Quilts On Our Beds (What a concept!)

We put quilts on our walls, furniture, and sometimes even into clothing. Once in awhile we put them on our beds. Imagine! A quilter friend of mine once said, "There's such a good feeling sleeping under a quilt that you've made, don't you think?"

A few years ago Melanie made three quilts for beds in her house from the book Quilts form The Qultmakers Gift. Above is Milky Way on her bed.

She also made quilts from the same book for her boys' beds:

Above is Mason's Children's Delight and below is Spencer's King's Highway. (Wow! These boys have grown!)

Below is a flannel "rag" quilt I made for our daughter Valerie.

I saw a pattern in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine made from reproduction fabrics from the 1800s. Since I had been collecting fat quarters of that kind, I made Civil War Broken Dishes.

Melanie's daughter Lauren made her first quilt a year ago last summer. Her sister Lindsey helped Lauren clip the shag blocks. It's on her bed at college for the second year.

 

Send pictures of the quilts on your beds so we can see!

Quilts From Past Round Robins

I have a few more pictures of round robin quilts. I know there are more out there--please send them! We want to see!!

This is Rita J's lovely Christmas quilt which I believe was from the our third  round robin. Do you remember which block you did? I think I made the snowman.

The quilt on the right is Melanie's "flower of the month" quilt from the calendar round robin. Remember, we chose a theme and asked everyone to make a block for a month around that theme? For Melanie's quilt the theme was flowers. We embroidered the name of the flower on the block.

Above (shown in the West Sound Quilters Guild Quilt Show) is a round robin for Gen. She made it super simple for us. All we had to do was make one of the blue and white blocks.

Above is my calendar round robin quilt. The theme was baskets--each person filled a basket with something that represented the month. You have to guess the month for each block by its contents, since the blocks didn't fit well in chronological order.

Happy Dance!

It is said that quilters do a happy dance when they complete a quilt. I believe that. . .especially when it has been long in the making. Below is a paper-pieced Starry Starry Night lap quilt that Melanie recently finished. She hand quilted it.

Rita L. is doing a happy dance, too, because yesterday at the Monday Quilters she was binding several I Spy quilts for her grandchildren for Christmas.

The children chose, from her fantastic collection (15 years in the making) of novelty prints, the fabric they wanted in their quilts.

Corrections, Another Round Robin Quilt, and Quilts for a Breast Cancer Fund Raiser

Thanks to Rita J. for keeping me accurate on our blog. I mistakenly said that the cabin on Anderson Island is next to Lake Florence, but it's Lake Josephine. (I knew that!) I've corrected it in our history below.

Also, she supplied us with the names of the bathing Ladies on Kandice's quilt. Scroll down and take another look. I've added their names.

Here is a round robin quilt(s) that Melanie made with the theme birds and birdhouses. Because the wall where she wanted the quilt to hang has a fixture in the middle of it, she put the blocks into two quilts, one to hang on each side. 

Below is a quilt done by Kandice for the Gig Harbor Quilt Festival Breast Cancer Fund Raiser "Threads of Courage." It is hanging in the Gig Harbor Civic Center, 3510 Grandview Street NW until the end of September. Sara's Chickadee quilt is hanging there, too. (It is posted in an earlier blog--scroll down to see it.) These quilts will be auctioned on October 17 at the 2009 Gig Harbor Quilt Festival Luncheon at Canterwood Golf and Country Club.

Round Robin Quilts

When I began this blog my intent was to display the finished products of our round robins. Here are a few more round robin quilt photos that I have collected:

Kandice's row quilt.

Gen's with the theme of flower pots. Can you find the block you did?

Melanie's round robin quilt with a book theme. She gave us a book title from books her reading group had discussed. We made books and added the titles. Notice the picture of her reading group on the bottom shelf of her "bookcase." If you double click on the photo you will be able to read the book titles.

My favorites are traditional quilts. For one of our round robins I chose the theme of pioneer women. Each person made a traditional block in the size of their choice. (Interesting when I went to put them together.)

To be continued with more of our round robin quilts. . .

More Gift Quilts

Continuing on with the category of quilts we have made for gifts. . . Above is Rita J.'s Advent Quilt. She is currently working on her sixth! Below is one she made for her daughter Elke.

Above is an applique Rita J. made for her daughter-in-law Alyse, one of our very own Ladies of the Lake!

Above is a quilt I made for our son Michael not long after he returned from his mission. He played trumpet in high school and college and this wallhanging pattern (center) reminded me of him. It was going to be just the wall hanging and then I decided, "Why not a quilt?"

Below is the quilt Melanie and I made for Mike and his wife Naomi who were married this summer. She wanted a small quilt to hang or wrap up in.

Michael and Naomi Merrill - June 27, 2009, Sacramento Temple

Monday Quilters

This week I went with the Ladies who get together for quilting and lunch on Mondays. It was at Rita J.'s house. There sewing with Rita J. were Donna and Rita L. They were primarily working on Christmas gifts except for Donna who had three (Yes I said three!) quilts she was binding. The one on the left is Twirling Bowties and Jacks.

She couldn't remember the name of the one below, but it is very pretty, don't you agree?



Ramlin' Rose With Salsa and Extra Guacomole (from Kaleidsope ABCs by Marti Michell) Well done, Donna!!

Show And Tell--Gift Quilts

Let's have a show and tell of quilts we have made or received for special occasions--weddings, births, or commemorating other events. Below is a treasure I received before leaving San Jose from RS sisters in my ward. Annie S. made much of it and was the organizer of many who contributed to it. The hand prints on the sides are actual photo image of sisters' hands. The lattice on the bottom is made up of a block called Nauvoo. The quilt has lighthouses, which was a RS theme we used in our ward when I was RS president in about 1999-2000.

In keeping with tradition, Gen made the quilt below for the upcoming president of the West Sound Quilters Guild who followed her as president, Discovery Bay, April 2007

This is a quilt Rita J. recently made for her daughter Elke and son-in-law Nick.

To be continued...there are many more!

Serenity of Our Retreat Location

Rita L. sent pictures of the beautiful site where we have our retreat near Lake Josephine on Anderson Island. She said, "Lovely peaceful views surrounding the cabin and on the island. You never know what you will see when you look out the windows. The last shot is the back of the 'fun cabin' . . . Aren't we lucky? A big thank you to the owners!

See you at the next retreat October 14 - 17!

Corrections to Our History

Rita gave me some additions and corrections to the recently published history of the Ladies. She noted that I left out one round robin and gave me accurate dates for when the round robins occurred. I have made the corrections, so you might want to look at it again.

Thanks for the comments left on the blog. Be sure to check them out as you review each post. Just click on the "comment" section at the end of each post and you will be able to add a comment. This could be a fun way to interact.

 (Please click on "September" in the archives listing at the beginning of this blog to see the history mentioned above and older postings.)

Here Is Sara's Flower Quilt

Rita sent me this picture of Sara's quilt from round robin. It is the one from the blocks I had been wondering about (posted previously). It's so fun to see the finished quilt. Nice job!

Ladies of the Lake Official History by Rita J.

 Membership Card Designed by Kandice

The Ladies of the Lake began in 1998 with six members, Gen C,, Kandice C., Melanie F., Rita J., Marty L. and Lily M. We now have fifteen--Mary B., Karen B., Gen C., Kandice C., Donna D., Laura E., Melanie F., Joyce G., Alyse J., Rita J., Rita L., Sara M.,, Rae Ann M., Lily M., and Debbie S. Additional friends who have been active in our group are Karen J., Marty L. Judy E., and Annie S.

The purpose of our group is to do things as friends and relatives (We have a mother/daughter combination, three sister-in-laws, a mother-in-law/daughter-in-law, and two sisters.) and make round robin quilts together. Some of us belong to West Sound Quilters. Some of us belong to Gig Harbor Quilters. Two of us are from out of state. We have retreats together three times a year. We have no regular meetings or officers. We have been doing round robin projects from the beginning with approximate dates:

1998 - 1999. We each made our own center. As these centers were passed around everyone had the chance to add a border to everyone else’s quilt.

1999-2001. Everyone came up with a theme and/or a color scheme and everyone had the opportunity to do two blocks for each person in the group.

2001 - 2003. Again, everyone come up with a theme and/or a color scheme and everyone had the opportunity to do two blocks for each person in the
group.

2003-2005. We used the theme of calendar quilts with the specifics of each person's choosing.

2005 -2007. We followed a color scheme of the member's choosing, but we chose which block we would make for them from the books Around the Block and Once More Around the Block by Judy Hopkins.

2007-2010. Everyone has made two centers. We are putting borders onto these centers. There are fifteen of us, so everyone will have the opportunity to add a border to one of everyone’s quilt centers.

We have always given each round two months to be completed. We are a little more than half way through this round robin.

Kandice's Ladies of the Lake

(The bathing Ladies are left to right: Marty L., Donna D., Joyce G., Karen J., Kandice C., Rita J., Judy E., Lily M., Sara M., Laura E., Gen C., Melanie F., Rae Ann M., and Annie S. --double click for larger view.)