She DOES play that sport, sisters and lacrosse, Real talk, the dogs done finished her off.

Such a fun story: Over a decade ago, I created 3 quilts for 3 sisters who all played lacrosse at their local high school and respective universities.   At my initial consultation with the mom at her house, I vaguely recalled a little girl very interested in the process of designing the layouts.  The mother saved my contact information and 13 years later got in touch with me as the fourth sister had grown up and it was time for her quilt.  Thank goodness I hadn't changed my email address!

Like her older siblings, the recipient was an avid swimmer in her youth and played lacrosse and field hockey at Woodson High School.

She attended American University and is now a lacrosse coach at Lehigh University.

I think it is wonderful that her entire family were all excellent participants in the same athletic endeavor,

I love football! I love football! I love football!That’s my reason That’s why I chat about the whole damn season

This is a quilt made for an avid footie fan/former player.  Playing for travel teams in childhood, Langley Saxons in high school,  culminating as a Christopher Newport University Captain, he amassed a tremendous amount of tournament patches as well as shirts.

I was thrilled to obtain the soccer field fabric designed by Robert Kaufmann as I knew it would be a great way to highlight some of the patches.  Many years ago, Robert Kaufmann came out with basketball court, hockey rink, American football gridiron, and soccer pitch designs.  Like most fabric manufacturers,  RK had a limited print run on designs.  Once ithey're gone. they're gone, :( However, one of my favorite fabric stores that tends to carry older fabric was my saving grace yet again and they had this design in stock.

    

The left side of the field has light blue and grey patches representing the CNU Captains and the right side are the green and gold of Langley High School.  The remaining patches were sewn on the various t shirt blocks.

The recipient picked up the quilt with his daughter and son.  He asked them where it should be put in the house obviously thinking the family room but the children simultanrously laid claim to the quilt shouting "my room!"

And she's been working on her game Because life is taxing Gotta get it together and see what's happening

This quilt was made for the sister and cousin of three previous recipients,  She is an excellent lacrosse player, so good in fact that she earned a full scholarship to play at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Instead of using a solid piece or pieces of fabric for the backing,  we used a green for the middle fabric and appliqued both her high school cardinal mascot and college buffalo mascot as opposing teams.

I then used more of the buffalo fabric that was used for the sashing and borders above the field and red cardinals below.

When the recipient was a little girl, she and her dad were members of the Indian Princess YMCA program,  My sister and dad were also in the Indian Princess program way back in the 1970s.  I don't remember my sister's Princess name but my dad was Bumbling Bear.

In any case I rearranged all the patches from the vest to fit them in the 14.5 " square block.  Luckily all the patches had only been glued onto the vest.   It was a tight squeeze but it was doable.

I was able to keep the zipper intact for this block.  I love retaining the architectural elements of garments such as hoodies, pockets, buttons. and zippers.

The recipient's paternal grandmother's father was a US Congressman from Iowa who served in the House in the 1950s and 60s, making this t shirt very vintage.

To all the party people who are happy and free, Tsouras and Foley rewriting history

This was a very special commission to create.  An elderly gentleman wanted a quilt made from his AND his wife's Army uniforms and patches.  His wife had started to cut pieces from their uniforms but unfortunately had died before this was completed. All the fabrics had been cut into squares or rectangles, but he wanted circles in the design.

The recipient had met his future wife when they were both serving as 2LTs,  Foley was the wife's maiden name and then they both were Tsouras after marriage. During this era, she was in the Women's Army Corps otherwise known as WACs.

There were so many patches that needed to be incorporated.  Rank patches are easy to position directionally.  Some of the unit and branch patches had to be identified as they were embroidered in subdued black for fatigues and were not easily discernable.  I headed off to the museum at the nearest Army base and talked to a curator who provided information about the unknown patches.  I did not want to place one sideways or upside down.

I only fastened the shoulder boards at their bases and then buttoned them to the quilt.  The recipient had not provided buttons but I was able to find replacements at the PX.  He had 12 shoulder boards but only 8 of the button flaps.  Being short 4 flaps, I sourced 2 Class A shirts from my son's old BSA troop's uniform stash. The BSA shirts were a slightly paler, more oatmeal shade than the Army's khaki shirts but it wasn't noticeable.

The recipient had mentioned liking circular designs but had given me rectangular small cuts of fabric.  I designed a double Dresden Plate out of a flight scarf for the inner circle, fatigue pants for the first plate and shirts for the outer plate.  I also arranged the branch patches in 4 grids that looked somewhat circular.

I wanted a simple but interesting border.  Originally, I was going to use the same licensed US Army fabric that I was using as the backing, but it was too busy as the border.  I was lucky to find a burlap home decorating trim that was not only in Army green but also printed in a Greek Key design.  The recipient had mentioned that he was first-generation Greek-American when we met so I knew this would be appropriate.

Born and branched the Air Force for the USA They call me Silas Johnson but I'm MGJ

This quilt was made for a retired 2-star USAF general who served our country for over 3 decades.  Based on old movies, I knew pilots used to wear white scarves while flying but I never realized that in later years the squadrons and other units had scarves designed specifically for their organizations.  

I was presented with a big box of aviator scarves.  The vast majority were silk or a poly/silk blend.  Two scarves from Guam were made from barkcloth.  Most of the scarves had crests on the end with a repeating pattern in the middle.  I ended up arranging the crests into blocks and bordering them with the middle sections.  There were so many different pieces that I made a spreadsheet to keep things organized.  There were 65 lines of 8 columns detailing color, direction, unit, size of deconstructed scarf, crest quantities, crest design, crest size, block assignment.

The polka dots were from the recipient's very first unit.  This was more of bib than a scarf as the original garment was about 18 by 18 with a longer strip with snaps fastened at the back of the neck.  Most of the scarves were long, thin rectangles.

The fabrics of the scarves were very slippery, stretchy, and thin.   Some of the satin blends were shiny .  I backed everything with fusible interfacing,

Two of the scarves were made from barkcloth.  Not surprisingly these were both from Guam, as barkcloth originated in the Polynesian islands.   

I really enjoyed the mathematical challenge of designing this quilt.  Trying to incorporate as many of the different designs into a prescribed parameter while still being visually pleasing was a lot of fun.       

  

 

Said she's your cousin that came for a visit Your putting me on, is this true, now who is it?

Quilts for babies are so fun to make!  The recipients are second cousins to each as they share a great-grandparent.  Thanks to Covid, the recipients weren't able to be delivered until after the babies' first birthdays.

The first quilt is a double Irish Chain.  The baby has a VERY Irish name and the mom requested bright colors so I chose a bright floral print to coordinate with  gold and medium purple. I was commissioned to create a quilt for the older brother when he was born.

The second quilt is definitely non-traditional.  The recipient's name is Ori which is the Hebrew word for light. After racking my brain thinking of lightning bolts and suns, the bulb clicked on and hence I thought a lightbulb theme would be fun.

I modified a public domain sketch to change the filament to spell the baby's name.

I love it when you hit those switches I curve ball what my pitch is So here we-here we come Like dum-ditty-dum I keep all three ladies in stitches

This was an interesting project that includes 3 generations of first-born women.   The grandmother (generation 1) apparently embroidered many blocks that compose a childhood prayer and put them together as a quilt top.  She made this for her hope chest, well before she was a wife and mother. The embroidery is hand stitched as was the piecing.  Originally the quilt was tied, not quilted.

The mom (generation 2) also had  a different baby quilt..  Eventually it used as the batting for the embroidered quilt.  

In the 1980s, generation 3 daughter was born.  She was given the embroidered quilt at her birth and also had a cotton thermal blanket that she loved. This daughter is now a a PhD candidate at UVa focusing on American Art History.

By fall of 2020, the embroidered quilt was in rough shape.  Both the backing and the  quilt that had been used as the batting were shredded and the batting had shifted.  The quilt had only been tied, not quilted so there were lots of lumps and bumps from the batting.  Luckily the embroidery had held up very well.

I took apart the 3 layers, tried to comb/ smooth out the smaller lumps and removed the big bumps that I couldn't get to flatten.  I put in a very thin poly batting between the top  and the original batting and then added a new back.  I machine-quilted it and added a hanging sleeve.  The mom (generation 2) embroidered a different prayer on a label which I hand-appliqued to the back.

The daughter  (generation 3) received the refurbished quilt in Christmas 2020 and promptly asked if her cotton thermal blanket was also in the middle. It had not been included because mom hadn't been able to find it.  Of course daughter runs up to her old room and digs it out of some hidden corner within a couple of minutes.

I was then contacted to rip out some of my quilting so I could then add the blanket and requilt it. I was worried because the original fabrics of the embroidered top were fragile and I was afraid that the fabrics would tear no matter how careful I was when taking out the stitching. However the customer is always right and I personally love the idea of all these layers representing different generations, so I was willing to take the risk.  The mom (generation 2) made an additional label (to go with the prayer label) that lists the names of the 3 women and their respective birth years.

I love this story as I am also the third generation of first born women and my daughter is the 4th generation.  In my family, all 4 of us have the same first name and my daughter thinks she wants to continue the tradition if she ever has a first-born who happens to be a girl.  Crossing my fingers!!!

But the words ain't mine, I just pass 'em along For Betsy C and her friends, I sing this song

This is a lapsize lavender quilt made for a person relocating away from Virginia to freezing cold New England. 

I was inspired by Rob Appell's State Map Applique Quilt https://mansewing.com/2018/01/state-map-applique-quilt/ but instead of using a jelly roll of coordinated prints, I used novelty fabrics with themes that would mean something to the recipient.  I blew up the outline of our Commonwealth (omitting the peninsula that hangs off MD on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay).  I then calculated the desired width of the strips by dividing the total number of strips into the widest length.  I sewed the strips together and traced the outline on the back to make a gigantic Virginia shape which was then appliqued on the background fabric.

 

 

So left to right:

 

The Virginia house was red brick. 

The recipient lived in an historic city full of lovely old buildings. 

Her favorite getaway was to beaches of Florida prolific with seashells. 

The office theme was based on all the paperwork she had to complete constantly, 

The next strip was a friends theme as she was a very good one to all. 

The grape theme indicated all the vineyards in Northern VA and the dogwood strip of course reflected the state flower. 

The black strip has her favorite drink that she would always have with dinner (although she liked margaritas on the rocks and not frozen as indicated on the fabric). 

The middle strip had dog bones and pawprints to represent her beloved fox terrier. 

The fabrics were then repeated in reverse order.

 

 

 

 

Because the recipient was moving up north where winters are long,  I used a variety of polar fleeces to make the backing to keep her extra-warm  One can see on the solid fleece that the quilting really pop, whereas it just blends into the fleece prints

And I've been k-kicking the new k-knowledge An emcee to a degree that you can't get in college

This is yet another Webster University Gorlok quilt.  I really loved making this one as I discovered an extra-fun design from Sew Adorkable.  Back in the day when our calculators could just do simple operations, we used to write words using the number pad and then flipping the calculator upside down.  Basically any word using only the letters B E H I G L O S could be written.  The girls tended to type in 0.7734 (when the fours used to be written with  2 vertical and one horizontal line rather than the modern 1 vertical, one horizontal, and one diagonal)   and the boys would write 58008 and variations thereof.

In any case, the recipient's name is Bobbie and of course her name can be written on a calculator.  She had several Webster World Works shirts with numbers on them and other Webster items as well.  Not all the numbers on the keyboard have an actual number shirt but she did have a mousepad we used for the decimal point key and the bottoms from drink koozies that were used for the dots on the division sign. I was also supplied with a couple of Webster totebags that we incorporated as well. 

 

 

The mousepad was difficult to applique and didn't look great when it was done so I embellished the circumference with a gold lace.  All the quilting was just machine-stippling.

 

 

And then someone snuck into my quilt studio and decided to help....

 

I  rarely take photographs of myself but our Main Campus asked the various departments to depict ourselves doing something fun and/or silly.  As I explained in the statement that was submitted with the pictures, quilting is fun for me and I know the design was silly but I couldn't resist as I am sort of a geek at heart.

You act like a diamond waiting to be set In a gold ring, as if I bet

This quilt is for a a husband and his new wife  who is the proud owner of a lovely diamond. :)

This is the Ampersand Quilt mashed up with a word search game.  The bride and groom are both Ivy League graduates in the humanities studies.  The words run horizontally, vertically, diagonally in all directions.

I love bright colors and was thrilled that the couple did as well.  I was told she loved yellow and disliked pink, just the opposite of my taste. The letter tile fabric has been out of print for about 10 years, but thanks to Fabric Place Basement in Alexandria, they happened to have some in stock...not any more I bought it all!

This quilt contains 900 squares as it's 30 x 30.You can see humanities themes in the squares:  houses, alphabbets, written words, books, crosswords, games and lots and lots of yellow.  I pieced it using a gridded fusible interfacing and simply quilted in the ditch.

Ponce De Leon constantly on The fountain of youth, not Robotron

 

This quilt was made for a baby boy named Leon.  He was born on March 15 of this year.  His mom had bright vibrant colors for the nursery. 

As any student of history or Shakespeare knows, March 15 is the ides of March, the day that Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Roman Senate. 

The design was inspired by the 2002 USPS stamp designed by Michael Osborne.  With 3 of the letters overlapping in the words love and leon, it was an easy switch.  The N is the logo that media network NBC used in the mid 70s.

"Beware the ides of March." (Shakespeare, 1998, 1.2:103).

I'm flowing prose to cons and cons to pros I'm like Toucan Sam when I follow my nose

 

This quilt was made for the first child of parents with very eclectic tastes.  The parents are big fans of Dr. Who and Star Wars as well as being birdlovers of the toucan species.

Making a tardis quilt took some work on graph paper but as it was all rectangles or squares, it was not terribly complicated.  Instead of pure white fabric that would have better emulated the warning sign, I found the I Love Mommy/Daddy fabric in blue shades.  It also comes in pink for girls.

 

The two upper windows of the police box revealed parrot fabric which is as close as I could originally find to actual toucan motifs.Then I discovered that Kelloggs Cereals had licensed their characters and I was able to find a Toucan Sam polarfleece which made a great backing.

 

I was also able to find a small tardis repeating design fabric for the lower panels.  It was a very stretchy Lycra so it had to be backed as I would do with a t shirt.  This quilt had a variety of different materials. The parrot windows, the planet background fabric, the Police Box sign (which I actually used Star Wars designs) are all cotton.  The warning sign and the cobalt blue are flannels.  And as mentioned before, polarfleece and Lycra were also incorporated.