Quilt 82 - Glad's Jewel Box

1998, 50" x 70"
In honor of Glad's birthday, we are posting the jewel box quilt I made for her. I started with the border fabric again, and matched the other fabrics to that. Happy Birthday, G!

Quilt 81 - Mike and Joyce's 25th Anniversary Wholecloth Quilt

30" x 45"
Combining several patterns and some of my own design, I made this quilt for our good friends Mike and Joyce to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. It was quilted on white cotton sateen.
-posted by Ione

Quilt 80 - Glad and Ken's Delectable Mountains

1998, small-ish
These were class samples then August birthday presents for Ken and Glad. Nothing like a little quilt to bring a smile to your face!
- posted by Ione

Quilt 79 - Kenny's Jewel Box

2001, 60" x 72"

Kenny's Jewel Box started with the border fabric. I purchased it from a fabric store at 50% off (yea!) not really knowing what I would do with it. It had been in my stash for many years. When it came time to make Kenny's Christmas jewel box quilt, I thought this would be a great border fabric, so I chose the rest of the fabrics to coordinate with it. (A great way to bring cohesion to a scrappy quilt.)

When we drove to Northern California to deliver the quilt, I could see all of the colors of the landscape reflected in the quilt and knew I had made the right color choices! It now lays on the back of their couch, so you look across the quilt and through the window to views of Mt. Shasta. I hadn't even thought of the scenery, but it blends perfectly.

Aug. 9 - Happy Birthday, Ken!!

- posted by Ione

Quilt 78 - Julia's Color Wheel

1990s, 48" x 48"

We would like to share another one of Julia Rose's hand-quilted quilts today. This was made from blocks won at Julia and Glad's quilt guild. Julia put them together using the striking, solid color sashes and incorporated one of her unique quilting designs. (I love, love, love the striped binding! -K)

Quilt 77 - Glad's Bear Paw

Julia's gift to Gladys

1997 70" X 85"

We want to share the story of this special gift today. We hope it encourages you to put that extra something special into your next quilt. My sisters, Julia and Gladys, both lived in Eureka, CA, since the early1980's. Their children were the same ages so they shared many adventures together.

Here are a few comments from Gladys who received this wonderful quilt: Julia made this for me for my 50th birthday. She made the one-block wall quilt earlier to tide me over to that much-anticipated date of my birthday. And it has a gift bag for storage of the quilt. It has always been a treasure and now it is even more so.

As Gladys mentioned, she received the one block wall hanging before her birthday. As the picture shows, the back was just as wonderful as the front. Then it was time to receive her quilt at the birthday celebration at the family reunion at Diamond Lake, OR. The Bear Paw Quilt was enhanced with the wonderful Prairie Points around the edge.

There was a label on the back of each one and of course there was the wonderful envelope to safely store the quilt. This is the envelope our cousin, Marlys, mentioned in one of the comments a few days ago. Isn't that just a clever idea? Julia loved to hand quilt and it sure does show in her quilting on this quilt. It was always great fun to watch her come up with the idea for her quilting design. Each quilt would get her undivided attention to what design she would create and where it would go.

Julia Rose

July 31, 2008
My beautiful blond little sister, Julia Rose, was on this earth only 55 years and one day. We will never know how many lives her kindness and amazing courage touched, but she was one of a kind. She was a wonderful sister and as our cousin Lois said today, she leaves an incredible legacy in her two children. We shared many things: love of our family (yes), Scrabble (not so much), and quilting (definitely). When MS took her ability to continue hand quilting, I had the honor of quilting her quilt tops for several more years. She drafted cryptograms during the many hours she had to lay in bed, but when she would be at her voice controlled computer, they would be encrypted and sent for us to enjoy. They are on her website http://www.jgpuzzles.com/. For those of you who knew her, you can read her obituary in the Sunday Eureka Times Standard online http://www.times-standard.com/. We will leave Julia's blue jewel box quilt up for the next few days. We will get back to quilting and living with a hole in our heart that has lots of memories. Your inspiration will be with us forever, Julia.
-love Onie


Jen just sent me the link to Julia's online memorial for those interested: http://www.jenfein.com/Main/Julia.html
My heart is with my family today, who have all lost someone very special. My thoughts today will be on Scrabble games and homemade desserts, of which we had many with my Aunt Julia.
Love to all,
Karen