Monday, March 30, 2015

Design Wall Monday - Whirligigs

A new project is on the design wall today. It's actually been "in the works" for a while, but I'm just getting my blocks finished up this week. The pattern is by Sarah Maxwell and Dolores Smith from the McCall's Quick Quilts magazine Feb/March issue.
My little sewing group (we call ourselves "the sew 'n sews") are always working on a quilt to donate to the annual Mennonite Relief Quilt Auction.  It is quite the lengthy process from finding a pattern that we can all handle with different levels of sewing experience, finding a colour scheme we can agree on (that is always the hardest part), getting the blocks sewn, and then the huge task of agreeing on the layout. 
The colour scheme for this quilt is brightly coloured whirligigs on blue backgrounds. These blocks will be in our next donation quilt, which might be in the 2016 auction if we work hard and complete it by then.  
Sometimes we complete a quilt within one year, and sometimes we don't, depending on how life goes.

Here is a list of the quilts we have donated:
2008 Wings of Friendship - $475
2010 Split Decision - $400
2011 Chicklets - $325
2013 Bricks and Stepping Stones - $375


Our quilt in the 2015 auction this year is blue and yellow, and we called it "Sunshine Quilt". It's so big that we had a hard time getting a good picture of it. In this photo the quilt is hanging over the bannister and around the corner. We combined all the yellow and blue scraps from our stashes for the Sunshine Quilt and hope it raises more money for the international relief work of the MCC.

To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

14 comments:

Ramona said...

Great quilts! The Whirligigs will sure brighten the recipients day!

Dasha said...

Both of the quilts are fabulous. I am assuming that the prices you quoted were the amounts raised by each of the quilts. Great work.

Deanna W said...

Hey girl it is 2015!?!?! The quilt is very pretty. but you have missed the boat if it is or the 2014 auction! I think you need a coffee!!

Mary said...

The Whirlygig quilt will be fun to auction off.I like them on-point.

Scrappy quilter said...

Great quilt and great, great organization.

Needled Mom said...

The bright Whirlygigs look terrific. I love the blue and yellow combination. Good luck with the raffles.

Lisa J. said...

I just might borrow that whirly gig pattern for a comfort quilt. I have some light and dark blues pieced into the smaller units already.. I love the arrangement of the blocks in the yellow and blue quilt. It's very striking.

Quilter Kathy said...

How did you know?!? Off to the coffee pot now!

Julie said...

I really like the whirly gig blocks. What fun! Those are all great projects.

Janet O. said...

I can understand how it would take a while to make decisions on what to make and what colors to use and how to put it together. It may be a miracle that a quilt EVER gets made in a year, let alone two. : )
Good work your group does, and they are great quilts!

audrey said...

The Whirly Gig blocks are wonderful! Very bright and fun.:)

dq said...

This will be a beautiful donation for some lucky person!

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

Oh I really like the layout of your top quilt - I might have started blocks like that and may ( grin) steal that layout!! LOVE the blue and yellow one!

Teresa in Music City said...

Whirligigs is so fun and happy - great charity quilt, sure to brighten someone's life! It can certainly be a challenge to sew one project with a group, but the results are often surprising and amazing :)