Quilts for Ukraine

Look at what we've done! Eleven quilt tops and 140 loose blocks are heading to Germany today. 

Thank you New Zealand and Australian quilters. (Full sized photos at the end of this post.)

Two months ago I decided to make a few blue and yellow blocks for Ukrainian refugee quilts. I never imagined it would grow to this.  We've made 360 blocks in total.  I received blocks from:

Tauranga Patchwork and Quilters 

Capital Quilters

Howick Quilting Friends (both groups)

Glenys in Auckland (the kiwi blocks)

Marina in Feilding

Jeanette in Australia

Vivienne in Napier

Mary in Ashburton

Sue in Auckland

plus kind people in Dunedin and Lincoln.  

As I received more and more blocks, and saw how many Claudia was receiving every day in Germany, I decided to make up some quilt tops to ease the load on Claudia.  As the blocks rolled in I made more and more quilt tops.  I started to run out of fabrics for the sashing and borders, so Jenny Hunter from Plume Art + Stitch very kindly donated some blue and yellow fabrics and that allowed me to finish 11 quilt tops for Ukrainian refugee children. 

Four different people have kindly contributed to the cost of postage.  So it's been a real team effort. Thank you everyone.  Claudia is a very busy lady sorting all the blocks, quilt tops and donation events, but if I see photos of our finished quilts being donated to children I will be sure to share them with you.  

Here are some close up photos of each of the quilts.  If you donated blocks I hope you can see some of your blocks in these quilts.  There are another 140 loose blocks that I'm sending over too.  Every block is going to Germany. 

Thank you everyone.

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Number 5

Number 6

Number 7

Number 8

Number 9

Number 10

Number 11

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Quilts for Ukraine update

So much has happened since I first wrote about the quilts for Ukrainian refugee children a few weeks ago. (You can read that post here.)

from Glenys in Auckland

My first 20 blocks turned into a quilt top

I got carried away and made 20 blocks before I even knew what I was doing! I could see on Instagram that Claudia @pfeilclaudia in Germany was receiving blocks from around the world every day, so I decided to turn my first 20 blocks into a quilt top to speed up the process when it gets to Germany. I asked Claudia for the measurements for the sashing and borders to make sure that my quilt top matched those she was assembling. 

at Howick Quilting Friends (Saturday group)

In early April I was invited to Howick Quilting Friends guild in Auckland as the guest speaker, and the ladies there had made 39 blocks for me to bring back to Wellington. And they kindly donated the cute star fabric in the background below that I can use for sashing and borders. 

Quilt top number 2 with blocks from Howick Quilting Friends

My mum was keen to make blocks too, so I posted her some of my bright blue and yellow stash. Now mum has made about 60 blocks! 

Over Easter a lot of blocks arrived from Jeanette in Australia and I've incorporated some of them into quilt tops already. Blocks have also arrived from Vivienne in Napier, Marina in Feilding, and Glenys in Auckland. And I know there are more in the post.  

Top number 3 with blocks from everyone!

Top number 4 with my next batch of 20 blocks

It's so good to see photos of Claudia donating the quilts to the children.  That is why I decided to get involved - I knew the quilts would reach the children in need.  Claudia now has enough blocks to make 700 quilts (after initially aiming for 5 or 10 quilts).  She will keep going, but she is now facing large costs for batting, backings, binding and sashing.  If you would like to make a donation to help with costs you can deposit any amount of money into Claudia Pfeil's PayPal account:

post@quilt-und-co.de

Log in to PayPal, then go to Pay & Get Paid, Make Payments, Send Payments. 

Every donation will be appreciated and will speed up the process of getting the quilts into the hands of the Ukrainian refugee children. 

Top number 5 in the planning stages - mainly blocks from Australia and Auckland

I can't promise to incorporate all of the NZ blocks into quilt tops, but I will send all of the blocks to Claudia in Germany.  Thank you everyone who has contributed, both with blocks and money towards postage. I will take photos of all the tops before I send them off and post them here on my blog.  

Remember, if you are sending any blocks yourself, you need to put $1 value only and clearly label it GIFT or DONATION.  Claudia has had to pay a lot of money in customs duty because people have put higher values on their parcels.  

Well, after that big update, it's now time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Batik Bliss for Cosy Kiwi Kids

A finished quilt ready to donate to a local charity.

I won these Batik Bliss blocks at a Capital Quilters' meeting back in March 2016.  Exactly two years later the quilt is finished!

The blocks were originally 10" square, but I wanted to be adventurous so I trimmed some of them smaller and mixed them all up.  You can read more about my process and inspiration here.

A number of long arm quilters at our guild quilt charity tops for free, so I gave it to Tina Mills and she kindly quilted it for me.  I put the binding on myself, and now it's ready to donate to Cosy Kiwi Kids.  They will give it to a child in need through the Social Workers in Schools programme.

Tina Mills chose a design with little people in it which is just right for a child's quilt.

I hope a child will be happy to receive their own quilt before winter arrives.

Finished size: 62" x 75"

Soy Amado Quilts - the finished quilt

Back in January I showed you the Quilt As You Go (QAYG) blocks I'd made to send to Alison in Guernsey.  As soon as she got them she dropped everything and combined them with Carla's blocks to make a great quilt!

This quilt will now be sent to an orphange in South Africa and a little child will receive their very own quilt for their bed.  You can see photos of some of the children with their quilts on Alison's blog, Little Island Quilting.

Carla of Granny Maud's Girl made the yachts and planes blocks which add real interest to the quilt.  You can read more about her yachts here, and her planes here.  It was great to co-operate with a friend on this quilt because we could discuss the colours before we started.

I call Carla a friend, but we have never met in real life.  We met online, and we have continued to correspond online.  Unfortunately Carla lives in Perth, Australia, which isn't exactly one of those places you pass through on your way to somewhere else.  My best hope of meeting her is to meet up in Melbourne one day, because it's about half way between Wellington and Perth.

I made the background blocks and used up some of my large stash of blue fabric.

If you'd like to make some blocks for Alison, please read her blog here for directions.  The good news is that there are no rules about colour or style - the only rule is that they must be quilted and measure 12.5" square.   You don't need to make 20 because Alison can combine your blocks with those from other people.

Thank you to Carla and Alison for making this quilt possible.  I really do hope it makes a little child happy, and maybe even inspires them to become a pilot or a sailor.























You can read my earlier blog post about my blocks here.