Cuddly Critters Quilts

Last June I picked up a bag of fabrics for a Cuddly Critter challenge sponsored by my guild in Maryland, Faithful Circle Quilters.  Here's a bit of the back story on it.  A quilter was moving out of state and wanted to downsize her fabrics.  She brought three big tubs of fabric to Stephanie who handles a lot, but not all, of FCQ's donation quilts.  Stephanie, with some help, divided the it into fabrics that went together, bagged them and then passed them out to anyone who wanted to make a donation quilt for Project Linus. What most of us didn't know was there were few, very few, fabrics that had anything to do with critters or kids.  The woman specifically asked that the fabric be made into quilts for children.

Fast forward nearly a year.  One of my jobs at the recent quilt show was to white glove in the room where the Cuddly Critters quilts were hung.  I had a terrific time talking to our guests about the challenge and showing them little hidden things in the quilts.  And, I had enough time to take lots of pictures, although some of the lighting didn't enhance the quilts.   This group of women and men are so talented and creative.  Here are some of the quilts that will be going to Project Linus of Howard Country, Maryland. 

Nina had lots of browns in her bag and it made her think of a garden.  The stones lent themselves to the garden wall.  With a little pondering she came up with Peter Rabbit who might have visited her garden.  It's titled "Where's Mr. MacGregor."

Again, brown fabrics dominated this challenge bag.  Jonnifer  wondered how animal print fabrics and beige fabrics could be child friendly.  She went to her stash and found these cute animals that added just the touch needed to make this quilt very child friendly.  

Amy was wondering what to do with all the blue fabric she got.  She finally decided on sock monkeys.  She originally was planning to make a quilt with full body monkeys but eventually decided that she'd make mug shots.  Hum, I wonder if her monkeys actually started taking selfies?  She titled the quilt "But I Only Had Blue Socks." 

A whole grouping of browns and beiges created a dilemma for Sandy R.  When she found the cute monkey fabric she used for the border her beiges and browns became the background for a couple of frolicking monkeys holding some balloons.  "Monkeying Around" will certainly cheer up some child in need. 

Marianne got lots of browns with orange.  Her quilt is called MacCavity and Friends.  What, you don't see him and his friends.  You might notice his paw prints on the front of the quilt.  Do you see him below? 

How about if I hold the quilt up so you can see the back? 

It was awkward to take this picture and try to hold up the back so if it looks slightly "off" that's the reason.  Marianne put three cats on the back of her quilt.  From the front you can just see their outlines where she didn't quilt them.  Too cute. 

I was much more concrete when I made my quilts for this challenge.  You can see my first quilt here.  I figured the hummingbirds were my "cuddly" critters.  Not very creative at all.  It would have helped a lot if I was actually able to go to  meetings to see what others were making.  Sigh. 

I had a LOT of fabric left over so I decided to make a boy oriented quilt.  Unfortunately I picked a pattern that had way too many pieces in each block.  It seemed to take forever.  But when the gals were down for the in-house retreat in March MaryBeth suggested I piece it differently which was much easier and faster. So, there is a mix of both in the quilt although I don't think most people will ever notice.  I used a lot of my own fabric in this cause really, do boys want hummingbirds and strawberries?  No, I didn't think so either.  

Some of the fabric had fishing gear on it,  And, no pink.  I finished the binding at Sharon's house and left it with her to turn in at the next guild meeting.  

I heard over 50 quilts were turned in and displayed at the show and another 12 or so were coming soon. That should keep Project Linus in quilts for a while. Hopefully, I can show another grouping of them in a future blog. 

Today I'm linking up with  Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday.  

Happy Quilting All!