THE PERFECT BABY QUILT

 One of the original "Sunday Sew and Sews" had a pattern she created for the perfect baby quilt. Janet Noever called this her SAWTOOTH STAR BABY QUILT. 

Here are two of her creations. Janet usually started with a panel or kid themed fabric for the center:

As simple as it gets, one star block, one border

Janet loved Seminole Piecing and often added it to the baby quilt

Donna D, one of the Sunday Sew and Sews has made several of these, here is her latest, designed for the newest ALABAMA fan:

At the time of Janet's unexpected death in 2020, Janet was in the process of making 50 baby quilts to donate to Huntsville Hospital to be given to children patients. The Sunday Sew and Sews took on completing this project and several months later Janet's quilts were presented to the hospital. I wrote about that here: A Quilter's Legacy

The other quilt Janet loved to make for donations was this one, she called it "My Favorite Donation Quilt". Various strips/widths of kid-themed fabrics couldn't be easier so I am not providing instructions here, but I do have a TUTORIAL:

A little Seminole Piecing for interest makes this a bit more work

When I make this quilt, I start with backing and batting, then "flip and sew" each fabric in place through all three layers. This means it is quilted as it is created. I did a TUTORIAL for my method here: STRIPPY QUILT 

Here are 3 mockups I made in EQ8 to give you ideas for Janet's SAWTOOTH STAR BABY QUILT:

Janet's original design, 36" x 43"

Super Simple, 36" x 36" 

Border Variation, 32" x 44" 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR JANET'S SAWTOOTH STAR BABY QUILT,  36" X 43" finished

Fabric Required:

Center Focus Fabric                Fat Quarter

Star Points                                Fat Quarter or 1/4 yard

Background Fabric                     2/3 yard

Top/Bottom Accent Border          1/6 yard

Border Fabric                             1/2 yard

Cutting Instructions:

Center Focus        cut 14.5" square

Star Points            cut FOUR 8" SQUARES for Half Square Triangles

Background          cut FOUR 8" SQUARES for Half Square Triangles

                              cut FOUR 7.5" SQUARES for Corners

                              cut TWO 2" x Width of Fabric (WOF) strips for top and bottom borders

Accent Border      cut TWO 2.5" x WOF strips for ACCENT BORDER top and bottom

Outer Border        cut FOUR 4.5" x WOF strips for outer borders

QUILT ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Make  8 HALF SQUARE TRIANGLES:

 Pair 8" squares of STAR POINT and BACKGROUND fabrics, right sides together

On the WRONG SIDE of the BACKGROUND fabric draw a diagonal line 

Sew 1/4" from BOTH SIDES of the DIAGONAL LINES 

Cut apart on the drawn line, press toward the Star point fabric, OR press the seam OPEN, your choice

Trim to 7.5" square

2. Sew the EIGHT Half Square Triangles into PAIRS:

3. ASSEMBLE THE QUILT CENTER using the quilt diagram as a guide:

 Sew the Star Block by adding corners to TWO of the Star Point Pairs, press toward corners

Sew Star Point Pairs to each side of the Center Square, press toward center

Join the THREE rows to create the middle of the quilt

4. ADDING BORDERS--from here on MEASURE YOUR QUILT to determine what size to cut the borders:

Accent Borders: Cut TWO borders from strips previously cut 2.5" x your quilt measurement. In a perfect world it is 28.5" wide, yours may differ a little

Attach Accent Borders to Top and Bottom of Star Block, press toward Accent Borders

Background Borders: Cut TWO borders from background fabric strip, 2" x your quilt measurement

Attach Background Borders to Top and Bottom Accent Borders, press toward Accent Borders

Outer Borders: Cut TWO borders for the Left and Right Sides. MEASURE YOUR QUILT to determine what size to cut them, 4.5" x your measurement. In a perfect world they are 35.5"

Attach Left and Right borders, press toward the outer borders

Cut TWO borders for the Top and Bottom. MEASURE YOUR QUILT. In a perfect world they are cut 4.5" x 36.5". It is MOST IMPORTANT borders be cut to the SIZE NEEDED so the quilt will be flat and square.

Feel free to change your borders, add more or less. Create Pieced Borders if you like. Keep in mind, it is best to keep the finished size to no WIDER than 40" so regular quilt fabric can be used as the backing without the need to enlarge the back. 

This quilt is fast and easy to make. It is easy to alter in many ways. We are all thankful to Janet for her friendship and her great organizational skills that made it easy for us to complete her important project.

 See the earlier post to see Janet's great notebook: Janet's Donation Quilt Project . See the post that shows all the finished DONATION QUILTS

Let's quilt!

Barbara

AFTERNOON DELIGHT MADE EASY

 Afternoon Delight, designed by Sue Garman, was the 2020 Block of the Month quilt for The Quilt Show. Many people made it and it is a beautiful design. Forty applique' blocks, 9 Shoo Fly blocks and 64 Double 9 Patch blocks, each with 45 tiny squares, each 3/4".  The Double 9 Patches seemed to do most people in, about 3/4 of the way through. There are just so many of them.

I made two of these--the original for the taping of The Quilt Show and a smaller one so I had step-outs for the year-long blogs I write in support of the Block of the Month for The Quilt Show:

Little Afternoon Delight

The original size pattern

One of the Sunday Sew and Sews, Janet, had a plan that was sure to be easier. At our February 2020 meeting, she had a  sparkle in her eye and a big grin as she showed us what she was going to do. Here is Janet that day, in the red blouse, seated in the comfy chair usually reserved for her: 

She had a plastic box filled with beautiful fabrics. Printed yardage featured a floral pattern with hummingbirds. The design was a good size for making Afternoon Delight--WITHOUT applique:

 

Just a few weeks later, Janet died suddenly from a stroke. The Sunday Sew and Sews helped her daughter deal with an unbelievable stash and complete a BIG project of making 50 charity quilts Janet had started. I wrote much about all this several times last year:

Tribute

Legacy

Quilter's Estate Sale

When it came to the sale, I snapped up that plastic box, full of Janet's planned "Afternoon Delight Made Easy".

This week I started working on it. The floral designs were able to be cut into 7.5" squares. In the box was a soft yellow print that I used to enlarge those designs to 9" finished squares by adding a 1" finished border to each floral design. There is a large amount of off-white print fabric for making those blocks. 

There is also a LOT of an companion fabric to the floral panels I will use for border and backing. Janet bought fabric in HUGE amounts and I am glad she did for this project:

The Double 9 Patches are still daunting, but they are made from 1" finished squares so not too bad. 

I have decided to make this about twin size and will then pass on the box to another Sunday Sew and Sew who wants a Hummingbird Afternoon Delight of their own. My progress so far:

It is a great "Leader/Ender" project, using strips to make various combinations of 9-patches:

Little known fact--20 years ago when we built this house, I named it "Hummingbird Hollow". Each year I eagerly await the return of the beauties. Our feeders are up and they should show up any day now.

Janet would be pleased her vision is coming to life. She wasn't about to make 40 applique blocks when she had these beautiful floral bouquets, complete with hummers.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Charity Quilts and the Joy of Giving

 Sunday was the day the Sunday Sew and Sews presented Janet's daughter, Nancy, with the 52 Charity quilts Janet had begun. Janet passed away suddenly in February 2020, from a stroke, and this project needed to be adopted.

I have written about this several times:  A Quilters Legacy is the comprehensive post about this project. The Sunday Sew and Sews took on completing all of the quilt tops--quilting and binding them all. It was our way to honor Janet as our friend, and pass on the good wishes in these quilts she so wanted to share. 

Of course, it's the time of COVID so we met at my  home wearing masks. Do you recognize anyone?

How about now? That's better. Masks off for the photo: 

It is hard to see the scope of all the quilts here--52 in various sizes. Some are perfect for NICU donations, some for hospitalized children and a few are large enough to make good donations to the local Veteran's home.  A few more shots of the big pile:

Janet designed this very simple quilt specifically for her donation quilts--so easy to make, simple to finish and the perfect size for a young child. She called it the "Sawtooth Star Baby Quilt". This one is "fancied up" a bit with Seminole piecing borders, a technique Janet was very fond of. This quilt is 35" square:

Here is one I finished, from the giveaway Janet did for the Sunday Sew and Sews last summer. I wrote about that here: What Did I Keep?

Nancy has the huge task of settling Janet's estate. She is not a quilter but she appreciates the passion for and love of quilting her mother had in abundance. And she appreciates the work that was put forth to bring Janet's donation project to completion. Totally unexpected, Nancy came loaded with Thank You bags that she shared with everyone, including the two who couldn't make it. Inside were 6 Baby Bites cakes and a gift card to Starbucks. Nancy handing out the goodies:

Next week the quilts will be presented to Madison/Huntsville Hospital for distribution to patients there. We know these quilts will bring joy to those who receive them and we are all happy to celebrate the life of our friend Janet in this way. 

You learned it a long time ago: "Tis better to give than to receive". Completing this project brought joy to us as well. Do something kind for someone today. It matters. 

And wash  your hands.

Let's quilt,

Barbara

A Quilter's Legacy

A couple months ago, a quilter friend of mine passed away after a long and fulfilling life. Find out more about Janet here:  A Tribute

Janet made lots of quilts for donation to various organizations, like the hospital NICU, Veteran's home, and others. Her daughter found a large stack of these in progress. Janet had a goal to make 50 of these but did not complete her task.

The Sunday Sew and Sews agreed to finish this project in her honor. Recently, Janet's daughter brought four carloads of stuff to my house for this reason. It has taken some time to organize all the quilts to get them ready for the Sunday Sew and Sews to pick up but they are ready:

Janet was very organized. She had a notebook with four typewritten pages of all the donation quilt tops she had made. That was enormously helpful to me as I found each top, selected a back, batting and binding for each and got it ready for someone to complete:

 The binder also held many patterns Janet had collected over many years for donation quilts--from magazine pages to those printed off the Internet, all neatly stored in the binder.

Just one page of four

The sizes she used the most for various purposes

It took the better part of 2 days to get all the quilt tops ready. There were at least 50 bins of fabric to go through for backings and bindings and bags of batting to cut. I found good selections for each quilt, including the 3 that needed borders added or backing pieced together.

Dining Room Command Central

Garage Staging Area

Janet had two favorite designs she liked for the quilts she made for children. One pattern she designed in 2004, she called the Sawtooth Star Quilt. Janet loved Seminole Piecing and often added it to these quilts as well as her own:

With Seminole pieced border

Very simple border

The one she called "My Favorite Donation Quilt: is very simple--she let the fabric do the talking:

Super Simple

Seminole Pieced borders

Some little boy will love this

Both of these patterns finish at less than 45" wide so one length of fabric makes the back. It take 1.25 yards for the back and just over 1/3 yard for binding.

When people say "I don't have time to make donation quilts" I will think of these and how easy they are to put together. 

Once in a while she made a more time-consuming quilt to donate:

Floating Stars--she probably got these in a swap

Two of the Sunday Sew and Sews volunteered to quilt a bunch of them on their longarms. Robin took 16 and Holly took 10. All I had to do was be sure I gave them all the yardage needed for big backs and batting and binding for all those quilts.  There was a full roll of Warm and White batting and many bags of 3 yards of 90" wide batting, so plenty on hand for the longarmers and plenty to cut into pieces for the remaining 20+ quilts to be done on domestic machines.

When the 26 being quilted by Robin and Holly are done, they will pass them on, along with the binding I included for each quilt, to another Sunday Sew and Sew for final completion.

Now the Fun Part: Once I had all the quilts prepared, I could look through the bins to see what I might want. Oh, yes, we each get 3 bins for our own personal use. There are thousands of yards of fabric here:

As I am making Quilts of Valor at the moment, I was thrilled to find yardage of reds and blues I can use for borders and backs--thanks, Janet! She tended to buy everything--all colors--all styles, fat quarters and 3 yard pieces. The women will have fun this weekend picking out their 3 bins to take home.

One simple rule: no cherry-picking, you take the whole box. Fortunately, Janet had things pretty much in organized groups in the bins. There is sure to be something here to make everyone happy. Three people have already come to get quilts to work on--they were surprised to see all these boxes to choose from.

There are also lots of books--some she even had two copies of. Sadly, today most quilters don't want books, they want to find everything for free on the Internet or YouTube. There are some real gems here, some from 25 years ago, some very recent. I hope they find a new home. If you are looking for a specific book from the past, let me know, it might be here  and I'm  happy to share:

Last Summer, Janet did a giveaway of TONS of fabric and she told us there was still plenty left. Read about that here: Do I NEED More Fabric?  She was right...

I thought I have a lot of fabric, now, really I don't feel so bad. While I often say "I have a sinful amount of fabric"  what I really mean is "I am the curator of an extensive personal textile collection".

Janet would be pleased to know her 50 or more donation quilts will be finished and donated in the next few months. We are pleased to do it in her honor and memory and her family is ever-so grateful. Do you have a "final arrangements plan" for your stash? Since none of us will live forever, that's not a bad idea. 

Let's quilt,

Barbara

Sunday Sew and Sews--a Tribute

In December 2016 I started a small group I called the Sunday Sew and Sews since Sunday was the only day I had available for a monthly gathering.

I had been asked by a couple students about the upcoming 2017 Block of the Month quilt on The Quilt Show--Sue Garman's Halo Star Medallion. We planned to meet once a month for a two hour lecture/demo at  my home to work on that quilt. Starting with my guild, the Heritage Quilters of Huntsville, I asked if anyone else was interested, expecting 5 or 6. At 15 I said "that's it!"--I just don't have room for more.

Little did I dream how important these women would become to me and each other. They look forward to the gatherings, support and care for one another and all have grown in their quiltmaking skills a LOT! It is a joy to see.

The December gathering is a potluck--I love those! Here is the photo from this past December, 2019:

We are now in the fourth year of this group, still centered around the Block of the Month quilt from The Quilt Show. The group expands and contracts each year--those who don't want to make that quilt drop out for a year, then come back if the next quilt is more to their liking.

At the end of the first year, I was presented with a wonderful gift--a quilt top made from all the fabrics those Sunday Sew and Sews had used in their Halo Star Medallion quilts. Here is the top in December 2017:

This week I quilted it so I can take it to the first Joyful Journey Retreat next week where I will sleep under it at night and stitch on the binding during the day. So I have been thinking about these women all week:

Two of the original members made Halo Star Medallion quilts that are so good they have been exhibited at AQS Daytona Beach recently and are going to to AQS Lancaster this month and AQS Spring Paducah in April. Several won ribbons at the HQH show last October for quilts from this group.

I have written about this group before:

here, and here. as well as a few more times.

We recently lost one of our founding members, Janet Noever. who died suddenly from a stroke at age 82. Her death came as such a shock to us all. It also made us aware of how important our relationships with friends really are.

Like most groups of women our age, we have shared joys and sorrows. Kids getting married, new grandbabies, job successes, medical issues, divorce, death of family and friends. The Circle of Life kinds of things. Just being with our "tribe", those who get us, is important.

Janet was one of the few I asked to help make the Afternoon Delight quilt a year ago. She is second from the right here:

Always calm and quiet and pleasant, Janet was eager to share her talents with the group when she thought it would help. She loved Seminole piecing and incorporated that in her Halo Star Medallion, replacing blocks she didn't care for. Her Halo Star Medallion was my most favorite, I must confess--it has so much life and wonderful color sense. Sue would have loved it too:

I loved it so much, I asked to take it the taping of The Quilt Show last August when we made the 2020 Block of the Month show and did a little "Salute to Sue Garman" as part of that. 

Janet's obituary taught us so much about her that we didn't know. Her professional accomplishments were many--as a professor, Dean, author, college administrator. Her love was American History and Women's Studies--before that was cool, I'm sure. She was looking forward to the Centennial Celebration of women gaining the right to vote this August, 2020. I will raise a glass to Janet to celebrate myself that day.

At our gathering this Sunday, the first without her, we are sure to tell a few Janet stories and there may be a few tears. She will be missed.

For me personally, Janet always took time to email me after a meeting. if she had learned something especially important. She took time to say "Thank You" for creating this group and let me know how much it meant to her. That is a good lesson for all of us--take the time to tell special people in your life that they make a difference to you. Tomorrow is promised to no one. I often say "I am not going to live forever" and someday that will be true, for all of us.

Thank you--to those of you who let me know this blog is helpful to you on your quilting journey--it means a lot.

Let's quilt.

Barbara