HUG Quilts

Somebody once said that a quilt is like a hug that you can wrap yourself up in.  Every now and again RCTQ makes a quilt to show somebody how much they are loved/appreciated, to celebrate an important event or, sadly, to remember someone special.  These quilts are known as Hug Quilts, or just HUGs.  When a quilter thinks of making a HUG an email with the pertinent details is sent out to everybody that has offered to be on the list of HUG participants. Those who wish to make a block or blocks then do so and send them in to the HUG "parent" who arranges the pieceing, quilting, binding and delivery to the recipient.

I was privileged to deliver an RCTQ HUG  to Marie Lewis in 2003.  The quilt was assembled and quilted by Roberta in D (Germany) and then made its way to me as I was the nearest RCTQ "member" to Marie who is a very busy lady, especially in the summer when she is heavily involved in exam work.  In the end, after failing to arrange an "unsuspicious" visit, I just took a chance and called in on her out of the blue - here is the result:-

Marie opening the box
Marie opening the box
 Marie with her HUG
Marie with her HUG quilt


So far I have made blocks for several hugs and I suppose some of the WTC Memorial Quilt blocks are for hugs if they end up in individual quilts, not the big one.

In 2002 I was HUG parent for a Wedding Hug for Karlee & Mike.  Karlee & Mike were married on 22nd November 2002 and, fingers crossed, this quilt was a surprise present for them which they collected on the way home from their honeymoon. 

I recieved got sixty-six 6" blocks and one 12" block and they will be set using dark green sashing with yellow corner stones.  Karlee likes scrappy quilts (quilts which use lots of different fabrics) so this has a huge variety of colours but almost every block features a heart pattern.

Here is my construction "diary"

Lots of blocks It has been great fun opening the post each morning and finding such beautiful blocks and fabric inside.  This picture shows an early idea for a layout before I had all the blocks in.  Click the picture for a larger image.








The timetable for the Hug is as follows:

Call for blocks: Early September
Deadline for reciept of blocks: 15th October
Top to be pieced by: 26th October
Quilt to be sandwiched and basted by: 28th October
Quilting to be finished by: 3rd November - I know that's not long, but I'm not doing anything fancy, my skills aren't up to it.  I'd rather it was a simple design done well, than a complex one full of errors.
Binding to be on by: 6th November

So in theory the Hug will be on an aeroplane to the USA by 8th November.  Whew!  Watch this page to see if it is done in time....
 
Final layout of blocksHere is the final layout of the blocks received.  I waited until they were all in before making mine to fill in the gaps, in the end I only needed to make three.  I have tried to have a round (rectangle) of blocks with a white background, followed by those with a yellow-ish background (except the four pink ones in the corners of that round) and then the outer round approximatley alternates blue and green back grounds, with a few other darkish blocks in there too.  I haven't had to reject any blocks which is great.  There is only one which doesn't have a heart on it and that one is special in its own right.






First batch of sashing done! As at 23rd October I have got all the sashing cut, all the blocks laid out ready for piecing and five rows done as shown in this picture.





More sashingYet more blcoks and sashingBy the end of 24th October I had finished the vertical sashes and was starting to lay out the horizontal sashing ready for sewing the yellow cornerstones in place.  I had some 2.5" yellow charms which will do very nicely (well I think so).






Most of the sashing in placeDouble heart block 27th October - three more rows of horizontal sashing and then most of the top will be finished.  I'll need to add some borders to bring it up to a double bed size.  Setting the centre double heart block was harder than I had thought, mainly because I kept on losing track of how much fabric would be taken up, by the seam allowances!














All sashing in place 29th October - all the sashing is now complete.  Picture to follow when I have extracted it from the camera.  Now for the borders, dark green again, but with big yellow corner blocks.  I hope those will be done by the end of Saturday.  I'm running late I know, but I had set up a deliberately tight schedule, to give me a little extra time if I needed it.









Completed quilt top3rd November - The corner blocks and borders are now on!  I was brave and ripped the borders and they came out straight and true, thank goodness.  I really like the look of the completed quilt top, now all I have left to do is, sandwich, pin, quilt bind and despatch this baby to Kansas.









All sandwiched and pinned4th November - The backing is joined and I have the whole shebang on the floor at work as there is no room big enough to lay it all out at home.  The backing is a fairly neutral all over leaf print that has a slightly autumnal feeling to it.  With the aid of masking tape the backing is held flat and then the wadding/batting on top of that.  I have already run out of safety pins so a visit to one of the local dry cleaners is called for.

6th November - Wow! Johnson's dry cleaners gave me a 10 gross (1440) box of safety pins as they no longer use them, they get my business now.  After two afternoons of pinning (and sore fingers as all the safety pins were, of course, closed) I am now ready to take the quilt home for quilting.  "Simple" stitching in the ditch along all the sashing and block lines and then SITD round the central heart shapes too.  I don't know about the borders yet, I just hope the inspiration comes quickly.



Corner block and quilting detail 10th November - I have taken over the dining table for the last couple of days and now have the central area done, lots of (nearly) straight line stitching all along the sashing and blocks.  With an 80% cotton 20% polyester wadding/batting this quilt is not light and I am very grateful to whoever on RCTQ recommended polishing the table to reduce drag.

12th November - The quilting is done!  I chose a sort of repeating diamond shape for the borders, which matched up with the yellow squares in the sashing.  I marked it all with ordinary blackboard chalk (it was to hand) and although it made a rather wide mark it did brush out pretty easily.  It also left lots of dust on the walking foot, but that too cleaned off with no problems.  Now for the binding, all 340 inches of it!




Quilt label 15th November - The binding is on, as is the label.  In fact the whole quilt is now in the washing machine so that it has done any wrinkling before Karlee and Mike receive it.  This picture shows the label (where I nearly mis-spelt "quilting") and the backing fabric.  Karlee signs her emails to me with "hugs from across the pond", so to name this quilt Hugs from Across the World seemed entirely appropriate as this quilt has blocks from:

              39 quilters from
              8 different countries and
              4 different continents
              and there are blocks from 30 American states!

Thank you to all of you for taking part and making this HUG happen.



22nd November - I now know more than I wnated to about exporting textiles to the USA.  Even though 98% of the material was of US origin I still had to fill out special import paperwork to get it to MaryAnn inKansas.  However it is on it's way and MaryAnnwil be ready with her camera to get pictures of it's unveiling :-)


1st December - Karlee and Mike met up with MaryAnn on their way back from their honeymoon.  Follow these links for the story in Karlee's own words and pictures taken by MaryAnn.


Many thanks are also due to my daughter, Emma, for putting up with quilt blocks all over her nice smooth floor for the duration of the layout and sewing stages of this project, it is her bedroom floor that appears in many of the photos, and she had to keep it tidy too!

Postscript: Karlee was unwell over Christmas and New Year 2002/2003 - guess what it wasn't just a HUG quilt it was a FERTILITY quilt!


Return to main quilting page
©  Elizabeth Taylor 2001-2003
Background image by kind permission of Sharon Curtis