Hey Adam, this is Manisha. Hey Mike, this is Manisha. Hey Adam, this is Manisha....

This quilt was made for a wonderful PA in the NNMC Plastic Surgery Department to celebrate the birth of her new little girl.  Manisha Patel did my fipple tattoos and in general has been an excellent support in this very long reconstruction process. PA Patel is apparently named after the Hindu goddess of the mind, a very apt name for someone who works in medicine.

The quilt is a basic 9-patch with sashing.  The pink squares are from a juvenile-print flannel with little boy and girl figures.  The yellow sashing is from a 30's fabric.  The graph-paper fabric has lots of lovely creatures including purple worms (as close as I could find to leeches).  The turquise sashing has brightly colored alphabet letters shown in a puffy font.

The sun is beating down on my baseball hat The air is gettin' hot, the beer is getting flat

This sports-themed tshirt quilt was designed as a gift for the WashU head coach of the baseball team.  Steve Duncan was an assistant coach at Johns Hopkins and is now heading the team at Washington University in St. Louis.  Obviously HE doesn't have to worry about his players not being true student-athletes! :)

The giver of the quilt had a big hand in designing it.  After much brainstorming and emailing of sketches and fonts, we came up with this baseball field design. I handwashed the pennant several times in very hot water to preshrink it and make it more colorfast. However, I would not wash this quilt in the machine as the felt pennant is really not washable according to the manufacturer and my expert quilting buddies.  I was able to find a great fabric for the back in keeping with the theme.

And no, I didn't retire, I'll snatch you up with the needle-nose pliers

The recipient of this quilt actually DID retire so the university commissioned a commemorative quilt for her retirement.  The picture isn't wonderful as we photographed it in a crowded office and the person holding the quilt didn't have much space to stretch out her arms but it will have to do.

The white squares were cut from canvas tote bags. The original bag print was just navy blue so I colored all 8 Gorlocks to provide a bit more visual interest.  Half of the squares are on point and half are not. Webster colors are blue and gold so that was the obvious color choice for the coordinates.  I used an 8-pointed star design for the gold and then a dark blue with little bits of gold for the border.  As I do with all machine-quilted projects, I quilted in the ditch to stabilize the layers and then stippled everything.

Webster University was founded as a  Catholic women's college by the Sisters of Loretto.  Nearly half a century later, they went co-ed and secular.

So kick off your shoes and put on your swim fins Cause when it comes to quarries I'm known to swim

This totebag was made for a coach of the Cottontail Cobias, one of the many teams in the Northern Virginia Swim League. Like I do with all my bags, I appliqued pockets on the inside for a cell phone and other accoutrements.

I used a Cobia t-shirt and a fish-themed batik print for the exterior. Yellow and blue fabrics were coordinated for the interior.  The Cobia shirt was reverse-appliqued into the batik.  The entire bag was machine-quilted.

Factoid of the day:  The Cobia is also known as Rachycentron canadum. 

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!

Kitty Kat Katelyn

My cousin's wife recently had a baby girl on Cinqo de Mayo.  I rarely start baby quilts before the birth as I like making gender-specific baby quilts.  Unfortunately on May 6, I broke my hand which made sewing very difficult. So the baby quilt was late but since the baby was early, she got it around her official due date.

The family has a couple of cats as pets, so I made sure to use a girly feline fabric as the focus.

Poppy Pocketbook for a Marine Mom

From the halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli...

This is a new design called the Poppy.  It is a rounded purse with a shorter strap.  This Poppy was commissioned by a very proud mom of a new Marine.  She liked bright peacock colors for the coordinating fabric.  The side with the US Marine tape actually has the marine emblem embroidered on the pocket.   The pockets were sewn on the diagonal on the uniform but straight on the Poppy so the symbol is now tilted.

The other side of course was appliqued with the surname nametape.

 

The Poppy shape was a challenge and it definitely made me think outside of the box.  I like to push the boundaries so I am glad I had the opportunity to do so.