A Quilt for Moore

I've wanted to make a quilt to give to people in need for a while, but was overwhelmed by the sheer number of worthy causes out there. When I saw the aftermath of the tornado that hit Moore, OK in May I knew exactly where I wanted to send a quilt. The Oklahoma City MQG organised Moore Love, and they are collecting quilts until June 30th. AND, they are also raffling off two beautiful quilts made by their guild in order to help support longer term disaster relief in Moore. You can read more about these quilts here!

I didn't know what sort of quilt to make at first, but then I realised that I had this partial quilt top which I made out of leftover charms! You all suggested I make it into a large floor pillow, which is an idea I loved. But I thought that with a couple of borders it might make a cute baby quilt!

So I headed back to my stash. There were two of the original charms leftover and I thought they could become cornerstones. I had a lot of a buttery yellow hanging around, and then I pulled all of the fabrics that best matched the original quilt top in colour. I cut 3" strips from each, sewed them together and then cut them up to make strips of squares.

I find it hard to believe that the border squares don't have any of the same
fabric as the centre! Apart from the cornerstones.

I love how this turned out. I couldn't have envisioned this finished quilt when I started. I love that it all came from my stash. For some reason I think the quilt looks really polite and Spring-like. Like afternoon tea on a verandah somewhere sort of posh... Maybe, it's just me!

It's not quite perfect, and that reflects the slightly improv nature of making it. I just went for colours and planned only the immediate step I was on. I think the cornerstones could be set in more accurately, but then that might detract from the overall charm. The binding is from the same fabric I used on my very first quilt and I love how it looks. The musical note fabric on the back is one I found in my parent's house just before I left Ireland. It looks great here.

I used a soft orange thread to quilt, and did straight lines a quarter inch on either side of every seam that included some small squares in the central pieced section. That probably doesn't make much sense, but I'm having trouble finding the right words this morning! The quilting gave the it a beautiful feel, so soft and crinkly. And it only got better after a wash.

The quilt label has my name, the date, and then it has the year the city of Moore was incorporated (1893) and a smiley face. It turns out that there is a smiley face in the city seal of Moore. In the 1970s the city launched the Smile America campaign and put smiley faces on all their water towers.

Quilt Stats:
Size: 41" x 41"
Fabric: Bella Buttercup (I think), the charms (incl. the cornerstones) are mostly from Valori Wells' Nest collection
Pieced and Quilted by me!

I'll be popping this in the post tomorrow. I hope it brings some brightness to someone. I certainly really enjoyed making this quilt!

Linking up to finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!