On location, touring around the nation Fitz Family always on vacation

These two quilts are memorial quilts dedicated to a special husband and dad.   The father's favorite souvenir was a shirt from wherever they traveled.  As the father was an USAF officer, I incorporated many patches from various military units and uniforms on both of the quilts.

The first quilt was made for the daughter.  Both dad and daughter are UVa Cavaliers which is commemorated in the patch in the left column. This patch was actually the front section of a baseball hat.  Both dad and daughter were big Redskin fans.

 The second quilt was made for the son.  Since he still has the same surname, his quilt has the family coat of arms in the top row as well as 2 blocks celebrating the family's Hibernian heritage. I also added the various patches from a Falls Church High School hat.

The son's quilt had a fabulous backing made from a cotton with large scale motorcycles in various colors.  It would have been great to have them driving around the front of the quilt but they were too large so to the back they went.  Unfortunately the photograph was very blurry so it couldn't be included.   An all-purpose patriotic star design was used for the sashing/borders and binding.

You gettin' fancy gifts from expensive men You're a dog on a leash, like a pig in a pen

This simple  quilt was made for a grandmother of all grandsons who is about to have her first granddaughter.

 

 

I love Ian Falconer's  character Olivia.  Like Eloise, Angelica, Lucy,  and even Oscar the Grouch, she is no shrinking violet.

I used some of the Alexander Henry line of Olivia prints. Like the illustrations in the books, the predominant colors are black. red, and white.  Not exactly girly! I added the lollipop fabric to bring a touch of pink and used a pink floral for the backing.

Tight bodies, I'm rousting. Karate chops and roundhouses

This quilt was made for a Denison University alumna to celebrate her baccalaureate status.   Like so many other recipients of my quilts, she was very involved during college.  She is a member of Delta Delta Delta, a Resident Advisor, an intercollegiate soccer player for the Big Red, and in her free time, a marathon runner. She continues to give back to the community by serving in the Teach for America program,

 

As usual, I kept the collar and buttons of the polo shirt to add some dimension.  I love the black and red print that was used for the sashing and borders. The recipient's style is both urban and sophisticated  so this contemporary fabric fit the bill.

I couched the Tri-Delta graduation cord to the upper left corner and appliqued her karate belt to the lower right.  I tied the belt in the specific knot that is used by martial arts students.

Sweet and sour like a tangerine Fresh like a box of Krispy Kremes

 This Lavender Lapsize quilt was made for a young lady about to embark on her college adventure.  She was a Chantilly Charger from the class of 2013 and is about to become a Radford Highlander.  This was an interesting quilt to do as the girl loves purple so we wanted to make sure that the sashing fabric was not too close in shade to the various purple shirts.

Like a lot of high school girls in Northern VA, she wanted to include a hand-painted shirt in her quilt. She must be a huge Justin Bieber fan as she made a shirt showing the Belieber Infinity symbol. The shirt is in the upper left corner.

 Haha, who knew Krispy Kreme made boxers as well as doughnuts?

She studies real hard, all night she'll cram In school she majors in advanced Delta Gam

This was probably the most fun albeit most challenging quilt I have made to date.  It is for a Salisbury University Delta Gamma who just happened to have graduated summa cum laude. It was just a couple of years ago that she received a Delta Gamma/Salisbury pillow for Christmas.

I included tons of different textiles to include 3 satin graduation stoles representing the recipient's study abroad experience Down Under, her membership in Delta Gamma, and her membership in the honor society Phi Kappa Phi ΦΚΦ.

 

We also couched two honor cords on the top border.  Obviously the blue and gold one was for Phi Kappa Phi. I'm not sure what the 2 shades of blue cord represents since Delta Gamma colors are pink and blue.

The recipient had six sets of stitched letters to incorporate into the design.  You can see she  combined her two loves of DG and the Baltimore Ravens in the bottom set.  The OC Parasail design was originally black and white but I hand-tinted it so it wouldn't be as bland.

SU trivia:  Originally the school was called Salisbury State University which of course people nicknamed Salisbury Steak University.  The name was changed to Salisbury University around the beginning of the millenium.

The back of the quilt was made from a college sweatshirt blanket and two Vera Bradley throws.  The quilt label was inked on a pair of SU shorts.  The front sashing/border print was made from two Vera Bradley sarongs.

Now push the pause button then start DUCKing. Shhhhh you heard me like I'm E.F. Hutton.

These three Bay Leaf Bolsters are a new design.  Each pillow used elements of 8 shirts, two uniform skirts, and 1 school tie. Rather than making 2 4-square pillow faces for a front and back pillow, we thought it would be fun to make bolsters for the new graduates' dorm room beds.

The three graduates all attended Worcester Prep.  Two are off to Furman and the third is matriculating at Lynchburg College. 

The first set of pictures show both sides of the bolster.  The student was a lacrosse player both for his school and for a travel team.  The Cropper Concrete shirt is from the family business.

The next pair are the sides of a fellow lacrosse player.  He also was heavily involved in Appalachian Service Project.  The last pair of images is from the bolster for the girl who graduated.  She also was a lacrosse player at the travel and school level.

The circles at either end were primarily made from the front pocket designs of the t shirts.  However in the second of the two pictures, the leftmost pillow used the girl's uniform blouse and the middle pillow incorporated a pair of shorts.

The  piping was made from the upper school girls' Black Watch skirt and the horizontal sashing in the body of the bolster was made from the middle school grey plaid uniform.  The vertical sashing was created from the school regimental tie.

Five-O caught me, now I'm going to the mountains Said goodbye to my girl, my lawyers, and accountants

This quilt was made for a recent (as in 2 days ago!) graduate of Loyola University in Maryland.  He has lined up a job with an accounting firm post-graduation, no mean feat in today's economy.

 The recipient was a Salisbury School student before graduating from Episcopal High School.  He played soccer and lacrosse in high school and was a member of the NCAA Loyola Greyhound Soccer Team.

In addition to playing sports himself, he is a huge sports fan, loving his hometown teams: the Ravens and the Orioles. 

The back of his quilt was made with an Orioles fleece blanket and a Loyola sweatshirt blanket with a bit of Ravens corduroy thrown in to stabilize the stretchy fabrics.

My trademark is to incorporate architectural elements of the garments whenever possible.   I have used pockets,  hoods, buttons, collars, etc but this is the first time I was challenged to use a zipper.  The Ravens corduroy peeks through when  the warmup jacket is unzipped.

The bottom of the block (cut off in the picture) is from a pair of Tommy Hilfiger boxers.  The recipient has a family member who works for this designer and always gave him the best prints.

So what if I'm a Hamm and cheese on rye? I gots to do my thing and that's no lie

  

This tote was made for a USAF NCO wife.  She wanted something bright to contrast with the subdued colors of her husband's ABUs.

Between the Alexander Henry home dec fabric used as the interior lining and the Hoffman cotton used on the exterior sides, it should be vibrant enough! The interior pockets are actually double pockets.  The side one has the dual pen holder from the uniform sleeve as well as a larger pocket that can hold a cell phone. The rank that was on the uniform sleeves was sewn to each of the narrow sides of the bag.

The interior pockets are actually double pockets. The side one has the dual pen holder from the uniform sleeve as well as a larger pocket that can hold a cell phone.  The pocket on the wide side is made from two uniform flap pockets which then create a third pocket.

Came out rapping when I was born Mom said rock it 'til the break of dawn

This Thyme Tote was made for a woman who just gave birth to her first child last night.   Her colors for the nursery were orange and blue so I tried to coordinate the bag with that color scheme.

The majority of the exterior of the bag is made from the recipient's husband's Air Force ACU shirt. The side panels are a modern print and the handles have a crazy orange motif from Hoffman. I added the rank to the base of the handles.

The fabric is a vintage 70's print so it may be older than the proud parents.  The interior of the bag is very roomy and will be able to hold all the baby accessories that these little ones require.  The large pocket is actually a triple pocket (one big one and 2 ACU ones side by side).  The smaller pocket is a double pocket made from the ACU pen holder from the sleeve of the uniform and can fit a cell phone so it doesn't sink to the bottom.  This bag is definitely not too feminine for Dad to carry. 



No soft sucker with a parrot on her shoulder 'Cause she's bad, gettin' bolder, cold-cold, getting colder

This fullsize Fennel quilt was made for a fairly recent Washington and Lee University graduate.  Besides being a sister of the Zeta Tau chapter of Kappa Delta (ΚΔ), this young woman tutored her peers, raised money for Cystic Fibrosis and other philanthropies, studied abroad in Europe, and graduated with honors. 

Her quilt was a bit different as she wanted to include the front pocket design in a column by themselves.  No problem!

 

There were many, many fun shirts representing all the great times she had at W&L.    





Only at W&L do you have to worry about your mom and dad on Parents Weekend!

Of all the W&L items I have created over the years, I believe she has the record for tridents with 4 different shirts in the quilt.  My personal favorite is below.  The design of this one is actually a collage of several of the programs from different Fancy Dress decades as it was designed for the hundredth anniversary of this event.

WHAT IS THE FANCY DRESS BALL?

Think that other school down the road has a cool librarian? Think again! Fancy Dress is W&L's annual black tie ball that was started over 105 years ago by the campus librarian, Annie. (The library card catalog system is also named after this hip librarian!) Over the years we've seen everything from Colonial balls to 2010′s "Moulin Rouge." And with a budget rumored to total $80,000 it's no wonder party goers forget they're still in Lexington. Regardless of the theme, one thing is for sure, Fancy Dress is W&L's favorite social event!

The other ΚΔ/W&L quilt that I made recently was for a girl who graduated the year after this recipient and thus they overlapped by 3 years.  However they have different fond memories as there was not one shirt that was chosen by both women to be incorporated

The Vinall decision is perfection and precision She's grade A class, number one in her division

This is the third of the trio of quilts that were made for three lucky sisters.

Like her two older sisters, this girl played lacrosse all through high school and now in college.  She ventured out of state and is now studying at Dickinson College.

As she did with the older two, mom saved lots of fun shirts from the girl's childhood from Disney characters to tennis, golf, basketball and of course lacrosse themes. She chose a jelly-bean fabric as the daughter is a huge fan of that candy delight

Dickinson Drama!
Legend has it that if a student treads on the college seal embedded in the middle of Britton Plaza, he or she won't graduate. I am sure this young lady will be too smart to risk that.

She's got the savior faire because she's debonair, Well, M Dub with the Vinall, with the grooves so rare

This is the second of the trio of quilts for the three sisters.  Like the eldest, the middle girl is also an excellent lacrosse player and plays at the NCAA level for the University of Mary Washington.  Additionally she was on field hockey, tennis, soccer, basketball and swim teams.

Mary Washington, or "M Dub" as they apparently call themselves was founded in 1908 and named for the mother of our country’s founding father. The University of Mary Washington has built a rich history of traditions and academic excellence.

How many Mary Washington students does it take to change a light bulb?
The whole student body, there's nothing better to do on weekends.



The needle's in the groove and the Vinall's on the platter. I know that I'm fly, man, there's no need to flatter

This is one of a trio of quilts I made for 3 sisters.

All 3 girls are excellent athletes, participating in lacrosse and swimming throughout their childhoods and  high school.  The oldest sister also played Division 1 lacrosse at the University of Richmond, very time consuming and impressive!

I believe this quilt set a new record for number of shirt emblems in one quilt.  I was able to squeeze  11 NVSL All Star logos into one block. The mom wanted non-Halloweeny arachnid motifs since Richmond's mascot is the spider but she found high heel fabric for the borders and sashing as the recipient is now working in Manhattan and is in pumps and suits.

My favorite block in this quilt is this one below,  I love the smiling shark and apparently this now-sophisticated young lady, former jock laxer, was originally a Barney fan! :)

How many University of Richmond students does it take to change a light bulb?

Two, one to mix the martinis and one to call the electrician.