"Summer at the Turners" by me.

 This one is for our friend Tom, the police officer who was killed in the line of duty.  Tom passed on the same day as my dad, but several years apart.

When I was a kid, my parents put a pool in the backyard, and this quickly became the summer hangout.  I found this panel in August of 2015 at a quilt shop in Coos Bay.  I knew that it would become a charity quilt, but didn't know when.  Finally, I pulled it out, cut the blocks apart, and added that Friendship Star block.  I knew when I was making it that this quilt was for Tom, so that block was appropriate.

 As I was piecing and quilting this quilt, I was able to recall so many fond memories of summers.  Floating in inner tubes down the Clackamas river and having "Boarding parties" to the other raft.

Since the pool was heated only by the solar tubing dad had put on the ground and the water ran through, it wasn't usually terribly warm in the pool.  Consequently, the best way to get in, was to simply suck it up and jump, and get it all over with at once.  Then there's my oldest brother, Dave.  One toe, then another toe, up to his ankles, slowly to his knees and so on.  Since he's 6'6", this took a LONG time!

 No surfboards in our area, but lots of dogs, and many really wild pants/swim trunks/shorts.

Yep, this is pretty much just exactly what it looked like.  Thanks mom and dad for the pool, and for putting up with all of us and our friends.

Chain of Hearts by me.

 This is another quilt for the police.  It's from a novelby Barbara Graham, but sadly I've forgotten which one!  I'm reading them all in a series, so the quilts are starting to run together.

I called this one Chain of Hearts because I came up with a new design of hearts on a chain that I quilted in the border.  It still needs a bit of work, but I am pleased with the concept.    This one went to the Portland Police today in honor of my dad.

African Animals baby quilt by Leigh

 Oh my, what a lucky recipient gets this quilt!  First off, it's all appliqued, by hand.  All done in flannel so it's extra cuddly.
What astounds me the most is that each and every little piece was traced onto the fabric, then cut out,  and stitched to the quilt by HAND!  Oh the time it must have taken.

Sweet little zebra, and those stripes!

Embroidered eyes on the birds and the monkey.

 The wonderful lion has a dimensional mane.

 There are 2 mice on the ground at the elephant's feet!

 Again, hand embroidered eyes, nostrils and mouth.

My personal favorite.  Each and every last one of the spots on the cheetah were done individually.  Wow.

Thorza's Chickens by Pat

Let's see if I remember this correctly.  Thorza was Pat's husband's grandmother who lived to the ripe old age of 101.5 years.  Something to strive for.  According to Pat, Thorza owned a chicken farm and supplied eggs for much of the Willamette Valley in her day.

Quilted with a pantograph design of chicken wire.  How perfect is that?

Kaffe Fasset Flowers by Pat

This quilt was a challenge, and became known to my friend Mia, with whom I email daily, as "The Buffalo Quilt."  No, it's got nothing to do with Buffalo, but it surely had me buffaloed for a long time.  That's the term horse riders use when they are fearful of a horse.  Most of my fears were from my own lack of note taking when Pat dropped it off.  Note to self "some sort of ruler work." isn't helpful when it comes time to quilt!  Once started though, it really went quickly.  The blocks are large, and since they are set on point, there was quite a bit of back and forth on the quilting. I couldn't quite get the entire block in to quilt it all at once, so do a section, advance, do a section, retreat.  Thank goodness for my motorized fabric advance!

Here's a shot of the backing, although it's actually dark green.  I stitched around the print flowers, and in the ditch around the black background of the flowers.  Then feathers in the solid black background around the stars.

 Hard to see the ruler work on those little white dots, but it's there.  Even in person I had to check some places repeatedly to be sure that I had gotten them all.

 More feathers in the borders.  I do love to quilt those!

Dad's and Lindsay's dad's quilt

 This quilt has a bit of a history behind it.  Lindsay had brought me the black and white fabrics to make a quilt in memory of her father.  I carefully washed and dried the fabric, separating lights and darks.  Managed to miss the one red hot pad in the wash that had never been washed.  Sure enough, what was black and white became black and pink.    I bought more fabric to replace what I had messed up, and put this aside for a time.  I randomly pieced the half square triangles of different fabrics together, and then set it with a pink fabric from my stash.  The plan was that this quilt would be for the police.  The batting is pieced together from former projects, and the rest of the fabric all came from my stash.  Recycling from a quilter's standpoint.

Today, I had the pleasure to meet the officer who knew Tom, and gave this quilt to her.  She also told me the story of where the Trip Around the World quilt had gone.  I got a little teary and definitely had chills.  So, here's a quilt from Lindsay's dad, my dad and Tom, plus the recipients of the original fabrics from the stash pieces.  All ready to help someone who's facing a tough time   Thanks everyone.

Continous curves in the pieced blocks.

Hearts in the setting squares since so many people I love were "involved" in this quilt.

Feathers in the outer border because I like them.  Even the perfect black and white binding! 

Mylan's t-shirts

Mylan is off to Gonzaga University in the fall.  This quilt represents much of his life so far.  Basketball, Disneyland, high school, even day care when he was little!

These are planes, and the shirt says "Let's Fly."  I had the quilt top nearly put together, when I started to look at that block.  It looked weird and I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be.  Then I realized that they were the planes, but since I had the letter going across the top, the planes were "flying" on their sides.  No wonder they looked weird.  Thank goodness I figured that out before I quilted it!

Family reunion quilt for Nancy

 What a great idea!  Each year, the family gets together in one of several states and plays.  Grandma has t-shirts made for everyone to wear each year.  Then Nancy brought them to me and they were turned into a quilt for Grandma.

I love this block made by Nancy's son when he was much younger.

Since Nancy and her family live in Portland, she got a Portland bridges shirt and we included that in the quilt. 

African Animals baby quilt by Kelli

Kelli is a new Auntie!  The baby was born early, but both he and mom are doing great.  Great quilt for a baby.  Take a fun panel, add borders, and wrap them up and cuddle them.  The orange photo shows the African Pull toys panto that we used for quilting.
By the way, this is Kelli's first quilt.  Welcome to the world of quilting!

"Allie" memory quilt by Sandy

This is a sad quilt.  "Allie" was a well loved dog who has passed. Sandy made this quilt for her daughter and the mom of Allie. 

Amazing applique, and the tennis ball with the shadow is amazing.

 Cross hatching in the background.

 A shot of the back of the quilt to show the quilting.

The rectangles are photos of Allie either alone or with her mom.  For privacy, I didn't include those.

String pieced Trip Around the World

This one has a long story, so be prepared.

First off, it's yet another of my funky string pieced quilts.  Start with all those little leftover bits of fabric that are at least 1" wide and 7 inches long.  (Since the squares finish at 6")  Sew lots or a few together until you've got a piece big enough, then trim to size.

This time, I tried to make an actual pattern, so drew out the design on graph paper and started to count blocks.  I needed 20 of each color scheme, except for the orange in the center, and that's mostly because I had one orange block left over from another string quilt.  Once I think that I've got all the blocks needed, start sewing them into rows.  Only to find that I can't count, and I'm short on several colors.  Piece more blocks and try again until I've finally got enough to make the top.  Look at it repeatedly and try to decide if it works, of if it's just a jumble of messy fabric.

Since I alternate months on who the quilt is donated in honor of, this one was supposed to be for my dad.  But, he kept telling me in my mind, that "No, this one is for Tom."  I'm thinking, What?  It's too ugly for you dad?  Then I learned the reason it's for Tom. 

Customer Michael emails me to say that his house has been broken into, they stole an ipod, but that seems to be all.  The reason he is telling me this though is to inform me that he gave my info to the police officer who responded to his call after she was commenting on all the quilts in his home.  I asked Michael for the officer's info in the hope that I could give a quilt to her in the future.  I sent her an email explaining my reason for the quilt, and that this was to be given in Tom's honor.  She writes back to inform me that not only did she know Tom, but that they were hired on the same day, and went through basic training together, and became good friends over the course of their careers.  Wow.  So, this is why dad wanted this quilt to go for Tom.

Like Tom, the quilt is a little funky, but I think it all works out in the end.  If nothing else, it's a fun memory for me of a great guy, and it will hopefully provide some comfort to someone in the future.

Pirate baby quilt by Denise

 Sweet baby that's going to get this fun quilt.  Start with fun fabric, add borders and quilt with waves.  Bet the parents to be can't hardly wait to cuddle that new baby with this.

Blue and White panel by Avis

Gotta love blue and white quilts.  Avis took a pretty piece of fabric that she loves, and then added borders.

 I quilted around the blue scallps on both inside and out, so about 1/4" apart.

Then feathers in the borders and 60 degree crosshatching in the blue.  So pretty!

Quilts for Camp Erin by Michael and his friend Jeanette

Michael has made several quilts for Camp Erin, a children's summer camp through his work.  This one is my favorite of this group.  What a great idea to take a panel, like the one above, and then add blocks to build out the quilt to a good kid size.  Quilted with a Saturn meander and stars and loops. 

 Michael's friend, Jeannette made this one.  The block is called Card Trick. Can't you just see a hand of cards there?  Michael told me to "choose my favorite panto" to quilt this one, so I used Tangles. 

It's BIKES!  I have many of these bike fabrics already in my stash, so I have to admire Michael's wonderful taste in fabric.  Quilted with the American Flyer panto, but I call it the bike panto.

Sponge Bob Square Pants!  (Sorry, I don't know the name of his starfish friend.)  Michael, you are so creative and sharing in your talents.  Lucky kids at Camp Erin.
Here's a link to Camp Erin so you can see more about the great work they do there.  http://oregon.providence.org/our-services/c/camp-erin/