Baby Quilt Commission 2009 (Kara's quilt)

It was recently suggested to me by the woman who gave me my first baby quilt commission (thanks Denise) that I should post it here on my Quilt Blog since (as she said) it came out so nicely. She asked if I kept pictures of it, as other than one photo with the baby wrapped in the quilt, she had no pictures of it. Happily, I did take pix & kept them, primarily to document the work for myself. This was an interesting design exercise as I used some commercial fabric panels of animals (the animals were suggested by my friend Denise who commissioned it, as the girl's family lives on a farm) & then added some striped fabrics around individual blocks of patterns & tried to color it in ways that would make it more girl-friendly. Here it's shown slung over a bench at a park in front of my home. Different views to show the individual blocks and the quilting I chose to do. Frogs & monkeys & bunnies & kittens, very little kid creatures, they all seem so cheery & kid friendly. The whole thing again, after first laundering, I love how crinkly it gets after washing & drying! The final view is of the back; I did the bindings to match so they just disappear into the background & let the animal themed panels of fabric be the star attractions.

Assembling Donated Quilt Blocks for a Charity Quilt (Karla's Blocks)

Someone donated these blocks to my Quilt Guild & I was asked to assemble them. So I wanted to do justice to these beautifully colored & wonderfully laid out blocks. Initially, I'd picked an off-white to try as border & sashing, but it washed everything out & the group voted it out. Then I saw the light green. Some of these are Kaffe Fassett fabrics, a bit too bright for me. I auditioned yellow, orange, peach as the inner border, but they were just too loud for me. I hope / feel my choice of turquoise pulls it together well. I think the Maker here has a great color sense (I've since learned her name is Karla). I really admire how she could make such beautifully blended & harmonious arrangements of such intense, bright colors. Sometimes charity work allows one to work on really special work by others, a terrific experience all around. I had good fun, learned a lot & feel I did great service to these wonderful blocks. A fellow quilter at a Quilting forum said the following: " I love when people post pictures and I get to see quilts I would never have dreamed of and yet they are wonderful." That's pretty much how I feel, I really got a kick out of working in colors & patterns which I would have never have chosen on my own. I’ve since learned we’ll be able to have this top long-arm quilted by another of our Guild members & that it’ll be backed with the same light green as the borders. I’m so pleased; I look forward to seeing it completed in the Fall.

Depression Block Quilts, My Latest Passion Continues to Fascinate

This is a top I've recently finished piecing, I'm utterly smitten with these particular fabrics. A collection of fabrics I've accumulated in recent years; wonderful play with such fun and interesting patterns.

Depression Blogs Should Come with a Warning Label -- Can be Addictive

Here's my latest fascination: this sample block, a Motif called Depression Block, simple but so very effective. I had these lovely charm squares in vibrant prints. Seemed like it'd be nice. Against the white it's so crisp & with a subtle directional, white-on-white provides a sharp contrast. I used a sheer white fabric with it that I'd found & layered it with a sheet of fusible interfacing between the layers to give it more stability. Such fun! And on the back, I took a chance to play a little bit more.

Recent Charity Work - Doll Quilts

These several doll quilts were interesting to make from orphan blocks & bits of samplers. and the Back: Doing these can be fast & fun & make for small lessons of their own in the process. These quilt blocks were made from what I chose to call 'unfortunately colored' charms squares which came my way some how or another. While the colors are questionable, the way they're laid out, there's enough color contrast to play up the graphic quality of this particular design. On the reverse, a bit of piecing.