Brenda's Christmas Tree Skirt

My sister-in-law wanted a new tree skirt.  Her old one is one I made years and years ago - probably 20 or more years.  Time for a new one.  She needed the new one bigger - so this is what I did.  It fits the size of the tree pretty well.  It's about 50" across.

 

 

 

Close up:

 

 

 

 

backing:

 

 

 

Kimberly's Christmas Tree Skirt

My nephew's wife asked for a Christmas tree skirt - she was just using a green sheet.  So after discussing size and colors, this is what we came up with.  It's about 36" across and suits their tree.  I quilted it with a simple meander.

 

I found a neat plaid for the back side that has most of the same colors - and Miller approves"

 

 

Pat's Paisley Mystery

This is Pat's mystery that I ran for our guild last summer.  Every fabric is a paisley, including the backing.  It's 56 x 81.

 

 

 

I quilted an all-over blunt-end swirl with a taupe thread.  It blended really well on the front and on the back

 

 

 

 

Backing

 

 

Karen's Blues

Karen pieced this from beautiful batiks.  I love the pattern and all the blues.  It's just fabulous with 4 borders.  It's 68 x 68.  Well done Karen :)

 

I followed the design of the fabrics by quilting flowers and ferns.  The outer border has hooks facing opposite directions, the solid blue middle border has ferns, and the larger third border has a flower and hooks between them:

 

 

The pieced border has hooks and a wiggly line

 

In the 4 blocks that make the cross pattern I quilted 2 large ferns in each triangle, and a wiggly line in the stripes

 

 

The 5 multi-colored pieced blocks were all done differently depending on the pattern:

 

 

 

The backing is mostly another blue batik, but it is also pieced:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cody's Racing

Cody raced motocross professionally, and these are his racing shirts and sponsor t-shirts.   The quilt is 87 x 95.  Cody's favorite color is orange, so I used that for the sashings and inner border, with black for cornerstones and outer border:

 

I quilted a pantograph called "Brush Fire" that looks like flames shooting up.  It gives the quilt a great over-all texture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are his racing shirts:

 

 

And Mom's shirt with all the sponsors listed:

 

The backing is grey and black swirls, and was also used for the binding.

 

 

 

Football Fever

Janet pieced this 68 x 88 top for her grandson.  She used some of his t-shirts, some fun themed fabrics, and plain grey alternate blocks to fill in.

She even added some embroidery:

Mitchell plays football, so I quilted footballs in the plain grey blocks:

The other blocks got a simple loopy meander since it really doesn't show much.  The sashing have a wiggly line.  The backing is a masculine Stonehenge fabric, and shows the quilting well:

Jill's Mom's birthday napkins

Jill had an 80th birthday party for her Mom, and used these beautiful cotton napkins.  She had a great idea to sew them together to make a quilt for her Mom.  I added the border and quilted it for her.  Mom is Irish, so we used a pantograph that has clovers all over.  It's 45 x 52.

 

close up of napkins:

 

 

 

quilting:

 

 

 

 

Jane's Satin & Silk

Jane pieced these self-dyed satin and silk fabrics that were left over form other projects.  She wanted "puff" so she had me use a double layer of Quilter's Dream Puff batting.  I did a simple stitch in the ditch so it could be really puffy.  The back is a plain blue.  This one is 40 x 52.  The satin makes this really soft , an will be a great "cuddle" quilt.

The side view shows the puff a little better:

Memories of Ed

This was made for Jane, using her husband's ties and a few shirts.  The fabulous colors of the ties led me to the color wheel.  Some of the ties are traditional prints, and some are just fun - cats and dogs holding umbrellas, palm trees or golfers.  The t- shirt piece in the middle has bible verses in Ed's handwriting.  The middle of the top and bottom rows have the skinny ends of the ties.  I pulled the padding out from all the ties, but it's still pretty heavy.  The shirt fronts I left whole - with buttons and pocket attached.  The backs of the shirts are on the back of the quilt.  The backing fabric and binding are a blue print.  Size is 60 x 80.

 

upper left section

 

 

upper right section - includes  a Cincinnati Reds baseball hat

 

 

center t-shirt

 

 

lower left section

 

 

lower right section

 

 

I quilted radiating lines following the points and centers of each tie.  The top and bottom sections are a simple meander.  There is a wiggly line where the ties overlap.

 

 

wiggly lines on back

 

 

The back shows the quilting well.

 

 

 

 

Quilt of Valor

Martha and her daughter Maria, in Ohio, pieced this top and the QOV organization paired us up so we can get it completed and sent off to a veteran.  I love the pattern, and she did a great job piecing.  It's 62 x 82 and has been sent back to Martha so she can bind it and get it sent to the appropriate vet.

Edit:  Martha and her Mom gave me permission to print this story:

"The vet it is going to is 93 years old.  He is a relative of ours and served in WWII.  He resides in a nursing home.  Back in the 80's he and his wife would drive their motorhome from California and spend the summers on our dairy farm.  He would help drive tractors to help my husband with the field work.  They did this for about  16 summers.  They became very close to our children while they were growing up and have a special spot in their hearts.  He would tell many stories of his time in the service.  This quilt is just one way we want to thank him for his service to our country."
 

 



I did a meander with stars in the outer border, and 2 stars in each of the smaller star fabric sections:

outer border

 



star section

then added loops in the red and blue sections:

followed by a wiggly line in the narrow blue border.

1" blue border

The backing is light colored, so all the quilting shows up well there: