Friday, March 18, 2011

Testing the Waters for April's A Dozen Quilter's Project

I am having trouble deciding what I want to do for our A Dozen Quilters' project next month so I thought I would put it to vote among the ladies in the group. I am waiting to hear back from everyone and will share later what we decide to do.

I recently found out that my coworker's niece was diagnosed with Lymphoma. She's just a tiny little thing and it breaks my heart when babies are sick. Her parents are doing everything they can to raise money for her treatment and I thought it would be nice to donate a quilt for them to auction off. What I really want to do is make a little quilt for her to use while she is in the hospital or getting treatments. If we go with this project I would want to do something similar to this wonky star sampler quilt (explained by Rachel of Stitched in color and tutorial by Victoria of Silly BooDilly) but in purples instead of pinks because that's her favorite color:

do. Good Stiches - February Love Circle
blocks by do. Good Stitches {a Charity Bee} Love group

I would ask each of the participants to make at least 2 (more would be better since I am making 2 quilts from them)12.5" unfinished blocks to finish at 12" with any solid purple background and fun purple prints for the stars. It's ok if the prints have a tiny bit of other colors in them but the overall color should be predominately purple (see Jeni's In Color Order series on Recognizing a Fabric's Overall Color). Since this is a sampler quilt, they can vary the size, placement, and number of stars as much as they want. Some of the blocks will be made into a quilt for auction and some will be made into a quilt for her. Here's a quick inspiration mosaic I threw together to get an idea of the range of purples I'm looking for:


And because the palate happens to be very similar to the colors I used in my wedding in May 2010 I thought I would share some personal photo too:

 
The other project I am considering asking them to help out with is to make preemie quilts that will be donated to the INOVA Fairfax Childrens Hospital NICU. My guild, NOVA Modern Quilt Guild, is using RK sponsored Kona Solid charm packs to create modern mini quilts no smaller than 29"x29" and no larger than 45"x45" out of 100% cotton materials. In keeping with the challenge and to make this fun and different, I would ask the participants to use mostly solids to make their quilts. A few prints thrown in on the top is fine and it's fine to use a print for the binding or backing too but the majority of their top should be done in solids. I suggested they poke around on flickr for inspiration but here are a few of my favorites:


As you know from my post a few days ago, I have completed one quilt top already and am working on a second. I made half square triangles with all of the blue, green, purple, and gray charms and white charms. I arranged them randomly to disperse all of the colors evenly throughout and bordered them with white and green:


So the ladies get to choose between a couple of Wonky Star Sampler quilts in purples or preemie quilts in mostly solids. Check back to see what they decide! I will be doing both projects regardless so if there are any others who would like to participate just send me an email. I would really appreciate your help making both projects a success!

Happy Quilting!

Natalie

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