Most of us give away lots and lots of quilts, some to dear friends and family and some to organizations like Ronald McDonald House or Quilts of Valor. But what are we expecting when we give a quilt?

We all have stories about people who really appreciated a certain quilt. For example, a long-time friend sent me a picture of her grandchild using a quilt I made for her baby many years ago, when we were both having babies.

Another friend sent a picture of her child playing with his quilt.

Even quilts given by strangers may become heirlooms, like these quilts sent by the Canadian Red Cross to England during WWII.

So what to think about the man who used your quilt to lie on when he crawled under his car to change the oil? We’ve all got multiple variations on this story, and we’re all a bit insulted, or at least perplexed. How could someone not appreciate all the work that went into that quilt? (But wait–“appreciate” by whose definition?)

“Mod Owls” made a good teacher gift because the mascot at my grandsons’ school is an owl

I’m as guilty as the next person of telling stories about quilts I gave that weren’t cared for in the way I expected. But I’ve been thinking about this, and I believe I’ve had it wrong.

If I give a quilt, that means it’s no longer mine. It belongs to the recipient to do with as (s)he wishes. Perhaps letting the dog play with that quilt was the best use the recipient could come up with. It’s no longer my quilt and not mine to judge.

There are many chandelier quilt patterns out there, but this one was free on the Free Spirit website

I enjoy remembering Garrison Keillor’s comment that most quilts sent “overseas” by “church ladies” go to equatorial climates where their best use is as mulch. There are several good points in that remark.

I may not give another quilt to the person who used it to protect the floor under the baby’s high chair. (I should have given her a tarp!) But I’m working on letting go when I give something.

What do you think?

Our local quilt guild has a show coming up, and therefore needs items for the boutique. So when I saw a free pattern for this interesting-looking table runner, I made it.The pattern is available here, and of course there’s a whole quilt option to make from these blocks, but the two in the middle of the runner were enough for me! My version finished 13″ x 54″.

And the other really quick finish was binding this donation quilt:

Quilt Stats:

Name: Cat

Designed by: me, using a panel I found in the scrap bin

Finished size: 49″ x 53″

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

This was an easy week! I hope you had a good week, too.

Some friends recently got together to make tote bags, so here’s the “bag show” (as opposed to a quilt show).

These were all fairly easy to make with free patterns found on the internet.

The tote bags are from a pattern posted years ago, the Market Tote Tutorial by Bijou Lovely. We did modify the instructions by using one layer of foam batting rather than interfacing both the outer fabric and the lining as in her instructions.

The pyramid bag is from a free tutorial here at Loganberry Handmade. It is way easier than it looks!

The two large totes made from oriental fabric used quilting cotton. The orange and black bags were made with upholstery fabric from IKEA.

When I went through the blocks for the August UFO, I took the big central strip and put the rest in the orphan block bin. The one I used is marked below; the rest were orphans.

However, after a couple of weeks I thought I would get out the other blocks and see what could be done with them. They didn’t look promising as they were, so I cut them apart and started fiddling with them.

I tried out various additional fabrics

Then started adding pieces

And finally came up with this finished top, borders added to make a good size for use:

The top will now go to one of the friends who quilts our donations.

For August, I pulled a paper slip out of my basket and it was UFO #4, shown below.

I decided there was no way all of this was going together in a quilt and elected to use the big piece only.

The rest went into the orphan block box. Then I auditioned various options for finishing it by drawing in EQ8.

Finally, I just added wide strips on the side.

This top finished 62″ x 45″ and will now go to the friend who quilts our donations for Ronald McDonald House.

A friend recently brought me a charm pack of shweshwe fabric. You can read about it here if you’re not familiar with it. I was especially interested because I have a blogging friend in South Africa, where shweshwe fabric comes from. Most of the African fabrics we get here are from other areas of that continent.

After considering for a while, I decided to make tote bags for both of us.

This is a modified version of the Charm Party Tote by Penny Sturges. That pattern may still be available on Etsy, but Noodlehead has lots of good bag patterns and I mostly use hers now.

I used foam batting, which was an oddity to me when I first discovered it, but it works really well in bags.

Do we need to go shopping now that we have tote bags?

First, the really fun (but challenging) quilt: I’m making Cassandra Beaver’s 2026 Block of the Month (BOM). I don’t usually do BOMs because I prefer not to put things away every month, then get them all out again, etc. However, when she offered mid-year sign-ups I decided the design was just too good to pass up. You can see it here. Be sure to scroll down and see the picture of her whole quilt. It’s gorgeous. I emailed for permission to copy her picture here but haven’t heard back, so you’ll have to use the link to see it.

The advantage of signing up mid-year is that I got all of the first six months at once, so I didn’t have to fiddle with it so much. Her instructions are excellent. Here are my blocks for the first six months.

One pundit commented that “the little white squares” are a nice design element, but of course they’re the block numbers!

This is not the final arrangement. The quilt will be queen size, so I’ll have to put it on the design wall in sections when it comes to final assembly.

I absolutely loved doing those blocks, but they were challenging. So as a little easy project afterward, I made this quilt.

The feature fabric was one of those “must have” things discovered on a visit to distant shops and it’s been waiting for about 18 months for inspiration to strike. This picture shows only the quilt top. It will be passed on (with batting, backing, and binding all ready) to the friend who quilts our donations for Ronald McDonald House.

What’s your favorite quick-and-easy quilt design? I’m always looking for ideas.

This was one of the UFOs earlier this year, and here it is finally with the binding on it. These were triangles I cut just for fun and then set aside because there weren’t enough of them for a quilt. Finishing just involved finding some coordinating fabrics and making an arrangement for the blocks.

Quilt Stats

Name: Cat Triangles

Finished size: 50″ x 55″

Pattern: Improvised and pieced by me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

Now it’s off to Ronald McDonald House, hopefully for some kid who loves cats.

I have an exciting project coming up, so I wanted to get this month’s UFO out of the way. Here’s the “before” picture of a partially done quilt for Ronald McDonald House. It started with the central embroidery done by a friend.

And here it is with a couple more borders added, which finished the top.

This will now go to the friend who quilts our Ronald McDonald House donations. She’s the one who did the embroidery, so it will come full circle! And since this finished my part of the project, I’m counting the July UFO as done!

After finishing this year’s UFOs, I decided I need another 6 for the last 6 months of the year. This time, however, I’m showing the “before” pictures!

UFO #1: This is the remnants of one of Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr’s mystery quilts. I do like their quilts, but I wasn’t enjoying this one, so I stopped. Here are the blocks I made before quitting:

I did make a top using some of them earlier this year, but don’t have a picture of it. Here are the remaining blocks, which are now designated UFO #1.

UFO #2: I started this Laura Heine design with the help of a friend, and just need to get it done. The best part is: those larger flowers are scraps from a dress I made for myself in the 1990s!   

UFO #3: This was a perfectly good block until it became the center of my attempt at the Stay At Home Round Robin. I think I ruined it, so it became a UFO and I need to figure out what to do with it. Stay tuned.

UFO #4: Yikes! I think this was part of a Moda “skill builder” started YEARS ago! I’ve made a couple of quilts with parts of it; here is the top of one of them. And now here’s what’s left! As you can see, I made some modifications in the original pattern… It’s now UFO #4.

UFO #5: A friend gave me this embroidered center block, and I have waaaay too much 30s fabric, so this will be a donation quilt using both. The plan is to add more borders until I think it’s done.

UFO #6: This started out as leaders-and-enders to use scraps, and I have about 100 of these 4″ blocks. The trouble is that there aren’t enough to make a quilt but I am not making leaders and enders as part of current projects. Here are a few blocks of what is now UFO #6.

Of course the best laid plans, etc, but I intend to do one a month for the rest of the year. To be continued!