Fiona's Baby Quilt

March 22, 2022 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

My friend Laura Hopper, aka Sonic Stitches, has brought so much to my life since I met her at guild 5 or 6 years ago. She is so smart and thoughtful, a great writer and guild leader, a talented curator, a good friend and human, and a brilliant quilter! In spring 2020 she embarked on the journey of birth and motherhood and I was so happy for her. I asked friends to make blocks with 9” circles in black and white. I had never organized a group quilt like this before and it was so fun to collect blocks through the mail. Everyone did a fantastic job. I added sashing in some of Laura’s favorite colors, some additional applique, quickly quilted it with my walking foot, and handed it off to a friend who volunteered to put on the binding. We were in a bit of a time crunch, trying to get it done before the baby arrived. Despite the pandemic, a few of us were able to carefully meet in their backyard and gift this quilt. It was wonderful to watch them open it in person at a time when nobody was doing much of anything in person. This quilt measures 60” square. Mitch Hopper, aka Fiona’s dad, took final photos.

Thank you so much to all of Laura’s friends who contributed to this quilt:

Ellen Pomes, Heather Kinion, Amy Struckmeyer, Julia Bryant, Deb Pentak, Natalie Holz, Melissa Bogusch, Jennifer Lowe, Bill Keller, Holly Harper, Sarah Evans, Jen Beatty, Emily Bruzzini, Sarah Shulman, Lyndsey Rankin, Jenni Grover, Emily Lang, and Katie Cooper

Fiona’s baby quilt, 2020. Measures 60”x60”

Secondhand Triangle Jitters

March 21, 2022 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

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.

Disappearing Nine Patch and Leftover Stars

March 20, 2022 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

This quilt was born from a pile of scraps and patchwork left over from another project. I often make more patchwork than ends up going into a particular piece, and that was the case for this mini quilt I made for a guild swap. Once that mini was finished, I had some blocks left, and I was still really loving the color palette. I decided to keep going. I made some standard nine patch blocks and some disappearing nine patch blocks, just having fun with the scraps and the colors. Finally I gave each block a partial border in varying widths. This quilt gets a lot of use on our couch. It’s a good lap size. Molly Kohler quilted it for me. Mitch Hopper took final pictures. It measures 55”x71”.

stitching binding on the dock during a lake vacation

then/now/always (a quilt for my son)

March 12, 2022 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

In 2019 I set out to make a quilt for my then 16 year old son. I’ve been quilting for 10 years now and hadn’t yet made quilts specifically for my kids. Maybe it felt like too much pressure to choose a design? I don’t know why it took me so long but I was finally ready. the bars were floating in a background of various corals (I asked my son what colors he liked and he was not forthcoming— we eventually settled on the color of his current store-bought blanket, a beautiful coral). I included lots of personal fabrics in this one, lots of my son’s old t-shirts, scraps from other projects, and four embroidered portraits.

then/now/always, completed 2019, measures 92”x80”

I had stitched a couple portraits of my kids years ago. My plan was to make a couple more, then create a little display of them all on the wall. When my daughter came out to us and transitioned, it no longer felt right to hang old images of her up around the house. But I struggled with the idea of getting rid of those stitched portraits, or even of them sitting in a drawer, forgotten. I asked my daughter if she would be okay with me piecing them into a quilt. In her even-keel way, she said, “sure, that’s fine, but could you add some new ones too?” Of course I obliged. There are two old portraits pieced into the quilt, and two new. Two from before we knew my daughter as she is, and two from after.

That’s how this quilt for my son became a quilt about my son and my daughter. A document and a celebration of how love can transcend time, age, and gender. The portrait subjects have evolved over time. What hasn't changed is the close bond between siblings, and the love and pride I feel for both of my children.

Since this quilt is so big I used wool batting to keep it light and fluffy. I handquilted it with Perle cotton. There’s a quote from our favorite podcast on the back, just for fun, which I made out of paper and then had printed on Spoonflower. Final pictures by Mitch Hopper. Measures 92”x80”.

back of quilt detail, MBMBAM quote made from paper and printed onto fabric

I tried something new for the label on this quilt. I printed this whole story onto fabric via Spoonflower. But instead of having a block of text exposed on the back of the quilt, I decided to tuck it away into a fabric envelope. I found a beautiful silk envelope on etsy and stitched it onto the quilt’s back. Then I tucked the longer story label into the envelope, after securing it with beaded strings so it won’t get lost or separated from the quilt. I am quite happy with this technique , and could definitely see myself using it again. For me, this ensures the story of this quilt won’t get lost. Wherever this quilt goes in its lifetime, its story will go along with it.

additional label, when taken out of fabric envelope

additional label , tucked into fabric envelope

2018 Habit Tracking Quilt

December 02, 2019 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

My idea for the 2018 version of the series of goal quilts I have been doing was slightly different than previous years. Instead of representing the completion of my goals for the year, I wanted to track it day by day.

At the start of the year, I had 5 habits I wanted to incorporate in my day (actually 3 things I wanted to start doing and 2 I wanted to sotp doing). I designed a block with 5 fields. Each field represented one habit. If I did the habit for the day, I woud put color in the field. If I didn’t do it, the field would remain white.

I also decided to re-evaluate my habits every quarter, in case the habits I was trying to adopt were too hard, too easy, not serving me, or whatever. And I did end up changing the habits I was working on each quarter. In fact, I tracked fewer habits progressively as the year went on. I’m not sure if this was a result of burnout or if it was an honest reflection of what was working for me. By the end of the year, I was tracking only one thing, writing in a gratitude journal. On this quilt I included a very detailed label of the habits I was pursuing, and my thinking behind changing throughout the year, because I knew I would forget if I didn’t write it down.

Part of the idea behind this design was to make plain the patchwork nature of life. I wanted to show that even “failure” to keep up with a habit (represented by white fields on the quilt) can add interest and movement and doesn’t take away from the overall design. Basically I want to say something cheesy like, life is a beautiful patchwork in spite of ups and downs, successes and failures. It is cheesy, but I believe it.

This quilt measures 53”x65”. Nikki Maroon quilted it for me, and Mitch Hopper took these photos.

2018 Habit Tracking Quilt, embroidered label