You gettin' fancy gifts from expensive men You're a dog on a leash, like a pig in a pen

This simple  quilt was made for a grandmother of all grandsons who is about to have her first granddaughter.

 

 

I love Ian Falconer's  character Olivia.  Like Eloise, Angelica, Lucy,  and even Oscar the Grouch, she is no shrinking violet.

I used some of the Alexander Henry line of Olivia prints. Like the illustrations in the books, the predominant colors are black. red, and white.  Not exactly girly! I added the lollipop fabric to bring a touch of pink and used a pink floral for the backing.

Tight bodies, I'm rousting. Karate chops and roundhouses

This quilt was made for a Denison University alumna to celebrate her baccalaureate status.   Like so many other recipients of my quilts, she was very involved during college.  She is a member of Delta Delta Delta, a Resident Advisor, an intercollegiate soccer player for the Big Red, and in her free time, a marathon runner. She continues to give back to the community by serving in the Teach for America program,

 

As usual, I kept the collar and buttons of the polo shirt to add some dimension.  I love the black and red print that was used for the sashing and borders. The recipient's style is both urban and sophisticated  so this contemporary fabric fit the bill.

I couched the Tri-Delta graduation cord to the upper left corner and appliqued her karate belt to the lower right.  I tied the belt in the specific knot that is used by martial arts students.

Sweet and sour like a tangerine Fresh like a box of Krispy Kremes

 This Lavender Lapsize quilt was made for a young lady about to embark on her college adventure.  She was a Chantilly Charger from the class of 2013 and is about to become a Radford Highlander.  This was an interesting quilt to do as the girl loves purple so we wanted to make sure that the sashing fabric was not too close in shade to the various purple shirts.

Like a lot of high school girls in Northern VA, she wanted to include a hand-painted shirt in her quilt. She must be a huge Justin Bieber fan as she made a shirt showing the Belieber Infinity symbol. The shirt is in the upper left corner.

 Haha, who knew Krispy Kreme made boxers as well as doughnuts?

She studies real hard, all night she'll cram In school she majors in advanced Delta Gam

This was probably the most fun albeit most challenging quilt I have made to date.  It is for a Salisbury University Delta Gamma who just happened to have graduated summa cum laude. It was just a couple of years ago that she received a Delta Gamma/Salisbury pillow for Christmas.

I included tons of different textiles to include 3 satin graduation stoles representing the recipient's study abroad experience Down Under, her membership in Delta Gamma, and her membership in the honor society Phi Kappa Phi ΦΚΦ.

 

We also couched two honor cords on the top border.  Obviously the blue and gold one was for Phi Kappa Phi. I'm not sure what the 2 shades of blue cord represents since Delta Gamma colors are pink and blue.

The recipient had six sets of stitched letters to incorporate into the design.  You can see she  combined her two loves of DG and the Baltimore Ravens in the bottom set.  The OC Parasail design was originally black and white but I hand-tinted it so it wouldn't be as bland.

SU trivia:  Originally the school was called Salisbury State University which of course people nicknamed Salisbury Steak University.  The name was changed to Salisbury University around the beginning of the millenium.

The back of the quilt was made from a college sweatshirt blanket and two Vera Bradley throws.  The quilt label was inked on a pair of SU shorts.  The front sashing/border print was made from two Vera Bradley sarongs.

Now push the pause button then start DUCKing. Shhhhh you heard me like I'm E.F. Hutton.

These three Bay Leaf Bolsters are a new design.  Each pillow used elements of 8 shirts, two uniform skirts, and 1 school tie. Rather than making 2 4-square pillow faces for a front and back pillow, we thought it would be fun to make bolsters for the new graduates' dorm room beds.

The three graduates all attended Worcester Prep.  Two are off to Furman and the third is matriculating at Lynchburg College. 

The first set of pictures show both sides of the bolster.  The student was a lacrosse player both for his school and for a travel team.  The Cropper Concrete shirt is from the family business.

The next pair are the sides of a fellow lacrosse player.  He also was heavily involved in Appalachian Service Project.  The last pair of images is from the bolster for the girl who graduated.  She also was a lacrosse player at the travel and school level.

The circles at either end were primarily made from the front pocket designs of the t shirts.  However in the second of the two pictures, the leftmost pillow used the girl's uniform blouse and the middle pillow incorporated a pair of shorts.

The  piping was made from the upper school girls' Black Watch skirt and the horizontal sashing in the body of the bolster was made from the middle school grey plaid uniform.  The vertical sashing was created from the school regimental tie.

Five-O caught me, now I'm going to the mountains Said goodbye to my girl, my lawyers, and accountants

This quilt was made for a recent (as in 2 days ago!) graduate of Loyola University in Maryland.  He has lined up a job with an accounting firm post-graduation, no mean feat in today's economy.

 The recipient was a Salisbury School student before graduating from Episcopal High School.  He played soccer and lacrosse in high school and was a member of the NCAA Loyola Greyhound Soccer Team.

In addition to playing sports himself, he is a huge sports fan, loving his hometown teams: the Ravens and the Orioles. 

The back of his quilt was made with an Orioles fleece blanket and a Loyola sweatshirt blanket with a bit of Ravens corduroy thrown in to stabilize the stretchy fabrics.

My trademark is to incorporate architectural elements of the garments whenever possible.   I have used pockets,  hoods, buttons, collars, etc but this is the first time I was challenged to use a zipper.  The Ravens corduroy peeks through when  the warmup jacket is unzipped.

The bottom of the block (cut off in the picture) is from a pair of Tommy Hilfiger boxers.  The recipient has a family member who works for this designer and always gave him the best prints.

So what if I'm a Hamm and cheese on rye? I gots to do my thing and that's no lie

  

This tote was made for a USAF NCO wife.  She wanted something bright to contrast with the subdued colors of her husband's ABUs.

Between the Alexander Henry home dec fabric used as the interior lining and the Hoffman cotton used on the exterior sides, it should be vibrant enough! The interior pockets are actually double pockets.  The side one has the dual pen holder from the uniform sleeve as well as a larger pocket that can hold a cell phone. The rank that was on the uniform sleeves was sewn to each of the narrow sides of the bag.

The interior pockets are actually double pockets. The side one has the dual pen holder from the uniform sleeve as well as a larger pocket that can hold a cell phone.  The pocket on the wide side is made from two uniform flap pockets which then create a third pocket.