"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.

"LEGOLAND"

Adam, my niece Sarah's middle child, loved his quilt (I made for his 2nd birthday) so much that it is now in tatters. "Aunt Janet, can you fix it?" It was beyond repair and it was time for a new quilt for a 9 year old. I asked him what theme he'd like and he chose Legos.

I wasn't inspired by rectangles of plain colors but when I googled Legos, I saw these heads and I was off and running.

 I hand quilted the peg circles on sea days on our last cruise. 

 You can see that he was delighted with the result. It's great to be loved and appreciated by my nieces and nephews. He can wear this one out too then I know it was used and loved! 

"FANCY DISH"

A friend of mine found this pattern in a book (Fancy to Frugal), by Kay Connors and Karen Earlywine) and showed it to our teacher. She was able to contact the designer and was given permission to reproduce just this part of the book. Instead of costing $28 each, we only paid $5 and Mount San Antonio College printed, laminated and spiral bound this pattern.

More than 25 students purchased this pattern. The wedges and points are machine pieced and then hand appliquéd along with the center football pieces. I chose to make it king size so I increased the number of dishes from 16 to 25.

I have made great progress over the past year. I just finished hand quilting the main surface including 25 dishes. 






I'm ready to quilt the border and finish the edge. With all those curves and points, the binding will be quite a challenge. I believe I will be the first to finish. Two of my friends are ready to start the hand quilting.

Retirees

Ten teachers retired this year from my old school. We started the tradition of making a quilt for each person who left us 9 years ago when our principal retired. The four of us continued even after I retired 4 years ago.  We made this one 2 years ago when Betty was originally retiring but only finished it this year.

This year the district offered an incentive at the last minute that could not be passed up and so we were in trouble.  With the help of our VP who also quilts (she made these two and offered one from her stash.)

we completed 10 quilts in time for the closing of school. I was involved in most of them, making the tops for 5, quilting 5 and the binding of some.

My good friend Marsha (who is the only one of our group who isn't retiring) helped with the one above right and made these two, with me quilting the cat quilt.

Whoo!

Ready for binding

This quilt was a collaborative effort of my teacher friends (3 + me) for our beloved secretary, Betty, retiring this year.

We went into our stashes and put together this design in Betty's favorite colors. We strip pieced squares tying in the "white on white" background.

The appliqué, suggested by the pattern, was turned with fusable interfacing.

I did a combination of machine quilting, in the ditch and free motion, on the colored parts with hand quilting in the white background.

Now its Debbie's turn to put on the binding.

Ready to take on our next trip

I recently helped my good friend, Kathi, pick out new linens for her guest room and bath. It was fun to match the lovely shams she had already picked out with new window treatments and towels/shower curtain/rugs.
I asked if she would like me to make a full quilt for the bed but since they live in Arizona, Kathi thought a bed runner would be more appropriate. We went to the local quilt fabric store and picked 3 coordinating fabrics. When I got home, I went to work designing two squares that repeated the flowers in the shams and the art work in the room. The project turned out to be just the right size to hand quilt on our next cruise. Progress to be updated soon . . .

Busy Hand Quilting

I have finished quilting the medallions on my Mary Mannakee and am now working on the grid. The boarder will be last. I thank Janet at Quiltsalot for challenging me to do this quilt. It has been such a learning experience.



When I started the grid, I wasn't excited to use pencil for the markings but I think it was the best choice. I have researched how to remove them in the end. A soft eraser takes most of it off but sometimes I missed the mark and I had to draw again, making them either darker or have an extra line. Do you have any suggestions for treating the marks before washing?

American Heritage Sampler

(26x32)

As you may have guessed, we have been traveling again. I hand pieced this miniature sampler quilt on a March cruise from Beijing to Anchorage (7 days at sea),

put them together when we got home and then quilted it while traveling this July from NY to London on a 18 day “Fir & Ice” cruise including Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Shetlands, & Norway.

This idea started with a barrel marked 15¢ a strip in a San Diego quilt shop that specializes in vintage fabrics. I had fun sorting through odds and ends with no end product in mind. My design plan was to include as many representative patterns as possible. These traditional blocks range from 1800-1860.