A Quilt for David’s House
I bet many of you make charity quilts – it is such a labor of love!
I’d like to share some ideas that you can use to design your own BIG BLOCK quilt and to get that quilt top done and out the door!
Read on, as there may be a link to a giveaway somewhere in this blog post!
My inspiration for this post is Michael Miller Fabrics Tropical Batiks! This is a gorgeous mix of batiks to inspire new creations!
Here is the quilt top that I made from this collection:
Here is another shot of the quilt on a beautiful and windy day in November (not very tropical here, but still thinking Pina Coladas!):
I chose this fabric because I decided that I wanted to make a quilt for a pre-teen girl. I chose the multicolor floral as my focus fabric and worked backwards from there.
To choose your focus fabric: Imagine the recipient and what they might like. Then you can work from the focus fabric to choose your companion colors. Sometimes the idea of a quilt for a good cause may be too open-ended; narrow it down (remember, you don’t have to be correct – you just want to get started!!).
What are you going to like to piece? You may not know this about me, but I can’t get enough of variable stars – love them, so I decided that the recipient would too! Choose your favorite block – what is that block that you know and love? It might be a log cabin, a nine-patch friendship star or a pinwheel block. I think that designing a quilt with a block that you like to make is way less intimidating!
Time to get out some graph paper and draw your big inner block first. At this point, don’t worry about scale.
Once I came up with my design, I needed to know the size of my smallest variable star blocks. I didn’t want to make my blocks any smaller than 8”, so my center star was 32”. Decide on your smallest element that you want to make, in this case an 8” variable star block and work backwards from there!
Add borders using the elements that you have and you have an easy quilt.
You can see how this came together in this solid version below:
Another design option: I could have just as easily featured the focus fabric in the center, instead of adding more stars in the center, but I liked how this looked.
Why did I call this post “A Quilt for David’s House”?
David’s House was built by the Cyr family so that families can remain together when it is most crucial, it provides a home-away-from-home and support for families with children receiving treatment through the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in NH.
I am a proud member of Hannah Dustin Quilt Guild of Hudson, NH. I’d like to give my guild members a shout out here! They are so dedicated to making beautiful quilts for David’s House and they never cease to amaze! Each patient that stays at David’s House gets to bring home a quilt with them.
Can’t wait to get mine to the next guild meeing!
Now for the giveaway - we are giving away a 25 piece Fat Quarter pack! Tell us what you like about the Tropical Batiks collection - what would you make with it? Make sure you comment below to get into our drawing. To win, you must have a US mailing address.
**NOTE* CONTEST IS CLOSED - thanks to everyone who commented on FB - and congrats to Lisa M - she's the winner!
We wish you a happy Thanksgiving! -Kris
