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.

Nice, bright shot, Original work 'Romantic Florals Old & New'

I recently received this picture, photo by JoAnn Gatch, in great natural light.

Here's the latest Charity project I've made to donate through my Guild (Empire Quilters Guild in NYC). The fabrics were all donated to the Guild and these fabrics seemed to want to go together. This is called Romantic Florals, Old and New. The center panel is composed of a group of 6 1/2” squares which I cut by rotary cutter and candlelight, after Hurricane Sandy. In my apartment which had no heat, nor electricity and I’d come home from work and find it was still early, maybe 7- 8:00 PM. So since I wasn’t going to bed that early, what to do? Listening to the transistor radio, I started looking at these fabrics and seeing how well they all went together. So I cut a few squares of each of several floral prints. Over the weekends when I was able to be home during the day, I starting playing around with the resultant 25 squares and changing their arrangement. Here are some shots of it on my own King sized bed which. I wanted to show the whole thing, on a bed. When I heard at the Guild that larger sized quilts were needed, large than lap sized, I decided to grow this quilt larger and began making a border comprised of blocks made from 1/2 square triangles and 1/4 square triangles to surround the center panel. Added some corner squares for good measure. From another angle: Then to grow it further I added another couple of rows, top and bottom using a setting of Roman Rail. After speaking with several of the more experienced Quilters in my Guild, on the Service Committee, I'd learned some recommended bed quilt sizes and suggested border sizes. Then consulted with them further on setting more corner squares. I've donated this top asking that it be long-arm quilted (rather than tied); I hope to post pictures of it when complete.