Quilts from Two Exchanges

For the last 3 years my quilting friends have participated in an exchange at Christmas of fabric squares. Year one was black and white prints, year two was beiges and browns and last year was circles and swirls. Each of 20 friends brought 2 piles of 8" squares of each type. The beiges and browns became a king size wedding quilt with additions from my stash. 

The black and white top was made with no one in mind and hung in my closet for 3 years. I chose to use the pattern "Chop Stix Strips" that was shared in our quilt class. My friends and I had already used this pattern for a retiree's quilt. 

A good friend's daughter is getting married this fall and it will be the perfect wedding gift for a modern girl. This goal gave me the incentive to sandwich and finish machine quilting it.

The "CIRCLES & SWIRLS" quilt turned out to be very bright and striking. The only guidelines for fabric choices were no poke-a-dots so the color choices were wide open. The challenge was to coordinate the colors in each square. Again I supplemented a few circles and swirls from my stash.

I chose a free pattern from McCall's called "Spice Market", a modified log cabin. I added the last black strip to the block to separate the squares and set off the colors.

This quilt will be a gift to my husband's secretary who is retiring this fall.

"ROCKIN' WITH JESUS" Collaboration

I meet once a month with my church quilt group. We make baby quilts for newborns and the nursery as well as our current projects. This quilt was made for our Woman's Retreat where it was raffled to support Woman's Ministries. Each quilter made several strips measuring the same length using their choice of bright colors but also incorporating black and white. When we came together it was magical.

My contribution was the zigzags and these 50"s girls. Our inspiration came from "Churn Dash II" in Collaborative Quilting by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston.

Sue Martinez is our star applique quilter. She crafted these wonderful 50's motifs by hand.

"SHADES of CURVES": Winding Ways

The idea of a black/white value scale intrigued me. I found this pattern, "Sunset Wheel of Mystery", designed by Brooke Flynn in Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting March/April 2004 (known as "Winding Ways"). The finished queen size quilt was a perfect fit for Krista, my daughter-in-law, who is a photographer and loves to print in black and white (link to her blog under favorites).

The touch of red was a perfect accent. The layout was achieved by using a display wall. The least expensive alternative to purchasing a commercial wall is a vinyl flannel backed tablecloth. By hanging it on an existing curtain rod, you can used the back like a flannel board to "stick" the blocks up in a pleasing arrangement.

I had the perfect backing fabric in my stash but was short by 18" in the width. Using the leftovers, I created an interesting insertion down the middle.