Wasabi I and II

The Wasabi is a wallet. It has 6 pockets for credit cards and IDs and it has 2 long pockets for cash and a checkbook. It is made from little pieces of BDUs and coordinating fabric. You will notice that these two Wasabis coordinate with the Parsleys from a couple of posts ago.

Lavender II

Another Lavender laptop quilt was made for a female high school runner. This Lavender was designed as a 4 by 4 grid of 16 blocks. One block (Row 2 of the right-hand column) had a very long design so we shortened another block so the long design wouldn't have to get cut off.

In the left-hand column, 2nd row you will see 3 mini designs sewn together as one block.

The sashing fabric is very appropriate for this quilt theme as it depicts female runners (and a couple of guys) in a race.

Watercress I

The Watercress is a wall-hanging sized quilt incorporating any number of shirts up to 12. This Watercress is composed of 9 blocks in a 3 by 3 grid. It was designed for a Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumnus. He played baseball at MIT and was a member of the Massachusetts-Iota Tau chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. His shirts are mostly his MIT baseball shirts but you can see an SAE Christmas Party shirt in the center.

This client only had 8 shirts but didn’t want a 4 x 2 quilt. Luckily 2 shirts had mini motifs on the front that coordinated with larger designs on the back. I was able to incorporate the breast pocket designs by using plain sections of the other t-shirts. The result is the left block on the top row. The middle block on the bottom row was actually a child’s shirt so I added triangles and strips to size it up to the other blocks. The sashing fabric is a mostly purple and gold batik which represents the colors of SAE.

A little-known factoid about MIT’s athletes: The Tech mascot is the Beaver. Do you know why?

Because the Beaver is Nature’s Engineer.

“So we turned to Mr. Hornaday’s book on the animals of North America and instantly chose the beaver….The beaver not only typifies the Tech man, but its habits are peculiarly our own. Mr. Hornaday says, ‘Of all the animals in the world, the beaver is noted for its engineering and mechanical skills and habits of industry. His habits are nocturnal, he does his best work in the dark.’ “
—Lester Gardner, Class of 1897

Basil I and II

The Basil is a kid-sized backpack made from the combat uniform. These two Basils were made for two military dependents from their dad's US Navy uniform. One bag is customized with the NAMETAG found over the breast pocket. It was appliqued with pink thread to match the frog fabric. The other Basil utilized the US NAVY tag (also from the uniform shirt). The straps can be made from the waistband as it is depicted in the Bug version or from a thin strip of uniform fabric backed and quilted with the coordinating fabric as is shown in the Frog version.

Parsley I and II

Parsleys are soft-sided quilted purses made from uniforms and other fabric.

The two wide sides (front and back) are from the left and right upper front of the uniform. One side is the NAMETAG half with pocket, the other is the U.S. SERVICE. These particular uniforms belonged to Navy and Army Servicemembers. The inside of each bag incorporates a double pocket made from coordinating fabric plus another uniform pocket complete with patch. The usual closure is made from the button-cuff from the sleeve. An alternative option is to substitute a zipper closure for the button-cuff closure. There is an extra charge to substitute the closure.

One Parsley was coordinated with pink and green fabrics. It would be great for a military AKA or DZ or simply any uber-prep like the client for which it was designed. This Parsley has the default button-cuff closure.

The other Parsley incorporated palm tree fabric and various purple based coordinates, one of the client's favorite colors. Palm trees are special for this client as she and her family were stationed in Hawaii (lucky!) and are from a state with a palm(etto) tree in the flag. Her Parsley has a zipper as a closure. This client customized her bag even further by having the patches from the sleeves added to the sides of the bag.

Tarragon II

Tarragons are twin-sized quilts ranging from 20-24 shirts that would result in a grid of 4×5 or 4×6 shirts.

This Tarragon was commissioned for a recent high school graduate who is off to college this fall. This young man is a talented athlete playing baseball, lacrosse, and football. He also was in marching band, DECA and….I'm saving the best for last…he is an Eagle Scout! Some of his baseball shirts had either patches from the Little League/Babe Ruth organizations or the two-button neckline. I was able to include the buttons and the patches on several blocks. The recipient is very into military history hence BDU fabric was used for the sashing and binding. He also is fascinated by frogs so a vibrant amphibian fabric was chosen for the backing fabric.

Tarragon I

This is a great Tarragon quilt albeit a not-so-wonderful picture of it. Tarragons are twin-sized quilts ranging from grids of 20 (4x5) to 24 (4x6) blocks. The recipient was a University of Missouri Kappa Delta alumna. She had shirts highlighting Homecomings, Greek Weeks, mixers, and of course the Mizzou Tigers.

The client had 18 shirts which would have resulted in a quilt of 6 rows of 3 squares each. She felt it was too narrow for the length so we redistributed the blocks into 5 rows total. 3 rows had 4 blocks each and 2 rows had 3 blocks each.

Lavender I

The Lavender is a lapsize quilt that uses either 12 or 16 shirts to make a 3 by 4 or 4 by 4 grid of blocks. This particular Lavender was designed for a woman involved in many areas of campus life ranging from musical performance to cheerleading to sorority life. Her sorority colors are double blue and gold which are the colors of the sashing fabric. Her mascot is a bear which you can see all over the backing fabric.

This Lavender actually used 9 shirts but we designed 12 blocks as the client wanted to incorporate the mini designs from the front of the shirts as well as the large designs on the back.

Intro, which means I start it. In other words, herbs departed

I am a quilter, fiber artist, textile architect. I specialize in incorporating your favorite textiles into useful art whether it is a uniform redesigned into a purse or your favorite shirts recycled into a quilt. I also depict homes in pictorial quilts.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is a symbol of remembrance. Ingesting it is supposed to help one's memory. Visual stimuli can also trigger memories. T-shirt quilts are great for young adults who live away from home for the first time. A college student wouldn't be seen in a high school activity shirt on the university campus but that same shirt incorporated into a quilt is suddenly acceptable. For military family members or service-members themselves, a bag made from the uniform of their choice (ACU, BDU, DCU) is a visible reminder of proud service to our country.