Do what you can, where you can, when you can." As a parent, it means we have looked for ways to serve those around us. As a quilter and sewist, I have looked for opportunity to comfort, celebrate, and support others through my craft.

Last week, D and I decided that our local sheriff's office needed some donuts. I made him a special shirt and he made a card. We pooled our money and had our local Dunkin Donuts make some special donuts for our men and women in blue. 


I recently made a quilt as part of Quilts For Pulse. I am proud to be a quilter, part of a community that is incredibly generous as a whole. It was very encouraging to see people from around the world send in the heart blocks and quilts to the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild to be distributed to victims' families, survivors, and first responders who helped on the night o the Pulse shooting. 

And now the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild has put out a call for blue heart blocks for the families of the fallen officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge. I hate that we continue to have these needs, but I am happy to take a little time send my love in fabric form.


The call is for blue hearts with a white background. I started off with a 10.5" unfinished block using this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew.


But I wanted to do something reminiscent of the blue line used to show support for law enforcement officers.Since my heart was blue, I reversed the colors.

First I cut my block .75" from the bottom of the small HSTs, and .75" above the large HSTs. 


I cut strips of black fabric 10.5" x 2.75". 


I attached the top and bottom to get a blue heart with black stripe. 


Our neighbor is a police officer and was kind enough to give me some patches attach to the first four blocks I made. 


I thought I was done, but then I remembered I had some dark navy blue fabric that is nearly black and just had to make four more that more closely looked like the traditional blue line colors. 

Posted by Jen @ de Jong Dream House at 6:03 PM 0 comments
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