Quilting like a madwoman since somewhere around 1984!
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.
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.
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.
Once again, I attended Quilt Camp in the Pines in July, 2002. One of the classes I took was from Freddy Moran to learn a technique for making a pineapple quilt. I used batiks for the colored portions of the top, and the background is a mottled off-white. The pink batik in the center of each pineapple block is repeated as one of the two inner borders and again in the binding. The outer border is made of simple four-patches set on point. I’d originally intended to hang this in our entry hall as a symbol of welcome, but it grew too large for the space. Instead, it will hang over the bed in our guest room.
Here are details of the quilting patterns I used in the pineapple blocks and in the outer border:
As you may be able to see, I used pineapples for the quilting motifs, too — a more ornate pattern in the blocks and a simpler one in the border. The quilt was completely machine pieced and machine quilted with invisible thread, and it measures approximately 50″ square. I finished it in September, 2002.
This quilt (35″ square) is machine pieced and hand quilted. I learned the technique for doing this from a class with Moneca Calvert at Quilt Camp in the Pines in the summer of 2000. The quilt presented a couple of challenges for me. First, I had to learn to do the curved piecing. Second, I couldn’t find a ready-made feathered-heart template in the right size for the quilting, so I had to learn how to draft my own. That was made much simpler thanks to Marianne Fons’ book, Fine Feathers. All of that was worth it, though, when the quilt won third place in its category in our local show in 2001. 🙂
