This quilt was a very long-term thing! I participated in an online block swap in 1999, and my set of blocks arrived at my home late that May, literally days before I was to move out of state. I was really worried for a little while there! This swap was among people from all over the world whose name was Sandy, or a variation of that: Sandra, Alexandra, Sandi, etc. For a very long time, the blocks sat in my closet while I debated what to do with them. Finally an idea began to form.The blocks weren’t all exactly the same size, which is common in a swap, so I used Sharyn Craig’s Twist ‘n Turn technique to even them up. I like the effect! I had originally wanted to turn this into a blue and yellow quilt, but the red just seemed to want to be used. That was probably because of the events of 9/11/01.
The quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted and measures approximately 66″ x 80″. I used smaller versions of the stars in the corners of the outer border, which is a fireworks print. The quilting includes stitch-in-the-ditch work along the pieces of the sashing, a multicolored swirl effect in the large stars, and dark blue stippling in the blue backgrounds. The border is quilted with a loopy pattern. It was all finally finished in June, 2002. The blocks in this quilt came from Missouri, Florida, California, Massachusetts, and Colorado in the U.S; British Columbia and Saskatchewan in Canada; Leicester in the U.K.; Panama; and South Africa!
I saw a gorgeous quilt at my local quilt shop and fell in love with it. Since I had a gift certificate I’d won, I decided to buy the kit for this quilt, even though I don’t often do kits. The pattern was by June Pease for Red Rooster Fabrics, and it went together quite easily.
I machine appliquéed the circular pieces in the four corners, but everything else was simple piecing. For the machine quilting, I did a lot of outlining of the major motifs in those corners and in the center panel, using gold metallic thread to echo the gold tracery in the fabrics. The same gold thread made scallops in the various squares and rectangles of the borders; but I used black thread in the top and bottom portions of the center panel, doing swirls in the top section and leaves in the bottom. This is a detail of the center panel:
There is also corded piping between the outer border and the binding. I pieced, appliquéed and quilted this by machine, finishing in September, 2012. The quilt measures approximately 60″ x 70″.
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This quilt was finished in early 1992, approximately two years after beginning it (two years is a long time; that’s another reason why I haven’t made many large quilts!). This was the first project I hand quilted as a whole, rather than lap quilting (though I machine pieced), mainly because the rows were set on the bias and I was afraid of stretching the quilt. Each of the larger, plain blocks has a feathered wreath quilted into it. This one measures 85″ x 99″.
In January, 2000, I took a class from Jodi Barrows, using her Square in a Square techniques to make this star quilt. It was machine pieced and hand quilted. I know some people think this technique might be difficult because of the many bias edges, but I found it quick and easy — if you’ve starched the fabric first to prevent the otherwise inevitable stretching! It measures 35 1/2″ x 46 1/2″.
During the summer of 2015, I downloaded weekly blocks from San Francisco Stitch Company, done in machine embroidery, thinking to practice this technique. The blocks had a theme of travel around the US, and they were fun to do. I finished the quilt in September, 2015, using some echo quilting in the blocks and the corded piping I so like to place next to the binding. The finished quilt measures 21.75″ square.
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I belonged for a time to an email group called Quilt en France, which was for francophone quilters — a truly nice group of people from all over. The list mom came up with the idea of having a challenge, in which we would make a prescribed block each month and post the results online for the group to see. The blocks could be in our own choice of fabrics, which made for some wonderful differences in what had started out as the same block for each of us. When I made my blocks, I didn’t bother to redraft the downloaded patterns, so almost all of them turned out to be different sizes — a nightmare when it came time to set them together into a top. Luckily, I took a class from Sharyn Craig at Quilt Camp in the Pines in July, 2004, and she came up with some really imaginative ways to standardize the sizes of the blocks I’d decided to use. Success! (And the source of the quilt’s name.) I set the nine blocks on point and then floated Lemoyne Stars between them. The setting triangles are a Sharyn Craig idea, too, and they give the impression of an inner border. After finishing the top, I machine quilted it in variegated soft blues. The quilt, finished in January, 2005, measures approximately 56″ square.
And here’s a detail of the quilting, which is mainly in free-motion feathered motifs:
The strange thing about this quilt is that I couldn’t ever figure out why I was making it — in other words, I had no plan for the finished project, which is very unusual for me. However, the reason for that became clear as I quilted it. The quilt became a gift for my terrific step-sister! So that’s where it lives now, and I hope she’s getting lots of warm use out of it. 🙂
I took another class from Freddy Moran when she came to our area in May, 2003. This time we made her Garden Party Ladies blocks, along with topiary trees. My ladies’ dressses are made from provençal fabrics I bought in Houston at the festival, and they’re on multicolored backgrounds. When I was quilting this, I decided to make the quilt a memento of my first trip to Houston and the wonderful time several quilter friends had while staying at the Ramada there. Seven of the dresses have the name of one of us “Ramada Gals”, and the remaining two have related information.Here’s the quilt:
This was machine pieced and machine quilted and measures 51 1/2″ x 46 1/2″. I finished it in late August, 2003 — just in time to get ready for the next Houston show! 😉 Starting on the left in the top row, the ladies/gals are: (row 1) Wendy/Frood, Ramada gals, IQF 2002 Houston; (row 2) Ally, Sandy in Henderson, Marilyn/Nurse Ratched; (row 3) Pat in VA, Kris in northern VA, Kathy Z./lurker.
For the label, I took a photo of one block and made the photo very pale, superimposing the text I wanted over that:
I took a class from Marsha McCloskey in April, 2005, when she came here as part of our local quilt show. I’d already made another small Feathered Star, but I really love this pattern (it’s based on the Lemoyne Star, after all!), so I took the class. We worked on the Radiant Feathered Star in class, learning how to draft our own patterns, too. After I finished my block at home, I decided to make three more, two in reversed colors; but the fabric is too old and isn’t available, so now I have another small wall hanging! 😉 This one was machine pieced and machine quilted and measures 21″ square.
There are red machine-quilted feathered hearts in each of the two-color squares, and there are cream feathered sprays in the border. The star points are stitched in the ditch, and there is a LeMoyne Star quilted in the center. I inserted piping between the border and the binding and finished the little quilt in May, 2005. Here’s a photo of the back, where you can see the quilting more easily.
My quilt buddy, Phyl, came for a visit and to work on an adorable quilt together, each of us making our own version. Neither of us had ever planned to make a quilt using the technique of appliqué in the hoop, but then there was this set of designs …. We couldn’t resist, as both of us are dog lovers. There were ten different puppies to choose from, along with some “filler” blocks, but I was hoping to make this a very narrow quilt to fit a small wall in my sewing room. Unfortunately, it didn’t work that way, and the quilt now measures 23″ x 27″, which is just a bit too wide for that wall. Oh well. 😉 The dogs and other motifs were done with appliqué on the embroidery machine, and the paw print border is all embroidered. I free-motion quilted it, trying for a bit of variety in the background motifs.This was finished in September, 2014.
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In July, 2012, my husband and I took a cruise around the Hawaiian Islands to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. While there, I found a beautiful batik fabric that is apparently only sold by a specific Hawaiian quilt shop, and I also fell in love with all of the lush flora there. After some experimenting at home, I found a photo online of the plumeria blossom and made it into templates for this quilt. I machine appliquéed the leaves and blossoms and machine quilted the finished piece, adding the piping that I like so much. The quilting has pebbles between the leaves to represent the earth where the plant grows, evolving into swirls further away to represent the water surrounding the islands. The border has a variation of those swirls.
Here is a detail of some of the quilting, and another of the flowers:
The quilt measures approximately 27″ square, and I finished it in April, 2013.
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