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.       

  

 

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.

I wanna be a Pi Beta Phi. Boom, Boom, and honey that ain’t no lie.Boom, Boom, I wanna be a Pi Beta Phi. Don’t you, don’t you, don’t you, Won’t you?

This quilt is made for a very loyal alumna of Bradley University. She pledged the Illinois Theta chapter of Pi Beta Phi as an undergraduate and is currently very involved in her local Pi Phi Alumnae Association. She also is a dog trainer extraordinaire and volunteers with her pets at local hospitals.

 

These shirts are quite vintage but they were in remarkably good shape.  Most of the sorority shirts I come across nowadays are t shirts that commemorate a formal or mixer.  I haven't seen a football jersey letter shirt in years except of course on this circa 1980s shirt quilt. :) Of course fraternity little sisters are not allowed anymore either.

 

The athletic teams at this university are known as the Bradley Braves.  The recipient was able to find a tiny applique patch of the original mascot.  The Native American mascot was ultimately considered offensive and is no longer in use.  They currently use the same team name but the mascot is a gargoyle.

 

It's Vicky who certs VA, to cert VA every day It's Vicky, it's Vicky (Vicky) Vicky (Vicky)

This quilt was made for a longtime Webster University employee who recently retired. She worked for Webster National Capital Region for over 16 years.

As well as being a Gorlok, the recipient was a military wife of a career Marine.  These two Americans met in the most romantic way.  He was posted to the US Embassy in Paris and she was a student at Le Cordon Bleu! The BDU block (bottom row, center) was the husband's uniform shirt. The pockets weren't quilted down so they are still usable.

In their free time, they raised and showed Briards, an ancient breed of herding dog originating in France.  They both love all canines so much that they eventually opened a day care for dogs in their home.

The main responsibility of her position was to deal with our Post 9/11 beneficiaries.  I saved this shirt from a 2010 VA Conference for this quilt I knew I would have to do some day.

The back used a Marine-themed polar fleece and a coordinating national colors flannel. 

If I played politics I'd be a House Page, those pages reps like are underage.

This quilt was made for a US House of Representatives Page Program alumna.  This is the ten year anniversary of her attendance there during the 109th Congress.  That semester's Pages were on the House Floor for the State of the Union Address, the address in a joint session given by President Victor Yushchenko of Ukraine, the Terri Schiavo hearings, and the MLB steroid abuse testimony.

 

 

The US House Page Program was a program in existence for over 200 years.  In the recipient's era, House Pages applied through their US Congressman to attend for one of their junior year semesters of high school; Only 60-70 students were selected each year from across the United States and its territories.

The students lived about a block south of the US Capitol which is probably one of the easiest commutes for a greater DC resident.  Academic classes were held in the attic of the Library of Congress.

This quilt was a bit of a challenge mathematically as we only had about 3/5 yard of the DC fabric and 1 yard of the coordinating cherry blossom print, and yet had to make a twin size quilt from these two pieces. Each stone in the grey landscape fabric was quilted individually.

How can you laugh? Because you know I'm down!

I recently participated in an art quilt challenge.  Each participant had to pick a different song from the Beatles discography and interpret it in a 24" by 24" wall quilt.   The results of this challenge were compiled in a book called Inspired By the Beatles.

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All the quilts are presented in alphabetical order and we each had a full page for the picture and accompanying narrative.

 
The following questions were part of the submission package:

Why did you choose this song? 

I’m Down was released by the Beatles in 1964.  Michael Jackson owned the rights to the Beatles vault in the 1980s and refused to let the Beastie Boys sample I’m Down.  This song went out as a demo to various radio stations of that era but was not allowed to be a track on the Beastie album.  I never was a MJ fan, but this made me even less of one.

What inspired this quilt? 
Obviously  I’m Down needed directional arrows.  The seven arrows represent the 4 Beatles and 3 Beastie Boys.  The Beatles arrows either have beetle insects, beetle cars, or London double decker buses as motifs.  The Beastie Boys arrows represent each of the members of the group: crowns for King AdRock Adam Horowitz,  guitar-playing buddhas for converted Buddhist MCA Adam Yauch, and diamonds for Mike D Michael Diamond.  The downward pointing arrows are arranged in the shape of a capital letter I.

The sequin thumbs-down hand with the NO sign represents that bad decision of Michael Jackson’s not allowing the sample.  The HA! represents the “How can you laugh because you know I’m down?” that is on both versions of the song. The HaHa fabric is from the curtains in my oldest child's bedroom.  The fact that I still had them 20 years later just shows what a packrat I can be.

Materials used in your quilt: Cottons, Flannels, Sequins, Beads

Do you consider yourself a Beatles fan?  I am a moderate Beatles fan.  I like their original albums, really did not like their later work.

Do you have any Beatles memories or stories to tell?  I wasn’t even born after the British Invasion had already occurred but at the age of 8 when I was given a portable record player for Christmas, my parents included “Introducing the Beatles” album which I alternated with my Partridge Family album.

What effect does music have on your creative process? I do have all the Beastie Boys albums on permanent rotation in my car.  I tend to design quilts in my head during my commute.

Tell me if you have a musical background, or experience. 6 painful years of violin and orchestra, 3 of bells for marching band.

Why do you quilt?  I find it relaxing.  In my younger days as a SAHM and officer’s wife, I enjoyed taking on projects with permanent results. Meals get eaten, laundry and houses get dirty again, the lawn keeps growing.  Doing something that did not come undone made me very happy.  Although the kids are grown, I still enjoy seeing completed endeavors.

Why are you participating in this challenge? I like challenges and being forced to think outside the box and/or my comfort zone.

Do you have a typical quilting style?  Is this particular quilt typical? I tend to design picture quilts and pick my fabrics accordingly.  I am not a huge fan of making traditional quilts  (although I admire other people’s work!) and tend to go with my own designs.  In terms of this quilt being typical, I am rebelling a bit as usual by making this quilt about both groups singing the song.

Did you listen to Beatles music when you made this quilt? I initially listened to all the versions of I’m Down that I could find on youtube.    I have repeatedly listened to the Beastie Boys and Beatles versions as I was coming up with ideas.

Did anything special happen when you were making this quilt?  I just enjoyed breaking the rules a bit by including the controversy as images.

 

 

I put the pen to the paper and I went off. I'm dropping knowledge and wisdom like a mad head dog

This was a memorial quilt for a beloved pet.  Portia was a flat-coated retriever who lived just over a decade. 46 of these very large triangles were neckerchiefs that she would get at the groomers. When I saw them all, I immediately thought that she had a better wardrobe than me!

The two triangles below are not part of the 46.  Portia's owner is a proud alumna member of Pi Beta Phi (Illinois Theta) and is very active in the Pi Phi Alumnae Association in her area. I needed to make 48 triangles to obtain a grid so I figured what better than some Pi Phi symbol fabric?

Portia was a canine volunteer for  Fairfax Pets On Wheels, a wonderful organization connects pets with people living in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.  The blue neckerchief was her uniform when visiting shut-ins.
 

 

The block below came from a plain red neckerchief.  Portia's owner also owns a lighthouse and Portia had visited the lighthouse before her demise.   I hand-embroidered an image of this lighthouse to add a little excitement to this triangle.

Bertschire's A Flat Out Joyride 

"Portia" 

February 18, 2003 - May 11, 2013

I've got money like Charles Dickens. I've got the girlies in the coupe, like the Colonel's got the chickens

Those *&^$%! Chickens!  This quilt was made as a result of a quilt bee swap. In a swap, the participants make as many blocks as participants. They keep one for themselves and trade and receive one to/from everybody else. Our quilt bee is called the Worker Bees because we are really diligent about doing projects. In any case, someone proposed chicken blocks. By the time I was done, I had 14 chicken blocks, 3 of which were facing the wrong way. I had no idea what to do with these creatures and just let the ideas germinate in my head. I elongated a Margaret Rolfe rooster pattern for the corner blocks, found chicken wire and 2 egg motif fabrics and then came my true inspiration.

I was at a wedding in a tiny town in the Pacific Northwest and we had time to kill before the ceremony.  I found a needlework shop and a quilt shop practically across the street from each other.  When I saw the crewel work pattern that said Good Morning Let the Stress Begin WITH a rooster, I knew that had to go into this quilt.  I am not a country girl so this would be my one and only chicken quilt. I am also not a morning person and back in those days it was always stressful getting the kids to school, spouse to work, me to work, etc.

The foxes came from a very old needlepoint book by Dorothy Kaestner.  Each fox face is mostly needlepoint but the ears and top and sides of the head are bargello stitches.  If you look carefully, you will see each set of eyes in a different position.  The bird blocks were all quilted with a hexagonal design that I thought resembled chicken wire. It was all hand-quilted, hand-embroidered, and mostly hand-pieced.  So despite me not knowing what to do with these *&^$%! chickens, it all came together fairly easily. 

I'll take a little shout out to my dad and mom (yeah) For bringing me into this world and so on

This quilt is a nice lapsize bargello style design.  Nothing fancy, strictly utilitarian.  The recipients have a gorgeous burnt orange bukhara in their media room so the fabrics were chosen to coordinate with the persian carpet.

Riddle me this, my brother, can you handle it? Your style to my style, you can't hold a candle to it

This quilt was made for a baby who is the new little brother to 3 older sisters.  His mother loved frogs when she was a child and apparently the frog fascination hasn't alleviated over time.  She decorated the nursery in an amphibian theme.

Not a terribly exciting back:  remaining frog print and planet motif.  But both sides are bright and cheerful to help counteract the dreariness of a Massachusetts winter. The family lives in freezing-cold Massachusetts so this was given to them just in time before the nasty weather comes.

As usual, this baby quilt was machine-pieced and machine-quilted.  Baby quilts are meant to be used by babies and need to be durable to stand up to repeated washings.

So I synthesize sounds as I patch my brain Insane mind games move quick like flames

This Lavender lapsize quilt was made for a recent college graduate who is going to be working in an underserved community.  As you can see, the design is the same as this baby quilt.

What makes this quilt different is that it is actually not a quilt but a quillow.  Instead appliquing a sleeve on the back, I sewed a large quilted square (about 1/3 of the width of the quilt) instead.

 If the quilt is folded in thirds along the length and then in fourths, you can turn the pocket inside out and you then have a pillow.

 

Hence the hybridized word quillow!

I'm the lyrical, mathematical genius Splashing like lime juice, you've never seen this

This Fennel quilt was made for a high school graduate whose academic fortes are math and science. Her name begins with an M so the arrangement of the shirts somewhat reflects the initial.

Lots of high school and church related activities made for a nice bright quilt. Some of the shirts were hand-painted by the recipient. The carrot block looked a bit plain so the actual carrot was quilted with orange thread.

The back was somewhat wild.  The recipient's school's colors are orange and blue and the recipient's favorite color is lime green.  So lots of brights in those shades and others were incorporated for the backing. The bottom right square is green M&M fabric, again reflecting the recipient's given name initial.



Good luck M on all your future endeavors!

They say I'm a Kappa, womanly and true...but wait a minute, I'll ask my mom to see what I can do!

What to do with shirts you can't bear to give away even though you haven't worn them in literally decades? Make a fullsize fennel quilt of course! Lots of sweatshirts, sweatpants, hoodies, a Province Meeting totebag, even some cross-stitched images went into this full-sized quilt.

This t-shirt quilt is made for an old, ancient alumna. :) She was initiated into the Delta Xi Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma at Carnegie Mellon University.  Note her homage to the Carnegie Mellon Tartans with her plaid letters on the left block that has been cut off.  The block that is centered in the picture is from a cross-stitch pattern booklet that was in print in the late 80s.

The sashing fabric is a mostly blue iris design but there are plenty of pink flowers and green leaves to provide a bit more visual interest.

The blocks above were not from normal t-shirts.  The blue section is from printed boxers and the hawaiian print was a surgical scrub.  The gold key below the white Kappa was a random embroidered applique that I unearthed in my quilt studio.

This shirt was from Spring Carnival. The booth and buggy events were very competitive. We always had a couple of sisters who were majoring in architecture or art which ensured our booths and shirts always looked great.

As usual, this was all machine-pieced and machine-quilted.  All the cross-stitching was by hand.    This grid of 5 x 6 shirts is really for a full-sized bed but works well as a topper on a queen.  It is an excellent size for a college twin bed that has been lofted with cement blocks as it is sufficiently wide enough to hide all the suitcases, refrigerator, and other stuff stored under the typical student's bed.