More Quilting for California

During the last few of weeks of December, a call for blocks went out from the Ventura Modern Quilt Guild to make quilts for victims of the Thomas fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in California. The block suggested by the Ventura MQG was a Scott Griffin-designed variation of the Perkiomen Valley block. I was paying close attention at the time, as my grand-niece was evacuated from her college in Montecito to escape the poor air quality and possible destruction of campus buildings. (She was able to fly to her family's home in Illinois for an early holiday break.) I decided to make a few blocks after the holidays. 

When the new year rolled around, I realized that I had some quilt time on my hands while waiting for my daughter to collect fabric for a quilt she would like me to make. So the block plan became a quilt plan. I went through my fabrics to see what I had enough of for a twin size quilt. I had some green mini pearl bracelets fabric that was part of a bundle I bought for my last quilt, so that was my starting point. I found more bright colored fabric, a variety of black prints and a bunch of neutrals (pretty much all of my neutrals, as it turns out). 

I planned several possible layouts, and narrowed them down to these two

and a third, based on simply sewing the blocks together much like they are placed below:

An Instragram poll suggested that the second layout was a favorite of followers. (Thanks for your feedback, everybody!) I do like it, as it is an off-center version of an old-timey layout. But I've made half of the blocks now, and when I started laying them out, I decided that I will likely go with the first arrangement, primarily because it might be easiest for me to quilt. Also, the blocks are kind of very bright (garish, maybe?) and the simpler layout calms things down a bit. (I hope.) I will reverse the turquoise and green patches in the remaining blocks.

I've been working on blocks today, much more slowly than I should considering I'm chain piecing and the blocks are basically nine-patches now that the HSTs are together. I'm pressing seams open (please don't ask me why I keep doing this to myself!) and am having a beast of a time matching up intersections--and I'm not even being overly picky about it. No matter which way I pin, they want to just slide past each other. Ah, well, I'm getting there. 

As I was sewing today, I was keeping watch on news updates from Montecito, California and from my sister-in-law. My grand-niece returned to her college this past weekend expecting to start second semester. But once again the college has been evacuated, this time due to the devastation from the mudslides that are the aftereffects of the fire. So far, the campus has escaped destruction but has no water. My grand-niece has safely reached a temporary home and is making plans for possible travel to a relative's home farther away if necessary. 

The Ventura MQG is now working in coordination with Superbuzzy Fabrics to collect blocks, as well as quilts and finishing materials such as backings and battings. The need is great as more homes are being lost to the mudslides. If you would like to help in some way, there is a lot of information on their websites. They will be making/collecting quilts well into spring. 

I'm linking up to Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social. Keep quilting!