Three Gifts

January 31, 2024 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

My daughter recently graduated high school. It wasn’t always an easy journey and I was inspired to make a few gifts for some folks who helped her (and us) get through.

The first is a mini quilt for her Japanese teacher who taught her for 3 years and was an amazing presence in her days. This teacher is such a fun person, such a character, such a quirky and positive personality. We all love her. She happens to have a thing for Brad Pitt. He often appears in her powerpoint presentations. Her room is covered floor to ceiling with mostly Brad Pitt and a little Japanese ephemera. So this mini quilt is for Sensei, and now hangs in her classroom. It measures about 23” square. I made the center from a t-shirt and pieced the rest with Japanese fabrics I found on etsy. I handquilted it in a baptist fan motif to mirror some of the prints on the fabrics.

Next I made a Triangle Jitters quilt for the school guidance counselor who helped us navigate high school for both of our kids. Seven years of countless emails and phone calls from me! He handled it like a true pro with patience, skill, and care for my kids that I sincerely appreciated. I didn’t know what colors he would like so I went with the school colors. I quilted this on my Juki, using a walking foot organic X shape from Jacquie Gering’s book Walk. This was my second time making this Suzy Quilts pattern and it’s fantastic. This one measured 49”x71”.

Finally I made a quilt for the color guard coach. My daughter enjoyed 4 seasons of spinning flags with the color guard, and we loved watching her do it. It was a highlight of her high school years for sure. I designed this quilt myself, attempting to convey spinning flags. The team used hot pink practice flags this year which really appealed to me. I wanted the sashing to be dark enough to read almost black but in actuality it’s several colors (blues, reds, purples, and browns). I did some stitch in the ditch quilting and some handquilting to finish this one up. It measures 54”x64”.

Most photos by Mitch Hopper, a few by me. It’s weird to be the parent of two high school graduates! It went by so quickly. Onward!

new prayers: may i, may you

October 27, 2022 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

This quilt is about motherhood, growth, change, acceptance, pain, love, compassion, and hope. It was inspired by finding this tiny preemie outfit in storage, and the work of artist Russell Barratt who uses whole clothes and dots in his work.

My son recently went through a very hard couple of years. I tried to support but also give him space to live his life, and I did both very imperfectly. It was really difficult not to be consumed by worry, and not to feel like everything was somehow my fault. I made this quilt, using clothes that were worn by my boy 19 years apart, not for him but for myself, to work through what I was feeling during this sad and stressful time.

The prayers of my upbringing are foreign to me now. I let them go a long time ago. Instead, I borrow the words from the Buddhist tradition metta, or lovingkindness meditation. I meditate on these phrases and wish them for myself as a young mother, for my present-day self, and for my son at all of his ages and stages. I do my best to hold all versions of us in tenderness and compassion. As I write this now, my son is doing much better. Here’s to even better days ahead.

I made the applique dots by printing photos onto pink vellum, cutting them into circles, adding some handwriting, layering them onto fabric, scanning them and sending them to Spoonflower to print onto fabric. The applique and quilting were all done by (my) hand. Mitch Hopper took photos.

There are many versions of Metta but this longer version is the one I use most frequently:

(first you say it for yourself)

May I be filled with lovingkindness.

May I be safe from inner and outer dangers.

May I be well in body and mind.

May I be happy and at ease.

(then you say it for someone else, an individual, a group, or the world)

May you be filled with lovingkindness.

May you be safe from inner and outer dangers.

May you be well in body and mind.

May you be happy and at ease.

Bee quilt: black&white&rainbow pineapples (and a bonus purple pineapple quilt)

October 21, 2022 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

During the early days of the pandemic, I signed up to participate in a bee with some of my guild members. This was my first time taking part in a bee like this, where each member requested a certain type of block or patchwork, and the other members of the group provided what they asked. I really enjoyed making the blocks for the other members and felt inspired by their prompts. When it came to my turn to request blocks from other bee members, I struggled to come up with a cool prompt. I blame covid brain for my lack of creativity in this instance (not that I actually had covid, just that the early period of the pandemic made my brain feel so weird and mushy).

I had a pad of pineapple block foundation papers in my studio, a freebie from QuiltCon many years ago. I have always loved this quilt by Tricia Royal, so I asked her if she would be okay with me using it as the template for my bee quilt. She said go for it, so I sent a couple foundation papers to my bee members. I decided I wanted to add a border that would contrast with the black & white. My first idea was to try purple blocks as a juxtaposition, since I had a lot of purple in my stash that wasn’t getting used much. I wasn’t feeling that combination, so those purple blocks turned into their own quilt (see below). Next I tried to yellow blocks for my border and I was happy with that outcome. It wasn’t my first time using yellow in this way; this quilt from 2016 definitely influenced my design choice here. I’m happy with this bee quilt even though I couldn’t come up with a super unique prompt for my bee members. I love having an homage to Tricia’s work of my own.

This quilt measures 71”x83” and was quilted for me by Sarah Evans.

And here is the quilt that came from the purple blocks I made. I paired purple with chambray and navy and tried to focus on contrast in my composition. Honestly I never thought I’d make or love a mostly purple quilt but here we are. It’s a nice nap size quilt and I absolutely adore the quilting done by Sarah Evans on it (a fun panto by Longarm League called Thread Garden). Measures 59”x70”. Photos are by Mitch Hopper (except the one of Tricia’s quilt).

Mini for Holly

April 09, 2022 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

This is a gift for my friend who helped me find something I couldn’t find on the internet.

When I made this star quilt for my in-laws for Christmas, I was using a favorite bundle that had been on my shelf for ages. I knew the name of the bundle and the designer who had grouped the colors but couldn’t find a list of the Kona colors in the bundle anywhere! I needed to replenish some but didn’t know what they were. My friend Holly came through with her search skills. I made this for her to say thanks. I used scraps from the star quilt that she helped make possible.

Mini quilt for Holly, 18”x16”

Mini quilt for Holly, 2021. Measures 18”x16

Chicago Modern Quilt Guild 10th Anniversary Mini

April 09, 2022 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

My guild, Chicago Modern Quilt Guild, was supposed to celebrate its 10th anniversary in March 2020 with a party. Obviously we had to cancel that event but we hope to reschedule. And when we do, we’re going to display these 10th anniversary mini quilts, which members made to celebrate the guild and the friendships and connections fostered there. I made this quilt using scraps from the baby quilt I organized for Laura, Mitch, and Fiona. I thought it was fitting to use scraps from a quilt that was made with the help of lots of guild pals. Measures 23” square.