Brothers out there with sisters, peep it Years and years you try to keep her a secret

In celebration of a successful formal recruitment at the wearers' school, I am finally posting pictures of a joint order.  Apparently at this university, the Chi Omegas do a lot of functions with the Sigma Chis.  So much so that the ΣX boys are little brothers and the ΧΩ girls are the big sisters.

This is much different than in my day.  While my sorority definitely tended to pair with certain fraternities at my university, it was not a formal joining.  We were free to affiliate as individual members of fraternities as Little Sisters. Favorite guys of our sorority were called Keymen rather than Little Brothers. 

In any case, the Chi Omega is a Sigma Chi Big to a specific Sigma Chi and he is correspondingly the Chi Omega Little to her.  ΧΩ colors are red and yellow and ΣX colors are cobalt blue and yellow.  I assumed they would want yellow as one of the colors as it ties in with both of their groups but they decided to eliminate yellow entirely and go with each of their other colors ie the red and cobalt.  They also wanted the big/little relationship embroidered on the sleeve.  My machine does not have that capability so the embroidery was done by hand using a running stitch.

What she asked of me at the end of the day Caligula would have blushed "Oh, you've been in the house too long" she said And I naturally fled

So like many of us over the last 24 months I have spent a LOT of time at home.  I was so bored that I learned how to crochet.

I had seen the African Flower hexagon technique that was used to make an owl.  I used a J 5.25 mm hook and worsted weight yarn of various colors  Once I learned the stitches, it was amazingly easy.  I knew the hexagons were large but had no idea I would end up with a HUGE stuffed animal.

I then decided to make the same pattern using Kappa colors of dark and light blue since our mascot is an owl.  I did not want such a huge owl so used a much skinnier fiber and smaller hook.  This time I used a 1.5 mm hook and  #10 crochet thread.

What a size difference the hook and fiber make!  I found it much harder to crochet with this thread and tiny hook as opposed to the yarn and larger hook.

Here are the 2 owls together.  They don't match at all but I wanted to show their proportions.

I have decided that I am officially hooked!

Well, just plug me in just like I was Eddie Harris You're eating crazy cheese like you would think I'm from Paris

 So I had a request to make a pillow from a particular outfit that a little child loved but outgrew.  It was a long sleeved sequined t shirt and coordinated velvet leggings.  The sequin design was pretty cool as when sequins were all overlapping downward like roof shingles, this Eiffel Tower appeared.

When you run your hand over the sequins so they overlap from bottom to top, a heart appears complete with the phrase Love Paris.

I used the front of the shirt for one side of the pillow and the back to be the base for a big monogram L.  The letter was cut from the leggings and stitched with a variegated thread to make it pop from the t shirt color.  I also used the leggings to make all the piping.

This will be a delightful addition to a girly-girl bedroom!

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.

Rules in the office they don't need to imply I hate having to wear my shirt and tie

This was a wonderful project to memorialize a family member.  I had 12 ties belonging to a father of 2 women, grandfather to a third.  One of the daughters had saved his ties and wanted small pillows made from them for her sister, her daughter and herself.

Most quilt blocks are square.  The daughter wanted small rectangular pillows so I skewed two of the designs from a 12 x block to a 9 x 15 dimension.  One of the recipient's is named Katie so I immediately thought Katie's Choice would be an ideal pillow for that woman.  The pillow is a modification of  this traditional memory block. 

The next two pillows are exactly the same.  The pattern is called Thousand Pyramids and many quilters showcase their entire stash in a scrap quilt made from this design.  I was easily able to use all 12 ties in each of the pillows

The last pillow is a modification of a Chinese Lantern block.  I have been in the client's house and had a strong sense of her style and color preferences so when I suggested this design, she was delighted right away. You can see from the very first picture that the pillow coordinates with her dining room rug 

quite nicely.

I have created several projects with men's ties over the years.  Although tie fabric tends to be silky, slippery, stretchy and thus needs a good bit of prep work, the sheen just creates such a beautiful finish.

Said she's your cousin that came for a visit Your putting me on, is this true, now who is it?

Quilts for babies are so fun to make!  The recipients are second cousins to each as they share a great-grandparent.  Thanks to Covid, the recipients weren't able to be delivered until after the babies' first birthdays.

The first quilt is a double Irish Chain.  The baby has a VERY Irish name and the mom requested bright colors so I chose a bright floral print to coordinate with  gold and medium purple. I was commissioned to create a quilt for the older brother when he was born.

The second quilt is definitely non-traditional.  The recipient's name is Ori which is the Hebrew word for light. After racking my brain thinking of lightning bolts and suns, the bulb clicked on and hence I thought a lightbulb theme would be fun.

I modified a public domain sketch to change the filament to spell the baby's name.

Weight on my shoulders and now I'm stressin' Gotta get back and count my blessings

Once again, a Webster t shirt quilt was made for a departing employee from her old garments..She was not just a great employee but also a Marine wife and a competitive bodybuilder and weightlifter.

The employee was the Veterans Affairs School Certifying Official  so when I was looking for theme fabric and saw this Va print, I snapped it up.

 

This was actually 2 different polo shirts that were vertically cut in half and the collars were reversed. 

Best of luck in her new endeavors!