Cougar on the court and I can't be beat, But, yo, Cait, what's up with the boots on your feet?

This quillow was made for the granddaughter of a sweet woman. The young lady spent her entire academic career at  Collegiate from K-12 until graduating this past spring.  Like her grandmother, she had a finger in many pots ranging from sports to camps to community service.  I was specifically requested to keep the pocket in the hoodie block.  Unfortunately, the silk screener didn't line up the word with the pocket.

She was always an excellent athlete.  I think I first met her at the ripe old age of.  She and her sister were already waterskiing experts! She is also a big sailor.  She and her dad competed in the race that is shown in the picture below.  This square is actually on the back of the quillow as it makes a pocket. This block also became the label for the gift.

  When the pocket is turned inside out and the quilt is stuffed inside, you can then see the other side:

 We were amazingly quick in the search for the sashing/backing/binding fabric.  Usually it takes a couple of tries of placing multiple bolts against tshirts to see the best results but this time, this was our first pick.  Collegiate's colos are green and gold and this print had multiple greens and shots of yellow.

The recipient has now started her college career at UVa where I know she will excel as she did for the first 18 years.



I said "Doc, what's the condition? I'm a man that's on a mission."

This quilt was made for my NNMC oncologist who (despite looking like a teenager) recently had her 4th baby!  She and her cardiologist husband are both Georgetown Medical School graduates and I just happened to have an ancient Georgetown toddler tshirt in my stash.  I don't know why it was in my stash but it was there. I think it was bought for my oldest when she was being seen at Walter Reed at age 2. The fact that I still had many moves later it is another story...

Since this was designed to be a juvenile print for a baby boy, I added bright bug fabric as well as planetary object fabric.  These prints also came from my stash. :)

 I machine-quilted this quilt with a bright, variegated thread as seen in the close-up picture below.

 Hoya Saxa!

Summer Row by Row part II

Because love grows where my Rosemary goes And nobody knows like me
Garden: The Bee Buddy who did this row pieced a profusion of brightly colored flowers embellished with fun buttons. 

But there's booze in the blender, And soon it will render
That frozen concoction that helps me hang on
Food:  This lady (who also is a delightful neighbor) appliqued a beautiful bowl of fruit in her row.  She also added margarita glasses with wedges of citrus and umbrellas to complete the scene.  Oh so thirst-wuenching! :)

Our house, was our castle and our keep. Our house, in the middle of our street
Home:  In all the row-by-rows that I have done, the final row is always called home and hearth.  Obviously not much hearth time is needed in the summer but the cottage is too cute for words.  The 4 heart flowers represent what our family was doing at the time.  We were active-duty Army, sewing away at kids' sporting events...

Straight out of Cape Cod, We're keeping it real
Finally the rows all put together.  I had done several row quilts and wanted to come up with a different layout.  The Pentagon shape is an obvious homage to what brought us to the District in the first place.  The background is a hot pink background with many,many appliqued alligators.  I was trying to go with a somewhat preppy theme as summer and the pink& green combo go hand in hand for me.  I embroidered white diagonal lines and then hand-quilted it with kelly green thread to allude to an argyle theme.  

Semper Paratus

This combined set of the Parsley, Wasabi, and Chive was custom-made for a US Coast Guard wife.  The client wanted a nautical theme for her items so a sailboat fabric was incorporated as the primary coordinate.  One side panel of her Parsley was customized with her initials in signal flags.  The Wasabi had a Reef Knot appliqued to the outside of the wallet.

Sage I

The Sage is any size signal-flag quilt.  I really should call this category Seaweed since signal flags are primarily for maritime use but that would wreck my theme of naming my various project categories as herbs. 

Each block is 12 " square.  This Sage incorporated 2 rows of 7 blocks so that made 14 blocks total.  Instead of using bright solids like the real signal flags, the clients wanted prints and shades that coordinated with the decor of their home. So red turned into maroon fishing motifs, white led to cream floral, bright yellow was replaced with 2 different yellow florals, navy blue was substituted with a cobalt blue and black batik, and solid black was changed out with a party motif with black background.  They chose a sea green as a sashing.This Sage fits perfectly over the clients' couch.  I could see a single row of signal flags, perhaps spelling out a phrase or a family's last name, being used as a table runner.