The Vinall decision is perfection and precision She's grade A class, number one in her division

This is the third of the trio of quilts that were made for three lucky sisters.

Like her two older sisters, this girl played lacrosse all through high school and now in college.  She ventured out of state and is now studying at Dickinson College.

As she did with the older two, mom saved lots of fun shirts from the girl's childhood from Disney characters to tennis, golf, basketball and of course lacrosse themes. She chose a jelly-bean fabric as the daughter is a huge fan of that candy delight

Dickinson Drama!
Legend has it that if a student treads on the college seal embedded in the middle of Britton Plaza, he or she won't graduate. I am sure this young lady will be too smart to risk that.

She's got the savior faire because she's debonair, Well, M Dub with the Vinall, with the grooves so rare

This is the second of the trio of quilts for the three sisters.  Like the eldest, the middle girl is also an excellent lacrosse player and plays at the NCAA level for the University of Mary Washington.  Additionally she was on field hockey, tennis, soccer, basketball and swim teams.

Mary Washington, or "M Dub" as they apparently call themselves was founded in 1908 and named for the mother of our country’s founding father. The University of Mary Washington has built a rich history of traditions and academic excellence.

How many Mary Washington students does it take to change a light bulb?
The whole student body, there's nothing better to do on weekends.



The needle's in the groove and the Vinall's on the platter. I know that I'm fly, man, there's no need to flatter

This is one of a trio of quilts I made for 3 sisters.

All 3 girls are excellent athletes, participating in lacrosse and swimming throughout their childhoods and  high school.  The oldest sister also played Division 1 lacrosse at the University of Richmond, very time consuming and impressive!

I believe this quilt set a new record for number of shirt emblems in one quilt.  I was able to squeeze  11 NVSL All Star logos into one block. The mom wanted non-Halloweeny arachnid motifs since Richmond's mascot is the spider but she found high heel fabric for the borders and sashing as the recipient is now working in Manhattan and is in pumps and suits.

My favorite block in this quilt is this one below,  I love the smiling shark and apparently this now-sophisticated young lady, former jock laxer, was originally a Barney fan! :)

How many University of Richmond students does it take to change a light bulb?

Two, one to mix the martinis and one to call the electrician.

Like the saying goes, you gotta call and duke it off. Ask Juanito, he'll tell you all about it

This quilt was made for a Duke University Blue Devil.  A neuroscience undergrad at Bowdoin College, she is in graduate studies at Duke's School of Medicine, smart cookie!

I used 4 different Duke symbols in the corners. The 2 D's are commonly used in various university logos.  The U shape in the upper left is the School of Medicine symbol and the lower right design is the university's stylized version of the gorgeous Duke chapel. I went shopping in my stash for the swirly design fabric as well as the tone-on-tone cobalt rose background.  With all that blue, I was afraid of this becoming too masculine.

 

I only had one shirt to incorporate for this project but luckily found some licensed Duke University fabric at a nearby fabric store.  College cottons used to be common but now the shift is to fleece so I was thrilled to find the quilting-weight material. As usual, the hoodie pocket stayed on for some dimensional interest. Unfortunately the print of the hoodie and the pocket were not centered evenly on the shirt.  This wasn't noticeable on the wearer but it did look a bit off as a quilt square.

Duke basketball is so popular that undergraduates form a tent city called Krzyzewskiville or Kville before the big rivalries in order to score tickets.  This started in 1986 and is still going strong.

Blue ribbon gardens grow the fleur-de-lis!

This floral chintz pillow was made for a young woman who recently initiated into Kappa Kappa Gamma at Colgate University.  The recipient being a much bigger fan of pink and green as opposed to 2 shades of blue or the Colgate colors of maroon and white, we opted for a muted flower print with hot pink as the accent color and a green fabric with pink fleur-de-lis.

Unlike some of the other Greek pillows that I have made, we opted for the letters to be arranged diagonally instead of horizontally to include a monogram.

Colgate's logo isn't just a capital C, it always has the apostrophe gate written across the letter.

Here is a closeup of the fabulous pink and green fleur-de-lis fabric, perfect for any preppy Kappa.

I found a bit of interesting Colgate trivia.

No triskaidekaphobiacs at this upstate school, all good Raiders apparently are triskaidekaphiliacs instead.  Colgate was originally founded as The Baptist Education Society of the State of New York by 13 men who each offered $13 and 13 prayers.

The society's original constitution contained 13 articles. The address is 13 Oak Drive which happens to be located in the zip code 13346 (the first two digits are 13, and the last three digits add up to 13!).

So, that is why Friday the 13th is a day of celebration of Colgate. Every Colgate Day students, faculty, staff, alumni, and families around the world don their Colgate regalia and celebrate the university and its community.

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.



She said "You call yourself a doctor?" I said "This is true." She said "Explain to me really what doctors must do."

This was a quilt that was commissioned by four adult sons in memory of their father.  The dad was born in Italy, came over the US at age 13 and apparently learned English quite rapidly as he went to Rutgers at 18 followed by Jefferson Medical College at 22.  Being a member of a more formal generation., the good doctor was given a tie by each of his four boys on every gift-giving occasion.

I received 3 bankers file boxes full of ties and the instructions to make a modern, vibrant quilt with this fairly sedate neckwear.  We went back and forth with different designs and it was actually both of our sons who came up with the final layout. My kiddo has a strong artistic sense and the recipient's son is an Industrial Design major at Carnegie Mellon, go Tartans!  

I used 132 ties in this wallhanging which barely made a dent in one box. The vast majority were silk which involved a lot of prep work to get them to behave properly in a quilt.  Each 4" right triangle was separated by 2" sashing so that the busy patterns would not clash with each other. I incorporated plaids, stripes, Italian brocades, skinny ties, wide ties.  I used the boldest prints in the boxes staying away from browns and tans. The sashing was quilted but the ties were left unquilted so they could pop a bit.

 

The red, blue and yellow triangle is from a pharmaceutical company tie. Many people know that Depression-era quilters used feedsacks in their work. Many dry goods at that time came in a fabric sack that was printed decoratively. What I did not know was that pharmaceutical companies would give away ties to physicians, many times with an enlarged print of the microscopic image.


Although I am glad I accepted this challenge as it caused me to push my creativity in a new direction, I am somewhat relieved that my own father rarely wore a tie to work as he was a research scientist in a lab and did not dress up except for lectures.