Vlad's Cop quilt

Vlad is a friend/manager at work.  He and his partner were in an auto accident and he now holds a spot in his heart for police officers  based on his experiences after that accident.

This is simply a whole cloth from black fabric, quilting with gold thread, then I played with my rulers.  Wondering what I could do with them.  Many designs are copied from others, a few I created on my own.

Thank you to Mary Beth for donating her leftover wool batting as that was used for the batt.  I gave this to Vlad to give to an officer of his choosing. (I can also see future whole cloth practice quilts coming)

 

"Disappearing 9 Patch" by Gerry H

Gerry's comment to me on how to quilt this quilt was "Use your imagination" and he gave me my choice of thread .  I opted for a gold, and then started playing on the quilt top.

"Espresso Bean" in the sashing, then a couple of different rulers in the blocks.  Both curves and straight.  Then feathers in the white background.

This is for Gerry's grandson who is in the military.  The piecing reminded me of propellers.

 

"My Flock Rocks!" by Beth

Our cycling group refers to ourselves as "The flock" as we tend to wear a lot of flamingo tights.  (Long story...)  I used to have a sticker on my bike helmet that read "My Flock Rocks", but I had to replace my helmet, so no longer have the sticker.  That was the inspiration for the name. 

This quilt pattern is from Debi Montgomery's Mystery Quilts Anonymous.  This was her "Tea Party" mystery that was released on New Year's 2023.  I make it with a plan to offer it for sale at the Sister's Outdoor Quilt show this summer.

Since flamingos have feathers, there are lots of feathers in this quilt!  Wreaths in the pink squares above, as a background fill below.

 Since I kept seeing diamond shapes, I had to quilt a diamond facet there.  So much fun to play!

"Still Flocking After all these Years" by me

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This quilt requires a bit of explanation for my focus fabric choice.  My brother Joe is also my "cycling buddy", and he is the one who started me wearing unusual tights for biking (Joe's motto.  "Why go for plain when you can wear flamingos!")  So, each time we go to a quilt shop, I've got to search for flamingo prints to use for "someday."  

"Someday" finally arrived on New Year's day 2021 when Mystery Quilts Anonymous hosted a New Years day mystery quilt.  We were supposed to be able to piece the entire quilt top that day.  Well not so much for me.  Took me many days, and then even longer to get the quilting done.  But I had such a good time! 

Several prints in the flamingos, but a the secondary colors were consistent throughout.The corner flamingos resulted in my not taking time to read up on how to make mitered borders, so of course they were too short.  But, having this wonderful large print worked beautifully  The quilt had to keep growing to make it the size of a California King bed with drop on the sides.  Ended up at 117" square.  The birds in the borders are all facing the top.  I was at least careful there!

How to quilt this was also the challenge.  Once I settled on the "feather theme" (since flamingos have lots of feathers), the worst part was remembering what type of feather went where.  And being sure to use the correct thread color.  At one point, I had 3 bright green sticky notes on my machine, and on the quilt top as reminders.  They didn't even always work!

The backing is a slightly mottled grey, something that would allow the quilting to show.  Wool batting to give it loft and warmth.