Tasha's Graduation Quilt: May 2011

Tasha with her Quilt

I made this small wall hanging quilt for my niece, Tasha, who graduated from high school last week.   I had her send her favorite photos to me for this project.  I used Photoshop Elements to edit the photos, then printed onto printable fabric.  I trimmed the photos, and added the fusible webbing to the back of each fabric photo.  Tasha told me that her favorite colors are purple, blue and yellow, so I went with that color scheme and used a simple strip method of cutting the colored fabrics, and appliqued them randomly onto the base fabric.  I then applied the fabric photos, and appliqued those into place.  This quilt was a lot of fun to make, and it was fun to connect to Tasha's high school life through her photos. 

First Kaleidoscope Quilt - Feb 4, 2011

This block was a lot of fun to put together.  It's kind of like piecing improvisation.  I wasn't sure how I'd like the method, that's why I called it an experiment.  I really like how it turned out, and it is nothing of what I'd pictured when I started.  I think that's the beauty of this kind of piecing.  

I used one of Paula Nedelstern's Kaleidoscope books for her suggestions and technique.  It has eight wedges, 45 degrees each.  My next one is going to be a 16 wedge at 22.5 degrees each.

One of the most exciting parts was that my new Juki sewing machine arrived before I started the quilting on it, so I waited until I learned about the machine, and then went to town quilting on the new machine.  It was a total blast, and I can't wait to complete more projects with this amazing machine!

Grandparents' 60th Wedding Anniversary Quilt 1994

This wall-hanging quilt was lovingly hand-pieced, and hand-quilted in 1994 for my grandparents', Russell and Agnes Wood, 60th Wedding Anniversary.  Each family member submitted a drawn (for me to embroider) or embroidered 3" x  3" square with a message for these two special people. 

Dad and Jackie's Texas Star Quilt

This was my first machine strip pieced quilt.  I created the top in 1998 in just a few days (my family did not know when I'd emerge!) and over the years since then I would hand quilt it as I could.  It's a queen sized quilt, and I didn't get very far, as life was very very full of single parenthood from 2000 on.  Finally, last year, as I was clearing items out of the house I was about to sell, I came across the quilt once again.  It was time to finish it and give it to it's rightful owners.  My mother took it on to finish and took it to a pro, and FINALLY I could give it to my dad and step mother.  So, in Idaho, on the very first part of our Honeymoon this past summer.  I still really like the color scheme I chose for it, and love the pieced  borders.

Ball 50th Anniversary Quilt

This quilt is the first I have made with photos printed directly onto the fabric for the quilt.  Such fun!

A cherished gift for my brand new in-laws, Bill and Joan Ball, created during the spring semester of my first year in pharmacy school.

Gee's Bend Quilt

The kit for this quilt was a wedding present from our friends, Paul and Marge.  Marge is a quilter and was very excited to provide this great pattern and wonderful hand-dyed cotton for my project.  I managed to piece it together through the first half of the first semester of my second year in pharmacy school at Creighton University.  Some days I would only spend 15 minutes on piecing, but I did complete it in a reasonable amount of time. 

This is the first quilt I've ever hired out for machine quilting.  I had quilted Richard's parents' quilt with my machine, and it was a pain.  The gal I hired has an enormous free-arm quilting machine in her front room, and was very happy to quilt it for me.  I chose the quilting design and thread, and let her do her work.  A week later it was done (which is FAR faster than it would have taken me) and all I needed to do was finish with the binding.

It is not a design or colors I would have necessarily chosen for myself, however, I thoroughly enjoyed piecing it together as a brain break from studying.