Retirees

It has become tradition for my teacher/quilting friends and I to make a quilt for each retiree from our school. It has been 8 years since I retired. Now that the rest of the quilting teachers are retired, we met at my house once a week.  This year we made quilts for 4 teachers and I was majorly involved with 2:    

 Alan Everman, computer teacher, who is an avid tennis player and

Terry Currie, Social Studies/6th, who is moving to North Carolina.

The snowball pattern was perfect for showing off the large tennis designs. The hardest part was finding a yellow-green print to match the tennis balls.

 My friend, Debbie, found 2 paper pieced Cardinal patterns. The challenge was enlarging the pattern to match the 10" leaf block.

 I found this 10" pattern on-line to make the maple leaves.

Debbie is gifted in using up scraps to make an interesting backing. We managed to make this quilt totally from our stash and scraps.

We still have a few of the original faculty that has yet to retire and more quilts to make.

Teenager deserves grown-up quilt

My grandniece, Autumn, redecorated her room in turquoise and gray and upgraded to a double bed.

 My sister, her grandmother, and I decided to make her a quilt appropriate for a teenager's room.  

I saw this Zigzag pattern in a quilt store and decided it would be easy to duplicate. It turned out to be more complex than the simple block it is based on. The block is a 9 patch with each square a combo of 2 colors cut diagonally. (Basically a "stack & wack", cut at the same angle from 2 rectangles, accounting for the seam allowance.)  Each square is turned to create the continuous zigzag. There are two different block arrangements. It was difficult to keep track of the placement of the 2 blocks so the grays & turquoises matched up.

 We are pleased with the results and so was Autumn.

I LOVE BROWN

Last Christmas my quilting friends had a beige and brown exchange. We ended up with 40 6" squares, enough for a small quilt but I had a larger one in mind. I added more light, medium and dark beige/browns from my sash and my sister's to make 145 squares with sashing. This will be another king size wedding quilt for my grandnephew.

The pattern I followed ("Illusion In Neutrals" BH&G American Patchwork & Quilting, Dec. 2009, pg. 94) instructed you to sew the sashing around the square before cutting the diagonal. By doing this corners had extra seams and bulk. Knowing that I would have to be careful with the bias, I chose to cut the triangles first, add the strips and then cut the angles at the tips.

The lightest combinations are arranged at the center. Moving out, combinations of lights and mediums are added next. 

I am now sewing medium and dark squares. They will be arranged in 2 rows all around. More to come.

"ANNABETH"

I'm a Grandmother for the 4th time and blessed with a perfect little girl. Each son now has 2 kids each, 2 boys for Tim and 2 girls for Andy. Of course I was making her a quilt while we were awaiting her arrival. I left a space to embroider her name, weight and birth day once she came.

I attend a senior class once a week. When someone wants to rid themselves of unwanted scraps or stash fabric, they leave it out for anyone to take. Most of the reproduction flour sack prints in this quilt came from those donations. They were small squares, strips and cut flowers. Using some of the left overs from big sister's quilt, I had enough to make this quilt.

"TEA TIME"

This table runner has been on my wish list for a long time. I found a quilt book Cups and Saucers by Maaike Bakker, on the SALE rack and immediately knew I wanted to use this idea. Unlike the book, I chose to applique the images rather than paper piece. I added some other images that a friend shared with me.

My husband and I travel a lot, many times on a cruise. This last trip lasted for 35 days with more days at sea than in port. I planned to take this project for those restful days. Unable to bring an iron nor wanting to use that technique, I used a glue stick to tack the edges under (Tutorial). This has been a very successful and easy way to prep my applique in the past. I was able to complete both turning the edges and hand applique before disembarking. The hand quilting was done during the last month while waiting for our newest granddaughter.

"RIDING THE RAILS"

After completing a quilt for my younger son, the oldest asked me to make him one. He requested a vintage train theme. I began my search online finding the cost of shipping really adding up so I asked my friends to be on the lookout. They came through. I also searched every shop I visited. Soon I came up with a variety of train fabrics.

I love the challenge of coming up with my own design, putting together different size prints and tying it together with coordinating fabrics. I modeled it after an airplane themed quilt I designed for my husband. 

 I machine quilted each area following the outline of the images, pattern of the fabric or the block design. 

(You can click on the images to enlarge and see the stitching.)

This train track fabric made the perfect border.

I backed it with cozy shirt flannel.

POSTAGE STAMP Wedding Quilt #8

I finished hand quilting this wedding quilt for my grand nephew, Jack. He is only 10 but my goal is to make a queen or king quilt for each of my 4 grandchildren and my sister's 7. They range in age from 13 to 2 weeks. I have 3 more to make. 

The white spaces were quilted with a traditional motif. 

For the rest of the quilt, I followed the diagonal points of the squares, quilting every other row. I thought I would quilt every row but I soon realized that I didn't have the stamina nor did I think it was necessary.

 It's fun to look at the fussy cut squares and

 find the prints pictured.

I read online when storing quilts, they should be folded on the basis to avoid permanent creases. They are also stored in fabric bags (never plastic). I use large complementary laundry bags from hotels.