Website Updates - April 24, 2007

February 23, 2026 -- NOTE:This post is about updating pages on the handcraftingwithlove.net website, which no longer exists. Dead links have been removed from this post.

---

I'm working on some updates to the website, starting with the charity links. In the "Charities You Can Donate Quilts To" section of Cornucopia of Quilt Links, I've removed Quilts from Cornerstone and added Quilting for Orphans. The Quilts from Cornerstone leader is stepping down and the group is in transition.

I have also removed Quilts from Cornerstone from the Handmade for Charity page. On that page, I've added the following charities:

• Heartmade Blessings
• Hearts and Hands
• Miracles Happen
• Online Angels
• Quilting for Orphans
• Socks For Soldiers

Also on Handmade for Charity, under Other Lists of Charity Links, I've updated the link for Crochet for Charities Links at StarGazer's World. Under Charity Resources, I added Patterns for Charity from p2 designs. Please vist Handmade for Charity for descriptions and additional listings.

The Value of Quilting Fabric

My niece, Liz, is getting married in October. I volunteered to make a bed-sized quilt and Liz requested a Lone Star design. She finally gave me some color ideas on Easter.

Wednesday, I drafted a design and calculated that about 30 yards of fabric would be needed for the top, back and binding. This is a serious investment in fabric. At knitting club on Thursday, we chatted about Liz's quilt and the amount of fabric. Diane said one of the chain stores has their fabric 25% off.

"That's nice," I replied. "But I'll get quilt shop fabric for this." I shop the chain stores for bargains for my charity projects, but gifts for family and close friends deserve the quality of quilt shop fabric.

I will be watching for discounted quilt shop fabric as I shop for this quilt. Two quilt shops are less than 5 miles from my house. I've already looked at the half-price clearance fabric at one shop. The other shop's regular price is at least 50¢ less than suggested retail.

2007 International Freeform Crochet Exhibits

For some nontraditional fiber arts, check out the 2007 International Freeform Crochet Exhibits. An amazing variety of colors and textures. Anything goes. No pattern required.

Meet Dolores

When I showed the yarn I bought last Sunday to our Project Linus group, I said, "Now when Dolores calls, and Dolores will call, I have yarn for her."

Debby asked, "Who's Dolores?" I explained that she was our 90 year-young Project Linus volunteer.

Dolores called on Wednesday. I visited her this morning taking 10 or 12 pounds of yarn and my camera. This is Dolores with 3 of the 7 afghans she had ready today. She has kept a record of all the afghans she's made for Project Linus. The seven she gave me today makes a total of 530 afghans in less than 10 years.

While I was there, Heather, Dolores's granddaughter arrived. The 3 of us visited. I had my copy of American Patchwork, True Stories from Quilters and shared my story, "Orange Curse", with them.

Dolores told us about her mother's quilting. Dolores's mother made a Broken Star quilt for the minister. When the top was pieced, it was too big, so she took it all apart, cut down all of the pieces and sewed it together again. What an incredible amount of work! Fortunately, it was just the quilt design the minister was hoping for and he loved it.

American Patchwork

Oooh! I'm so excited. My author copy of American Patchwork, True Stories from Quilters, edited by Sonja Hakala, arrived today!

The book goes on sale tomorrow, April 17, and contains 67 true stories from quilters across the US and Canada. My story, Orange Curse, is one of them. Less than 2 pages in the book, but I'm still pretty excited! Guess what I'm reading tonight.

Busy Charity Quilting Weekend - April

The stars and planets aligned just so causing the second Saturday and the third Sunday of the month to be on the same weekend. I had a fun, busy weekend with my friends in my 2 charity quilting groups. (Click on any picture for a larger view.)

Saturday, the Quilts from Cornerstone group, concentrated on transforming quilt tops into finished quilts. The 2 quilts above were dubbed the Charlie Brown quilts due to the black zig-zag design. My friend Jodie (on the right) made the tops. Jodie loves bright fabrics. Allyn (on the left) and I did the quilting. At the end of the day, our leader Jeanine, gave me 11 finished quilts for Project Linus. I took 2 quilts home that are basted ready to quilt. I'll finish them before our meeting next month.

Sunday afternoon was our monthly Project Linus group that meets at Jo-Anns in Independence, MO. I took the quilts from the Cornerstone group to turn in and, of course, some show and tell happened. The blue and green quilt on the left is another top that Jodie made. The blocks are leftover bits she sewed together from another quilt she made.

Debby, a former coworker of Jodie and I, joined us yesterday and finished 3 quilts, including the stars quilt on the left, by tying them with crochet thread. Jodie also tied a couple of quilts. Christy and Lucille did some some machine quilting, so there were lots of finished blankets by the end of the afternoon.

My project for the day was continuing work on the blocks at left. I sewed the pink triangles to the 9-patch blocks to finish making the 6 inch blocks into 12 inch blocks. I sewed the 4 hourglass blocks. Unfortunately, I cut those triangles with a special triangle ruler on which I misread the markings. The hourglass blocks are 1/2 inch too small. I'll have to cut more triangles and sew some more. What a hardship. Ha! To console myself, I went and bought 12 pounds of yarn (on sale!) for Dolores, our 90 year young Project Linus volunteer.

Final note: I turned in this afghan at the Project Linus group yesterday. I most recently wrote about this afghan in Happy Day on March 8. I call it my "albatross" because it sat around so long between work sessions and because it took me soooooooooooo long to weave in the yarn ends from all of those color changes. I'm so happy that it is done and gone!