Hands 2 Help

When I was visiting over at Layers of Hope, Quilting 911 recently I learned that her efforts had been chosen as one that the Hands 2 Help challenge will focus on this year. For one reason or another I've not yet been a part of the H2H program. This year the timing was right and one of the quilt drives is one I'm familiar with so I'm jumping on board. You can read all about Hands 2 Help here.

You may or may not have seen my post about the African Stars I started making. They are 12" Ohio Stars made with African prints I collected back in the late '90's when I had the opportunity to go to a doll maker's conference in Oakland, CA. That was a blast. It's taken me this long to acquire the experience and courage to use those precious prints! My goal now is to mash up the traditional pattern and piecing methods of my heritage with the prints, colors, and design aesthetics of the people of Africa. Insofar as that's possible anyway.

For those of you who may have missed them, here are some of the first blocks I made:

And this is what I have on the wall now:

I've made 24 blocks in all. They've been waiting while I debated whether to make more blocks or figure out a way to sash these to make a personal size quilt for an adult. I'm facing the challenge of my design wall being too small once again. This is what it really looks like in my studio!

That bottom row of blocks is pinned to the insulation board that extends below the flannel that covers the rest of the insulation board. Because of the nap of the flannel I rarely have to pin things to my design wall. Unfortunately I can't pin over the wall heater unit.

At the moment I'm thinking I will put 4" finished vertical sashes between these columns.That will give me 60" in width. Then I'll put 4" borders along the top and bottom only. That will make the quilt top 60" x 80" overall. In my family that's plenty big enough for one person to nap under. I hope it's big enough for those who are bigger than we are!

This quilt will be one of the two that I have planned for Layers of Hope in conjunction with Hands2Help. It's not too late for you to sign up too. One of the charity efforts is based in Canada, which makes it easier (and cheaper) for our Canadian friends to participate. The other is Em's Scrapbag's chemo quilt drive. Just click on the link at the top of this post or on the big ole button at the top of my sidebar to get all the details and add your name to the list. :- )