Prayer quilt shawl

 This is a quilt made for a co-worker this summer put together by Sharon and I. This is snowball block alternating with a 4 patch.  Sharon did the embroidery. Then each of the co-workers blessed her with prayers and blessings and memories in the snowball block

 Here it is being worn its nice a big and warm!! then I made a pillow case with leftover materials and put the quilt in it!!

Baby prayer quilt for Ella.

This quilt has lots of open spaces to write in!

Prayer Quilt


One of the goals for this year was to create some prayer quilts.  I have done a couple in the past, but feel a calling to do this  This year I've done one for a co-worker and 2 babies.  what my goal is to have people write on the whites of the fabric, so that messages can be conveyed in one place.

Here is a picture of one that I did for two men.  i enjoyed seeing the out pouring of love and the personal touches that was given

Instructions for this quilt:

Blocks
I wash all material before cutting so that the paint will better adhere
Cut

   white or off white blocks cut 7 inch blocks

    In black or whatever the color you choose for a background  1 1/2 inch strips

The blocks will end up being 7 1/2 inch blocks once sewed together

Sew along the one side of the white/off white block with a 1 1/2 inch strip and repeat on the other side. and iron. with the seams towards the black

Then cut freezer paper about 8 inches square and take the waxy side of the freezer paper and adhere it to the back of the blocks

The freezer paper stiffens the fabric so that it can be drawn upon

Turn the block to the right side and pencil lightly on the sides that do not have a black stripe a little less that 1/4 inch down (this is so that when drawing/painting on the blocks people will know the boundaries)  You will have instructions but not everybody follows them and this is just a little reminder.

Next step was the hands all around the quilt
I choose all kind of fabric from my stash that I felt would be bright colors and give variety.  People then could choose from these fabrics for their hands

buy an  iron on adhesive and have people trace their hands on the paper side of the adhesive and cut roughly around the hand and they put their names on the paper side.  then they could choose a fabric and pin it to the fabric and roughly cut around their hand.

I then ironed it on the wrong side of the fabric and cut around each hand and wrote the persons name on the material side. Now you may remove the paper backing
the instructions for the people was as follows

Trace your hand on the paper and cut roughly around the hand.  Put your name on the hand..

Choose a fabric and pin the hand to the fabric and roughly cut around the hand (I will cut it out)




Now the drawing on the fabric.  I encourage people to write versus, do art whatever they wanted to do on the piece of fabric.  I used fabric paint from walmart, but I'm sure there are other brands out there.  Also used permanent markers, like the brand that Creative memories carries and use a 0.05 size or greater

I then had people write their names in the bottom corner of the block.  i also had to make sure that they were  drawing on the block with the black stripe to the sides.

These were my instructions
Take a block and use the fabric paint or the markers and write something or draw something special for Michael

Fabric Paint in the pens (Leave the lid on or paint will be all over) shake them and them remove lid and take the tip and push down on a piece of paper to allow the paint to come down to the tip. Draw!

Allow to dry
Your done thanks!

After it was all dry I heat set all the paint onto the blocks turned my iron to cotton and used a piece of material on the top and ironed them well.

I then I layed the blocks out and looked at how it would come together and sewed the black side strips together using 1/4 inch seam and then sewed the long strips together with 1 1/2 inc strips and connected them all together

Then I measured the largest hand I had and added 2 inches and cut The border about 10 inches wide sewed the border around and place the hands all around the quilt and ironed them on. I then took it to the machine and either appliqued them on with a zigzag stitch or a strait stitch about 1/4 inch from the edge of the hands

then I added the backing and batting and knotted in the black spaces.  AsI knotted I would say a prayer for the person.  Then bind it and it is ready to share.

Fabric Diet

Last year I attended a quilting retreat at Camp Amigo. My first scrappy quilt built with fabrics mostly from my stash.  Fabrics from a zebra black and white to baticks in multiple colors.  It's called a blessing Quilt.  I chose fabrics that I had made quilts from, to material that my kids choose for quilts, material that my mom and I had sewed together or shared with each other. As I sewed this quilt I thought of the wonderful blessings that each of my friends and family has been in my life.

When the quilt top was done I saw a beautiful quilt, one where I choose the materials and not copying colors from a magazine.  This years resolution is a fabric diet.  One where I work with the fabrics that are in my stash and see what happens, or start projects that have the materials ready.  Although with many diets some failures occur. I did buy the backing to this quilt instead of using what was in my stash, but I wanted a cuddly soft brown material for the back.