Have you seen the TV commercials for St. Jude Children's Hospital? Have you ever thought about what happens to the kids AFTER they receive treatment there?
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JoAnn Fabric & Craft Stores provided the fabric for this post, but all opinions are my own.
If you're new here, hello! I'm Laura! I design quilt patterns, and I'm a self-proclaimed deal hunter! Be sure to join the popular Quilting & Sewing Deals Facebook group where I post sales, deals, and coupon codes from all around the web!
These new fabrics at JOANN were all designed by previous patients of St. Jude Children's Hospital! The listings share the photos of the children and tell where they're at now.
One of the fabrics was designed by Tayde. She was diagnosed with leukemia at age seven and spent years receiving treatments at St. Jude. Today, she's married with two kids, and she works at St. Jude to fundraise for them!
Another fabric was designed by Hillary, who was treated at St. Jude for two different cancers. She went on to be the valedictorian of her high school and is now pursuing a doctorate degree in biomedical modeling and hopes to work in drug development!
Another fabric (I used just a bit of it for the center of some of the triangles) was designed by Stella. When she finished her cancer treatment at St. Jude, her mom asked her what she wanted to do to celebrate, and she said she wanted to take a sewing class at JOANN!
I loved reading the stories behind each of the fabrics, and chose six that were blue, green, or purple. JOANN will donate $1.50 for every yard of the fabrics purchased to St. Jude Children's Hospital.
I added Kona solid fabrics in shades of lime green, blue, and purple to add to the mix of fabrics too. I cut all the fabrics into 2" strips, and cut equilateral triangles for the block centers.
I did not use a pattern, I just started sewing strips around the triangle like a log cabin block. (I was really inspired by this quilt! There is also a great tutorial for making triangle log cabin blocks HERE.)
I made 24 blocks, and each one had three "rounds" around the center block. I put the blocks up on my design wall as I sewed them and just kept making blocks until it was about throw sized. I chose the fabrics randomly and just tried to keep the same fabrics from being too close to each other.
For the blocks on the ends of each row, I made one block and cut it in half. Then I used one half on each side of the quilt.
Once the top was done, I loaded it on my longarm with a gray and white backing fabric and 80/20 batting. I used light blue thread to quilt it only because I didn't have any lime green! I free-motion quilted a swirl design on the quilt. I like to use swirls and rounded shapes for the quilting when the piecing is more geometric. Not a hard rule though, but that's usually what I pick.
I cut strips from each of the St. Jude fabrics that were about 20" long and sewed those together for the binding. I machine sewed the binding on (tutorial HERE) and remembered to sew one of my labels into the binding too!
I really love how this quilt turned out! The bright colors and geometric shapes are right up my alley.
I think this one needs to be donated to one of my local hospitals to a kid fighting their own cancer battle. I would hope that the stories within the fabrics of the children that fought before would bring strength and hope to him/her.
And I have quite a bit of yardage leftover, so I think I might as well make a few more quilts to donate too!
You can purchase the St. Jude fabrics on the JOANN website, and you can make a donation to St. Jude Children's Hospital at the register at your local JOANN store!
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How fabulous - thank you for bringing this to our attention, I had no idea. I will be heading to JoAnns as soon as I can. A great way to make quilts to donate to children going through treatments.
ReplyDeleteI did not use a pattern, I just started sewing strips around the triangle like a log cabin block. (I was really inspired by this quilt! There is also a great tutorial for making triangle log cabin blocks HERE.)
DeleteIt’s beautiful! May I ask what pattern you used to quilt? Looks like a pretty loop
ReplyDeleteRead the post for that information.
DeleteBeautiful quilt Laura. From what I understand from Joanne.com, the fabrics are not in the store. Only online. Is this correct?
ReplyDeleteHi! Yes, they are only available online and a portion of the sale will go directly back to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Thank you!
DeleteBeautiful and pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteWonderful quilt! Thanks for the heads up on fabrics.
ReplyDeleteLaura, hello! This quilt is AMAZING. My name is Karina Bland, and I'm a writer with ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. I would LOVE to write a story about your experience making this quilt with fabrics designed by our young patients. Would you please call me on my cell, 480-271-2444? I can't wait to speak with you!
ReplyDelete