Beautiful one

This is a quilt using text.  This is my first time doing something like this.  The letters were improvisational.  I used purple and white scraps, and white yardage.  There is a little tan thrown in for contrast and interest.  At first, I thought that this would be hard, but it was not.  Once you get the basic form of the letters down, you can make any letter, small or capital.  The dove is appliqued but everything else is improvisational pieced without any templates.

Strip Tease

Okay, you all already know that I love to scrap quilt.  So, here is another one from days gone by.  This is a strip quilt.  The strips are foundation pieced onto a muslin square.  It has no batting because it was meant to be a summer quilt.  The blocks are 10 inch squares.  Instead of doing a traditional binding, I cut the backing larger and folded it to the front and sewed it down.

The Wild One

Yes! The Wild One.  This is a totally scrappy quilt.  I had some left over animal prints from two different quilts and a tub full of scraps.  So, I decided to alternate the scrappy blocks with the animal prints.  I made little pin wheels and square in a square blocks.  This is probably one of my favorites.  I love to piece the blocks without a pattern.  I just improvise the arrangement and cut them down to size.  A great way to use up your scraps.

Slice & Dice

This quilt starts off with a simple 9 patch block and each square inside the block is 5 inches.  This quilt was made with about 20 charm packs.  I sliced and diced the 9 patch block twice.  The first slice was 1 3/4 inches from the center on both sides of the middle line.  Sew those back together.  Then slice again at 2 inches from the center line and sew those back together.  I separated the charms into lights and darks and alternated the blocks within the quilt.  This quilt is made out of flannel and should be quite warm.

In the Mix

This quilt is called "In the mix".  The reason I named it this is because all of these blocks were orphan blocks.  They were made up just because or left over from other quilts.  They have absolutely nothing to do with each other, however, I think they go together nicely with the sashing and border.  I think this is a great way to use up scraps and old blocks that you would never put in a quilt.  Try it!  I guarantee that you will be pleased with the results.  I am!

Charity Quilt 2

This is a what I call a utility quilt or a charity quilt.  This quilt was made from donated fabrics.  The fabrics were polyester (orange), poly/cotton (black), and knits (blue/white).  It was a bit of a challenge working with something other than 100% cotton, but once I committed to it, I had to make it happen.  It just proves that you can work with other fabrics and still make a beautiful quilt.  This quilt was donated to an elderly neighbor friend.

Blue Jean Quilt

This is a blue jean lap sized quilt.  I bought about 15 pairs of blue jeans from the Salvation army.  On Wednesday's you get them at half price so I paid about $2.00 for a pair.  I washed them and cut them up into 4inch x 8 inch blocks.  I staggered them like bricks to prevent sewing through four bulky seams and this really worked out great for me.  I then quilted it in straight lines going in one direction with three different color types of thread about one inch apart. I did use a cotton batting but it still quilted well and has the right amount of weight.  It is also very warm.  I love it.

Prince

This is my first attempt at an art quilt.  I traced the picture and free motion quilted all the lines and chest/head hair.  I then colored it with colored pencils and sealed it with a textile medium and then added a border.  I had fun and will probably try this technique again.

Improvisational piecing

This quilt is an improvisational pieced quilt which means that there is no set pattern that was followed, instead pieces of fabric were randomly sewed together that were pleasing to the eye of the quilter.  This quilt top came to me through my aunt.  My aunt's friend is an older lady and she had been ill and had this quilt top that she had started to piece by hand.  The lady knew that I quilted, so she gave it to my aunt to give to me because she didn't think that she would ever finish it.  When I received it, the hand sewing was not secure and it would have come apart in the first wash.  So, I decided to rip out all of the hand stitching and sewed everything again by machine.  I quilted it, put on the backing and the binding.  I kept her original fabrics for the top and I pieced the back from my personal stash.  I decided that I would re-gift the quilt to the lady so I gave it back to my aunt and my aunt gave it back to the lady.  Ironically, the lady's birthday was the next day and she said that this was the best birthday gift that she had ever received.  I am happy that she is enjoying her quilt and that I was a part of this journey.