Community Quilt Blocks

 If you read my last post, you'll know that I took a break from my January quilting to make some blocks.

These are for Many Hands and Many Hearts. Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework does block drives throughout the year (a new block design every three months). The blocks are used to make quilts for various programs in Oregon. There are several ways to support the program. (You can read more here.)

I have enjoyed donating to block drives over the years because it is a wonderful way to work in community with other quilters--even if we don't know each other. The blocks for the current drive are cool and warm 4-patches surrounded by black with white or white with black prints. You can see the directions here.

I thought I had a lot of black and white prints to choose from, but when I laid them out, some looked too dingy, so I narrowed them down to what you see here.

Picking out the cools and warms was fun but messy!

I was tempted to keep going and make a whole quilt top, but I want to emphasize the community aspect of the quilt while keeping the cost of postage down, so I will send just these. Maybe I'll use the pattern in another donation quilt for closer to home sometime.

Here are my blocks:

I'm linking this to Cynthia's Oh Scrap post on Quilting is more fun than Housework.

Be sure to check out other scrap projects there and get inspired to do some community quilting.

January Finish

Having thrown 2025 into the dumpster and hoping for a better 2026, I made myself three sort-of goals to get out of my funk. One was to make a quilt for donation. Another was to make blocks to contribute to the quilting community, and a third was to ramp up my placemat making. January turned out to be a dumpster fire along with a deep freeze, but I did finish a quilt (yesterday) and I made eight blocks for donation to a community quilt. This was more grief sewing than joyful, but it did feel satisfying to try to do good and to make some pretty things (do you understand what I'm saying here?) to bring some measure of joy and comfort to others. 

I hope you stick with me here. I got so involved in sewing, I forgot to take many pictures.

I knew that my preoccupation with heavy thoughts would not allow me to do anything requiring a lot of complex planning, so I chose an online pattern by Purl Soho for a quilt: Tiny Tiles. Simple design and easy sewing. The directions are VERY detailed so not much thought on my part. For the past few years, I have been collecting rich, chocolate brown fabrics. Browns don't seem to be real popular among quilters. In fact, a quilt store owner told me that in an "of course" tone of voice. But I persisted and now have a nice collection. I was determined to make a modernish quilt that combined brown with another favorite color of mine: turquoise.

My first task was to find a background fabric at a nearby store. White with a bit of gray. Yup, found it. (A change of mind about the size of the quilt left me a bit short on background fabric, but I was able to fix that as our grandmas did--I made a few of the blocks with a vertical seam down the middle. Can you see one here?)

After I sorted out my browns and turquoises, I decided to add some yellow green for a bit of sparkle. There are 120 blocks in the pattern with 480 small squares for sew and flip corners. To get the ratio of colors I wanted, I followed the suggestion in the comment section of the pattern to make half of the small squares in the dominant color (brown), 2/3 of the remaining squares in the secondary color (turquoise) and the rest in the sparkle color (yellow green).

To make the placement random, the pattern called for putting the squares in a bag and pulling them out without looking to make ten blocks at a time. 

To keep the mess down and ensure a good distribution of fabrics and color, I cut enough for 1/4 of the quilt at a time. Sewing was easy. But about halfway through, I needed a break to keep from getting bored, so I took an afternoon to make some blocks for a community quilt collection. (You can read about them in my next post.) 

After I put the blocks up on the design wall, I made just a few minor flips of blocks to keep long sides of triangles of the same fabric from touching each other, but I didn't make any other changes. Random is (almost) random.

I bought the backing for the quilt at one of my favorite fabric stores, challenging myself to find a clearance fabric (my way of saving money for donation quilts). When I got home, I realized that it was actually leftover Halloween stock--see the pumpkins in the selvedge? I never would have known. 

I followed the pattern guide for the quilting. It's much looser than my usual quilting, but I like how it added a diagonal element to the quilt. I did add some quilting in the end because there were 5-inch sections with no quilting, and that was a little too loose for me. I quilted around the colored tile in each section and the corresponding triangles along the edges. Quilt swinging (slinging? wrangling?) was a bit of a workout, but it didn't take long. 

This is truer in color.

I used excess backing to make the binding. I don't usually do that, but I had enough, and I like how it turned out.

I don't usually quilt my initials and date so clearly, but I had some leftover turquoise thread and put it to good use.

All in all, this was a good project to get me going again--not joyful, but satisfying, and the perfect way to spend a difficult month. I do like quilt making in January. I'm not a winter outdoors person, but I love seeing the snowy landscape and the winter light reflecting off of it in our house even on cloudy days. And sewing/treadling keeps me warm.

So here are the stats:

Pattern: Tiny Tiles by Purl Soho

Fabrics: A variety of mostly new collected, and some scraps

Dimensions: 120 5-inch (finished) blocks, set 10 by 12.

    Size after piecing: 50 1/2 by 60 1/2 inches

    Size after quilting: 50 by 60 inches

    Size after washing: 48 by 57 1/2 inches

Washed and cozy

Binding: Cut 2 1/2 inches, folded and machine sewn with 3/8" seam. Hand stitched to back.

Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Thread: Superior Masterpiece in Granite for piecing; King Tut in Temple for quilting; Treasure in Old Lace for hand quilting. 

Machines: Singer Featherweight for piecing; Singer 115 treadle with walking foot for quilting.

This quilt will be donated to a postpartum therapy program to bring comfort and a cozy hug for someone during sessions.

So I am on my way to meeting goals for a better quilting year (Don't forget to check out my next post for more.) I will continue to seek moments of joy, but failing that, I will still keep trying to resist cruelty by bringing comfort to others. Quilting is resistance and love. We need as much of that as we can get these days.

Keep doing good, keep making pretty things, keep quilting.

I'm linking up with Yvonne for January Favorite Finish at Quilting Jetgirl.