Scrap Happy!

I am so excited to share some really special quilts with you! These all have been made by my friend Nancy in Grand Junction, Colorado. The quilts I'm going to show you today have all been donated to the Piecing Partners Quilt Guild in Colorado Springs, CO. From there, the quilts go to the Department of Human Services and to First Visitor. According to Sue S., another friend and a member of the Piecing Partners, "First Visitor goes out to all new born babies, no matter what the income, if they are called. They always have something for other kids in the family also. They want to make sure that all mothers know where they can go for help if they need it." Let's have a look at some of Nancy's gorgeous quilts!

This first one she calls Baby Rails. It is made out of 1 1/2" finished half square triangles (HSTs)and 1 1/2" finished strips. Nancy said, "I adapted it from a picture I saw on the web. I've made several of these. It's a wonderful use for squared up waste HSTs." I don't think she lets a single thing go to waste!

Baby Rails

She refers to this next one as a "Frenzy" top. According to Nancy, you start out by string-piecing scraps onto a piece of 3 1/2" by 'whatever length' telephone book pages. :) The string-pieced strips are then sewn end to end, then "sliced and diced" into whatever size needed.

Frenzy top

Nancy told me, "I find that string-piecing is the easiest way for me to use up small scraps because I don't have to do any tedious rotary cutting into a specific size." Here is another Frenzy with a Pinwheel thrown in. Just for fun and "whimsy". :)

Frenzy with a Pinwheel

Nancy has made over 150 tops for the guild to donate to their charities. Often, Sue will add a border after Nancy hands the tops over to her! Nancy said, "I've been mostly making the Frenzy tops, with the pinwheel, and without. Also been making a few of the Circle tops that Sue says the guild loves...." Here's a look at one of the Circle Quilts!

Circle Quilt

Nancy said, "These are made out of 3 1/2" blocks. Each circle is 6". These start out as string blocks." WOW. I think this could be my favorite. It reminds me of a scrappy, string-pieced Kansas Dugout! So... for the Circle Quilt, you "just" take 3 1/2" unfinished string blocks with 2" unfinished muslin flippy corners on two opposite corners.......... Yeah. OK. I'm giving this a whirl after Christmas!!! (You heard it here first.)

Nancy calls this one Bias All Around:

Bias All Around

She said it was great fun to make - it's totally made from scraps, with a lot of bias-cut pieces. The words "bias" (when it comes to fabric) and "fun" aren't usually part of the same sentence for me. I'm glad they are for Nancy, as this quilt is such a stunner! She confessed, "This is not a quilt you would want to take a tape measure to. It did not end up perfectly square, but I love it anyway although it is still not quilted.." I love it, too!

This next one is made out of quarter-square triangles (QSTs). Nancy's inspiration came from a picture in a book. She said she found it a bit of a boring quilt to make and "only made one."

QSTs quilt

I personally think it's great. Still bright and playful, but with areas for the eye to rest.

I'm not sure if this next one was to counter the one above, but here's one called Star Struck. The original idea came from Bonnie's Quiltville site. Nancy said she "decided to use string pieced blocks again and made the stars out of red solid." Check it out!

Star Struck

YOWZERS! I LOVE it! I can't look at any of these quilts and not smile. Honestly. This one especially. Can you imagine what it - and the others! - are doing for their recipients!?!

Last up are three Log Cabin quilts. Nancy makes the log cabin blocks with 1" finished strips. Here are three she has given to charity:

Log Cabin - I see a star in this one!

Log Cabin - sort of an off-set chevron

Log Cabin - Sunshine and Shadows setting, with half-square triangle centers

Nancy, thank you so much for letting me share some of your gorgeous charity quilts with our readers! There is just something about each one that makes me smile and feel GOOD inside. I think that's what your quilts are all about!

Within the next couple of weeks, I'll post more pictures of Nancy's quilts! I hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I have!

Thanks for reading!

KZK