Community Quilts

I’ve decided to start an occasional mid-week feature on my blog highlighting Community Quilts that I’ve finished. What is a Community Quilt? Well, it’s when someone sews up blocks or even an entire quilt top, then donates it to some person or organization (usually a charity) to be finished. That finishing may include everything from sewing blocks together, to basting the quilt (putting together a “quilt sandwich” with top, batting and a backing), to quilting the quilt, to trimming, binding and labeling the quilt. 

A recent quilt I made with donated scraps (not a Community Quilt)

Through my work with Quilts for Kids, I have done a lot of finishing in the last several years. Most of our group’s finishers own long-arm quilting machines, which can do large quilts manually, automatically with the push of a pre-programmed button, or something in between. I have a small Bernina domestic (home) sewing machine, so I only quilt small to medium quilts. Once we got enough volunteer long-armers in our  Quilts for Kids group, I switched from quilting to being the Scrap Lady, because we get as many scrap donations as we do fabric donations. Now I’m one of 2 or 3 scrap ladies, but I have a lot of online friends (through the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and other link-ups) and generous donors who send me scraps, blocks and quilt tops. Additionally, I signed up with Jo Kramer of Jo’s Country Junction to help with her Community Quilts program. Jo and her daughter Kayla are prolific published designers and quilters. They usually have something featured in one of the popular print quilting magazines at any given time. 

Back at the end of February, Jo sent me 21 quilt tops to finish and donate. The only stipulation is that I provide her with pictures as they’re finished so she can share on her blog. One quilt top was too big (at 54x72”) for QFK, so I separated it into two quilt tops of 36x54”. I’ll add a border on each side of the 36” to bring them up to a workable youth size. So, that makes 22 quilts in this first batch. Today I’m showing quilts #1-3.

This cute little top was made by a wonderful group of women in Cresco, IA.  In fact, all three of them were. The batting, backing and binding all came from my stash. The green polka dot backing (picture below) matches the front better than the camera makes it appear. The binding is a cute red polka dot. The quilting is a basic loop. Because I’m all about KISSing (Keep It Simple, Silly!) 😘

Quilt number 2 is perfect for an older boy. The theme is motorcycles and it uses a plethora of scraps in a very creative whole!

I made the quote backing with two pieces that match the colors of the front. Quilted with a large stipple.

The third and final quilt of this first group is another one with animals. You can click on the picture to enlarge it. It’s just a basic large patchwork of two fabrics. But isn’t it cute? 

The backing was some yardage that my friend Claudia in Washington sent me. The theme and colors are perfect!

These have all been donated to the Salt Lake Chapter of Quilts for Kids. 

Thanks for stopping by!