Um, how much sound from the brass to the air Will it take, to put your cheers in the air? (Pardon me there)

The recipient was not only a trumpeter for the marching bands both at Thomas Jeffersosn High School of Science and Technology and at the University of Virginia, he majored in music. TJHSST, referred interchangeably as either TJ or Jefferson, is a public magnet school that is currently ranked 14th in the nation.  In his spare time during his US Presidential terms, Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia.

When the recipient graduated from UVA back in 2016, he had cut up his shirts in different sized squares and  hemmed them with gigantic stitches. He then glued them on a fleece blanket that had the Cavalier Marching Band logo machine-embroidered in the lower-right corner.  

He was never pleased with the results so his mom contacted me to see if we could "fix it" for his birthday. She wanted to incorporate the blanket in its entirety.  Neither mom or son had any idea what kind of glue had been used back then.  I was really nervous that him being a TJ grad AND a guy that he had used Gorilla Glue or something even stronger. I did a test and discovered that it was a water-soluble adhesive.  I soaked the blanket in a bathtub and found all the squares had become free and were floating independently.  I then washed all the squares and the now plain blanket to get rid of any remaining stickiness.

He wanted a masculine sashing so he opted for a blue and white plaid with rust accents.  Upon initial layout of the squares against the plaid, I could tell the design really needed a solid to both separate the busy plaid from some of the busier designs and to unify the square sizes.  This Kona grey set off squares nicely.

The original blanket had curved corners so I machine-appliqued the entire blanket on top of the flannel.  Usually you would add sashing by sewing the strips to the outer edge of the fleece.  This is a great quilt for the winter as it has 4 layers, top, batting, fleece, and flannel.

 Happy Birthday!

Said 'Who is the man making diamonds out of Cole?' The man pushing buttons on remote control

This twin Tarragon quilt is called from Saint to Red Devil as the recipient just graduated from the St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School and will be matriculating to Dickinson College in the fall. 

He loves basketball both on the court and in the stands.  His paternal grandfather played for the University of Kentucky Wildcats back in the 1950s and the entire family are Wildcat fans. I was given a bit of UK fabric for the back but black strips had to be added to make it wide enough.

The recipient;s great grandfather (the father of the paternal grandmother) was Congressman Frederick Schwengel, R-IA who served in the US House of Representatives for 8 terms.  

The paternal grandparents built a beautiful weekend retreat on the high banks on one of the many bays of the Potomac River.  It is amazing to sit on the back porch and watch bald eagles swoop down to the water to catch dinner.

My name might be Hinteregger, or maybe it's Ryan If I said that I was weak, man, you know I'd be lying

This quilt was created for a recent high school graduate of a Sydney, NSW prep school.  He is an American-Australian dual citizen due to one of his parents being an expat from Boston.

I used the same layout as his sibling's quilt but of course using his school colors of red, black, and yellow.  Because his expat parent is a HUGE Massachusetts sports teams fan and the internet makes following seasons so easy, this young man is also a rabid sports nut. I was given the school blazer, a pair of soccer socks, 6 pockets from the school dress shirts, 2 ties, some polos, and a team jersey.  

 I had a good bit more of his uniforms than I did with his sister, but still had to supplement a bit with extra fabrics and Boston pro team garments.  I was able to find a Red Sox uniform that provided me with the logo, a former player's name and team number, and the name of the city on the front,. 

I also found 2 team t shirts (Celtics and more Red Sox!) in my local area which is surprising as I do not live near Massachusetts.  I couldn't find Patriots nor Bruins shirts around my vicinity but was able to find licensed fabric for these fracnchises and appliqued the dress shirt pockets to them. 

The students at the school wear ties as part of their uniforms, The dark one was a bit shorter than the red so I am guessing it was for the Lower School and the red one was for the Upper School.

The school is large enough that the students are split into houses to provide a more close-knit environment within a bigger institution.  The recipient was in the Maloney House which was named after the first student enrolled at the school back in 1937.

I sewed both the  blazer and part of a button-down shirt into a quilt block.  I did have to move the pockets closer to the midpoints so more of those features would be visible.

 

The mom was able to get an entire roll of the ribbon trim that is used on the blazer pockets and sleeves.  This was perfect for making a tiny patch on a big background more interesting.

This was given to him over Christmas as they had come back to the US for their first post-pandemic visit.  Quilts are expensive to ship even with the US borders so they knew to bring an extra suitcase for something like this.

Oh Livvy I can’t live without ya Everyday my life I’m talking bout ya All Of my friends they go on about ya Olivi uh uh, Olivia!

This was made for an expat's child who lives in Sydney.  The family visits stateside about every 3 years.  She graduated from high school in December 2020 (they are half a year off being in the Southern Hemisphere) and matriculated to the same university where one of her parents went to graduate school.  It is extremely expensive to ship something as heavy as a quilt from the US to AU so the recipient had to wait until they next visited their American relatives.

Students in Australia don't collect as many t shirts as do kids in the US.  However they do wear school uniforms and the parent supplied me with several school crests. dance team logos, and other tiny pieces of the uniform.   I was sent a small ziploc bag containing about 13 items that I wanted to turn into a decent sized quilt.  Eventually a lot of extra fabrics that reflected the recipient's interests were included.

The recipient's name is also the name of a children's book character .and luckily there was licensed fabric with the image and coordinating prints to go with it .  I didn't know if a young female adult wanted to be associated with a pig (the character) so I just used the coordinate.

This was not a surprise quilt so I communicated directly with the recipient for favorite colors, animals, university major, etc. 

Thank goodness for the internet.  I was able to find the uniform supplier website so I could see the prints of the seasonal garments.  The girls wear a blue plaid skirt and navy blazer in the winter, similar to what a lot of prep school kids have to wear in the United States.The blouse has piping on the sleeve that is the same plaid as the skirt. 

  

However, their summer uniform is very different to anything I have seen locally.  The summer uniform is a pinstripe shapeless dress which reminded me of hospital candystriper outfits.  They also wear a hat with a very wide brim to help protect them from the lack of an ozone layer over Australia.

I was able to match the pinstripe summer uniform fairly easily to a quilting cotton.  For the skirt fabric, I was able to find a tartan but then dyed it with a royal blue color as to make it match better as it originally had too much of a turquoise tone.

The recipient is a dual citizen so she was able to attend NASA Space Camp in her early high school years.  

I was given 3 MSCW crests, several MSCW letters, and one embroidery of just the crown, and some dance images. With a bit of sashing, the crests were made into 6 inch blocks.  The other tiny images and lettering were appliqued on greyish feline fabric since she loved cats and the color grey.  She also liked pale pink so I made sure to use that as well to feminize the predominantly blue quilt. I also heard she liked to go out a lot once Covid restrictions were lifted so I was very happy that the pink fabric had high heels as the motif.  The tiny logo rectangles were a bit boring by themselves so I framed each one with blue and white gingham ribbon.

The recipient is currently a biochemistry major at the University of New South Wales.  I incorporated some science-themed blocks as well as a UNSW recyclable bag that I had received at an Idealist Education Fair when representing my own alma mater.  The bag is NOT cotton but some highly heat-sensitive poly fiber so I included a written warning never to iron the yellow block as it will melt.   The white horizontal strips are from the sleeves of the uniform blouse and between the actual piping and the uniform website, I was able to create a fairly similar plaid.

Too much drama all around Distractions booming in sensuround

Yet another t shirt quilt but this time for a kid who marches to her own drummer.  Most of the t shirt quilts are set in a grid format but I was allowed to think outside the box. I made a gigantic outline of the state of Vermont and made sure all the garments could fit within the state.  Once the state was cut, I appliqued it on the background with binding tape as it was too thick to hem the edges.  I had designed a Commonwealth of Virginia quilt a couple of years ago but I was able to make a narrow hem without involving binding as Virginia was made from quilting cottons, not garment textiles backed with interfacing/

The recipient was very active in plays and musicals in high school.  She also attended Governor's School, a very prestigious opportunity for high school students.  Before she lived in Vermont, she lived in Virginia and I was able to dig up a shirt from her FCPS elementary school.

As most of you know, Vermont is a VERY cold state, especially in the area where the recipient calls home.  So not only did she have a cozy high school scarf to add to her quilt....

but also an old ski cap!

The recipient has now relocated to a warmer state (smart girl! :) ) for college and is now a member of Chi Omega at George Mason University.

Now, all night long Charlie rides through the station crying, "What will become of me? How can I afford to see my sister in Boston or my parents in Cincinnati?"

This Tarragon twinsize quilt was created last year for a future Northwestern Wildcat.  I had made pillows for his siblings and aunts and a quilt and pillow for his dad so now it was his turn!

 Many of the shirts were from his early childhood, not just high school.  I loved the fact that several of the shirts had transferred photographs like the beautiful Basset Hound you see below.  One of the blue mini-designs is from a neckerchief he wore at camp.

Amongst other activities Charlie played baseball.  I have no idea if this was a high school spiritwear shirt or from a Babe Ruth or JCC team but I DO know he was number 26.

The entire family are huge fans of the various Cincinnati professional teams.  The Reds shirt is from Spring Training in Florida.  I quilted heavily around the alligator so that the head would really pop.

I hope that this quilt has kept him warm during those frigid Chicago winters!

Hear the beat of dancing feet, It's the song I love, the melody of Forty-Second Street.

Many of the recipients of my quilts have seen my work elsewhere and then want something created to reflect his or her life.  This quilt was no exception..The person who received this quilt was a classmate of a fellow LB Bruin.

We decided to veer away from the typical sashing grid design by making the quilt look like a Broadway Playbill. while sticking to a twin/tarragon size.  Both fonts were sized up to scale. The letters for the larger word were appliqued onto the yellow background.  The smaller word was drawn with permanent fabric markers.

Most playbills usually have white borders but since this quilt was headed off to college, we went with grey as it would be easier to keep clean.

This shirt was designed as a plain white shirt with the black lettering.  The kids involved in this show had wanted to tie-dye the shirts but never got around to it.   I drew a rainbow on both the big design and mini design using permanent fabric markers.

We're giving you soul power I like it sweet and sour When it comes to lights and set designs I'm at the control tower

This t shirt quilt is one of the few that doesn't involve athletics.  Most of the recipients are either lovers of sport teams or athletes themselves.

 

This recipient is a Theatre Design & Production and Stage Management major at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.  I don't know if they have a specific name for the drama-related majors but if he was at my alma mater Carnegie Mellon, he would be known as a dramat (emphasis on second syllable).  He was the set designer and overall technician for many shows at his high school and received quite a few Cappie Awards for his work.

The shows with which he was involved ranged from Orwellian serious drama and Japanese plays

to Broadway musicals and children's favorites.

This young man is a formidable talent and it wouldn't surprise me to see him awarded a Tony in the next decade or so.

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.

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

This quilt was made for a recent graduate of Lake Braddock Secondary School.  She was very involved in many different activities and her mom had a hard time winnowing the shirts.  I think she made great choices of what to include!

The recipient was an avid cheerleader, lacrosse player, camp counselor, and more.  She is matriculating to Longwood University so we included a shirt from her new school.

Several of the squares are made from her own designs. A vibrant pink and green floral was chosen for the sashing and binding.  The backing was made from a soft purple flannel to keep her warm in college.

And next in my long-running series of Virginia college jokes:

How many Longwood students does it take to change a light bulb? None, GE hasn't located this place yet.

Hurricane, you got clout Other DJs, he'll put your head out

In between our epic week of two not-so-disastrous natural disasters, I completed a quilt for a young man who is bound for George Mason University.  This Tarragon consists of 20 tshirts in a 4 x 5 grid. A blue batik was chosen for the sashing and borders.

Like his older brother, this newly-graduated senior was very involved in high school. He was in DECA and is an excellent athlete.  He is also an avid sports fan. One of his uniforms that was provided was a mesh vest worn over a black tshirt. Both layers were imprinted with the team name on the right breast and if you look closely you can see the team name through the little airholes.

We went a bit different for the backing this time.  3 Robert Kaufman coordinates were pieced together to make a very unique design.

I love these prints, especially the referee print with the little grey dots that look like the breathing holes in real ref shirts.

Go Patriots!