December 2012 Meeting

We received about three dozen quilts at the meeting on Monday night That was a nice surprise - I thought everyone would be doing Christmas preparations.

Two quilt tops were also turned in; These are always welcome; we will match them up to backings and put them into the pile to be finished at the guild Sew-In.

Please excuse the quality of the pictures - my camera was set on Closeups, but I wasn't that close up.






The quilt to the right is a simple Strippie made more interesting with the addition of appliqued worms and bugs over the seam lines. 





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This next one was made using our pattern Scrap Bag Pileup, from Nancy Brennan Daniel. You start it by making Nine Patches with random squares in the corners, the Cornerstone fabric in the center, and the Sashing fabric in the other four blocks. See one of us at the Baby Bundle table if you'd like a kit to try one of these. They can be addicting

The last two quilts that I pictures of seem to be kind of freeform - put some strips together and then start bordering.  The panel in the rightmost quilt is one of the fabrics from Cathy Heck.

Quilting Practice

 One of the side benfits to working on a Baby Bundle is that your quilting skills get improved.  Look at these fabulous views of recent quilts that Marcie did on her long-arm.

She especially likes the fact that she can check out a "longarm kit", quilt it and turn it back in.  Doesn't even have to finish the binding or add a label.

There's something for everyone!

Feedback from a new mom

We received this note in the mail last week and wanted to share it with our guild members:

" I am a Family Support Worker with Healthy Families Travis County and one of my new mothers' inquired about her quilt. Where do you all get the materials for the BEAUTIFUL quilts? She LOVES it and couldn't stop talking about it :-)
She would like to make one :-) THANKS!!!!!"

Gracie responded to her with some information; perhaps we can gather another member into our group.

So nice to know that our efforts are appreciated.   I'm hoping to get pictures so that we can see some of these precious babies.

November 2012 Meeting

Another great turnout for Baby Bundles at the monthly meeting!  Many of the quilts were started at the Fun Day in October and then turned in during the November meeting.  We have 25 finished quilts to be delivered soon.


This is Eliabeth, showing one of the quilts turned in at the November meeting.  The center panel is cut 24.5 by 30.5.  The border squares are cut 6.5.  How easy can this be?

The picture below and to the right is Marcia, holding one that she took home from the Fun Day and quilted on her longarm.  She says that Baby Bundles are a great way to practice.

The fabrics from both quilts are from the Cathy Heck collection.

The pastel pretty on the left is the Twice Sliced Layer Cake turned in at the Fun Day.  Someone took it home and quilted it along the seams with a decorative wavy stitch and then added a tie in the center of the larger blocks.  Seems like a great way to finish up this quickie.

Another quilt turned in is just precious.  Upon examination, it appears to be a whole cloth panel with added borders.  Carefully machine quilted to enhance the look of piecing.

Well done!








I plan to deliver 25 quilts to the Mom's Place next week.  I'm going to ask them if they can send a baby picture or two.

Good Use of Scraps

Carmen made this top from coins cut 5" wide and random heights from her flannel scraps.

We think this is a good use of all those little pieces that you would hate to throw away but don't really want to keep.

Try it, you'll like it!

Here's another one, even the back is pieced!

Fun Day

 A fantastic Baby Bundles FUN Day was held at the Old Quarry Library on October 8^th to share the Cathy Heck fabric with volunteers who created tops, blocks and kits.  It's a big meeting room, with lots of space to spread out.

 We had 11 guild volunteers in addition to our Baby Bundles staff of 3 – our most popular FUN day yet! 

This is Pat and Kathryn, tying and labeling.   They, plus Carmen and a few others, tied and labeled 24 quilts that had been made previously.

Here's Kathy, with a top she created from one of the panels.  We finished 8 tops on Monday      (Whoops, I saw Kathy yesterday and she didn't make this one.  I'm thinking maybe Carmen did?). 

The quilt to the left is one that Judy made using the Twice Sliced Layer Cake pattern.  All of the fabrics are flannel.

Here's the pile of quilts, about halfway through the day.


There's still fabric left.  Check with the Baby Bundle table next month to get a kit!

October 12 Meeting Report

 OH MY!

We had 25 quilts turned in on Monday, although some need labels and one needs to be tied or quilted and also 3 tops. That's a good number - at that rate we'd do 300 a year, even without a guild-wide sew-in. Here are some of the quilts that were turned in

The FUN DAY is shaping up to be very productive. Call Gracie or Judy if you have any questions!

Generous Donation

Cathy Heck, of https://www.cathyhecknurseryart.com/home.html, has generously donated FOUR TUBS of sample baby fabric to the Baby Bundle Project!  We will be having a FUN DAY next week to create some quilts for the Baby Bundle project.




Cathy found us because of the mention of our project that Laurie Evans, of The Quilt Store, put into one of her online newsletters.  Cathy has been looking for a charity outlet for her samples and I assured her that we would put the fabric to good use.  The designs are just too cute for words.  There are flannels and regular cottons.  Glorious fabric!

Here's the first quilt with this fabric - made by Gracie.

2012 QuiltFest

 The 2012 QuiltFest is over.  What a show!

Baby Bundles had a small presence there, exhibiting three quilts that have been donated.  Because we had just made a delivery to Mom's Place, we only had a few in stock.

The blue and yellow one is one of the Super Sized Nine Patch quilts that I described in the previous post.  The one on the back is comprised of bright squares, set with alternating squares of 4 strips of duller fabric.  What a great way to use some of the scraps that pile up!  The bright yellow inner border and bright blue outer border really add life to the quilt.

The third quilt is a study in pastels.  A simple pattern of rectangles which is quite effective. 



We'd love to read a comment from the maker of any of these three quilts!

We also displayed a sign in the booth telling a little about Baby Bundles and showing a couple of pictures of the babies and some thank you notes from some of the children at the Advocacy Center.

Several people stopped by and expressed an interest in contributing.  That's (as Martha Stewart says) a Good Thing.

Super Sized Nine Patch Quilts

Here's an easy way to make some really sweet little quilts.  I made these three tops the other afternoon.

Instructions from  Anita Grossman Solomon, courtesy of Quiltmaker magazine, can be found at  

http://www.quiltmaker.com/patterns/details.html?idx=184

In a nutshell, you layer three pieces of fabric right side up, cut a nine patch through all the layers, shuffle the pieces, and sew them back together.

If you have six one yard pieces of fabric that all go together, you can make three quilts using three for the tops and the other three for the backings.

 Here's one of the backings I'm using:


Keep those Baby bundles coming!
Judy

Sew-In August 2012

On a hot day in August, a dozen guild members gathered at The Quilt Store on Anderson Lane to finish up some Baby Bundles.  Members had turned in tops.  The Coordinators (Gracie, Elizabeth and I) had matched them to backings and cut battings for them.  Gracie did the next step, sewing the three layers together, "birthing" them, and topstitching all the way around.  She brought over two dozen to the gathering.  Some members brought their machines and quilted.  Others tied quilts using embroidery floss or crochet thread.  Others sewed on labels.  A very successful day.  Twenty quilts were delivered to the WIC breastfeeding clinic just in time for National Breastfeeding Month!

About Baby Bundles

The Baby Bundle project is one of several community service projects sponsored by the Austin Area Quilt Guild. Our guild provides quilts to agencies that promote the health and well-being of families with newborns as well as an agency that facilitates services for abused children. The charities then distribute each quilt to infants and children within their programs.

Current Guild agencies are:
Travis County WIC breast feeding support clinics
Healthy Families - Travis County Agency for First child - infant to 3 yrs old Children's Advocacy Center - Children on their way to foster homes, all ages

The Guild furnishes kits to members wishing to participate in this project, although members are also encouraged to create quilts using their own materials. We ask every guild member to make a Baby Bundle quilt during the month of his or her birthday.

This is a year-round project; Baby Bundle Coordinators have a table at every Guild meeting to receive quilts, issue kits, or consult about the making of a quilt.