Animals Around The World

Animals Around The World quilt

This is Joey's Animals Around The World quilt.  I made it from a cloth book pattern.  I cut the pages into blocks and put them on the design wall and using a lot of supporting fabrics ad-libbed until it was a quilt.  There are a lot of fabrics in it that are also in Aidan's Pirate quilt, and a few from Freya's Rubber Ducks quilt.  It was a lot of fun to make.  I used free-motion quilting on my machine at home.

detail of center of quilt

detail of Asia block and a wandering tiger.

detail of Australia block

detail of Africa Jungle block

detail of Europe block

I used a lot of 1" and 2" squares to fill in spaces.  Where the spaces didn't accommodate the 1" or 2" squares easily, I used beige map fabric, which is also on the back of the quilt.

backing of Animals Around The World quilt

This has pieces of rubber ducks, monkeys, beige map and colored map, lots of animals and pirate map, and ships at sea.

detail of label on Animals Around The World quilt

Down By The Bay

Down By the Bay quilt

This is Torrin's 1-year Birthday quilt.  I made it from a magazine pattern that was for selling Jim Shore fabrics.  I followed the pattern except where I ran out of fabric and had to improvise with something similar. 

Detail of pirate ship cornerstone on the Down By The Bay quilt.

I put blocks from Aidan's Pirate Quilt as cornerstones.  Three pirate ships and a pirate map are the cornerstones in this quilt.  I did free-motion quilting including outlining the lighthouses and buildings in the blocks.  I quilted in the sashing the words to the song "Down By The Bay", as well as each family member's name, and "Alaska 2013" and "Gig Harbor, WA 2013".  After quilting and binding and labeling the quilt I put red minky on the back.  So cozy!

Detail of lighthouse blocks.

Detail of lighthouse blocks.

Here I am showing off the backing.

Breezy Peonies

completed top of Breezy Peonies quilt

This was my first attempt at making an applique quilt.  It is actually a pieced and then appliqued quilt.  The large peony petals are pieced, then the rest of the block is embellished with applique.  It is a Laundry Basket pattern by Edyta Sitar titled "Prairie Peonies".  I altered the pattern by reversing the pattern on five blocks, so the peonies nod both ways.  I added a red inner border and made an extra wide outer border.

detail of Peony block

Detail of Peony block

I made the petals by strip-piecing 1-1/4" strips then cutting diamond shapes out of that.  Then sewed three diamonds together to make the block.  I made all these blocks first and applique was added later.

It took me about a year to make.  This was my handwork in the evenings after dinner.  When I had to stop working in my sewing room, I could come upstairs and do my handwork.  It was fun to do because all the blocks are different.

detail of label on Breezy Peonies quilt

I had it professionally quilted by Christina Boverman.  She did a beautiful job.  She made the background look like a pebbled wall, used rainbow thread for veins in the leaves, with feathers in the border.

Sun Bonnet Sue & Rain Bonnet Boy

Sun Bonnet Sue &  Rain Bonnet Boy quilt

This is one of my first quilts.  I think I made this in 1975.  I didn't know anything about quilting.  The appliques were done with a straight stitch on a sewing machine, and they have no arms or hands, because they were so small I just didn't do them.  The quilt has 2 layers of batting (I wanted it to be puffy).  I tied it using yellow embroidery floss, and its quilted in big rectangles that I did on the machine.  I bound it by taking the backing and folding it over the edge.  Its only good as a wall hanging because its so stiff from the extra layer of batting.  My quilting skills have improved dramatically since then.  The fabrics were the only calico prints I could find at the time - everything else was polyester.

This quilt is now in Alaska with Scott and Dalena. 

Rainbow Trip

Rainbow Trip

This is a Trip-Around-The-World pattern.  I was experimenting with the Rainbow colors but keeping it scrappy.  This was a surprise gift for my daughter-in-law Julie, so she can snuggle on the couch with it. 

back of Rainbow Trip

Michelle helped me find the balloon fabric in Olympia for the backing.  The backing was a little short so I put some rainbow batik strips on to bring it to size.  I sneaked in the names of everyone in the family when I did the quilting.  I often put names or words in the quilting and let people discover them.

detail of hot air balloons on back of Rainbow Trip

detail of Rainbow Trip label

Fan Pillow - an early quilting attempt

Fan Pillow

I made this in about 1974.  The pattern was from a magazine and it was all machine pieced and quilted.  At the time I thought it was a lot of work.  Little did I know, ha ha!

It was really hard to find calico prints at that time, since the stores were full of double-knits.

Michelle's Quilt - UFO

Michelle's Quilt - UFO

Wonky squares...Michelle chose the fabrics.  There are bunnies on some!  More to follow...

detail of a wonky square (no bunnies)

Scrappy Baskets

Scrappy Baskets

 This quilt was a birthday gift for my friend Marty McKay.  She is Dalena's (my daughter-in-law) mother.  I made it using the last of the leftover half-square triangle units from Jamie's Desert Rock Star quilt.  This is another quilt that I just put pieces on the design wall and let the quilt tell me what it needed.  After making the baskets, I decided it needed flowers, but not in the baskets, because there was so much color in the baskets already.  After I put the vine on, I realized it didn't want a lot of flowers, just a few accents.  The applique was done using fusible machine-applique method. 

detail of Scrappy Baskets label

I wrote the label using a black fine-line permanent marker.

Panda Quilt

Panda Quilt

I made this crib-sized quilt for my Chinese granddaughter.  The colored background for every star is also in a star someplace else on the quilt.  I fussy-cut pandas for the center of each star block.

detail of Panda Stars

Peony Quilt - UFO

I just started this quilt.  I needed handwork.  It is a Laundry Basket quilt pattern called Prairie Peonies.  It combines piece work with applique.  I'm experimenting with different applique methods.  This is going to take a while.  I'm deviating from the pattern by using some stronger colors and reversing some of the blocks.  The fabrics are batik and prints.  I chose a darker background than I normally use.   I've already pieced all 25 blocks, but only two are appliqued.  23 to go!  The pattern has sashing, and little four-square corner stones.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks when I'm finished!

Scrappy Baskets - UFO

Scrappy Baskets - UFO

This is entirely made from scraps from my stash.  The half-square triangles are leftovers from a feathered star quilt.  I plan to put a vine boarder on the quilt....it needs flowers.  I did not make this quilt from a pattern.  I took the scraps to a quilt night at the quilt shop and figured it out.