Watermelon Summer Charity Quilts

Back in early September, we hosted the Watermelon Summer New Block Blog Hop featuring our Prairie Cloth Solids in conjunction with Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl, Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs, Terri Ann @Childlike Fascination, and Stephanie @Late Night Quilter. 

After the hop ended, these four ladies collected all of the blocks with plans to assemble them into quilts for charity. 

Today we have two quilts made from those blocks to show you, both assembled and quilted by Yvonne. After seeing these beauties, we asked Yvonne a few questions to learn more about her process (like, how do you decide in what order to lay all these blocks out?!?!)

Wow!!!!!!

Q. How difficult (or easy) was it to decide on block placement? How did you decide which to use in the baby quilt versus the lap quilt?

YF: To decide on block placement, I had a friend over to "play". We laid all the blocks out on my floor, and the blocks that ended up becoming the baby quilt felt like they naturally grouped together as they were slightly more bold and graphic in their pattern design. In terms of block placement within the quilts, we tried to arrange the blocks to have good color flow across the quilt.

Q. The quilting you did on these is phenomenal—so much detail, so much personalization! We have to ask—how long did the quilting of each quilt take you? 

YF: The baby quilt took about 4 hours to quilt and the lap quilt took about 7 hours to quilt. I quilted both on my long arm. I probably could have done both a bit quicker, but I paused to consider each block and quilted them individually.

Q. Do you have any particular favorite blocks, either the blocks themselves or how they turned out when quilted?

YF: In the baby quilt, I had fun turning Martha's sailboat inspired block into a scene, and so I am really pleased with how that block came together. And the seahorse in the lap quilt is just so fun and I love how it reads on the back of the quilt, too.

Q. What do you like best about either of these quilts?

YF: I love that both of these quilts are made up of completely different blocks, but with the same color palette and especially due to the use of solids, the quilts feel cohesive, fresh, and fun!

Q. Where did these quilts end up?

YF: The quilts were donated to Project Linus and given to children in need in Bakersfield, CA.

Thank you, Yvonne and everyone who participated in the hop! We'll show you additional completed quilts from the hop as they are finished. 

Yvonne has additional photos and details on her blog concerning these quilts and the specific blocks featured in them; find her post on the lap quilt here and the baby quilt here.

If you'd like to see (or bookmark) the tutorials for any of the blocks from the Watermelon Summer hop, follow these links:
Find the links from Day 1 here.
Find the links from Day 2 here.
Find the links from Day 3 here.

Find the links from Day 4 here.

And if you're inspired by the color palette these ladies used, here are the closest corresponding colors in the Painter's Palette Solids collection:

White: 121-000

Lapis: 121-019

Coral: 121-049

Apple: 121-076

Pale Aqua: 121-062

Turquoise: 121-031

Stay tuned for more solids fun next week--we'll be sharing inspiration for quilts to make using our new and super touch-able Painter's Palette Solids!