Tumbleweeds

This was made from a kit supplied by the Wilderness Road Quilt Company during their Spring Retreat in March 2009, all I added was the zebra, the back and the binding. The finished product is 74" by 84". It was machine quilted by Shery Whitaker, who works at Wilderness.

Cup and postcard

Every now and then I get around to making some small non-quilt items. Here are a couple:
Atlanta Intown Quilters, THE best quilt store in Georgia, asked its customers to send them a quilted post card, so I made and sent the above. (It was announced that a drawing would take place later in the summer and that the winner would receive a gift certificate to the store. A huge incentive for every quilter to send in the card!)
In March I participated in a retreat at Wilderness, in addition to making two quilts, we all also made a couple of minor items. The first was this "quilt in a cup," for which the staff of the store had embroidered each of our names to be included in the cup. A very cute and fun idea.

Peace by Piece V

The Peace by Piece quilters met for the last time - with me in attendance at least - for dinner in June of 2008. At that time, they surprised me with a present of two beautiful pillows they had made especially for me. How wonderful and how sweet. A beautiful and so meaningful reminder of our great time together, which made my new home so much more like home, right off the bat.
For the front of the pillows, they had constructed these two amazing pictures of zebras drinking Diet Coke with Lime from a straw! I, of course, always drink Diet Coke with Lime from a straw and almost constantly have one of them with me no matter where I go!
The back of the pillow covers were pieced with fabrics from each of their quilts. So I have scraps of all the beautiful fabrics they chose and from which their quilts are being made! What a great idea.Each pillow had a label. I think they may have been making just a tiny bit fun of me when they made the labels. I had talked to them about the necessity of putting a label on each quilt you make, always! Perhaps they thought I had been too emphatic! But this label, surely is wonderful and descriptive.
The other label was very creative, each woman held out her fingers in a "peace" sign on several "pieces" of their fabrics, and it was done in a circle for our group! A lot of symbolism packed into that label.
This is a picture of us, with the pillows, from that last meeting. From left: Marie, Kirsten, Charlotta, Sara, Ela, and Mica. As mentioned previously, Shelby had mostly dropped out by then, so she had not been involved in the pillow project.

What a great time I had with these young creative women. I feel very privileged to have been able to get to know them and hang out with them. So far, I have been able to stay in touch and to meet with them a couple of times on my return trips to Atlanta.

Now I am anxiously awaiting a visit from them, or at least some of them, here to the Vatican!

Peace by Piece IV

Marie is very prolific and very creative. Here is one of her quilts. I love the bright colors!
This is another of Marie's quilts, a lovely Drunkard's Path, with creative pieced borders.
Kirsten has so far been the most prolific of the group. She has completed several baby quilts.
This is Kirsten's diamond shaped baseball quilt made for her nephew.
Kirsten hand appliqued this quilt inspired by one she saw at the Gees Bend show. Last I heard, she was in the process of hand-quilting it. I especially like the blue block in the upper most right corner. She told me that she made it because she lost a block she was working on at the celebratory service held in memory of our friend, Lewis Sinclair. I love the symbolism: the block is unique but nevertheless fits in and looks just right with the rest; Lewis was most definitely unique, yet he was such an integral part of all the rest of us and made us all feel as if we belonged together.Another beautiful baby quilt by Kirsten.

Peace by Piece III

While not everybody finished her quilt while I was still around, most made significant progress. It was especially exciting for me to see what happened to the quilts for which I had helped buy fabrics.This is a picture of Sara proudly showing off her top. She subsequently added a border and had it machine-quilted by Regina Carter. I have not yet seen it with a binding.
Ela showing off her first finished block. And, below, is a picture of all her finished blocks laid out as she wanted to put them together.

This is Mica's quilt. She told me that after this picture, she bought additional fabrics to make it even larger.

Unfortunately, Shelby more or less dropped out before I could get a picture of what happened with her quilt. Kirsten had already started at least one project before we started our group. I believe this is her first finished quilt.
And, if I am not mistaken, this is the back of Kirsten's first quilt.

I am waiting for and looking forward to pictures of the quilts as they continue to move towards their final states! Stand by for more adventures of the Peace by Piecers!

Peace by Piece II

Most of the time, we would just meet and folks would work on their individual projects. I showed the beginners step by step how to do their individual quilts and/or people would ask questions or brainstorm how to proceed. Mica and Shelby opted to piece their quilts by machine so after cutting their fabric, they didn't do much actual sewing during our meetings.

Towards the end, when I realized that I would be leaving soon and there was a lot left to pass on, I tried to focus on one particular skill during each meeting, focusing on the skills they would need to complete their quilts after I was gone!

At our last meeting, we met at Michelle's house for a special class on binding. Though Shelby had pretty much dropped out of the group by then, due to scheduling conflicts and her new job, she was able to join us at Michelle's. The following pictures are all from that night.
Kirsten, Sara and Marie.
Ela and Shelby.
Only Ela is not in this picture. Shelby, Kirsten, Sara, Mica and Marie.
Ela, Kirsten, Sara and Mica.

Spots Around the World

I collected fabrics with spots or dots for quite a while - just on a whim, really. When at Paducah in 2007, I bought several larger pieces, as I had a lot of smaller ones.

Then, finally, I went to work on the quilt. The center of it is hand pieced, the borders added by machine. I didn't really plan the colors. Just used the smaller pieces for the center rings etc.

It is queen sized and was machine-quilted by Regina Carter.

Quilting with Rosie II

After making my own Quilting with Rosie hanging to cover my fire place, I decided to give Michelle the other half of the panel. Who needs two Rosie hangings anyway? And, instead of just giving it to her, I added the piano key border, using the same fabrics as I used in my own. Michelle had helped picking them out from my stash when I made my own quilt.

I just made this top, it will be up to Michelle to decide how to take it from here.

The Owl

When I started packing to move from Georgia to Kentucky in April of 2008, I needed some hand work so I could stay busy even after I packed most of my sewing room for the move. For some time I have tried to cut up scraps - into various sizes: 2" strips, 3"x6" pieces and 4"x4" squares. By no means do I always get around to this, but it feels as if when I do, there is a greater chance I will actually be able to use the scraps for a quilt some day. I had bought the owl panel a while back, and decided to start piecing some of the 2" strips around it. So I just kept out the strips and some hand sewing materials and packed the rest of the sewing room.

When I started, I think I had imagined it as a throw or something along those lines, but when it was suddenly quite large, I made a queen sized quilt. The top is entirely hand pieced.
For the back I used this old Marimekko fabric which still looks remarkably fresh and which has particular sentimental value for me. For years this was a curtain which hang in front of some storage shelves in the basement of my parents' house where I grew up. I am pretty sure that it was there when I lived there some 30+ years ago so it is indeed old! When my parents left to move to a smaller and newer house in mid-2008, they let me and my siblings have various things they could or would not move. Because of the distance, I obviously could not take much, but did get this fabric.

The quilt was machine quilted by Regina Carter - who did some extra magic with it because the top was very wavy and by no means straight. Apparently I made it grow too much as I worked on it by hand and never measured anything, so it was not at all flat any longer! You wold never know that now by looking at it. She's awesome.