Wedding Quilt 2022

 

It has been a long time since I've posted a finished quilt, and here is one at last! This is the 2022 Wedding Quilt for a son and lovely wife. The Celtic Knot weaves his "hot" colors of yellow and orange with her "cool" colors of green and blue. This is going to be a good match as the opposites attract, interlock and make the knot secure.

The wave pattern background was completed by Eaglecrest Designs. Thank you, Gerry. It was exactly what the quilt needed to tie it all together.

Windmill Quilt

Like most of the quilts here I started this one many years ago, about the time my oldest left for college. The quilt top languished in a drawer for a decade. Last summer (2019) I painted the pink and tan bedroom upstairs and needed a new and fresh bed cover to match the cool grey and white decor.

Once again much of the material came from the boxes and suitcases of squares gifted to my oldest daughter so many years ago. If only I could recall the name of the lady who was so generous; as a quilter I imagine she would be delighted to see how her gift has expanded and takes pride of place in so many ways.

A simple dark blue border holds the twirling windmills in the frame. I backed the quilt with the tan material and pulled it from the back for  the binding. This quilt is simply tied with blue thread.

There aren't a lot of windmills here on the prairie, but the playful light and dark, blues, greens and spots of yellow in the quilt remind me of this place, this prairie I call home.

Reuse Recycle Quilt

I love the idea of making something new with items considered outdated, unwearable or otherwise without value. It takes a bit more time to cut out the shapes from cast off jeans or shirts, but the results speak for themselves.

My favorite thrift store donated a pile of jeans and old flannel shirts to create a quilt for our employee holiday party as a door prize. This is the result, and I think it is charming.

The denim shows its age with pilling and some stains. The flannel is stretched some at the elbows. The history of the of the material simply adds more depth and meaning to the finished product.

The quilt is a half square triangle pattern, tied with a very light batting to offset the weight of the denim.

I hope the winner of this quilt uses it in good health, takes it on remarkable adventures of picnics, beach outings and baseball games, and cuddles beneath it with loved ones.

Grandmothers Doilies Quilt

Over the years I have collected (by default, I think) doilies crocheted by both my grandmothers. My own mother gave me many of hers as she cleaned out her possessions; grandmothers gave me plenty as well.

What do do with them all? I use a fair number of them under lamps and plants and things to protect the furniture from scratching. I have too many of them; or perhaps I have too little furniture?

Whichever the case, I determined to preserve them in some fashion so I incorporated them into this disappearing nine-patch quilt.

I cut the doilies into sizes to fit a square and simply sewed them in with the next piece. The quilt is also full of old scraps from various eras and sewing projects of the past; a true memory quilt.

It is still only a quilt top; another in a growing pile of tops not yet quilted.

Denim Window Lap Quilt

This lively and lovely lap quilt was fun to make.

I cut circles from old denim jeans and sewed them right sides together to create a square in the center with "flaps". Into that square I put a variety of scraps, then sewed the curved flaps over the material in a serpentine pattern along the cut edges of the denim.

Once the quilt was washed the denim edges frayed, adding charm and definition to the overall pattern.

I would do this again; the quilt is heavy and the recipient of this quilt admits it is warm. This would make a great blanket to keep in the back of the car for any sort of emergency - a surprise picnic, padding for a delicate thrift store find, or a leg warmer on a cold road trip.

Op Art Rug

This rug took a looooong time to complete. Switching pitch in the middle of the loom was confusing - and I mean confusing on every row! Muscle memory is a challenge to change.

I envisioned this rug without the red middle stripe; however, as the rug progressed I realized that I should NOT have been twining from both ends. Had the two ends reached the middle the pattern would have been "off" by one warp twine. 

Next time, should there be one, I will only twine from one end.

You can tell I am still a novice at this color changing bit. I need to take more care with which weft is on top of the warp when I change the color. See the difference in the widths of the solid frame? They are exactly the same number of warps wide, but appear different widths due to the color of the weft going over the warp on top.

Folks have commented that this rug looks like a finger print; indeed it does. A fingerprint rug to collect footprints! I love the very thought and image.

I have a companion rug to this on the loom now; it will feature vertical "stripes" in red and white, plus some edge to edge same pitch twining.

Rug Twining - Color Change

Countered twining is relaxing and lets my mind wander. It is great for listening to audio books, too. I have worked my way through a number of them over the last few years, including Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo.

I studied and learned how to change color in Bobbie Irwin's Twined Rag Rugs. Now that I have that figured out, watch out world!

But wait! I began to be intrigued by Ms. Irwin's description of same-pitch twining versus countered, so that's where I am today. This photo shows my warped loom (red vertical yarn) and my progress on switching same-pitch twining from right leaning to left leaning. This should make a really cool diagonally red and white striped pattern meeting in the middle. It will become more obvious as I work from the other side.

Rug Twining

I have always wanted to try weaving. I remember back in high school in a previous century I made a cardboard heddle and threw together a quasi backstrap. With a skein of kelly green yarn I wove a belt to match the dress I made for my graduation. I wore the dress and belt until they were out of style.

A couple years ago I made a rug loom with wood and nails. I researched twining, warped the loom and made my first rug  from old sheets. I use that rug still, but it isn't pretty, as those first tries seldom are.

My closet is full of cast off sheets and other materials donated by our local thrift store. They graciously give me stuff they can't sell but which are perfect for rugs. Sometimes I augment the free colors with sheets and materials I pick up at Goodwill and yard sales; old clothes are great, worn out scarves, sweaters, etc.

The quickest and easiest rugs are known as countered "hit and miss" twining, just using whichever color strip was next. I work from both ends so that the rugs are symmetrical in color patterns.

Because the loom is 24" x 36" all the rugs are the same size.

Lotus Flower

The kids and I were challenging one another to draw or create something every day. Here was the LOTUS FLOWER day challenge.

This is a variation of Drunkard's Path.

PS - You can see my rug loom under the quilt which is now taking up much of my time. See other posts.

Scrappy Quilt

Here's another scrappy quilt I started years ago and finished in September 2016. This pattern was from a Fons & Porter magazine.

I have always wanted to make a quilt that was full of movement and this one fits the bill. The yellow and burgundy pull the scrappy pieces together. This really does finish offthe boxes and suitcase of quilt pieces given to us a decade ago.

This is just a finished top and not quilted yet; another to do on the list.

Graduation Quilt - Number 3

Of course my youngest daughter needed a graduation quilt as well! She wanted something green and black and modern, and I wanted something that didn't look like a bunch of squares stitched together in lines and rows.

This quilt fit the bill for both of us. Making the squares was fun, and putting it all together was quite a challenge. If you look closely you can see the groups of quilt squares I built into natural larger squares. I only really had one wonky seam to do around the middle medium block with the black outline. It included inside and outside corners.

It was machine quilted by my local quilt shop just in time for placing on the college dorm bunk. In true color it is much greener and less "white" than the photo.

We searched the Internet for quilts we liked, and I copied the pattern idea from somewhere we surfed together. If anyone knows who should be credited for the pattern, let me know.

Graduation Quilt - Number 2

Here is graduation quilt number two.

This took lots of cutting pieces, matching light / dark plans. I am still using up many of the quilting scraps that were given to my oldest daughter so very many years ago. I think we received a couple of cardboard boxes and a suitcase jammed full of pre-cut squares.

Over the years we've made several scrappy quilts, and here is another.

I love the diagonal set of the squares.

This quilt is tied with a tie dyed flannel backing.

Graduation Quilt - Number 1

With two of my youngest daughter's best friends graduating high school this summer, I determined to make them quilts for their gifts. I wanted them to feel warmed by my care and thoughts for them as they moved out onto their own.

This is the first quilt.

I used scraps from my stash of leftover sewing projects, and I also purchased some of the lighter materials from a yard sale. This quilt is tied and has a tie dyed red flannel backing that I used as a self bind.

The 20-Year Quilt

I started this quilt the summer my son was born. We had just purchased a house, I was off work on maternity leave, and I had two small children at home. Creativity rarely waits for anyone, so I was inspired to use my husband's old flannel shirts for quilt blocks. I began to cut the shirts up into these pieces. I added to the pile over the years - old flannel shirts, leftover material from sewing projects - and finally put it all together in 2013.

After all the years of collecting, there were enough flannel pieces to make a double sided quilt. I purchased maroon flannel for the front of the quilt and hunter green for the back. The solid color outlines the flannel.

I "ragged" the quilt on the front side, then machine quilted my son's ancestors' names on each strip with his name in the middle.