Hearts of Hope Sew Along

 I started Bonnie Hunter's Hearts of Hope a couple of weeks ago.  This is a free pattern on her website, but she asks for a donation to  Quilters for Ukraine Go Fund Me. The last time I checked, they had raised almost $80,000.  Here's a link to the first Hearts of Hope post.  https://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/hearts-of-hope-sew-along.html  Sorry, it has been so long since I posted a link, I am not sure how to make it clickable.

So far, I have finished the first week's units.  I am about half way through the second week's.  I lost 3 days of sewing last week because I was sick. 

Because I can't count, I ended up making extra blue units (the top of the hearts).  Then I had to make extra yellow units, so all the tops would have a bottom.  My quilt is going to be rectangular,  7 x 10 blocks instead of Bonnie's 7 x 7 blocks.  

Sew Many Strips

 I finished binding my third Sew Many Strips quilt yesterday.  This one was all scraps with no thought as to color.  I used up a bunch of ugly prints and busy neutrals.

I think Sew Many Strips is the perfect scrap quilt pattern.  It uses strip piecing, so the sewing goes fast, considering how small the pieces are.  You can make it completely scrappy like this one, or controlled scrappy for a different look.

This was my first one.  I used blue, green and a little purple.  I gave this one to my cousin who hosts our family reunion.

The next one is all batiks.  I gave it to my sister.  This one might be my favorite.

I have one more to go,  done in fall colors.

Update on my quilt drawing.  Not Quite Zuckerwatte went to my niece.  This is a variation on a Bonnie Hunter pattern.

My goal is to finally finish up my unquilted tops.  Three are done.  Three more are at the longarmer, and I have many more to do.

The pillowcases I sent to the young adults in my family are starting to arrive.  Say what you will about our postal system, but I mailed them Monday, and the first arrived on Tuesday!

More Pillowcases

 I decided to make pillowcases for my nieces and nephews who are still in college and for those who have graduated from somewhere other than Virginia Tech. Tech grads have already gotten theirs. I have made 26 pillowcases since I started this in February.  The minor children in the family will have to wait for theirs!

I made 3 VCU pillowcases:

4 George Mason:

1 Pokemon:

1 UVA:

1 South Carolina:

and 2 more JMUs:

I would say that I'm done for now, but maybe not.  I saw some baseball fabric that would be perfect for my sister, I need to come up with something for my niece at Sweet Briar (probably a fox print), and if everyone is getting pillowcases, my mom probably needs one too.

Not Quite Zuckerwatte Bound

 I got Not Quite Zuckerwatte back from the longarmer and bound it last week.  It looks like a quilt a little girl would like, but the youngest girl in our family is 15.

I really like the quilting  pattern that Virginia Longarm chose.  I usually let the quilter pick the pattern since they see so many more quilts than I do, and they know what type of pattern works well on the kind of quilt I make.

I sent an email to my family today letting them know that this quilt is looking for a home.  They need to let me know if they are interested in it, and I will draw a name from the interested people later this week. If this goes well, I will do this with other old quilts I have hanging around.

Legendary

 I finished Elizabeth Hartman's Legendary quilt and the pillow today.  This was a fast piece.  It took me about 2 weeks to get the top and the pillowtop done. 

Here is a close up of the green batik, so you can see the forest print on it.

Here's the pillowtop.  It is supposed to measure about 26", which I think is big for a pillow.  

I will be looking for backing next and then a trip to the longarmer.  I think my BIL is going to love this!
  

Trees!

 While I was waiting for my next batch of pillowcase fabric to arrive, I went to my LQS and bought fabric for a quilt I have been meaning to make for years, Elizabeth Hartman's Legendary.  I am making this quilt for my crazy  brother-in-law who believes in Bigfoot.  He also believes in aliens.  If you knew what he does for a living, you would be shocked, but I can't tell you what he does.

I had green batik left over from another project for the trees, so all I had to buy was the background and the brown for the tree trunks and Bigfoot.   The trees have gone quickly.  I am using the angler 2, which means I haven't had to draw any lines for the stitch and flip method.  My angler is possibly over 15 years old, so I don't know if anyone still makes them. It was worth whatever I paid for it!

I have started working on Bigfoot, but I made a mistake on the hands yesterday, so I thought it was time to put it away last night and start again today.  In the middle of this quilt, my next batch of pillowcase fabric arrived, so you will be seeing more of them.  I am also waiting on 3 quilts from the longarmer.  It feels good to be back quilting!

Pillowcases

 I had enough fabric left over from my Rolling Wave quilt to make 2 pillowcases.  Then I remembered my sisters' request.  I had made their daughters Virginia Tech pillowcases before the pandemic.  They wanted pillowcases too.   While everyone was mask-making, VT fabric was hard to find, so I never made the pillowcases. 

 Last week I found VT fabric online and decided to make them pillowcases.  But six of my siblings went to Tech, and I knew I couldn't give 2 of them pillowcases and leave out the other four.  Then I found JMU fabric.  My last sister and her husband went  there, so I bought JMU fabric.  Since I had committed to make a pillowcase for one of my brothers-in-law, I had to do the other in-laws too.  So far I have made 10 college pillowcases. I have 2 in-laws to go and more fabric to buy if I want to make them for my kids, their partners and my nieces and nephews.