Sew Saturday ~ Oklahoma City Quilt

Last week I took a little break from my Star Shadow quilt to work on some blocks for a charity quilt.  Our local quilt guild, South Sound Modern Quilt Guild, asked its members to create blocks using the colors green, blue, gray and white, to make a quilt for the Oklahoma City MQG.  As you know that area has been hit with major storms, record breaking tornados, floods and damage.  It was so rewarding to work on these blocks.  I'm still getting the hang of modern quilting.  I've only really known about it for a month, but I am having fun learning new styles of quilting.

My first stop was to the fabric store.  As I am just beginning to build my stash I didn't have what I needed to make a block.  Aren't these colors soothing together?  I hope our guild adopts them as our main colors.

I decided my first block should be a pinwheel block with my new Twist-N-Stitch tool.  The instructions that came with the tool said to start with 5" blocks to end up with 3 1/2" blocks and put a 3" border all around your blocks.  Perfect.  I needed a 12 1/2" finished block so that meant I would need 4 blocks by 4 blocks.  I cut my squares, sewed them together in a random pattern, added the border and began cutting.

As I was assembling the block I began to be concerned that it seemed too large, but the instructions said it would shrink as it was cut and sewn together, so I kept going.  After I cut out all the pinwheels, I had 5 rows instead of 4.  Ruh-roh.... I kept sewing though...

The end result was fabulous.  I really like this pattern and so do my boys.  There's a good chance they will be getting a Twister quilt in the near future. 

Once the block was finished it was obvious that it was too big.  I couldn't figure out how to get my 16" block down to 12" without ruining it.  So, I decided this piece will become a pillow case or small quilt or ???  It won't be for our guild project though.  I redid the block using rows of just 3x3.

After taking the extra time to make another block I didn't have time to make the chevron block I wanted to.  Instead I made these really quick double triangles.

Here is my design wall after I was done sewing.  Did I mention I put up a design wall?   Actually I just had my (very tall) son help me put a large piece of flannel on the wall using thumb tacks.  Hey, it worked, and he as very impressed with how the fabric "stuck" to the flannel without glue or pins.  :)  He thought I was brilliant.  I love when that happens. It's not always easy for a mom to impress her 16 year old son. ;)

At the guild meeting everyone brought their blocks and we had enough for two quilts.  Isn't that great?!!!  The first quilt is already pieced together by Honnah Sims.  Can you spot my blocks?

This was such a fun thing to do.  I'm really looking forward to making more charity quilts.  I have plans to work on quilts for local foster kids, quilts of valor for our wounded soldiers, and even put together some quilts for the animal shelter.    If you would like to help out the victims of the recent tornadoes, consider visiting the OKCity Modern Quilt Guild and making a donation.  They are raffling off some quilts to raise money.  You don't have to be a quilter to help. 



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Creative Blessings,
Heather North