T-shirts for Jim's wife

Uh oh.  I hope I'm not spilling a secret here.  Jim contacted me about making a quilt for his wife from their son's shirts. 

 I think this is my favorite.

This was a dress shirt, and the facings of the cuffs and collar band were of a different, although similar print.  I thought it would be fun to cut off the cuff, and turn it to the "outside" then stitch it to the shirt.

Cheer shirts and uniforms for Jackie's oldest

 Drat!  I forgot to get a photo of the quilt before Jackie and her husband came to pick it up, so I asked them to hold it up so I could get a picture for the website.  They did a great job, but I must have moved when taking the photo, and now it's blurry.

Here is one of her uniforms for cheer.  This was a new challenge to try to incorporate such heavy fabrics.  Learned that my girl (quilting machine) didn't like going over the heavy fabric, and this jersey was somewhat distorted in places.  Live and learn.

I really wish that I had a photo of the bottom left of the quilt.  We took a pair of the panties that she wore under her skirt and appliqued them to a block.  Zebra stripe with sparkles.  Really fun!

Owls by me for charity

 Quick!  Find the "humility block"!  Those are the blocks that you intentionally make a mistake in because only God is perfect.

This is one of the quilts that ended up starting out as a king sized mystery quilt.  I wasn't happy with my color choices, didn't like the lengthy piecing, so finally bailed on it.  Now I've got all these blocks, and no plan to finish the project.  What to do?  Charity quilts!

This is a new panto that I don't have listed in my pantos yet.  Owls with leaves.  Really cute.  I used a variegated thread in the top, and a a dark green in the bobbin to really show up on the bright yellow backing. 

 I was giggling to myself because it was "Cyber Monday", and I was on a bike ride with friends. Kept seeing police officers in cars.  Just driving past me, doing their jobs.  I interpreted this as my late father, and former cop with City Of Portland, telling me that I needed to get this quilt donated to the police and soon!  I'd had the quilt done for a few days by then.  Sure enough, after dropping off the quilt at the police, I stopped seeing so many police officers driving around.  Thanks for the nudge Dad!

I just looked. I'm up to 3 quilts for charity from this one planned quilt so far.  I think when I was looking in a bag for another quilt, I found another quilt top from this same grouping though.  I REALLY hope that I've found all the blocks and got them all made into tops, but one never knows what you can find in the sewing room closet.

Christmas applique by Sara

 First let me say that I really admire anyone who does applique.  Let's just say that my talents lie in other areas.  Not only did Sara applique every single block in this quilt, much of them are done by hand!  Wow!  She also told me that she didn't care for some of the designs, so came up with her own, or found others that she preferred and incorporated them into the quilt.   In addition, many of these designs have dimensional components.  The scarves have loose ends, the ski pole straps aren't stitched down.  So much fun! My challenge?  How to quilt this so it's not just the same thing in each block.  That's where the fun begins!

 If you are familiar with Portland I hope that you recognize the KOIN (local news channel) tower and the Fremont Bridge.  I was supposed to ask Sara which house was hers, but then I forgot as we talked about her lovely quilt.

A simply looping meander behind the carolers.  They are singing "Oh Holy Night."

 "Rudolph" has a figure 8 meander in his background.  8 tiny reindeer?

 Arrowhead meander behind the candlestick.  I thought it went well with the candle flame.

Peacock feather meander for the snowman.  Makes me think of swirly snowflakes coming down that he needs to sweep away.  You can almost see the candy cane stripes in the red border.

 Birds get music notes because they are singing!

 Saturn meander for the sleigh.  Please don't ask me why I chose that.

 Leaves for the wreath of holly.

 Three different snowflake blocks, this one just got a meander.  I wasn't thrilled with that, but  couldn't think of what else to do.

 This happy guy got a tight loopy meander to make his really stand out from the background.

 Flames behind the lamp post.

 I was trying to mimic the lines left on the ice after the skaters carve it up with their routines.

 They are supposed to be crocus flowers for mom to carry in her basket.

 Pine boughs behind the snow shoes.  Wouldn't you love to go tromping through the snow on fun shoes like these?

It's going to be hard to see, but the sledding snowmen are saying "Whee" as they glide down the mountain.

I kept thinking of the patterns in the snow that you'd see as you ride the chairlift up the mountain to take another run.    So these are the trails that the other skiers have left as they carved patterns in the snow.

I gave Sara back her quilt a few days ago, and got an email from her today.  Here's what she said.

Hi Beth, I am putting on the binding and wanted to let you know how happy I am with your quilting. I was going to give it away but now I have changed my mind. Selfish me. 

Block of the month by Carole

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I consider myself so lucky to be able to A) meet such lovely people like Carole, who by the way is an impeccable piecer as well.  Then she trusts me with her quilts!  When she dropped this beauty off, we pretty much decided that I would put feathered wreaths in the blocks, and something in the border.  Hmm.  Time to play!

 

 I did a feather that moves between the two seams in the cream border.  Rather than have it wrap around the quilt, it and the fern feather in the outer border both stop at seam lines.  Continuous curves in the half square triangle blocks.

 I'm kind of proud of this section.  The spine of the feathers goes around the center of the large cream square.  Then the feathers "grow" down the sides from the top, and up the sides from the bottom.  Plus little feathers in the squares.

 Each block has a slightly different feathered wreath in it.  So why didn't I take pictures of them all?   Feathers that curve out from the "honeycomb" piece above.

Hard to tell in the photos, but there are two colors of thread.  One is cream, and the other more of a pumpkin/ginger color to blend in with the batiks.  Nice job Carole!

Baby grand-daughter's quilt by Ren

The story of this quilt is lovely.  Much of the fabric is from an outfit of Ren's daughter when she was a child.  This daughter is now grown up with her own daughter.  She had asked her mom, Ren, to make her a quilt out of this outfit, so additional fabrics were purchased and combined, and now we've got a quilt for this new baby.

 

Quilted with a daisy chain meander in the outer border and sashing strips.  Loopy meander in the body of the quilt.

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The fabric in this circle is from the original outfit.  How sweet!

Pat's Monkeys

Oh what fun!  So subtle, but so cute.  The colors are grey, yellow and silver.  The Monkeys are in the outer border, but a few other animals in the quilt top as well.  Quilted with the "Funky Monkeys" panto, and a perfect choice!

Alphabet Baby quilt by Pat

I am starting to see the usefulness of panels more.  Not that I've made any panel quilts, but I've bought tow of them! 

 This is an alphabet quilt, so A is for apple, etc.  However, I need some help on "X" and "Z"  I haven't a clue as to what they are supposed to represent, so if you know, or have a suggestion, please add it to this.

We have two suggestions for what they stand for from Michael.  "X" could be for Exercise, and "Z" for Zzz's since they appear to be going to bed.  His other suggestion is that "Z may be for Zoloft".  Anyone else want to offer up an idea?  Serious or funny, all are taken.

Family Quilt by Pat

I think that this is the "family quilt" because it's got bits from lots of different themes.  There's some Batman, some military, just a little bit of everything.

 Quilted with the Clematis Panto

It's a Friendship star block inside of the larger stars.

Michael's Tree skirt

On my every growing list of things to do is to make a new tree skirt for our house for Christmas.  Probably won't happen this year, but at least I've got Michael's for inspiration.  I love the idea of sampler blocks so you never get bored making the same block over and over.  Then the 1/2 square triangles on the edges add the perfect finish.

Quilted with the "Tannenbaum" panto.

Two Nativity wall hangings by Michael

 Michael, you are amazing!  First, the amount of quilts that you produce is astounding.  Then you do exquisite paper piecing.  I can't believe how tiny some of these pieces are!  Then one isn't enough, so you make two at teh same time.  Wow.  Made my life easier though.  I loaded one backing fabric and batting, and then quilted the left one, then the right.  Advanced the quilt and changed thread, and back to the left, then the right.

Michael brought some "Halo" thread from Superior threads.  The company may "guarantee" that the thread will work, but I still have a love/hate relationship with it.  I love the way it looks, but it's rather finicky to work with.  Really loosen up the tension, and quilt really S-L-O-W.  I put loops and little stars in the skies with that, and added a "swirly design" in the outer border.

In the sand of the quilts, I used my favorite King Tut thread and quilted two different "sand" textures.  One horizontal, and the other on the diagonal.