Thursday, May 03, 2007

Margo and Amanda's school quilt

Amanda is 15 years old now. Big pigtails, braces, loves horses and a beautiful smile that promises to wow the boys in the years to come. But when Amanda was at the Montessori school here in town, she met Mema. Mema is an experienced quilter who helped out at the school. She taught the kids how to make a quilt. Each child had to bring two 5 inch squares to school to start this project. "One light and one medium" was her mantra to these kids. Mema brought in more fabric for them to use. She taught them how to hand sew their squares, adding more squares over time. Then she reinforced these child-hands stitches with her sewing machine. This project spanned the years that Amanda went to the Montessori school.

Amanda and her mother, Margo, decided that it was time to get the quilt top quilted. That is where I come in. Amanda was open to the panto pattern. She liked Popcorn and Rosie and then she finally chose Featheration. It is a big open pattern. I think that she will like it for her scrappy quilt full of memories.

Just Can't Cut It Scalloped Edge Quilts x 3

Susan Baker had a class for the scalloped edge border. This is always a popular quilt. The last time she had a class, I took it and I ended up quilting some of the student quilts. Susan made a shop sample and had me quilt it with the Fern Meander panto by Kathie James. I love this panto. I did freemotion ferns onthe borders and some crosshatching in the 4-inch inner border.

The scalloped edge really sets off the border. I have quilts from three of Susan's students that must be done before the next class when they will do the scalloped edge. The good part is they all love what I did with the ship sample so that four more Fern Meanders. I quilt the field with the panto and the border is freemotion out to about 4 inches from the edge. Once they mark and cut the scallop, then I will finish the quilts on my Bernina with a simple set of 3 rows of stitching out to the edge. This will keep them nice and flat.

This one is Debby's quilt. She plans to give it to her mother. I love the fabric with the musical instruments. Her mother's eyesight is limited so I wanted to put lots of texture in this quilt. I used cross-hatching, pebbles and parallel lines.














Sue's quilt is a bit larger. Sue has 30 grand nieces and nephews. She plans to give each of them a quilt for their wedding. This will be one of those wedding gifts. Don't you wish that you had an aunt like that? I remember my favorite aunt. She always made me laugh.













And this one is Mary S's quilt. Now this quilt shouts "drama". The black and silver is so striking. I used the Fern Meander on this one, too. I used black thread top and bobbin except in the white border. I used Superior's Metallic Silver thread. I didn't like the way that the black bobbin thread showed on the white border so I tried the minimize the amount of stops/starts. I turned the quilt to do the long side borders. I hope she likes it.



Crazy 9 Patch for Cassidy


I love those colors in this quilt. And who came up with the idea to combine turquoise with brown. I love them together. I have seen some pink with brown fabrics recently, too. Brown....it's the new black.

Mary made this CraZy9Patch quilt for her grand-daughter, Cassidy. I love that embroidered name in the top left corner. I am using PermaCore BlueJay thread top and bobbin and Soft & Bright batting.

Mary was in the Crazy 9 Patch Quilt Shop and saw a quilt on the wall that I did recently using the panto name Wandering Daisies by Jodi Beamish. It looks like dancing hearts and flowers. Very girlie. So that is what Mary wants for this quilt.

I wanted something different for the border so I got out the Circle Lord wavy lines template and made the wavy bumps. I don't know the name for them. But they are so easy to make just by shifting the wave templates over to the right after the first pass. They are so cool. I plan to turn the quilt so Ithat I can get this on all borders.

My life has changed in the last couple of years - some bumps, I retired from quilting, and then I moved to Texas. I'm anxious to see what new adventures await me in the next phase of my life.

About Me

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Ramona, California, United States
I started quilting when a quilt shop opened in our little town in January 2004. I have been hooked ever since.

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Books I"ve read lately

  • The Help (Kindle)
  • The Appeal by John Grisham
  • Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  • Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
  • To Kill a Mockingbird (again) by Harper Lee
  • Bleachers by John Grisham

This is called Fruit Cocktail

This is called Fruit Cocktail
It is all batiks