Quilting
rag bag
Back in 1999, while visiting in San Diego with my favorite craft-cross-pollinator friend Janis, I bought myself a Bernette machine and a walking foot. Prior to that, I had been strugging along with a 1960's White machine that I bought used from another student in college for ten bucks. Needless to say, I now have the tools to make real sewing projects!
my quilts
- More, as always, are in the works...
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- Curtain-Scraps Lap Quilt and Pillow - completed December 1999
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I made this little lap quilt and nine-patch pillow for my ex from the fabric left over from making pillow shams and curtains for the house. I have enough nine-patch squares made that I have a queen-sized quilt in the works, but I've not gotten my gumption up to take on that much machine quilting. Note that cottons are easy to whip up into curtains or quilts!
gift quilts
- Mrs. Monaly's Cuddle Quilt - closeup - completed May 1999, given to me August 2000
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This lovely little lap-sized quilt was given to me for my sinus surgery recovery by Heidi Monaly. It's hand-quilted in beautiful tiny little stitches.
- Grandma Schesel's Hawaiian Quilt - completed December 1999
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This is a rescue quilt... my father's sister Lucy purchased three quilt tops from her mother's mother, sometime in the last few years of Great-Grandma's life. She saved them for a while, and then, when she and my Mom were chatting about some of Mom's other rescue quilt projects for her coworkers, Aunt Lucy brought them out. My Mom put backing fabric and edging on them but didn't quilt them, and now each of Lucy's daughters and I are the curators of these little pieces of family history.
The quilt top was done in little pieces with backing fabric sewn behind each one of them (I'm still trying to find a good website describing the technique that was used). Some of the fabric pieces look like striped men's shirt material, others little calico apron prints, and some pieces still show previous sewing-holes where they were part of some other garment in their other life.
One of the newer fabrics used was called "the Hawaiian fabric" by Great-Grandma, so she dubbed this quilt "the Hawaiian Quilt", and the name stuck, although I'm sure that Great-Grandma never went to the islands... Because I majored in GeoChem in college, I went on a weeklong senior field trip to the big island in 1996 and fell in love with the place. Mom and Aunt Lucy thought it would be appropriate that I be given care of this particular quilt for that reason. - Grandma Walker's Iris Lap Quilt - purchased in 1996
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Grandma Walker din't quilt. But when she and her friend Doris came out to California from the East Coast for a visit in 1996, they saw me admiring a sample quilt of purple irises in the local quilt shop window. The store didn't normally sell those samples, but rather keeps a rotating display of them. Grandma talked them into selling it to her anyway, and gift-wrapped it for me. Once I get better at narrow points, I'm planning on using it to create a pattern for my own irises quilt.
- Mrs. Borgess' Lap Quilt - completed in 1996
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Grandma Walker's friend Doris Borgess brought this one when they came to visit me. It's machine pieced and tied, backed with a lovely lace fabric, and is just big enough for me to curl up under.
- Mom's Project-Scraps Nine-Patch Quilt - completed sometime in the late 1980's or early 1990's
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Mom made this quilt for me from leftover fabrics which she had made clothing, costumes and projects from as I was growing up. Most squares on this quilt have a lot of meaning for me. It's machine-pieced and edged, and tied on a medium-thick batting. Mom's put new batting in it once already for me, because the original batting didn't hold up well in patches.
- Mom's T-Shirt Quilt - completed in 1990
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Mom made this one for me while I was in high school, and used many of the T-shirts I had accumulated over the years by participating in all sorts of activities. Of course, there were all different sizes of T-shirts, since some of the summer camp shirts came from when I was in elementary school. It's machine-pieced and edged, and tied on a medium-think batting. One important lesson learned from this quilt: if you have red fabrics, make sure you wash them and wash them and wash them before putting them into a quilt.
- Mom's Months-of-Flowers Quilt - completed in 1997 or 1998
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This is another of Mom's rescue quilts. She found the squares all sewn together with no borders at the Bargersville Flea Market in Indiana, washed them up, separated them, and put them back together with machine-stitched borders, edging, and a thin batting.
- Mom's Lace-Penguin Quillow - completed in the early 1990's
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Mom made this quillow for me a while ago... all while I was growing up, I adored penguins. The quillow pattern is a nice little piece of engineering. This one's machine-pieced, the pillow front is machine-quilted, and the blanket part is tied on a medium-light batting.
- Mom's Print-Penguin Quillow - completed in the early 1990's
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This one's machine-pieced, the cotton-print pillow front is machine-quilted, and the blanket part is tied on a medium-light batting.
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