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.

Collaborative Quilts

I.  Jigsaw Puzzle (designed by Alyssa Clancy)

Every year my church quilting group makes a quilt to raffle at the Women"s Retreat to support Women's Ministries at Pomona Baptist Church. 

The theme this years was "70's".
We went into our stash and combined
oranges, pinks and greens for this retro look.

II.  Chop Stix Strips

The retired teachers from my former school have continued the tradition of making quilts for retirees which we started while we were still working at South Pointe Middle School. We see each other twice a week to work on our own projects but also to plan and piece these two quilts.

Claudia, English and ESL teacher, is moving to Arizona. We took the colors for her quilt from the tile in her new house.

III.  Simply Cakes 1.2.3 (Me and My Sister Designs)

I found these fabrics that reminded me of 50's prints and knew they were perfect for my friend Marsha, who is retiring this year. She has been part of our teacher quilter's group from the beginning and has helped make all the retiree quilts. We will miss her since she will also be moving to Prescott, Arizona but we are already planning a gals quilting retreat to her new home.

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 for the mail

I finished my blocks for the SIS, BOOM, POW gather. Once I decide on a design and fabrics, I find it easy to plow through to the finish. I will be traveling soon and I wanted to send this project off before we leave. This was fun. Thank you for the opportunity V.

My FIESTA Package Arrived

Bumble Beans sent these wonderful fabrics thanks to Jennifer Paganelli. I get to participate in another charity quilt! This time Victoria wants POW, ZING and WOW using applique and our own choice of design. My inspiration will come from the fabric designs themselves, my current project Mary Mannakee, and from Janet at Quiltsalott.

Follow the progress of all the participants by clicking on the sidebar logo for
SIS, BOOM, POW.

Thank you Victoria for your vote of confidence.

Round Robin Baby Quilts

My church quilt group makes baby quilts for the newborns of members. When the number of ready quilts is low we start a round robin. Each person selects several fabrics from our donated stash. The first person makes a square and passes it on to the next. (The square I made appeared here) I was totally excited about adding to the first but the second just didn't thrill me.
Sue started with these 9 fussy cut framed sea creatures. I seamed them together and added the zigzag border. The easy funky zigzag comes from Collaborative Quilting by Moran and Marston.

I was given the rail fence center. I added the pinwheels and fussy cut teddy bears. Clink on the picture for a close up and try to figure out what turned me off. Maybe its a generational thing.

Pixiedust Gather, my block

Here's my block for the Pixiedust Gather, a collaborative quilt organized by Bumble Beans. Its in the mail, Victoria. Hope it meets your expectations. Thank you for including me. I had fun designing this based on the fabric print. I needle turned the branches and use a glue stick to turn the flowers and leaves before applique.

"STARS FOR JESUS", another collaboration

This year's theme for Woman's Retreat . . .

Here I am with my church quilting group. We made another quilt for our Woman's Retreat and raffled it off. The only instructions from our leader was to use the dark starry night fabric as the background and incorporate the blue and yellow provided. With all the assorted sizes, it was a bear to assemble but worth the effort.


I made 4 stars, including this mariner's compass (left), paper pieced (Not my favorite thing to do but I like the result). Claudia, the group's leader, made this star (right) for the back (to fill in where we were short of backing fabric). We are already starting on a quilt to correspond with next year's theme.

As I continue to piece hexagon rows, I realized it will be shorter than desired so . . . I scrounged my scraps and I'm now piecing more hexagons for 2 more rows. Still finding this fun.

It's Time Again for "Challenge Walk MS"

Kathi and I have been friends for over 35 years. She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in her early 30's. It has progressed to confinement to a wheelchair but her faith, sense of humor and spirit has never diminished. I made this colorful lap quilt for her last year and she loves that it draws people to come over and talk to her.

My niece also has a long time friend, Rita, who has MS. As part of Team Momentum, Abby will walk with friends who have known Rita since High School.

Abby raises additional money by raffling a quilt that she and I make. This was last year's and we will be starting another very soon.

The T-shirts for the walkers and volunteers become the focus and create the theme. Tropical stamp fabric was perfect for the sashing and palm tree flannel became the backing. The hibiscus flower was scanned from the logo and enlarged. I used fusible web (see "Mon" entry) and machine applique to create this shadow effect.

"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.