Monday, December 19, 2016

December Donation Quilt

Orders in my Etsy shop slowed down enough for me to catch up on sewing some donation quilts. Made just in time for Christmas is the December donation quilt. I used mostly Christmas fabrics in this quilt. I love the way it turned out.

Top Of Quilt
Most of these fabrics were donated or bought at yard sales.


The flannel backing was a panel and 2 pieces from a donation. These particular fabrics were donated to me by my quilting friend Sue O' Keefe, who works at :



Sorry about the terrible pictures. This quilt was donated to the Gabriel Project, a local charity which helps out young mothers.

If you have scraps, make a quilt. Be the change you want to see in the world, one stitch at a time.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

November Donation blanket


For November, I knit a blanket to donate instead of quilting one. The yarn used for this project was left over from other projects and bought at yard sales and thrift stores. Some yarn was also donated to me.

The yarn used was Light and Lofty and Baby Clouds. I collected enough to make a blanket and worked it up in stripes.

My son is modeling the blanket for me. It was a cold day. I was pretty warm finishing this one up.

The final product measured 44 inches by 60 inches.

It was donated to Project Gabriel, a local charity which helps out young mothers.

If you have extra yarn scraps lying around, turn them into a blanket!!

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

October Donation Quilt


October Donation Quilt

My 2 boys helped me hold this quilt up. It looks a lot like my September quilt and was a lot of fun to make.

The one I'm making for November will be similar to this one. My inspiration came from the leaves changing colors.

This quilt has been donated to the Gabriel project.

Materials used for this quilt were left over from other projects, yard sale finds and clearance rack deals.


Thursday, September 29, 2016

Pieced Batting - October Quilt Preview

Anyone who quilts knows that batting can sometimes be one of the most expensive parts of putting a quilt together. This summer I collected as much batting as I could from yard sales. Some of my stash has big pieces. Many pieces are small.

After doing some research online, I found that piecing together quilt batting isn't hard, it's just tedious and time consuming.

Here's my latest pieced quilt batting:

Yes, that is a piece of red felt. No, you will not see it in the final product. The batting is different thicknesses. I've done this before and the finished quilt always comes out nice.

I try to save money where I can, so the thread was also from a yard sale.

During the fall and winter, when there are no more yard sales to go to, I use up my supplies a little at a time. Then in the summer I restock.

I have fun doing this. A lot of this batting, would've gone to a landfill. Get out your scraps and get creative. I'll post a picture of the October donation quilt when it's all done :-)

Monday, September 26, 2016

September Quilt for Project Gabriel

I'm a little behind on my quilting and posting. I believe I donated my August quilt without posting it on here. Woops!

Here's a cute September quilt to make up for that.

You'll have to tilt your head to the side to view the quilt as it is meant to be.

This beauty measures 40 inches by 60 inches.

It is getting donated to Project Gabriel, a Catholic charity which helps young women. 

The quilting method is Quilt As You Go. 

I had a lot of fun with this one. I was able to use up scraps from my stash.

The batting was pieced together from pieces I had bought at a yard sale. The flannel backing was donated to me by employees of Schrader's Fabrics




Binding is machine sewn so that it can put up with the abuse of a washing machine and dryer.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Keep on quilting and using up those scraps for a good cause!

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

July Donation Quilt



For July I decided to do mini sensory quilts.

They are 12 inches by 12 inches. I used different types of fabric to construct them.  I used corduroy, faux leather, fleece, minky, quilting fabric and felt. 


July Donation Quilt

For July I decided to do mini sensory quilts. I thought I had taken pictures before donating them, but I didn't. Woops!!

They were 12 inches by 12 inches. I used different types of fabric to construct them.  I used corduroy, faux leather, fleece and felt. 

For August, I'll try to remember to take pictures :-)

Friday, June 10, 2016

June donation quilt



This is the quilt that I am donating to Project Gabriel for June. I used the colorful hummingbird, butterfly, dragonfly print as a source to choose my colors from. It turned out cute.














Part of the front of the quilt

The back of the quilt

A close up of the back

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Chevron stripe knit blanket

Every once in a while I get bit by the chevron baby blanket bug. I bust out my bin o scraps and set to work designing a blanket that will be truly one of a kind.



To make color selection easier on me, I first select a variegated yarn. I do a few rows in the my pattern with the variegated. Then I keep pulling colors from my stash that match the variations in color.

To finish this quilt off, I crocheted a simple border around it. This is also a good way of hiding your ends.

This blanket measured 34" x 40".  It will be donated to Project Gabriel.

Thank you to my friend Patti for donating some of this yarn to me. Other parts of the blanket were leftovers from previous projects and products of my thrift store / yard sale scavenging.

I hope this inspires you to do some scavenging of your own and come up with a fun one of a kind project.

The pattern for this project can be found for free HERE
It is called Catch the Wave.


Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Dolls for my local PTO

Being a mommy means you can join your local PTO if you so desire. Belonging to your local PTO means you now have a place to make cute stuff for. This year I have been on a quest to clean out my craft room before I buy any more craft supplies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, laugh if you want to!!!






I found this super cute pattern online one day for making a one piece doll. I made a few and then decided to make some in my son's school colors. I took 5 of the dolls to my local PTO and asked them if they would like me to make more. The answer was an enthusiastic, "Yes!!!"






Here are 10 of the little dolls. They measure about 9 inches tall and are made entirely of my scrap yarns that were just sitting in tubs in my basement.


The school colors, red and blue, are in the sweater and hair of the doll. The rest of the doll, my 4 year old helped me pick out the colors for.


They work up quick and kids love them :-)







Monday, March 14, 2016

Nelly's Quilt Room

I'm starting a new blog for my quilting items.

It is called Nelly's Quilt Room. I have a shop on Etsy that goes by the same name. I'll be posting my quilting projects on there from now on. The web site address for that blog is www.NellysQuiltRoom.com


Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Bible Quotes comfort quilt


Donation Quilt #4


This quilt was made with fabric donated by the employees and customers of Fabrics by Barb



The central word panels were left over from another project I had made a while back. It was actually a book panel.


The backing is flannel, which was also donated. The quilt batting was left over from other projects.


I did binding a little different on this one, but I liked it.

This comfort quilt will be donated to my local hospital.


I am having a lot of fun with these quilts this year. My goal is to use up as much of my fabric stash as is physically possible. I love piecing together batting and searching my stash for coordinating fabrics.

Pinterest has been giving me all sorts of ideas.

I get better with each quilt I make. I find that I keep learning little things along the way.

Thanks for visiting my blog. May you be inspired to put your scraps to good use.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Blue Strips Quilt As You Go

This is my third donation quilt.


This one was particularly easy and highly addictive to make. Why is it addictive? I can't stop thinking about making the next one and what color combinations to use.


I have lots of fabric to use and this particular design is a great one for someone like me. I like small, simple projects that work up quickly, but look cute.

This is a close up of the back of the quilt.



The finished measurement is 45 inches by 60 inches




The top of the quilt was all donated fabrics in shades of blue. The back of the quilt is an owl print flannel. Strips were sewn in the Quilt As You Go method. (If you're a tad confused, Google: Quilt As You Go)

This worked up so fast and easy that it may be my go to method from now on. I hate having to pin a quilt sandwich together. With this method, I still had to pin, but strips were sewn and quilted in one easy step.

Fabrics that were donated were given to me by the customers and employees of Schrader's Fabrics by Barb.

The flannel and batting I purchased with the funds from my Etsy shop, Nelly's Quilt Room

This quilt has been donated to the Gabriel Project.


 

Blue Spiral Isolette Cover Quilt


This is my second quilt to donate this year. It was a lot of work. I'm not sure I'll do another one like this, but it was a lot of fun and I was able to use up a lot of small scraps and a fabric panel that didn't sell in my Etsy shop, Nelly's Quilt Room.



The center piece is a fabric panel. The surrounding fabrics were individually pieced together. About 90% of the top fabrics were donated.


The backing is flannel that was donated to me.

The fabrics donated to me for this project were given to me by employees and customers of Schrader's Fabrics by Barb.

The finished quilt measured 50 inches by 60 inches. It will be donated to my local hospital.



Monkey Growth Chart Quilt

This is my first charity quilt for this year. It was a very simple design. I feel more drawn to simple craft projects.



You'll have to tilt your head to the left, but I think you get the general idea that it's just a fabric panel with a coordinating fabric around it.




The backing fabric is flannel.

The panel was one that I had purchased a few years ago. Since, I wasn't using it for anything productive, I decided to make it into a small quilt.

The finished size of my donation quilt was 45 inches by 60 inches.

The organization it was donated to was Project Gabriel.

The fabric surrounding the panel, the backing fabric and the binding fabric were all donated to me by people who heard of my crafty philanthropy. My local quilt shop spreads the word about my efforts and people clean out their stash. Then I get to take all those scraps and have fun.

The local quilt shop that helps me out soooooo much is Schrader's Fabrics by Barb.

Without the help of the ladies at the quilt shop, constantly cleaning out their fabric stash, I would not be able to do what I do.

If you want to help support my project, hop on over to my Etsy shop, Nelly's Quilt Room

Stay tuned for more crafty wonderfulness :-)



Friday, February 12, 2016

Crafty philanthropy

2015 was so busy for me, that I didn't even post on here. wow

So 2016 is here. I'm excited for this year so far. I started doing something different last year with my Etsy shop. With the profits from my shop, I made different things for charitable causes. The main focus of 2015 was the ConKerr Cancer pillow case project. I would make a pillowcase for item I sold in my shop. In 2015, I was able to make 210 pillowcases.

2016 rolls around and I'm still gung ho with making pillowcases. Then a bomb gets dropped on me. My donation spot, Fabrics by Barb, told me that they no longer needed pillowcases made. On top of that, someone donated a bunch of fabric to me and left it at the shop.

I was left scratching my head. What the heck was I going to do with a beautiful bag of fabric wonderfulness????

I also kept thinking about the bins of yarn in my basement.

I asked around and found several places willing to take quilts and other crafts. As of now I'm currently crafting for 3 charitable causes:

Project Gabriel: This project helps out girls who decide they want to keep their baby.

My local hospital. They had a need for lap comfort quilts and isolette covers

My local PTO.  I may be awful at fund raising, but I'm great at crafting. They love my cute free crafts :-)

I may add to this list as the year goes on.

What I'll be doing this year is using my profits from my Etsy shop to get the supplies needed for making quilts and other craft goodies. I'll try to keep up with posting the pictures of projects on here so that my customers can see what their purchases help me produce.

Why bother doing this stuff?? I just enjoy being a crafty philanthropist.

Stay tuned, more crafty madness is on the way.