July 2025 – Page 3 – Time to Quilt

Happy Independence Day!

I hope wherever you are and whatever you do to celebrate, your day is filled with joy and happiness. ♥

I haven’t always taken photos of the quilts I’ve made. I did get pictures of these patriotic quilts All but the first four quilts were finished in the last year.

Strings and things

We’ve had frequent showers the past few days, but I did manage to get outside and take a photo of the string quilt I finished a couple of days ago.

I added some of my short strings, mostly kid bright print, to the pile of little solids left from the quilt I finished at the end of May.

It’s a contemporary take on an old favorite, the log cabin quilt block. This version was inspired by the pattern Stacked Logs from Quilted Sunshine.

My little drawers of strings are beginning to overflow so I need to spend a bit of time making a few quilts to get them back under control.

I keep my strings sorted by color in a little cart I purchased from Michaels. Well, I’ve actually expanded to two carts now. Not because I wanted to store more fabric, but I did want more separations so I could break out a few by type (patriotic, batik, bright kid, reproduction prints,low volume, etc) and also have a drawer for leftover binding to occasionally be able to make a scrappy binding.

My husband had an old street sign in the garage he’d found in the ditch while walking one morning. He loves up-cycling things and finding new uses for them. He riveted the sheet metal to the backs so they’re a lot more stable and don’t wobble when I wheel them around.

Thinking about some of the things he’s recycled, I can’t wait to share the turkey protest signs he made for his Thanksgiving yard decorations when he takes them out in a few months. They’re from abandoned political campaign yard signs he got tired of seeing at the corner of our street. 🙂

In the beginning

I didn’t take “before” photos of the rescued quilt tops when I started working on them. I planned to quilt and bind them, regardless of their appearance. There are people in need of quilts who don’t have anything to sleep under. Shelters have asked me to bring my least appealing quilts, explaining that those experiencing homelessness will choose a quilt they think is less likely to be stolen. This perspective opened my eyes! I knew I could find homes for the quilts no matter what they looked like when they were finished.

These quilts are turning out much better than I’d even hoped for and they’re being donated back to the guild for their organization partners.

I haven’t forgotten about the shelter and do plan to prioritize donations to them during the cold holiday season later in the year.

This top just needed minor adjustments, The side seams had to be restitched along the edges where they’d opened and stay-stitched before quilting. There’s a bit of pink fabric in the top but not much. I used a dark brown “tree bark” backing for this quilt in hopes it would make it more gender neutral..

This quilt top looked odd when I first saw it on the table. It was square, but the side fabrics were different widths, as if someone had stopped working on it partway through.

Our guild had request for patriotic quilts to honor veterans at an “Ignite the Night” 4th of July celebration. I took the top home hoping I could make it work. I split one block and moved half to the bottom for more interest. It finished at about 48″ x 68″.

After that quilt meeting, I texted Vivian, the Outreach committee chair, to ask if there were any quilt tops left after the meeting. She said she still had eight more, so I met her the next week at a local quilt bee and brought them home.