Quilt 37 - Brandon's Baby Quilt

1993, 45 x 60
This was one of the first quilts I ever made. It was made for the little cutie sitting on it. His name is Brandon and he is my best friend's first nephew. (He is getting his driving permit this year!)

Mom had the turtle blocks from her days selling Tri-Chem fabric paint. We finished coloring the blocks and used the colors in those to match the rest of the fabrics. The piecing was pretty basic, but it turned out so bright and cheery. And he still has it!

Quilt 36 - Mom's Blue Feathered Star

2000, 20 x 20
If I am not mistaken, my Aunt Gladys started making this quilt when she heard about my feathered star quilt in progress. She wisely stopped at one block and gave it to my Mom as a 50th birthday present. It is hand quilted.

It is amazing how different a block can look just by using different fabric. The detail of this block really stands out by using contrasting fabrics.

Quilt 35 - Ingrid's Feathered Star

2000, 75 x 94
My best friend's Mom once asked me if I would make a quilt for her. Little did I know what quilt she had in mind!! It turned out beautifully but boy was it work. There were 768 half square triangles. (and yes, Mom, I trimmed them ALL!)

Ingrid finished the quilt by scalloping the edge. I also made a row of three stars with a small flowered border to use as a pillow cover. I love the look of the feathered star, but I still have not made one for myself!

Quilt 34 - Black and Grey Wall Hanging

1998, 45 x 55
After making the previous 2 quilts, I had many odds and ends leftover: a few Mary's Triangle blocks, some of the rectangle blocks used in Deb's quilt, and some scraps. Since I gave away both of those quilts, I wanted to make myself a black and white quilt.

I began with the rectangles and the few Mary's Triangle blocks. Those were pieced together to form the center. I had never done a pieced border before and Mom had just taken a class on them, so I thought I would try it on this. I pieced those and adjusted the inner black border to fit.

Mom quilted this for me. We keep saying that we may need to put it back on the machine and add a little more quilting on that black border. I love minimal quilting, but we may have taken it a little far on this one!

Quilt 33 - Black and White Mary's Triangle

1996, 70 x 80
I was a little over-zealous in making the Mary's Triangle blocks for Deb's quilt (quilt 32) and had many left-over. I decided to make a few more and arrange them in this diamond pattern. Instead of taking the blocks all the way out to the corners, I used wide white and black borders to give the eye a place to rest.

Quilt 32 - Deb's Curvy Log Cabin

1995, 65 x 75
Another Sally Schneider design! I made this for my best friend for her birthday (or maybe it was Christmas....). The center blocks are log cabin squares that have skinnier strips on one side, allowing you to piece them into curvy shapes. Around that are two rows of Mary's Triangle blocks. Then I finished it off with some rectangles of all of my fabrics.

Mom and I spent many road trips collecting black and grey fabrics for this quilt. I love shopping for fabric in general, but it was fun to see what different fabrics we could find in different parts of the country.

Mom made the matching throw pillow with the Friendship Star block. The next two posts will be quilts I made with the same fabrics and some of the same blocks as Deb's quilt.

Quilt 31 - Blue/Burgundy Wall Hanging

My sister, Gladys, brought me a gift many years ago. It was a journal that had a picture of a quilt on the front of it. The second surprise of the gift was that she had made a quilt like the picture, hand quilted and all. Thanks again, Gladys!

Quilt 30 - Red Bow Quilt

year?, 60 x 60
Our friend Trulee worked at a fabric store that purchased the inventory of other fabric stores that were going out of business. They never knew what they were going to get, but when these two fabrics came in she called Annie and me. We hurried over and bought the bolts. All 3 of us started quilts. I finished mine but I can't remember if they did.

We started by making the bows with the flip and sew method. I didn't throw away any of the corners we cut off and when I saw the pile of half/square triangle blocks I decided to put them into the quilt. Then the math part came in because I didn't have quite enough of the little half square blocks to finish the quilt. A few alterations and I had the quilt finished.

There wasn't much wasted fabric on this quilt! I don't remember which year I made this, but I know there are pictures of it on the design wall at another retreat at Pacific Beach.

- posted by Ione

Quilt 29 - Burgundy Tulips

2002, 30 x 30
I chose this pattern to highlight the lovely border fabric. It has tulips of course! The pattern is "Expression of Roses" by Lori Lorentz, Sew Happy Quilting. Even though the pattern is supposed to be roses, I thought they looked enough like tulips that I could get away with it!

Quilt 28 - Tea Cup

1998, 10 x 15
As stated on the entry for quilt 26, I love the reverse applique method for stained glass. Shortly after I learned how to do it, I started making my own patterns. This was the first one I designed. I LOVE coffee, so I made this to hang in my kitchen.

Quilt 27 - No Ruler Tulip

2000, 16 x 22
Ricky Tims came to teach a class for the Westsound Quilt Guild. We used no rulers or patterns. He just said cut a square about "this big" and make a cut "right about here" and another cut "right about here", etc. Before you knew it you had this great little flower!

Because you use no templates, the flower turns out a little differently every time you make it. The dancing square border was also done without measuring. Mom and I were wondering why we hadn't used it on more quilts. It looks so festive!

Quilt 26 - Stained Glass Tulips

1997, 25 x 30
This was my first reverse applique quilt. I bought the pattern because it was tulips but then fell in love with this method for making stained glass quilts. I have since made several of my own design and teach the method at retreats occasionally.

I bought the pattern while on vacation in Billings, MT. It was fun to look for the fabrics during the rest of our trip.

The pattern is Cathy Robiscoe's Spectral Designs "Springs Promise".

Quilt 25 - Rose Window

2004, 40 x 40
I drafted this pattern from a picture I had taken of the rose window in the cathedral of Sevilla. I used a reverse applique method, so the brown is all one piece.

When I was done I wished I had used a darker fabric for the background, but I still have the pattern, so maybe I'll make another one some day.

Quilt 24 - Plaid Nine Patch

2000-ish, 45 x 60
This was another design-as-I-go quilt. Mom used to go to a wholesale place that had bags of fabric you bought by the pound. It was usually samples and smaller pieces of fabric. We ended up with a bag of plaid pieces.

I started with the nine patches, but it was getting little busy so I tried a few different sashes before deciding on the white with plaid strips in the center. Thankfully there were some larger pieces that I could use for the set in blocks. I used scrap plaids for the binding.

Quilt 23 - Lone Star companion Tulip Wall Hanging

1993, 24 x 24
When I received my Lone Star Quilt (Quilt 5) I wanted to make something to go with it. Aunt Glad was kind enough to send me some scraps from my quilt and I made this tulip wall hanging. I hand quilted this one. The light border fabric is a tone on tone with small flowers.

I couldn't get to the blog yesterday, so be sure to check out Quilt 22 also. And Canadian Gail - I've added the pattern information for Quilt 21 - Woven Star. You can find it in the text of that post.

Quilt 22 - Plaid Primitive Heart

2002, 50 x 65
I made this quilt at one of Mom's retreat classes in Diamond Lake, OR. Primitive Hearts go together relatively quickly but look so cute when you are done. I had this plaid in my collection for quite some time and this pattern seemed the perfect use for it. The Primitive Heart is like the start of a log cabin block, then set on point with solid blocks.

I had made a couple of extra hearts, so decided to use those in the border.

Quilt 21 - Woven Star

2002, 30 x 30
The third of my Sally Schneider Workshop quilts, this used a strip piecing technique. By using two color schemes, it is great for any season. Extra sections from the pieced stars were used for the sashing. The pattern for this quilt is in Sally Schneider's Scrap Frenzy (That Patchwork Place, 2001, ISBN 1-56477-363-9), page 80.
-posted by Ione

Quilt 20 - Blue and Yellow Jewel Box

199o's, 70 x 70

I pieced this jewel box at a class Mom taught in Staples, MN. Her cousins, Mel and Lorna, own a retreat cottage where Mom teaches classes every couple of years. I was lucky enough to travel with her one year and take part in a Jewel Box class.

The quilt top sat around for several years until a friend of mine sponsored a group at Relay for Life and asked for a quilt they could raffle. We went through our stash and found this bright, sunny quilt top and knew that would be just the one to bring a smile to the winner's face. Mom quickly quilted it after finding the perfect border fabric.

It was raffled at the 2005 Relay for Life in Port Orchard, WA. That was the same year Mom was diagnosed with cancer, so it was extra special for us to be able to donate something we had made together.

Quilt 19 - Painless Border Quilt

2002 - 50 x 50
Like the last quilt, this was pieced at a Sally Schneider workshop held by our guild. The pattern is from one of her Painless Borders books. The idea is to piece the border in blocks the size of your center blocks. Then it is just a matter of sewing the blocks together and you get this neat border.

Quilt 18 - Blue and Gold Flower

2001-ish, 30 x 30
Our guild offers many great workshops and this wall hanging was pieced at a workshop with Sally Schneider. The project was for a larger quilt but I have long ago learned that if I don't finish it at the workshop it will be a UFO (Unfinished One) for many years. This pattern is in her book "Scrap Frenzy" published by Martingale & Company, 2001, page 57.
-posted by Ione

Quilt 17 - Pink Plaids and Stripes

2004 - 54" x 54" (That's for you, G! We'll try to get better about sizes and dates!) I purchased the pink fabrics in this quilt on our way to Chelan, WA to visit my brother for Christmas. (We can't quite remember if it was purchased at the quilt shop in Chelan, or one in Leavenworth.) It was supposed to be a non-quilting trip so we didn't bring any supplies with us, but we weren't there for more than a day when we decided we HAD to do something with those pinks! Thankfully Mom had a friend who lived near my brother, so we could borrow the essentials.

I loved the stripes and plaids and wanted to use larger pieces of them, but knowing Mom would be quilting it I wanted to keep them small enough that they wouldn't require individual designs in each square. I started with 6" blocks of the pinks, and chose green for the sashing. I had picked up the darker plaid for the border so decided to use that as the corner stones, too. The stars were an impromtu design element to add some movement to the quilt.

Since I was designing on the fly, it was no surprise that I ran out of material when it came to the borders. The first solution was to put a square of lighter pink at the corner, only I didn't have enough of that fabric either. I ended up using pink squares in two of the corners and pieced stars for the other two.

This was going to be cuddle quilt, so I put flannel on the back. Perfect for wrapping up on the couch!

Quilt 16 - Playing with Marbles

Moda Marbles fabric line is a favorite fabric for me. I use it as a solid but it is really a marbled look with lots of shades of a color in it. These shirting fabrics were in a By the Pound bag I purchased. I didn't know what to do with them since I usually like bright jewel tone fabrics. I liked this combination, reminding me of kids' shirts playing with marbels.
- posted by Ione

Quilt 15 - Mary's Triangle

I LOVE this block! I found this in Sally Schneider's Scrap Mania when I was working on my Tulip Applique Quilt. The block is called Mary's Triangle. (If you use a square instead of the small triangle, it is called Mary's Square.) You can arrange it in many different ways but this elongated "s" shape really caught my eye.

As you can tell by the previous quilts I tended to gravitate to blue and green fabrics. This pattern was perfect to alternate between the two. I mixed in some pastels between the rows and used some darker colors for the small triangles. It is a little hard to see in the picture but I used a small bright blue border before the dark green outer border.

I've used this block in many quilts. It is especially cute as a border or to mix with larger blocks. And depending on how you arrange them, you can get some great secondary patterns from the smaller triangles.

Quilt 14 - Crystal Single Irish Chain

The second spin-off from the scrap tulip quilt was this single irish chain. In a search for the border fabric we had purchased this blue and teal crystal fabric. We decided that it was too busy for the tulip quilt, but wanted to put it in something that would show off the wonderful texture and colors. The single irish chain allowed us to keep the faric in large pieces and let the fabric be the focul point.

Quilt 13 - Blue/Green Double Irish Chain

As I was working on my Tulip Applique Quilt (Quilt 12, I think it was around 1993), a piece of the backing and a piece of my border fabric ended up on a stack together. They looked so good together I just had to make a quilt with them. I decided to do a double irish chain because I didn't have much of the blue and green fabric so I wanted to do something that would really make it pop.

I tried laying it out several ways, and decided I liked the chain blocks on point. It gives it a different look and finishes off the edges. You can see how little blue and green fabric I had in the bottom picture. I had to fill in the small border at the corners with different fabric!

Quilt 12 - Tulips and Nine Patch Scrap Quilt

Let's go back....way back! This was the first bed sized quilt I made. Prior to this I had made only lap quilts and baby quilts, all of which I made for other people. I wasn't going to "be a quilter" but I saw this pattern in Sally Schneider's Scrap Mania and was of course drawn to the tulip pattern. Why I chose applique for my first full size quilt is beyond me.

My first task was to choose scrap fabrics for the tulips and nine patches. After going through boxes and boxes of Mom's scraps, and spending hours and hours pairing up coordinating fabrics, I think I had enough for three of my blocks. Mom tried again to explain the concept of a "scrap" quilt and I went through the boxes again, this time relaxing my color rules a bit.

Since the tulips were hand appliqued and it was my first quilt for myself, Mom refused to machine quilt it for me and said I had to hand quilt it instead. I don't remember how many hours it took, but I remember thinking I would never finish. What a feeling when you realize you did it!

This tulip quilt sparked a quilting frenzy. The girl who was not going to be a quilter ended up piecing four quilt tops over the next few weeks. Those quilts and the stories of how one led to another will be featured over the next few posts.

Quilt 11 - Glad's Lone Star

This is part 2 of Quilt #5 entry.

When Gladys saw entry #5 she kindly sent us this picture of the orginial packet of fabric, correctly named "Azaleas on the Oregon Coast". The packet still looks as lovely as it did 16 years ago.

Gladys still had fabric left after Karen and Adele's quilts so she made a Lone Star Quilt for herself. I got to quilt it for her and since she sent this picture we can now share it with you also.

- posted by Ione

Quilt 10 - Cousins' Quilt

In the early 1990's I had started reacquainting with cousins I hadn't seen in 20+ years. We were delighted when we found out quilters are we all. After going to California to a Mennonite quilt auction we decided to all make six blocks, exchange them and make a Cousin's Quilt. Thanks to Betty's block which has counted cross stitch in it that says "Life is a Patchwork Quilt Made of Treasured Memories, Stitched for cousins by Betty 1996" I know when we made this quilt. We showed our finished quilts at a reunion and quilt retreat at Diamond Lake, Oregon, several years later. Blocks by Lorna, Marlys, Betty, Ione, Cindy and Adele.

- posted by Ione

Quilt 9 - RT's Remember December

RT’s REMEMBER DECEMBER
30" X 31" 2001
In 2001 our guild was going to have a guest teacher by the name of Ricky Tims come and teach a 2 day workshop. Only 2 people knew who he was but they said we would really enjoy the workshop and that he would play great music for us while we sewed. Now, I enjoy music right up there with quilting so I signed up for the workshop. The first day we made a Harmonic Convergence quilt. I was making this just for me so instead of the hand dyed fabric like everyone else was bringing I pulled some fabric from my stash that had famous composers' names on it and used it for 1 of my 4 fabrics.

When I had finished my quilt top I knew something needed to be added but I didn't know what. Earlier that day Ricky mentioned that he had once been given 4 notes and asked what he could do with them. He composed "Remember December" which he played for us. Going into the 2nd day of our workshop I knew what I wanted to add to my Harmonic Convergence Quilt top: the 4 notes that start Remember December.

When Ricky came into the workshop that next morning I asked him for those notes and he told me what they were. I quickly wrote them down and tried to figure out how I would put them on the quilt. Karen had been doing lots of reverse appliqué but that black adhesive bias tape had come out on the market. That should make it easier! So the mother daughter team finished the quilt.

Ricky returned the following year for another workshop and mentioned that he was writing a book. He suggested we all send in pictures of our Harmonic Convergence quilts for consideration. I was very excited when my quilt was accepted. This quilt is on page 41 of Ricky Tims’ Convergence Quilts Book published by C & T Publishing, 2003. Now lots of people know who Ricky Tims is, check out http://www.thequiltshow.com/

-posted by Ione

Quilt 8 - Small Garden

Myra and Cori, this one's for you! This wall hanging was inspired by "How Does Your Garden Grow" from Blue Meadow Design's Four Seasons of Quilts. The quilt in the book was bed size, but I was using fat quarters of Cherrywood Fabric so I made mine smaller. I love that the blocks are so simple but set in such an unusal way.

The small green border is a folded one, so it adds a little dimension. Another one of my phases was stripes in borders. (Thanks for the border fabric, Mom!) I hope to make a full size version of this quilt, but for now this wall hanging fits perfectly in my tiny apartment!