Heart Builders: My Farewell Quilts

Last week I had the pleasure of quilting 4 quilts for Heart Builders, a charity run by Cotton Cuts. As a longarmer for Heart Builders, I just have to receive the quilt tops pieced lovingly by other members, request materials, and get to work.

First, I received a lovely top pieced by Jan Snyder. I quilted it with swirls because well ... texture, speed, and beauty!

Also, I received 3 quilt tops from Jan Ochterbeck. The first top is a triangle design, and her points are just perfect! I quilted this with a combination design with swirls, feathers, and paisleys ... in larger scale, of course. This is supposed to be a cuddly quilt, after all!

For the next quilt, I used a paisley design. I'm not sure what this pattern is called, but some sort of delectable mountain?

For the final quilt, another triangle pattern, I actually tried a design I've never done before ... loops. After I used this design, I can see it's they're popular. It's so FAST!

And because I love quilt stacks, here's a picture of them all stacked up before I send them off!

After 2 years with Heart Builders, I've made the decision to leave. I learned a lot and truly enjoyed my experience there, but I've recently reduced my quilting time in order to pursue other passions of mine that I neglected while I ate and breathed quilting. I do plan to quilt every day still, but I also want to squeeze in other things, as well!

Heart Builders Quilts

For the last few weeks, I've done nothing but churn out Heart Builders quilts one by one. Heart Builders is a charity program that was a part of Stash Builder Box, but then when Stash Builder Box got acquired by Cotton Cuts, Cotton Cuts was nice enough to continue the program.

I like the way that Heart Builders works because a team of piecers make quilt tops and then send it to the longarmer to be finished. That means I get to do my favorite part ... quilt! (The only downside is that I have to bind them too.)

First up is this green / brown quilt top made by Erica Nowak. As soon as I saw it, I knew what I wanted to do with it. The color scheme of this top is so evocative of forest and nature that I knew I wanted to do an allover leaves design. I was moderately comfortable with this design before I worked on this quilt, but after covering a quilt with it ... I'm now very comfortable!

Erica also sent me a green / lavender quilt. This one looked very flowery and sweet!

I also received quilt tops from Crystal Jordan. The first one I worked on is a blue / yellow quilt.

And last but not least, Crystal Jordan also sent me this adorable top with alphabet letters. I decided to do one of my all-time favorite designs ... swirls, of course!

Most of what I do is custom quilting, so I'm very used to working within a boundary and traveling via ditches. In a way, these allover quilts present a different kind of challenge. Here I have to work all around the quilt, make the designs seem random and not patterned, and most importantly, not get stuck in corners! That last bit is definitely still challenging, but I'm working on it!

A Trio of Heart Builder Quilts

This week I have not one, not two, but ... three finished quilts to show! I was sent 3 quilt tops from Stash Builder Box's Heart Builders and I got to finish them. (I didn't have to piece these. Whew!)

The first quilt made me smile as soon as I opened it up. Monkeys! It was all fussy-cut, and just far too cute. I did an allover swirl hook design but quilted all the monkey blocks differently to make them stand out.

The second quilt was a red/white/blue quilt, so I did an allover swirl / paisley design.

And last but not least, the final quilt was made of chevrons, sashings, and cornerstones. I did some custom quilting for this, putting different fillers in each chevron and tying all the sashings together with a square chain.

My oldest child retired her crib a few months ago, and I knew just what to do with one of the railings ... doesn't it make a nice quilt rack? So officially ... here's the rack of quilts! (Included is Pixel Maze which I posted about last week.)

And now for the toughest part of charity quilting ... finding shipping boxes to fit them in!

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Link parties joined: Crazy Mom Quilts, Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and My Quilt Infatuation.

Pixel Maze

I've been involved with Stash Builder Box's Heart Builders charity program for awhile as a machine quilter, but by mistake, I was sent some fabric to make a top instead of my usual materials of batting and backing fabric. At first, I wasn't sure what to do, but then I quickly got some ideas. I only had two goals: it needs to be simple, and it needs to be fun.

So I came up with a maze quilt. I looked for some maze generators for some ideas and this is one of the randomly generated maze that I then put into Electric Quilt:

When I opened the actual fabric pack up, I realized it was not just blues as I thought. In fact, there were a lot of colors in here. I hope the inspiration still comes through though, and it doesn't just look like I put the squares together randomly!

This quilt was asking for a design that highlighted the maze nature, so I thought a geometric allover is perfect for this!

And this quilt is ready to be shipped! I don't make kid quilts very often, so this was a really fun experiment. I hope whoever gets this quilt will enjoy the maze!

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Linking up with: Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, and Cooking Up Quilts.

Geese in Flight ~ A Heart Builders Quilt

I recently received this quilt top pieced by Annette Z to quilt for Stash Builder Box's Heart Builders charity. It is gorgeous, with tons of flying geese in different formations.

Photo credit: @annettezee

I loaded the quilt on my frame and got to work. When I first got my longarm, for some reason I was most fearful about learning to load. I've watched videos, and they didn't make any sense. But once I actually did it, I realized it's not that bad, and even kind of enjoyable! (Preparing the backing, on the other hand, is not the least bit enjoyable.)

I looked at this top for awhile before I decided on my design. I did a swirl / paisley allover for most of it, but I highlighted a few of my favorite blocks and did a custom design for those.

I finished it with a black binding to give it some extra drama. Now, once I can find a box to ship this, it's off to be given to a child in need!

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I joined the link parties at Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts, Sew Can She, and Cooking Up Quilts. Link up!

Heart Builder Quilts

I recently was sent a couple of quilt tops by Stash Builder Box Heart Builders, and I had the honor of finishing them. This has been so great because 1) they're going to help kids in need, 2) I get to see what people have pieced, and 3) I can have lots of fun machine quilting without worrying about too many quilts in the house.

The first top I quilted has a lot of pink, brown, and green, along with some puppy prints. I quilted this one with an allover style with flowers, paisleys, and swirls. I've used paisleys and swirls a lot before, they're my go-to designs, but this is the first time I added flowers to the mix. The flowers are a great addition, I think, because the paisleys / swirls can blend together due to their similarity, but the flowers look just different enough to stand out a little.

Detailed shot of quilting:

The second top is an alternating 4-patch, and it's very structured, so I did some simple custom quilting here. I quilted the 4-patches with a continuous curve design and quilted a dot-to-dot design in the larger patches and filled it with a continuous curve flower. (Believe it or not, this quilt was much harder to quilt than the first one.)

Detailed shot of quilting:

I really enjoyed quilting these quilts, but more importantly, I'm glad they're going to end up somewhere where they can do some good. Now, off to find a box to ship them!

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This post joined in the link party at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts. Link up and join the fun!

I'm a Heart Builder!

I recently joined the Heart Builders group run by Stash Builder Box and volunteered as a finisher ... that is, I get sent quilt tops, and I quilt them and bind them, and then send it back to be donated to people in need.

I like the idea, because not only do I get to quilt more, but I don't even have to piece the tops, which is great. I'm not a particularly fast piecer, so without going into business as a machine quilter, one way I get to quilt more is to do charity quilting.

Today these two beautiful tops arrived in the mail (along with batting and backing), lovingly pieced by other fellow Heart Builders. I'm very excited to quilt these. The timing is perfect as I just finished a quilt of my own, and I'm not quite ready to quilt my next top yet (too much deliberation on design) so this offers a nice way to get my daily quilting in.

I haven't decided what to quilt yet, but I have some ideas. I hope to show pictures of the finished quilts before too long.