Where is Simrill?

This quilt was inspired by two friends from my Atlanta guild. I was inspired by Mary Lou to use the drunkard's path pattern. She made a scrappy one with the squares set like this, for her son some years ago, which I loved. I thought I'd like to make one like hers - and might still do that - but then decided to use the pattern for my black and white fabrics. In 2007, Marva had a quilted wall hanging in the East Cobb show. It was black and white with a thin bright green border. It was stunning and very striking. I was going to use a color other than green, but just couldn't find one which made me happy.
Some years ago, I saw a suggestion to use the pattern from the front for the back, just in a bigger format, for an interesting backing. I didn't do any measuring, and the four large blocks I made - with help from Casey - were not big enough.

When picking fabrics from my stash, I sometimes feel that a fabric is "too nice" for the quilt and want to save it for something else. Of course, it makes no sense but it happened when I was making this quilt and I didn't want to use some of the nice black and white fabrics I had left for the back! Thus the use of colored fabrics to set the squares and border them. While I think what I did was silly, I really like this back and think it makes for a very nice two sided quilt.
The quilt got its unusual name because Simrill happened to wear clothes of exactly the same colors as the quilt when I was working on it at quilt camp. When she stood in front of the quilt, she blended in.

The quilt is 72" x 84" and was machine quilted by Regina Carter. For now it is on the guest bed in my office so I get to see and enjoy it every day. If I can train Jesse to stay off the bed and instead use the very nice space I have created for him next to it, I hope to keep it on the bed.

Excotic Honeymoon

I made this quilt - which, of course, was machine quilted by Regina Carter - as a wedding present for a colleague, Lauren Sudeall, and Michael Lucas.

Wedding Quilt for Denise and Kenneth

Kenneth is manager of Bright Farms. He has worked on the farm for about 25 years, starting part time while still in high school. As Bob, Steve's father, began to get sicker and less able to work, Kenneth took over more and more of the work and eventually became the farm manager. He is a wonderful, warm and giving person - who can do EVERYTHING. In addition to running the farm, he does minor and major repair work for everybody on the farm and many others as well.

Denise has been doing domestic work for Steve's parents and his sisters for many years. When Steve's father was sick, she was at their house almost every day helping out with general cleaning and cooking and taking care of him. She was one of the few people Muti trusted to take care of Bob and with whom he felt totally comfortable. She too is a very generous and caring person without whom Muti would've had a hard time making it through those last difficult years.

Denise and Kenneth were both divorced when they started becoming friends as they saw and interacted with each other on the farm and eventually they fell in love. They were like teenagers, very much in love, happy, and excited. It felt like such a right and happy thing when they got married in October, 2008. I gave them this quilt for a wedding present.

I don't feel totally comfortable saying that I made this quilt, because so much of the work put into it was done by others. The individual butterfly blocks were given to me by Hilary Ford. She doesn't know who made them and does not remember where she got them. Each one is hand appliqued. All I did was pick the sashing and border fabrics, put the blocks together and put on the binding after it was quilted beautifully by Regina Carter.