Thankful for Quilts, Quilting, and Much, Much More

I recently made this little quilt to hang outside our front door. It's one of those by Joined at the Hip where the center panel is buttoned on, so you can change it with the season. I used to vt Marty and she had one hanging by her front door which always made me feel welcome. We miss you Marty!

I'm thankful for our oldest granddaughter, Lauren (all our grandchildren) for whom I made the quilt above way back 20 years ago, the first of twelve. (It's hard to believe she's a sophomore in college!)

I'm thankful for my grandmas and all my ancestors in our family history. This quilt block was one I made for a quilt called Grandmother's Back Yard done by the first quilt group I joined way back in the 1980s. 




I"m thankful for this star pillow that sits on the back of my living room sofa made by Lily and given to me at the Ladies Christmas party several years ago. I think of Lily whenever I look at it.

Having a friend like Kandice for inspiration with her ability to knock out beautiful quilts at a rapid rate is a nice blessing we can all be thankful for!

We are all thankful for Rita who keeps us organized with her calendar and reminder notes and assignments. What would we do without her? 


Thanks, Rita!!



Rita's Flower Garden Quilt

I'm thankful to have taken "Quilting 101" from Annie, a great teacher of quilting, who quilted with us for awhile. She taught a different technique for every block in this sampler quilt I made in the class.


Annie has gone on to have the first podcast for quilters and is writing a book to be published next year. She also teaches online courses. Check out her website at http://simplearts.com/blogs/

I'm thankful to have a daughter who loves quilting as much as I do. Here is Secret Garden Melanie and I made for her brother's wedding thirteen years ago.

 
And along those lines, I'm thankful for a heritage of quilters in my family. I found a yellow and blue unfinished quilt top in a pinwheel design among my mother's things. I took it apart and used the blue fabrics for Recycled Pinwheels which now reminds me of my mom, aunts and grandma who quilted.

I'm especially thankful for my grandma who made me this quilt when I was a teenager. (Pictured above with her and my grandfather's wedding picture.) I now treasure it, but at the time I had little appreciation for all of the work that went into it, which is hand-quilted. Once when I was a young mom I had it wrapped around me at a ward camp-out. An older, wiser woman told me that it was " much too nice for camping." I think that is when I started looking at quilts and quilting through different eyes.

Preview of Works in Progress

I've gotten glimpses of some of our current round robin projects. Some of them are done already, although the actual ending date is next spring.

Here is a preview of a few in various stages of completion:


These are the hands of Melanie's children, making up the center with the beginning borders.














I believe this cute angel is the center of one of Gen's two quilts.

These sand cranes belong to Sara and Laura. Both are looking great!!

On the right is one of Mary's centers.

All done! This belongs to Lily. Very pretty! It has little sparkling beads embellishing the flowers in the border. (Nice work!)

Odds And Ends

I'm posting a few things I've forgotten to post previously.....:) Above is Kandice's Lady of the Lake quilt hanging in her home. It's interesting to see how "our' block goes together in a quilt, don't you think?

This cute Santa hangs on the wall of Rita L's sewing room. I meant to post it with the holiday quilts.

These two cute poochies are on a quilt Rita J. made for her grandson Asher. She was working on it at a retreat in 2008 when this photo was snapped.

The quilt on the right is Sara's Days of the Week quilt featuring retro embroidered dish towels. I have some towels made by my aunt in the 1950s. Think I'll make one! I love retro fabrics!

This is a quilt Sara had in the West Sound Quilters quilt show a few years ago. Interesting! Tell us about it, Sara!

Holiday Quilting

Some of the Ladies are quilting madly away making gifts for the upcoming holidays. I've already posted some past holiday projects.(See Rita J.'s Christmas Calendar posted on Sept 27, and her First Christmas on October 29.) Here are a few more from Christmases past.

Above is Melanie's Partridge and a Pear Tree.  It is such a nice design. I think it came from Quiltmaker Magazine.

Cute Santa also made by Melanie.

This was an Eleanor Burns pattern for a log cabin wreath, from about 1994. (Don't you love the shirt?) 

 

Above are some pillows I made for gifts. I was able to go to Lancaster County In Pennsylvania with Paul on a business trip that year and purchased some of the fabric there.

The little quilt above is called Christmas Star. It was a Relief Society class taught by Annie S. in 2001.

 

Below are tea towels for visiting teachees.

 

Recently Finished

Kandice recently completed this baby quilt that features retro vehicles. So cute!

At a recent Monday Quilters session Rita L. was putting together her Bible quilt. We all loved it and can't wait to see it quilted and finished! Below are close-ups of  some of the blocks:

 

A few years ago I saw a segment on Simply Quilts featuring a quilt by Evelyn Sloppy. She showed how she made her color-washed quilt Tranquil Treasure using lots of scraps. Below is my version which I call Leftovers because it contains scraps from my quilting projects from the last twenty years.

It resembles a watercolor quilt I made about ten years ago (below). This one was made from strips as well which are sewn together and then cut into squares. It is called Flying Colors by Deanna Springola in her book More Strip-Pieced Water Color Magic.I think making this type of quilt is a great exercise in learning more about color value. Lots of fun, too.

West Sound Quilters Quilt Show

Several of our Ladies belong to the West Sound Quilt Guild. Their annual quilt show was held last week at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds. Rita J. and Gen had quilts in it this year. They both worked at the show as well. I was impressed with the quality of the show. Below are Rita and Gen's quilts.

 

  Gen's Autumn Splendor

Rita J.'s The First Christmas

Rita J.'s Merry Christmas One and All

Gen's Let's Have Tea

This is Gen's as well. (I didn't get the name of this one.)  

Also in the show was Rita's Welcome to the Pacific Northwest which was posted here on September 13 (take another look). It was made for Rita's daughter Elke and son-in-law Nick. She got a blue ribbon on this one!Congratulations to both Rita and Gen for their beautiful quilts! 

Decorating With Quilts

I was at Kandice's house recently and she let me take pictures of some of the quilts she had out. I think it is fun to have our quilts on our walls and furniture. What do you think?

The pretty arrangement above is on a landing off the stairs.

Her family room is warmed by this quilt.

Isn't her yo yo valence great?

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Below is a quilt Melanie has hanging in her living room over the piano. It is a reminder of their family's trip to Thailand a few years ago.

 My daughter Valerie decided to decorate her office cube with an Asian theme. She found the photo on the right and we made the quilt on the left from it. She liked the way the quilt looked in her living room so much that she decided to hang it there instead of her office. It adds a nice touch.

Some of us have the small wall calendar quilts below hanging in our homes. This was a Relief Society Enrichment project a couple of years ago. Karen J. was the leader of the project who put kits together in GH First Ward.The designs are from Nancy Halvorsen.