Catching up-Charity quilting
It’s been a challenging week for Hubby and me. Zeke (the Basset) has challenged us to our limits and has became all-consuming, keeping us chained to the house. Fortunately, with the help of an excellent trainer, (Grateful K9 for you locals), we were able to understand his behaviors and cope much better. But it was a rough week! We’ve had a Basset before, but Zeke’s robust personality pushed all Basset-y behaviors to the tail-end of the scale (pun intended!).
We’re on an even keel now, but for a couple of weeks there he dominated every day. I was upset and worried and knew that I could not tackle anything challenging in my quilting world, yet I longed to quilt. So I turned to my charity sewing and got some things done:
First up was this charity quilt for my guild. Notice anything amiss? Like the last row of sashing? Case-in-point why you have to be careful about sewing when you’re upset! I changed some of the fabrics in the kit as some of them were butt-ugly. I’m not too sure about my addition of that lavender border…
I chose to leave the sashing unquilted and filled each block with my go-to motif for charity quilts, kind of a modified paisley.
I did what I call a “multiple-choice” border, with feathers on one side and various motifs on the other. I’m a little undecided about whether I’d do that again-seems a little unbalanced. Some more detail shots:
You can’t see it, but I suddenly began getting skipped stitches in the middle of a session and I’m going to write about that in my newsletter this week. You can sign up for it-look in the upper left-hand corner of my blog and you’ll see where to sign up for it.
I also wanted to do a few pieces for Pokey Bolton’s “Stay Pawsitive!” animal rescue fundraiser which will raise funds for Friends for Life. FFL is a Houston-based charitable that is a model for the nation in terms of a successful, no-kill shelter.They provided assistance to pet owners for both Hurricane Harvey (Houston) and Irma (Fla). All 6″ x 6″ donated squares will be sold for $30 each at Craft Napa, Jan 11-14, 2018. This square came from a Gingiber fabric panel.
You can’t tell, but I put this one on metallic linen, my new favorite fabric. It gives a wonderful feeling to the piece. I’m crushing on French knots right now for some reason. Both these were fun to do.
There are still a few openings in my classes at Craft Napa: Yes, You CAN Free Motion Quilt! (day class) and How Do I Quilt That? (evening class), both on Th, Jan 11. And other classes have openings too; Pokey is leaving registration open until Jan 10th this year! Please join me at Craft Napa for the best quilt/sew/stamp/paint/stencil/dye (and more!) event ever! It’s in the beautiful Napa Valley and most of the area was not hit by the fires and NONE of Pokey’s buildings were damaged. So come on!
I’ll be linking up to Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday with ALLLL the good links!
Hi Jenny! Great charity quilt! I also quilt cuddle quilts for the guild when I need to quilt something not too challenging. I really like the modified paisley and I’d like to use it too if that’s okay with you. It looks less dense and like there is much less thread build up than with a traditional paisley motif. Could show us more photos that would enable us to follow the path? It’s difficult to see on the busy fabric.
Thanks, Brenda
PS: I hope Zeke is continuing to settle down and brings you much more joy than aggravation!
Thank you for the note Brenda. Funny you should mention it because I tried to put a video in my post and can’t figure out how to do it. It is such a great motif for get-er-done quilts! I’ll keep you posted. I think I will post it on FB and try to add it to my tutorials. Stay tuned.
Extra-nice work on the charity quilts. Sorry about your puppy and hope YOU are getting trained to meet his needs. My guild donated 192 children’s quilts last week at our December meeting, so I’m glad to know busy people can still squeeze in time for charity work.
It’s already better now Martha! The neutering was a big help, as was the help of our excellent trainer (who trains US more than Zeke!). I try to do 2 charity quilts a yr, which is not much I know, but if we all did 2, there would be an avalanche of goodness sweep the land! Your guild sounds fabulous!
beautiful work on the quilts and the squares! I have three bassets, one is laid back but the boys, whoooo, they are a bundle of energy! I had no idea bassets would be so active and demanding. Peole think they are couch potatoes and I already had Chloe who kept up with my Swissys. So I knew they were more than that.
The boys are 6 and 7 now, they were cruelty rescues at 10 months each, I got them about a year apart from the same situation. I run a non-profit rescue here in baton rouge. Crazy boys!
Well we thought we knew what we were in for, having had our previous rescue Basset for 10 yrs. I have thought about you as we’ve walked this journey-all the challenges you’ve been through and the dogs along with you. He is much better even a few days later and I think the neutering has made the difference. Our trainer says that if you love a breed, don’t get another one of the same because you will compare the two. Without meaning to, our expectations were set based on our previous experience and Zeke has been MUCH more challenging! I did not realize your Bassets were rescued from cruelty-how awful. I don’t understand a world where people do that. They are blessed to be in The Best of Homes with you two.
I liked the idea of the “multiple choice” border quilting. When I try that, I am going to put the feathers to the outside (transferring the “weight” to the outside) and the lighter motif to the inside.
Thank you for writing Carol! I do think it would look better with the “heavy” side to the outside. I was just experimenting and would probably not do it this way again.
I love, love, love the feathers-plus border. How about if you put a sort of equal amount of the “improv” stuff on both sides and equal amount of classic feather shapes on both sides? The leaves and curlies along with the feathers are very fresh looking. (Glad to hear things are a little more under control with Zeke. )
Thank you Donna! And yes, it is a lot better already with Zeke, I think the testosterone is still draining. I was upset and weary when I was quilting this and it was easier to do the pure feathers that the multiple choice so the truth is, I just got tired and put in feathers on the inner border. No doubt it would look better balanced.
Love your little animal squares for ‘Stay Pawsitive.” Your French knots looks gorgeous. That’s a stitch I’ve never been able to master.
Well thank you! Honestly, you can do French knots-I do not have a high skill level with embroidery and I can do them. There surely is a You Tube on it. Persevere!!