This is a small (14″ square) piece I did in a class given by a local guild member in January, 2006. The class was lots of fun, and I finished the quilt in parts of two days.
Category: Quilts
Wreath Table Runner
I saw the pattern for this block online (the pattern is no longer online, sorry to say) and decided to make it into a table runner, which I finished in November, 2001. I didn’t have enough of any red or green Christmas fabrics to do all of the stripes the same, so I decided to use two reds and two greens in each block. It worked fine. 🙂 Then I added sashing, borders and triangular end pieces to the blocks. The finished table runner measures approximately 68″ x 16.5″. This is a photo of the runner on our table:
And here is a detail where you can see part of the machine quilting. I used gold metallic thread on this, since most of the fabrics had a touch of gold in them, too. The quilting motif in each block is a snowflake, though it’s difficult to see here.
Winding Ways
I really prefer making smaller quilts, but our current bed quilt has taken a lot of abuse with dogs jumping up and down — and I don’t mind at all that dogs like to be on beds. 🙂 Since I’ve wanted for a very long time to try the Winding Ways pattern, that’s what I decided to use for the new bed quilt. I found some lovely Moda (mostly) fabrics and a very good book by Nancy Elliott MacDonald on how to make the blocks successfully — and it all came together. 🙂 I decided which free-motion quilting designs I wanted to use on it, but that’s where I stalled. Unfortunately, since the quilt is so large, I just couldn’t see how I was going to manage it in my then Bernina 630 and with some back problems of my own. However, a very good friend came to the rescue and did a gorgeous job of quilting my top on her longarm machine, adapting my quilting ideas a bit to what worked better for her. The next problem was how to get a photo of the quilt! I just have no place in my home to take a picture of such a large quilt! 😉 The problem was solved, though, by entering the quilt into our local show and taking a photo there — complete with its lovely blue ribbon from that show! 😀
The quilt was finished in February, 2011, and measures approximately 95″ x 112″. Here is a detail of some of the quilting:
Water Lilies
This is a variation of the basic Drunkard’s path quilt, in that it has two inserted quarter circles in each block instead of a single one. I began the quilt in a class but hated the class; the instructor spent most of her time chatting with a few students whom she knew from before and did little or no real teaching. As a result, I put the pieces of the quilt away for a while, getting them out again over a year later to finish. The colors in it reminded me of Monet’s paintings, so I named it Water Lilies. I machine quilted it with swirls to suggest water in the background area and quilted “petals” in the circles. I finished the quilt in November, 2013, with my usual corded piping next to the binding; it measures 45″ x 45″.
And here is a detail of the quilting:
Vintage Sewing
This was a very quick project, made from some printed linen motifs and framed with more linen. It’s the second time I’ve worked with linen from this French seller (l’Atelier d’Isabelle), who comes to the Houston Festival. The fabric is so lovely to work with — so soft and smooth!
The piece measures about 14″ square and was finished in December, 2018. I did very simple quilting, since I didn’t want to quilt inside the printed motifs. Instead, I simply stitched in the ditch around them and then added the swags and circles in the outer border before adding the piping and binding.
Twitch, Twiddle & Tweak
This is the first of three small quilts begun in classes given by Jennie Rayment at Quilt Camp in the Pines in July, 2007. Her classes were fantastic! This little quilt measures about 25 1/2″ square and was machine pieced and quilted, with a few little “twiddles” added by hand. I finished it on July 31, 2007, adding some corded piping into the binding.
And here is a detail of one corner:
Twister Illusions
In May, 2014, I was lucky enough to be able to take a quilting cruise onboard the Oasis of the Seas. Each of the at-sea days was spent in a class, and one of the classes was a Twister class taught by Marsha Bergren. Instead of making the quilt she’d proposed for the group, though, I chose to do another that had caught my eye. This one was designed by Marilyn Foreman. Her version was to be made in any size from baby quilt on up to queen-sized. However, I decided to make mine a miniature — the first mini I’ve made without paper piecing. My finished quilt measures 22″ x 18.5″ and is entirely machine pieced and machine quilted, and I finished it in June, 2014.
I used feathers to quilt the blue and aqua motifs, but then I experimented with curved cross-hatching (another first) for the black background areas.
Tucked-Up Circles
This one — from another class with Jennie Rayment — was lots of fun to make! The upper circle has 36 tucks sewn into it; each tuck was then twisted in opposite directions several times to get the effect seen here. The lower circle has only 18 tucks; these were brought together and tacked. Finally, the tucked points (Babies in Baskets) were added around the outside. After machine quilting the “rays” emanating from the circles, I added the little four-petaled “flowers” (I believe they’re called Folded Fabrications) with a button in the center of each. The quilt measures 32″ x 23″ and was machine pieced and machine quilted, with some of the twiddling and fiddling done by hand.
This is a detail of parts of the circles:
Tree Skirt
This Christmas tree skirt came from a pattern published by Susan Rand and Paula Kemperman and measures approximately 45″. I machine pieced and hand quilted this one in 1989 or thereabouts — I can’t remember! 😉
Trapunto Hearts
I took a machine trapunto class from Philippa Naylor at the Houston Quilt Festival in November, 2011. She gave us several patterns to choose from, and I combined elements of a couple to come up with this design. I used a combination of wool and cotton/poly batting for the trapunto layer and Superior Highlights thread for the quilting. I finished it in January, 2012, and it measures 21″ square.
I used pebbled stippling to flatten the background behind the trapunto motifs, and I also decided to adapt the feathers I like so much so that they resemble the hearts in the main portion of the quilt. The color in this detail photo is much more true to what the quilt actually looks like.
