Call out for donation quilts for the BUMBLEance!

Last year, when Cindy and Sarah polled our members as to what we would like to see for 2014, one of the things many of us wished for was to get involved in making donation quilts. We are delighted to be supporting Bee Blessed and making blocks every month to donate as one of our activities.

This post is a special call out to members to help support Nikki Foley’s request for quilts for the BUMBLEance. The BUMBLEance is a children's ambulance that is specially outfitted to provide a child friendly transportation service to the long- term sick and seriously disabled. Decorated with a bumble bee, the BUMBLEance aims to make the kids Queen Bee for the duration of their journey!

The BUMBLEance carries 5 patients a week for transportation to care centres, from babies to young adults. It’s no fun traveling in an ambulance for treatment and the BUMBLEance aims to make every trip a positive experience for the children and parents alike.

To support this goal, Nikki Foley from The Sewing Shed has committed to providing a quilt for every patient carried by the BUMBLEance for a year.  5 patients a week is a lot of quilts and donation quilts for this effort are coming in from Ireland and abroad. We would love to get behind this goal and support Nikki by making quilts for this very good cause.

Any size is welcome, baby quilts, lap quilts etc. as the BUMBLEance carries a variety of ages, girls and boys. When you have a quilt ready to donate please email us or leave us a comment here or on facebook and we will let you know the nearest collection point to you, for you to drop off your quilt.

We are looking at receiving quilts in Galway, Limerick, Cork and Dublin and passing them down to Kerry. If anyone is willing to volunteer to receive quilts in other parts of the country please let us know, it would be much appreciated.

Alternatively you can post them to:
The Sewing Shed
Ballyarkane
Keel
Co. Kerry
Ireland

Nikki will be in the RDS for the Knitting & Stitching show and can accept donated quilts there too.

If anyone has a favourite free quilt pattern that sews up quick,  please share a link and give us some inspiration!  My favourite quick baby quilt to make is the Strip and Flip quilt from Cluck Cluck Sew.  I made mine from jelly roll 2.5" strips instead of 2" yardage and it gives a really nice size. I liked it so much I made it twice!

We really hope everyone will get on board the BUMBLEance quilt effort and support Nikki and this worthy cause!
-Ruth

Bee Blessed: March

This upcoming weekend is the perfect time for sewing!  If you are looking for a block to stitch that's cute, a bit improv AND gives back to the community, Bee Blessed is for you!

Please head on over to Judith's and Sarah's posts to read more, but they are looking for Pippi blocks this month to alternate with the little heart blocks created in February.

Stolen from Judith's blog...

Stolen from Sarah's blog...

Isn't she cute?  Even cuter with those little hearts.  You can find the Pippi block tutorial here.

They're a great laugh to piece - below is my last attempt at a Pippi block.  I do not know why her legs are so thick and how they are both attached to the right of her body, but she was such fun to piece from my scrap bin.  Give one a go!

Bee Blessed February Blocks

Are your January Bee Blessed blocks packed up and sent off?  They were so straight forward and easy to make AND came together beautifully!  I look forward to seeing the finished quilt.  

This month Sarah and Judith are asking for little heart blocks using this tutorial.  Isn't that a cute block?  It won't take you a minute to make, but together they will make a huge difference in someone's life.  Do take a bit of time and get stitching.

Bee Blessed - January

If you have not already found Bee Blessed, let me introduce you to the brain child of Sarah and Judith.  Bee blessed is a monthly quilting bee based in N. Ireland with the purpose of creating quilts for local needy people/families/groups.  

Many of you, our guild members, have been asking to create donation quilts as part of our 2014 activities.  With such a wonderful organization as Bee Blessed at our doorstep, it only makes sense that we combine efforts.  After a quick chat with Judith, we decided to bring Bee Blessed to the MQG as our guild's mechanism for making donation quilts.  

This month, Sarah has requested Greek Cross blocks from this tutorial.  There are no restrictions in color (beyond being generally monochromatic in focus fabrics and white as your background) so this is a great block to create right from your stash.  Your time and effort will be greatly appreciated when the quilt is donated to someone in need.

Please contact Judith directly if you are interested in sending blocks onto her.  To learn more about Bee Blessed, hop over here and/or join in their flickr group.

Trip Along Donation Quilt Finish

Hi everyone! I am here to say a big thank you to all of you who helped on making this project work. It is a long time ago that I asked you to help me make a quilt. I asked you to make a "Trip along" block. This week was the big day to finally finish the beauty. Are you ready? Here she is ...

In total there were 12 blocks made and it was fun to put them together. Absolutely gorgeous and colorful. It was so exciting to look at all those different prints.

This week I took the quilt around Galway and lucky me I had beautiful sunshine. So my first stop was at the beach. I went to the life guard tower in Salthill. I really tried my best to make a lovely picture but the wind did not make it easy. Finally I went to the changing room to unfreeze my fingers but I had to put her up to the Galway hooker.

The finished beauty measures 39'' x 51''. She is quilted in diagonal lines on every second square with a yellow thread on the front and a white on the back.

For the binding I used a purple fabric with dots. This time I tried something new for me and sew the binding from the front. After a good press I stitches as close as possible to the binding to fix it to the back. This worked really nice and even the corners look really neat.

On the back I just used a simple stripy fabric from Ikea I had in my stash. It reflects the colors from the front.

Isn't she colorful? I love this pattern and all the colors used. She really brightens the day. So now she is waiting to be given away

A huge thank you to all the ladies who helped me to make this beauty. It was hard to let her go but I am sure she will find a lovely home where she gives a huge hug to someone.

Scrappy Trip-a-Long Blocks, Anyone?

Quite some time ago, the wonderful Annaliese (of Mail from the Cheeky Monkeys) so kindly volunteered to put together a donation quilt from scrappy trip-a-long blocks donated through the Irish Quilt Guild. She now has 8 lovely blocks from our members, but is looking for another 4 blocks to fill out the top to a slightly larger size.

If you have a few free minutes this weekend (and honestly it only takes a few minutes!) would you maybe think of making a block yourself?  You can follow this easy as pie tutorial and then get in touch with Annaliese through her blog for her posting details. 

Thanks so much to those who have contributed and most importantly to Annaliese for organizing us!  

Trip Along Donation Quilt

Good morning Modern Irish Quilters!  We have a great opportunity as a guild to create a donation quilt so I hope each and every one of you will participate.  The lovely Anneliese of Mail from the Cheeky Monkey has offered to create a donation quilt from blocks made by MQGI members.  I will leave it to her to give the details (below), but please do take a break from your SMS Giveaway day blog surfing to make a block or two.  Don't forget to add photos to our flickr group as you go!  Thank you, Anneliese, for creating such a great opportunity for us all to get involved in the greater Irish community.

Hi again,

Some weeks ago I blogged about my table runner for a friend. She still loves it and I am so pleased with the comments to my WIP blog post. Thank you!

my sample block

Today I want to tell you something else. I am Bee Queen in the Modern Irish Bee in May. Oh it is so exciting to be Queen! Did you ever plan a (Bee) Quilt? I haven't. It was exciting! I need to find the pattern, calculate the fabrics, precut and sent them out. It is a struggling process when you have to stick to only one pattern. I found so many quilts I love and I would be so pleased to have them all. Sticking to one 'thing' is not one of my strongest sides but I did it! I cut the fabrics, made a sample block and sent the instructions out.
But there was an other idea in my mind! What about making a charity quilt? As it is my month I would ask the bee ladies to make an extra block and I finish it to a quilt to give away. After a little chat with Cindy and Sarah we thought we would love to make this a project of the MQGI. So here I am! I am asking all of you to join and be part of this quilt. I chose the 'trip along' block. It is simple, it is fast and most of all it is fun!

step by step

There are many ways to do this block but this is the tutorial I used. I found it super fast and super easy.

I so hope to get the eleven blocks for one quilt done. I also appreciate any help with scraps for the back or the binding. I hope to make at least one quilt.

Anneliese