Soft Geese for Grandma

A year and a half ago, my dad's mom, my last living grandparent,  moved out of her home and into a small apartment attached to a nursing home.  We had been wanting her to move closer to family for a long time.  So while we were happy she was finally living closer to my parents, so they could look in on her from time to time, the move was very hard on her.  I wanted to provide a bit of comfort, if I could. 

piecing in progress

I chose colors and floral prints I thought Grandma would like. I included quite a bit of double gauze in the quilt which made it extra soft.  I worked from a pattern called Bows and Braids by Jocelyn Ueng. The final quilt measures 58"x68". I had it quilted by Sarah Wilson of crinklelove.

completed quilt

back of the quilt

My grandma was 89 and healthy when I started this quilt, and she was 90, hospitalized, and rapidly declining when I finished it. When she unwrapped it, with help, from her hospital bed, she said, "I don't think anyone has ever spent so much time on me before." This from a woman who had knitted and crocheted countless items for others through the years. I regret that we only had three more weeks with my grandma after that moment. I wish I had given her a quilt earlier, that she could have used and enjoyed longer. But I'm glad she had it for a time, for warmth and comfort in unfamiliar beds, and to know how much she was loved.

binding

hand-stitched label on back of quilt

My grandma has been gone for almost a year. Her quilt now lives at my mom's house. I love seeing it when we go home to visit. 

my grandma's high school yearbook.  I love her quote. 

Grandma in 1959

My grandma with my dad

me with grandma

the quilt displayed at her funeral

Marigold Quilt

I was asked by Lindsey of Pen and Paper Patterns to try the pattern for her Marigold Quilt.  I enjoy following her work on Instagram. Her style is so clean and cute, and she is always churning out new patterns.

Picking out colors

I love how this pattern uses two sizes of the drunkard's path block to create a super fun flower motif.  The applique details in the flower centers are so fun too.  Since my Juki only does straight stitch, I had to dig my old Necci out for the zig-zag around the applique.  It actually worked!  I was so relieved not to have to hand-stitch it.  :)

I also quilted this myself, by echoing the flowers. I chose a wool batting to make this quilt extra puffy. 

Finished quilt! 

I went with a combination of solids for my version of this quilt.  I love how it turned out, but I know from seeing other testers' versions that it looks amazing in some well-chosen prints too.  Thanks for asking me to test this adorable pattern, Lindsey!  Now I'm just waiting for someone I know to have a little baby girl.

Popcorn quilt

This quilt came about because I finally tried my hand at English paper pieceing (hexies, of course!), and wanted to incorporate some into a quilt. 

Lupin blends in to this grey fabric! 

My idea was to scatter the hexies around, like popcorn popping, on a simple background.  For the first time, I made a quilt exclusively using one line of fabric, Waterfront Park by Violet Craft.  I made the hexies from a little charm pack that featured the whole line, and then I chose some favorites from the line for the main background and stripes.  I love that dark grey with the bridges on it, and the orange and fuscia against it.

Finished Popcorn quilt  

For my money (literally and figuratively, haha), the best thing about this quilt is Nikki Maroon's quilting.  Each hexie got individual attention, then she did an amazing overall design mixing straight lines and random bursts of paisley.  I absolutely love the quilting.

The popcorn quilt is twin-size and will go into my pile of quilts to give away as my nieces, nephew, and boys go off to college.

Let's Go Outside

I made this quilt as part of a swap between the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild (of which I am a proud member) and the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild. We were assigned partners and asked to make a mini quilt we thought they would like. We could try to assess our partners aesthetic through all the modern stalking methods: Pinterest, Instagram, etc. 

Mini quilt for Giedra, measuring about 24" square.

My partner Giedra of Thread n Honey seems to have pretty eclectic taste.  She likes color and lots of prints, especially Lizzy House.  I took these observations and felt free to get creative with her quilt!  I used some little drunkard path blocks that I had leftover from another project, and mixed them with some textured lilac solid I had.  I wanted to make some letters, as I often want to do these days, so I needed a phrase.  I chose "Let's Go Outside", inspired by a picture in Giedra's instagram feed that she captioned, "Summer still-life.  #outsideallday".  I can tell she values time with her kids and that they love to spend time outdoors.

Hand-written label on the back.

Quilting details.

The letters I pieced for this quilt were pretty minimal.  The e's, for instance, were just squares.  I wanted to experiment with making the letters in their most basic form, and letting the quilting express the shape of the letter.  I didn't feel confident in executing this myself so I hired Nikki Maroon to execute my vision.  She also quilted some outdoorsy images like grass, sun, flowers, and wind.  I love the quilting on this little quilt so much.  Thank you, Nikki.  xoxo

Back of quilt.

Leftovers Ala Gwen

Last year I made a baby quilt for a friend consisting of half-square triangles in shades of grey, blue, and green.  I made a lot of HST's and then just used a portion of them to make the baby quilt.  I had quilt a few left over and decided to make a twin-size quilt with them. 

Front of quilt, measures 81"x65"

My favorite design element of this quilt is one that was inspired by a quilt Gwen Marston showed us when she visited our guild in February 2014.  Her quilt had an inner border that used the same type of blocks as the rest of the quilt, just in soft neutral shades instead of the brights in the rest of the quilt.  I decided to do the same with white and off-white HST's. I love how it turned out. 

I named this quilt Leftovers Ala Gwen because most of the blocks were leftovers from another quilt, and the layout was inspired by a favorite Gwen Marston quilt.  I hesitated to use the word leftovers next to my quilt heroine's name, but I decided leftovers don't have to be just lukewarm meatloaf or some other blob.  Sometimes leftovers can be surprisingly delicious if they are well prepared and maybe paired with something fresh.  So that's how I'm choosing to think of leftovers in this instance.  The quilt measures about 81"x65", a generous twin.

Back of quilt.

On the back of this quilt I did some piecing of letters.  Once again I wanted to show what could be done with the Simple Shapes Alphabet (pattern coming soon).  Can't Stop Won't Stop came to mind as a fun phrase, a rap reference that has made its way into the lexicon.  I don't know why it needed to be on a quilt, except that I can't stop putting words on quilts.  Or quilting in general.  Can't stop, won't stop until I'm too old to physically cut and sew fabric.  Quilting is my life-long obsession, I feel certain.  If it turns out that I stop quilting for some reason other than just physical incapability (ie I lose interest) I will be truly shocked.  As things stand now, I always have ideas, I always want to make more.  I can't imagine life being any different.