Silk throw for William of Barley Twist

Bill contacted me via email about this silk throw.  His customer had had it made, but it was silk on the top and backing.  Lovely, but slippery as all get out.  They wanted it re-quilted so that she could keep it as a throw to cuddle under when it's chilly, and then pass it down to the next generation.

Bill trustingly shipped the whole thing to me, and I took it apart.  Quilted it with wool batting and a 108" lavender cotton backing fabric.  Quilted with Glide "Mocha" thread, following the design of the paisley in the fabric.  I'd never quilted silk before, so initially, scared to death, but it quilted up beautifully.

He also sent me a piece of what appears to be silk or at least a blend for the binding.  It's heavier than what I'm used to working with, but turned out to be quilt lovely.  I love how the thickness of the fabric makes it more reminiscent of cording that you'd find on upholstered furniture.

When you need a little eye candy, be sure and check out
http://barleytwistantiques.com/

Lots and lots of lovelies.

"Memories of Dad" by me

Yep, another string quilt for the police.  This one is for dad, although I wasn't a quilter when he was alive. 

 Quilted with "Flaming Flamingos" pantograph, and pink thread.  The flamingos were initially chosen for brother Joe, but they also reminded me of the peacocks that Dad used to love so much.  And we all hated.  Idiot birds.

 We all know the old line "Never a police officer when you need one."  Well, today that was proven wrong.  I was loading up the car with other errands to run, and backing out of the driveway.  Just happened to see a police cruiser turning onto our street, so threw the car into park, and went out and flagged him down.  I had attached a "Dear Officer" letter to the quilt, but as I gave it to him, I just told him a brief background of why I wanted him to have the quilt.  Just made me so happy to be able to give him the quilt, and I hope that it brightens his day.  I know that giving him the quilt brightened mine.

Owls by Pat.

New babies are coming, so they need quilts!

 I love how Pat fussy cut the owls and then alternated the two different owls in the quilt.

 Quilted with the Owls pantograph, but really hard to see.  If you look at the above photo, top right corner, and squint, you can sort of see the owl that's quilted in there.  Lucky baby to get this quilt.

Bali rectangles by Pat

As a seamstress/quilter, I LOVE fabric.  Sometimes though the fabric that means that you are given fabric that just doesn't thrill you, but it was a gift so you have to use it.  That's what happened to Pat.  Relative went traveling, brought her back some lovely fabric, but it's not Pat's style.  Still, she made this wonderful quilt top, and I hope that she'll be much happier with the quilt now that it's quilted.

Quilted with the Gingko Garden panto to pick up the dragonflies in one of the fabrics in the quilt.

The dark purple is the gift fabric.  While I probably wouldn't wear a whole garment out of it, I think Pat has really made it work in this quilt.  

Flannel "Bear Lake" by Masha

This is a really fun quilt that Masha must have designed.  I freely admit that when I was getting ready to put in on the machine to quilt, I had to stop and pause to remember what was the top and what was the backing.

Quilted with the Log Cabin panto, perfect on this quilt. 

Bear Paws and Trees by Judee.

 Practically impossible to see the quilting on the front of this quilt since I used Monopoly thread.  I didn't want the thread to be the focus of the quilt, so this thread barely shows up.   The problem is that you can't see the pretty quilting!  Vines in the outer border and in the wood grain first border I outlined some of the "grain".  You'll see it below.

 Stitching in the ditch around the piecing, in the woodgrain,

and outlining the animals to give them a little texture.

This quilt will go to a silent auction for the CCA that Judee's husband and son are a part of.  Great job Judee!

McKenna Ryan, Bela Garden by Michelle

I love McKenna Ryan's work.  So detailed.  Michelle brought me this quilt that she had purchased with laser cut fabrics.  Great choice because then she didn't have to trace and cut all those little tiny flower petals out herself!

I wanted to add to the beautiful quilt, so only quilted some details on the petals and leaves, then an easy background fill.

 In the borders, there are "molar" feathers and leaves to tie in with the floral theme.

Tom's scrappy squares

This quilt has a story behind it.  

It's one of those where I found the pattern in a magazine, and then started to save scraps for it to make as a beginner ender quilt.  One where you start and end each seam of your "real" quilt with a scrap so that you don't have long thread tails, and when you've been playing for a while, you've got a bunch of scrappy blocks made!

So I've been working on these blocks for a long time, finally got them put together into a quilt top for charity, but it's turn for quilting didn't come up for a time.

On Jan. 31, 2016 my friend Judith posted on Facebook that that day would have been the 54th birthday of her younger son Tom.  That was the day I loaded this quilt onto the machine, and started to quilt it, in Tom's honor.  Tom was a police officer with the City of Portland who was killed in the line of duty.

A few weeks earlier I had accosted an officer while out biking and asked if officers in general would like to have the quilts that I make to carry in their cars to give to people who need them in a crisis.  So, that's where my police quilts will go now, directly to the officers.

I made up a note to pin to the quilt, explaining the significance behind the quilt.  I had planned to give it to the staff in the precinct, but the building was closed for the holiday.  I ended up leaving the quilt with the note up on top of a police car outside of the precinct.  I figure that between Tom and Dad, they got it into the right hands.

So, new monthly policy. First quilt of each month goes to the police, and extras for what would have been Tom's and Dad's birthdays.  Also July 21st, the day they both died, although in different years.

Like Tom, this quilt is quite bright. Although Tom wasn't a bright dresser, he was quite intelligent, so that's the connection there.  Our friend Grace suggested that Tom needed "Garanimals" clothing for adults.  The ones where the little kids only need to match the animal in the label to know that their clothes matched.  Tom had no fashion sense, and joked that one of the best reasons for being a police officer is that his clothes always matched, and he got to carry a weapon!

The backing of this quilt is grey, like the "Police" outfit I made him for his SCA gatherings.  I think that he would have appreciated that.

Pat's baby quilt

All these people having babies means that there are more baby quilts tat need to be quilted.

 Here's a fun one from Pat to go to friends of hers.  Yes it's quilted with a chicken wire pantograph.  Perfect with the farm animals.

A Scrappy Le Moyne Star by Sara

I do love scrappy quilts, and here's a stunner.

 

Oh to have Sara's precision piecing abilities and the willingness to frog it out if it's not right.    Look at how beautifully all those points line up, with none of them cut off.

Love these little diamonds pieced for the outer border.

Double Wedding Ring by Pat

I am truly honored.  Pat contacted me via email after seeing my website, and asked me to quilt this drop dead gorgeous quilt for her.  She lives in WA state, and we've never met, only communicated via email.  While I am so grateful for her to trust me with this, I'm not sure that I'm that trusting of strangers!

Pat wanted wool batting, and after several emails back and forth, she sent me a link to a feather design that she liked.  I was having such fun quilting this quilt, that I was pretty sad to see that last row of quilt come up.  Feeling a time crunch to get the next one up, but still sad to finish this.

The bottom portion of this photo is not quilted because it is the bottom of the quilt, and Pat will be trimming that off and leaving the edges of the quilt scalloped.

Although it appears almost peach colored in this photo, the backing is actually white.  I love how the quilting shows.  Pat told me that this is a Quilt Smart pattern, and I may be willing to take this design on.  Piecing a DWR is on my "someday" list.  It may be moving closer to the top.

Convergence on point by Judy

This is another of those quilts where when you are working on it you think "This is a cool quilt."  Then when you finish it, and stand back to really look at it hanging up, you say "WOW!  Cool Quilt!"

Judy told me that she had made this for her son, but is a little delayed in getting it finished an on to him.  I hope he thinks that it was worth the wait because this is a really cool quilt!

"Ken's Labyrinth" by Xande

Ah, my very best biking buddy, Xande made this one.  Can you see the Cycle Oregon Logo in it?  

It's called Ken's Labyrinth because Ken is the first name of the man who is primarily responsible for determining the Cycle Oregon route each year.  Labyrinth because that's what the design is.  Background is the blue bike fabric that we found right after we returned from our "Hell on Wheels" ride in 2015.  The rest of the fabrics are those that we picked up on the ride.

Took me a long time to get the joke.  The labyrinth starts with coffee, as all good bike rides do, and ends with beer and corndogs.  How else could you end a ride?

After I gave my quilts, I heard back from the Cycle Oregon folk that they intend to save the quilts for on the ride and to use them as a fundraiser there.  Maybe people will be cold (but not wet. That was last year), and want a warm blankie to wrap up in.  Also, these will be great keepsakes of the ride.  I really hope that they raise OODLES of money for the ride!

Circles by Amber

I honestly think that this is the biggest quilt that I have ever worked on.  99"x112".  It barely fit on my 14' long table.  Amber machine appliqued circles to the background with a raw edge technique, so it's got kind of a dimensional look to it.  Really fun.  Quilted with a "ray" design in the center of the circles, and then a meandering vine in the sashing and cornerstone.

Dresden Fan by Dee.

 My darling mother in law, Delores Stearns Durand, passed away in Jan. 2015.  She had hand pieced these lovely Dresden Plate blocks in approx. 2011, and after her passing, I inherited them with the intent to make them into a quilt top to give to her sister Joy Gay. 

The quilt finally made it to the top of the quilting queue, and it is now ready to go on to Hawaii where Joy lives.  I hope that it will provide some comfort to her to be wrapped up in a warm hug from her sister.