Quilt Project from Beginning to End

I have been working on these a long time, but wanted to blog the project from beginning to end rather than in snippets. It all began when my mom (hi Mommy!) gave me a huge tupperware container of extra material last year. At the time, I was still in the very beginning stages of sewing. I wasn't sure how I would ever use all that material. Some of it was extremely nostalgic for me, however, as I recognized the purple heart material that was used for a quillow made by mom and the green puppy dog print that was my brother's. I knew I wanted to use this material for something special. But since I didn't know what, it sat. For almost a year.

At General Conference this past October (just a couple of months ago), as I listened to President Monson's address about giving freely as much as we can give, I was reminded of all that fabric. I also knew that I would (hopefully-- at that time I was not yet accepted) be starting Grad school in January and my free time to do such large projects would be significantly diminished. I decided there is no better time to act than the present. Good intentions weren't going to do a lick of good. Then I found out about the Homeless Families Foundation (a local organization that helps families transitioning from shelters to apartments) apartment that burned down and their immediate needs... and I was set with a recipient organization in mind!

I solicited help from the beginning. Erica and Carrie helped me cut squares and measure fabric.

Robyn supplied me with a ton of blue fabric to match the back for the second twin blanket. To save money, I used all the scraps rather than purchase fabric. It was a lot of work, but I loved the project. I especially loved working on the baby blanket tops since they were smaller and more manageable. The blue twin was definitely the hardest. Ellen graciously helped me do the batting and remaining material shopping with her JoAnn's coupons, and volunteered to sew the top for the purple twin. That purchase was only possible because of so many generous monetary donations from R.S. In the mean time, I put together all the blankets with top-batting-bottom in preparation for help quilting them.
Then we had a quilt club night and invited the entire Relief Society, neighbors, and friends to come help quilt one twin and several baby blankets. Jenni and Katie lent their quilting frames and we had so many people come to help! Even severely overdue pregnant ladies came to participate! People even volunteered to take blankets home to finish them.
I ended up getting help sewing the binding on all the baby blankets, plus several other blankets made at home were added to the pile for donating! It was a wonderful joy to see that stack grow!
We had a second quilting afternoon to finish up the purple twin (and this time I remembered to take a picture!). Then Jenni took the purple to do the binding and Ellen took the blue to do the binding. What angels!
Here is a picture of the two quilts and as many of the sisters who participated as possible!

Thanks everyone! They look lovely! I know those families will really appreciate them!