HeartStrings for Children

Stephanie in Australia sent me photos of her two recent finishes and says the finished tops are going off in the mail this week. She writes "Both are good sizes for children, as requested by Julie for the orphanage" and she shares her instructions for making them.

Blue bubbles is made from 24 blue centre HeartStings blocks with a couple of stash borders to highlight. Gold border is cut 2", blue border is cut 4 1/2". I used a generous 1/4" seam, finished size is 47" x 63".


Wild at Heart is made from 24 assorted string blocks given to me for Heartstrings, by fellow Stitch by Stitch member Dora Carbone, sashed and bordered by me with a wild purple fabric from my stash. I cut the sashings and cornerstones 2 ", and the outer border 2 1'2". Finished size 44" x 66".


You may remember Stephanie and her group from this previous blog post and they were featured in two magazine articles - in the May/June issue of Australian Quilters Companion and the May issue of Australian Homespun Magazine.

Guidelines for making the HeartStrings blocks are on our website.

Stephanie also wrote more about the orphanage the quilts will be donated to. "At the very end of last year a net buddy from another list posted up a message about wanting to make a number of quilts for an African orphanage. I emailed her and asked if she would like ufos/quilt tops too, as well as the blocks she had asked for. Her name is Julie Tobler, from Queensland (opposite side of Australia from me) The orphanage she has chosen is one that has recently been completed. Her partner is from Africa, and knows a fair bit about Bethel"

It is located in Kafue, Zambia. Please visit the web site here. http://www.zambian.com/bethel/index.html

Bethel Orphanage is a charitable organization among Christian charities caring for orphans. AIDS in Africa has increased the burdens of child charity organizations like Bethel Orphanage that help children orphaned from poor families. Orphanages have a challenge of keeping up with the growing numbers of orphans. The Orphanage currently supports over 100 children. Most of the children are AIDS victims that lost their parents from the AIDS epidemic.