"Crayon" Comfort Quilt

This pretty quilt was created as part of a fun program I ran for my Quilt Guild last year. It was called the Crayon Block Challenge. I bought a 64 pack of crayons and removed any that were black, grays, browns, neon, or ugly colors. The rest went in a box and all the ladies at the meeting had a chance to choose as many crayons as they were willing to make blocks for. I printed very specific direction sheets on how to make this simple star block and gave everyone a strip of white Kona cotton so that all the backgrounds matched. Some ladies made one block, but many made 2, 3, or even 4. They had to choose a fabric that matched their crayon color and was solid or texture (rather than multi-colored). I also asked them to bring 4 (3") blocks to use in the sashing. We ended up with about 60 blocks and everyone had a fun time making them. We brought all the blocks to our retreat and made 2 bed-size quilts from them; one in tropical colors and one in jewel tones. I'll have to share pictures of those later, because they are stuck on the old computer. We used a different setting on each and they were both beautiful. The blocks seemed to divide themselves into groups by color and we had many pinks and purples left over. One of the ladies in our guild offered to make them into a lap quilt and also did a wonderful job machine quilting it.

This quilt has been waiting in our "Comfort Cupboard" until it was needed and now it will be delivered to my friend's Mom, who is battling cancer for the third time. I hope it will keep her cozy and brighten her room while she undergoes treatments.

High School Senior Gift Idea

This weekend Petey went to a big birthday bash for a girl on his high school technology team. He is a freshman and she is a senior and she hosted the whole team at a "dinner and a movie" place near us. He had a great time! He needed a gift for her, so I thought about something personalized for college. She will be majoring in aerospace engineering in the fall. I modified an idea I made last summer for a neighbor's son who was graduating. I made a laundry toolkit with a personalized laundry bag and bath sheet.
We filled a small laundry basket with the towel, laundry bag, a package of all-in-one detergent and softener sheets, & a big bag of M&Ms.

  The bath sheet was a beautiful soft blue-green (the picture doesn't do it justice) and since I didn't have embroidery thread for a tone-on-tone look, I used tan. I used the same thread and font on the laundry bag (below) which was "Curlz" 4" from 8 Claws and a Paw.

  Petey had a great time at the party and Gen loved the present!

My Row Robin Quilt

I have my Quilt Guild meeting tonight and I just finished my row for the row robin project we are doing. A row robin is fun; we have groups of 5-6 ladies that will each make a row and provide a kit of fabric for their quilt. Then, each month we rotate the kits among our group and each lady makes one row for each quilt. I won't see my quilt again until May when I will get all 5 rows back and everyone will enjoy the unveiling of their quilt. Putting it together, adding borders, and quilting is for me to do afterwards.
I wanted to do something fun for this project. I usually choose earth colors, traditional prints, conservative.
I had seen this bird fabric awhile back and it reminded me of a black tole painted tray my Mom made when I was little. When I had to choose fabrics for the row robin, I remembered this collection. It has a panel and border print as well (not pictured here) which I am reserving for finishing.

I chose several brights to go with it and chose some block patterns from www.quilterscache.com. I am not sure I like it! It's much brighter than I am used to, but the meeting is tonight, so I'll have to go with it!
Here is a picture of the whole row. The rows will be sashed with solid black. It will be fun to see the others' quilts that I will be working on.