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!

I love it when you hit those switches I curve ball what my pitch is So here we-here we come Like dum-ditty-dum I keep all three ladies in stitches

This was an interesting project that includes 3 generations of first-born women.   The grandmother (generation 1) apparently embroidered many blocks that compose a childhood prayer and put them together as a quilt top.  She made this for her hope chest, well before she was a wife and mother. The embroidery is hand stitched as was the piecing.  Originally the quilt was tied, not quilted.

The mom (generation 2) also had  a different baby quilt..  Eventually it used as the batting for the embroidered quilt.  

In the 1980s, generation 3 daughter was born.  She was given the embroidered quilt at her birth and also had a cotton thermal blanket that she loved. This daughter is now a a PhD candidate at UVa focusing on American Art History.

By fall of 2020, the embroidered quilt was in rough shape.  Both the backing and the  quilt that had been used as the batting were shredded and the batting had shifted.  The quilt had only been tied, not quilted so there were lots of lumps and bumps from the batting.  Luckily the embroidery had held up very well.

I took apart the 3 layers, tried to comb/ smooth out the smaller lumps and removed the big bumps that I couldn't get to flatten.  I put in a very thin poly batting between the top  and the original batting and then added a new back.  I machine-quilted it and added a hanging sleeve.  The mom (generation 2) embroidered a different prayer on a label which I hand-appliqued to the back.

The daughter  (generation 3) received the refurbished quilt in Christmas 2020 and promptly asked if her cotton thermal blanket was also in the middle. It had not been included because mom hadn't been able to find it.  Of course daughter runs up to her old room and digs it out of some hidden corner within a couple of minutes.

I was then contacted to rip out some of my quilting so I could then add the blanket and requilt it. I was worried because the original fabrics of the embroidered top were fragile and I was afraid that the fabrics would tear no matter how careful I was when taking out the stitching. However the customer is always right and I personally love the idea of all these layers representing different generations, so I was willing to take the risk.  The mom (generation 2) made an additional label (to go with the prayer label) that lists the names of the 3 women and their respective birth years.

I love this story as I am also the third generation of first born women and my daughter is the 4th generation.  In my family, all 4 of us have the same first name and my daughter thinks she wants to continue the tradition if she ever has a first-born who happens to be a girl.  Crossing my fingers!!!

And there's a magic in the sound of their name Here come the Irish of Notre Dame

I recently had the pleasure of creating a memory quilt for a brand-new University of Notre Dame alumna.  Hailing from Oakton High School in Virginia, she spent her last 4 years in South Bend.  The client wanted a puzzle piece design with multiple size blocks as opposed to a traditional t shirt quilt with sashing between the blocks.

The recipient was very involved in multiple activities, completing several several marathons and other road races as well as being a member of academic and athletic clubs.

Because Notre Dame does not recognize social fraternities or sororities, dorm life is very important to students. They are similar to houses at prep schools.

Like the vast majority of current students and alumni, the recipient is a HUGE fan of the Fighting Irish. Every year the alumni association creates a special shirt for Notre Dame football.  The fronts and backs of the 2017-2020 shirts are included in this quilt as well as a column of the mini-designs from the sleeves.  Despite making several Notre Dame quilts over the years AND the fact that my uncle is the stereotypical alumnus, I never knew about The Shirt tradition before this commission.

Like a scientist, mmm, when I'm applying this

This  little wallhanging was made for a Webster employee in less than a week.  She only had 3 shirts so it ended up about 40 by 40 inches.  I love the old NBC logo/letter and had previously used it in a baby quilt.  The former Gorlok is now off to a new job in a new state and she will be greatly missed by staff, faculty, and students alike!

Her azaleas made a beautiful backdrop for a quilt display, don't they?

I come from the land down under, where beer does flow and men chunder

This is one of my earliest quilts, made about a quarter-century ago. The SAE MIT graduate was headed from the United States for a 1 year master's program at the University of New South Wales in Australia. He liked Sydney so much that he is still there!

So in 1995,  I was at the fantastic New England Book Fair with my mother.  I had made 1 quilt at that point and swore never again as I found it dull to make the same block multiple times especially when the popular colors at the time were wedgwood blue and dusty mauve.  I was looking at needlepoint books in the remainder section and saw this book by Margaret Rolfe.  I suggested as a joke to my mother (who did not sew at all) that I get the book and we make the quilt to commemorate the recipient's year in Australia. We headed to the original Fabric Place Basement where I actually bought fabrics in fraction increments.    That was the last time I would buy less than a yard of a fabric even if a patten called for a small amount.  She agreed that she would learn to piece but somehow the project became all mine.

I added 3 images to balance out the 20 creatures Rolfe had designed.  My parents had visited Sydney during that year as they thought they would never have a reason to go again being that the recipient was only there for the UNSW program.  They picked up a university patch from the college bookstore which I then appliqued on an oblong 8-pointed star.  I added a miniature Australian flag and an appliqued outline of AU and Tasmania in a batik fabric.  The aboriginal dot fabrics weren't sold in the US during this era.

 

This isn't the greatest picture but it does show that the quilt has held up well.  The quilt was entirely hand-pieced and hand-quilted.   I thank Margaret Rolfe for opening my eyes to non-traditional quilt blocks and to her use of bright colors.