May and June Community Quilts

These community quilts were just quilt tops when they were sent to me earlier this year by Jo Kramer of Jo’s Country Junction. She coordinates a national “exchange” where makers send their quilt tops to those of us who volunteer to add backing fabric, layer up, quilt, bind and donate them to a local charity. Jo maintains a list on her blog of finishers (that’s what I am) and the quilts come in from all over. The only requirement is that we finishers send back pictures of the finished quilts and let everyone know where they ended up. 

So, here are the quilts that I finished in May and June. None have been shown previously on the blog. I also maintain a separate page (page links are just below the blog header) for finished Community Quilts, since I don’t count those in with my regular personal quilt finishes.  :-)

I believe all these four quilt tops were pieced by the Cresco, IA quilting ladies, but when I received them there was no notice of who did piece them. Regardless, they are all delightful, and someone(s) has a great knack for putting together scraps and bits. A sincere thank you to the dear hearts who pieced them!!

First up, we have this Star Wars Quilt. It looks as though the piecer alternated scrappy blocks of a vivid Star Wars print with a red-orange fabric. 

I quilted it using a stipple in the print blocks and a ribbon motif in the plain blocks. It was easy to switch back and forth as I traveled through the blocks. :-). I also love that I got to use up two chunks of lovely matching fabric for the back.  

Next is the Thomas the Train quilt. Someone very cleverly used their last scraps of Thomas fabric, combining it with other train fabric, solids and other fun pieces to make this little delight. 

The backing is another blue scrap from my stash, and I quilted this little number with loopy vines. 

This next quilt is really eye-catching! It’s another great example of How to Use Bits of a Cute Leftover Print. The print is a vibrant depiction of hot air balloons and kites. My quilting (viney loops again) is a depiction of what happens to my kites when I try to fly them, haha!

The backing is red and purple chunks and bits. Oh how I love a scrappy backing that uses up fabric leftovers!!

Finally, we have this Moon Beamers quilt. I wish the pictures conveyed how bright and cheery this little gem of a quilt is! It was small, so I added a matching strip along each side to bring it up to 40” wide. The clever piecer took a panel that was meant to be a fabric book, cut the blocks and sashed them with a matching print and cute cornerstones. I love this quilt so much!

For the scrappy backing, I found two fabric chunks that, while being totally unrelated to the Moon Beamers fabric line, matched it perfectly. Serendipity! It just doesn’t get any better. How did I quilt it? Loopy Vines again. Yes, I can do other things, but that seems to be what my brain defaults to.  Maybe because I’m loopy or something.  

So there you have it - four more cute little quilts headed to the Salt Lake chapter of Quilts for Kids. Thanks again to Jo and any of the amazing ladies (and gentlemen) who had a hand in creating these little quilts.