Quilts & Fabric Projects
Benjamin's Quilt
This is the first quilt I ever made, and is about 3 feet x 5 feet. Most of the blocks are traditional blocks, but I designed the top-right block and the middle one in the second row myself, and Rob designed the right block in the 2nd from the bottom row. He also pieced that block.
The middle block in the quilt is usually called "Jacob's Ladder," but I chose it because the book I was using for block patterns called it "The Tail of Benjman's Kite" (although I think I reversed two of the squares).
Benjamin's Room and his quilt
Benjamin's quilt on its chair (shows the quilting on the blocks a little)
The quilt top, before it was quilted
Miranda and Prissy putting the finishing touches on the quilt.
If you look all the way on the right edge of the quilt you can see a little
of the quilting around the border.
Couch Pillow
I really enjoyed making the quilt for Benjamin, but it was a long
project, and I was sad to not be able to see the finished results
very often. So my next project was smaller and for myself - a pillow
cover for the couch. I also used this project to practice hand-quilting,
which was nice to do on flights to and from San Francisco. The quilt is about 24" square.
A photograph of the quilt. You can see the overall pattern very nicely, but the colors came out rather dark, and you can't see the quilting at all.
A scanned section of the quilt. You can see the hand-quilting, the patterns of the materials, and the colors are better (but still a little dark).
Another scanned section of the quilt.
Scott's Quilt
My third quilt was for my friends Chuck and Gretchen, and their
baby Scott. The animal patterns were all taken from A Quilter's Ark, but
the coloring and selection of materials is my own. The cat block is meant to look like their
cat Kibbles, and the dog block like their dog Fred. Rob helped
out once again by piecing the Fred block, and he also embroidered
Fred's nose and eye. This quilt ended up being about 28" square.
Small scanned image of the quilt Once again, the colors
are a little dark, but not too bad.
A larger version of the same scanned image of the quilt
Nicholas's Quilt
When I was making a quilt for my nephew Nicholas I had a lot of brightly colored
prints around, so I decided to make a quilt with a simple pattern, but lots
of bright colors (especially to contrast Benjamin's quilt, which has somewhat
sombre colors). All of the blocks are Ohio Star, and I think the finished
size ended up being about 30" square. I forgot to take good pictures before
I sent it to Denver, but I have enough candid pictures taken that week to give
an idea of what the quilt looks like.
Miranda sewing the binding
Quilt on Miranda's lap
Quilt on Miranda's lap 2
Prissy under the quilt
Ben and Nick's Bears
I made teddy bears for Ben and Nick from a pattern in a book Gillian gave me. The pattern was terrible, but the bears are still pretty cute.
The two bears
Ben and Nick with their new bears
Joshua's Quilt
My sister Gillian wanted animals for Josh's quilt, so she got animals. I didn't have a badger for the Wisconsin fans in the household, but I picked a bear, an elephant, a panda, a beaver, and a koala from A Quilter's Ark. I tried several other background fabrics from my stash, and even bought a green for the project, but they were all too drab or just wrong. So I took the finished blocks to the store, and several people in the store thought this blue would be bright and cheery.
Quilt hung on the wall
Quilt image squared (perspective removed)
Unfinished quilt squares on the rejected blue background fabric
Unfinished quilt squares on the rejected purple background fabric
Unfinished quilt squares on the rejected green background fabric
Julia's Quilt
For my friend Amanda I used animals again to make a small wall hanging.
Maya's Quilt
Gillian wanted animals again for Maya, but she requested that I match the animals to the announcements she had picked out. So for this quilt I made applique versions of the cartoon animals on the announcement, which was my first experience with machine applique. I also embroidered a rose (for Maya Rose) being held in the elephant's trunk. I'll get some good photos of the finished quilt to post here.
The announcement card
The quilt top, before it was quilted.
Here's a comparison of each drawn animal to its final appliqued form.
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Clié Case
Long before I had an iPhone, I had a Sony Clié. I didn't like the leather case that came with it because it was too heavy and big. This case has cardboard to protect the screen, and the Clié slides in and out very easily. It actually fits all the way inside, I just pulled it out slightly for the photo.
Closed case
Open case
Cube Quilt (my banner image)
The cubes in our offices were rather drab, so I wanted a quilt to add some color. This is a pattern called Bibbidy Bop, although I simplified it a little. Technically, it's not a quilt because there is no batting, it's just a pieced quilt top that I've pinned to the cube wall. The fabrics are a combination of Moda Marbles, Timeless Treasures Java Blenders, Hoffman Bali Batiks and Robert Kaufman Marbleous.
