My name's D.M.C. with the mic in my hand And I'm chilling and coolin' just like a snowman

My building is having a holiday door decorating contest.  Since we have people of various faiths at our site, I wanted to decorate doors with a variety of images.  The boss gave me a budget and let me go shopping during a time when I would normally be in the office.

Door 1 is in homage to Kamikazi Carl and his love of snowboarding.    You will see that St. Nick is also an avid X-gamer.

Put on your yarmulke, it's time for Chanukah! Door 2 is honoring the Festival of Lights.

And the entry that we hope will win:



My co-worker is so clever.  She said she was going to add gingerbread men but the fact that they are all wearing college shirts is just too cute. And I love the expression on Santa Gorlock... 

"Ready one, you will do this four times with the left, four with the right, then eight times with both, then repeat"

I don't often get to see the quilts being enjoyed by their intended recipients so I am delighted to repeat this quilt since there is a delightful little addition to the picture! 

Since Kitty Kat (no idea if her parents would approve of this nickname for their darling)  Katelyn was born on Cinqo de Mayo, she must be almost 7 months old if the photograph was taken recently.  Her mom even coordinated her outfit to match the quilt. She is too cute for words!!!

Groovy UV?

Hey look me over, rate me a 10
Fill up my beer teacup and I'll chug it down sip daintily again

They say I'm a Kappa, womanly and true,

But wait a minute, I'll ask my mom to see what I can do!

This quilt was made for an illustrious alumna of the University of Vermont.  She is also an alumna member of Kappa Kappa Gamma (yay!).    There were only 5 shirts in total and 3 of them were youth sizes.  One of the Kappa designs was actually from a sleeve.   So I needed a design that used bigger blocks as compared to the usual sashing method.  I used the same design as I used for the Be Prepared Quilt for the Scoutmaster.  This elongated Moon over the Mountain pattern is perfect for a Catamount quilt as Vermont is the Green Mountain state. 

UVM's colors are green and gold. Vermont is known for the cold, snowy winters (that plus the mountains equate to excellent skiing) so I chose a snowy grey Hoffman fabric for the background of the big blocks.  The greens are varied but Ione is a Jinny Beyer fabric and another is a  Debbie Mumm print.  Like the Scoutmaster quilt, I sewed buttons at the base of the triangles.  Again tying in the UVM colors, I used green buttons with gold thread.

I reverse-appliqued all the t-shirts into the larger triangles.   I was thrilled to match the border fabric. Not only does it have green and gold, there are grey owls all over.  Too perfect!

One final homage to Kappas everywhere:

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.