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!

In the spring of 2020, shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to do some pure comfort sewing in the form of a quick project. It so happened that Suzy Quilts was having a sale to benefit, New Moms Chicago a great organization local to both of us. I also had a little stack of fabrics from The Economy Shop, an iconic resale shop nearby that exists to support even more local charities. It seemed like a perfect fit. I bought several patterns in the sale but reached first for Triangle Jitters. I had seen and loved Suzy’s neutral striped version and wanted to try stripes in mine too.

I ran out of the skinny blue and red striped fabric, and since it was secondhand there was no way to buy more. I thought about bringing in a third fabric but instead decided to make some of my own stripes. See if you can find them. :) These colors don’t feel like what I’d normally be drawn to but I love these for some reason. I love how soft and worn-in they look.

I quilted this with a simple grid, and then added ties. This was the first time I had ever tied a quit and it cured me of the notion that tying is an “easier” way to quilt. My fingers begged to differ. But I do love the look and feel of ties. So it was worth it. I made the throw size of this pattern, and it measures 54”x60”. Mitch Hopper took final photos for me.

Three Gifts

Secondhand Triangle Jitters