Graduation Gift

This is my dear friend, Oly, with the quilt I made him for graduation. Oly moved in down the hall from me in college and has been a great friend for many years.

Congrats Oly!

Happy Mother's Day

This quilt top is for my mom for Mother's Day. She is the Iowa Coordinator for the Home of the Brave Project and very patriotic. I modified Judy's Star Chain pattern from Patchwork Times. I like the overall quilt but wish I'd kept the blocks small.

Reminder

Just a reminder of today's blogging event!

Park City Girl is hosting a Blogger's Quilt Festival. Click on the button below to get to the events home and see a list of participants or consider participating. There are lots of beautiful quilts to see and prizes to be had.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

The Fabric: Much of the fabric in this quilt was given to my Mom and me from a Vietnam veteran. His wife had a stroke many years prior to her death. After the stroke, quilting became her therapy. Much of the seven cartons of fabric we received was then donated to the Iowa Home of the Brave Project, a VA hospital auxiliary unit, and to our local guild.

The Pattern: I've always loved the movement and life of wonky and improvisational quilts. I've been making scrap quilts in this style for over ten years. I have a lot of respect for Denyse Schmidt's influence on modern quilters, but I have little time for templates or complicated instructions--the women of Gee's Bend certainly didn't need a pattern. I've been planning on making a tutorial for how I like to do wonky blocks and log cabins.

The Quilt: I made this quilt for myself just before I left Iowa for Graduate School in Syracuse, New York. I usually just make quilts and then figure out who they are intended for; thus, I rarely make quilts for myself. My grad school experience only lasted a month--wrong place, wrong time, wrong program, wrong assistantship. I returned to Iowa last October and slept under this quilt all winter. When I moved to Colorado a month ago, it was nearly the only piece of bedding I brought with me. This quilt has become my one bit of normalcy in my unpredictable life. Before this quilt I'd never really used many solids in my quilts; however, I enjoyed creating texture without the help of patterns and I despise tone-on-tone prints (i.e. Moda Marbles or Splash by Blank Quilting).

The Quilting: I did a freehand overall meander. I like doing tight meandering then washing the snot out of the quilt so that it crinkles along the stitching giving the quilt more texture.

Want to see more? Check out this link to see more quilts and their stories.

Quilt Fest

Park City Girl is hosting a Blogger's Quilt Festival. On Friday each person involved is going to post their favourite quilt they've ever finished along with the story behind the quilt.

I've seen thousands of quilts, but I love the stories behind the quilt--the personal connection the quilter feels with her creation. Will you be joining us?

Periwinkle Variation

I finally started sewing again. It was easier than remembering how to ride a bike!

The block is called Job's Troubles from Carol Doak's Foundation Factory. It is a variation of the traditional Periwinkle block. At a finished size of 6.5 inches, this little cutie will make a nice lap quilt. I'm trying to use up the black 30s reproduction I used in C's WPA quilt.

Charity Quilt

I donated five blocks to Project Improv. Here is one of the finished tops awaiting quilting and a new home. It is really cool to see my block in with the others.

I had a great time with this project and can't wait to start another similar quilt. I have a layer cake of Nest by Tula Pink that is just screaming for an Improvisational pattern.