A T-Shirt Quilt for Danielle

Danielle graduated from Ramona High School in the Class of 2008. She started working at the local quilt shop, The CraZy 9 Patch, when she was 16. She learned how to piece a quilt, applique, and even do hand embroidery. Since most of the women up there are much older and some use language inappropriate for young ears, we set up a cus jar and called it Danielle's College Fund. When she graduated, we knew that she would be going to college "down the hill" about 50 miles away, so we would not see her as often. So we put these donation into a gas card and gave it to her as a graduation present.
She is such a bright and centered young lady, it has been wonderful to watch her grow up. Danielle was a member of the high school water polo team. She is also very much into rodeos and cowboys. I wanted to try making a t-shirt quilt for the Ramona Quilt show Oct 17-18. I wanted to use the t-shirts of somebody I know since I was going to give her the t-shirt quilt. Martha, the owner of the CraZy 9 Patch and Marilynn donated the binding fabric and the binding labor.
She will see it for the first time at the quilt show. I hope that she likes it.

Betty's Log Cabin Table Cloth

Betty made this wonderful Christmas gift. It is a square tablecloth. It has all my favorites, log cabins, flying geese and 8-pointed stars. She decided that she wanted it thin so she used flannel in the center instead of batting.



I quilted a big feather wreath in the center medallion. I used a wave and leaf stencil on the 3 outer borders, a dancing leaf in the floral border and SID all around.

I used Superior So Fine It's a Boy #435 poly thread top and bobbin.

Birds of Feather

Back in July, my friend Brenda, celebrated (probably not the right word) her 50th birthday. She threw a party at the LQS afterhours. There were 7 of us there and Brenda had chosen the Take 5 pattern and fabric so each of us could make a quilt. It was her birthday but she was giving us the presents. We drew numbers and got to pick the fabric kit that we liked. Mine was birds and birdhouses. So of course, I will quilt it all over with feathers. It will make a wonderful picnic quilt.

Kansas City Shop Hop

A couple months ago, a few of my quilter buddies and I decided that we needed to visit some Kansas City Quilt shops. Well, this was Debbi's idea. She's from Des Moines so Kansas City is just a 3 hour drive for her. Our friend Mary Beth lives in Kansas City so Debbi could stay with her. Well, then I thought that sounded like too much fun to miss. "Let's have a Slumber Party at Mary Beth's house!" So we invited the ruler-queen of Colorado, aka Donna. Now we have a quorum.

Well, Donna flaked out at the last minute with a lame excuse about her husband having to work. I jumped on a Southwest flight and beat Debbi to KC...very important because I got to choose which of the 2 bedrooms I wanted. I got the big bed. Too bad Debbi.

Mary Beth made up the road trip for our shop hop. We visited four shops in Missouri and Kansas covering many miles. Debbi was on a mission to find some particular Asian fabric. She found what she was looking for. Mary Beth was a good girl and did not go crazy shopping. And I found this cute little quilt top. It is perfect for our upcoming quilt auction.

I decided to use the Circle Lord template named 7 Treasures of Buddha becuase it has some wonderful circles. I used PermaCore thread top and bobbin in the color Foliage Rose. The batting is Quilter's Dream Puff.

Sally's Irish Chain with Baptist Fans

Be careful what you wish for

I had a customer named Sally. She is a real sweetie. She and her husband of 57 years have 6 children and umpteen grandchildren. She has made quilts for all of them, including some grand-children. I have quilted several including 6 king-size quilts. She routinely has friendly borders. I just fix them for her because she is so nice.

Well, then a local short-armer got a Statler and I didn't hear from Sally for months. Well, we live in a small town so I SAW her at the local quilt shop, the grocery store, chat in passing at the restaurant for weekend breakfasts but no quilts for over 5 months. I was sorry to lose her to the computer-quilter but that's the way it goes sometimes. I wished that I could have kept her as a customer.

Sally called me a week ago and told me she has been taking only wall-hangings to the computer quilter and she has a quilt for me. It's a single Irish chain. It's a king-size, of course. And she needs it in time for the quilt show, less than 2 weeks away. Grrrr.

It is all done in 1800's fabrics and muslin background and backing. She wanted the quilt to be quilted traditionally for the era. I suggested and she approved Baptist Fans (Circle Lord templates). It's a lot of work but it would have been true to the period. This Irish chain did not have a big open place to quilt a motif. No, this one had a piece 20-square block Seams and more seams) surrounded by muslin and then the chain. The fans were looking better all the time. Actually there was very little fullness in the field of the quilt. That is probably because I starched and steamed the dickins out of it. But the borders, well, I couldn't quilt anything connected. I wanted to try cables or concentric waves. But the puckers came and I fought with that top border. After taking it off the frame (again) I removed over an inch of the bottom border. But the small amount of fullness in the blocks all trickled down to the lower right corner and I could not line up any template on an unsquare quilt. Leaf it. I danced around the remaining fullness with big leaves. OK. At one point I was kicking myself for wishing for another Sally quilt. But you know what, it looks great.



I used Hobbs 80/20 and Signature Parchment on top and Signature Linen in the bobbin. Very similar in color so I figure I would use up that Linen
thread.

Star Bangled Banner Quilt

I first saw this quilt on www.meadowlyon.com web-site. This is the Angela Meadows and Judy Lyon team of designers and quilters. They have some amazing patterns. I bought 4 while at MQS 2007 and I finally made time to construct the quilt. The panto is 12 feet long, no repeats. It has breaks every 36" so you can quilt the pattern in four 3-ft rows. I added a row because my quilt was larger. I added in the Linda Taylor Eagle in the center of the center row and pieces of the Julie Mullen panto named Star Bangled Banner. There are several vignettes to see. I have photos of some of them. You will have to buy the panto to find them all. Be advised that some of these photos are the back of the quilt so the words/images appear backwards.


The Golden Gate Bridge













The Statue of Liberty





















USS Constitution (Old Ironsides)
















The Eagle that is the Great Seal of the United States
















The White House
















George Washington (the original one)
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The Liberty Bell



















The Preamble to the United States Constitution















Abraham Lincoln Memorial I had trouble with the brightness on this photo so I put it in negative format so you could see the pattern.

















Washington Monument


















The United States Capitol