My Altrusa's Ties quilt was a labor of love for my service organization - Altrusa International, Inc. of _______ Texas.  I made this quilt and donated it as a live auction item for our 2004 fundraiser auction.  I thought of this project as a quilt to honor the ties that Altrusa has to the local community - all Altrusa clubs work on different projects, but all projects benefit their local communities.  I decided to make the 3-D bow tie quilt using mens ties donated by community members.  I had never done the 3-D Bow Tie before and I had never used mens ties in quilting before, and this was somewhat of a challenge, since most of the ties are made of stretchy, silky fabrics that slip and slide.   I sent emails to local "dignitaries" and "Altrousers" (the husbands of Altrusa memers) asking for one or more of their ties for this quilt.  I mentioned in the letter that the quilt would be auctioned off at the annual fundraiser, and that with their permission I would put all the names on the label on the back of the quilt.  I received ties from the mayor, city manager, chief of police, fire chief, fire marshal, homeland security director,  a rabbi, and numerous altrousers.  I did not know how many ties I would receive, so I planned the quilt to be expandable - depending on the number of ties procured. I received over 60 ties (many people gave me 5 or 6 ties) and I used 59 in the quilt..  I used a  pale khaki as the connecting blocks, inside border, backing, and binding.  I wanted to design an interesting border and decided to use the remaining pieces of the ties and cut a colorful border of rectangles.  I machine quilted "in-the-ditch" along the outside borders of the blocks.  I started in the center and worked out to the edges.  For the quilted design in the inside border I cut freezer paper bow ties the same size as the bow ties in the blocks.  I pinned these end-to-end around the borders of the quilt and quilted this pattern in a matching thread around the quilt.  I also quilted "in-the-ditch" with a clear top thread and matching bobbin thread between each of the colorful rectangles in the border.  The label on the back lists each tie donor, explains the meaning of the title of the quilt, gives my name, the event it was made for, and the date it was made.  I try to make detailed labels that give the history of the quilt.  Well, what do you think?

My mother was a very special lady.  She lost her battle with multiple myeloma July 2005 at the age of 89.  She remained active her entire life, and didn't slow down until the month before she passed away.  She was a very strong willed woman.  She passed her driving test just 2 months before she passed away - "just in case I need to drive."  She was always working on one craft or another.  For years she made Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, in two sizes; in fact, I still have many of her dolls that I will be selling.  She felt that Raggedy Ann and Andy were not "real" unless she embroidered an "I Love You" heart on each one of them.  She also made Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the Three Bears flip-flop dolls which she sold along with a story book.  When we were cleaning out the house for sale, we found her craft room closet was full of fabric, trims, buttons, thread, half finished dolls, and other craft projects in various stages of completion.  There were also many cross-stitch samplers, crewel, and needlepoint pictures.  There were many afghans and comforters and quilts that she had completed - so we could each have something that she had made.  I also found several unfinished quilts - some just cut out and some tops completed.  Below are those tops, which I hope to finish someday - they have become a part of my quilting UFOs (unfinished objects).  I know for a fact that one of them was made in early 2005, because she told me on the phone about picking out fabrics.

Her favorite color was blue - and yellow next.  When visiting me in Texas in December 2002, she had seen a baby quilt in a shop that was completely made of blue and white squares.  She liked the quilt and said then that she wanted to make one for herself.  After she went home, I went through my stash and cut squares of all the blue/white fabrics I had and sent them to her.  She was very picky about her blues, so there wewre some I sent that she didn't care for.  She went to fabric stores to find other blues and whites and purchased them.  Then by late 2004 she said she had finished enough of her other projects and was going to start the blue and white quilt.  She cut out more squares and started putting the quilt together.  Below is the quilt top (queen size) that she made in early 2005 at the age of 88-3/4.  I plan to add blue borders to the quilt and have it quilted with an all-over pattern, the design of which is yet to be determined.

Again, my mother's favorite color was blue - followed by yellow.  She alaso was a "saver" - of everything that might one day be useful.  When she had fabric left over from a project, she would cut it into various size squares and put them into bags.  Then, when she had enough squares, she would make a quilt.  Found in her blanket chest were a finished quilt and a quilt top - completely made from 2" squares (1-1/2" finished).  They were both the same pattern, as shown below.  She used her miscellaneous squares, with yellow connecting squares in the blocks, and blue squares forming the sashing.  This design took some planning, since it was sewn together in rows of small squares.  The quilt is colorful, yet highlights her two favorite colors.  One of my brothers took the finished quilt.  I brought the quilt top home to someday finish - another quilting UFO.

My mother was also a musician, among many other things.  She was a good piano player - and loved playing Scott Joplin's Ragtime music.

The summer of 2004 I took several classes offered by my quilt guild.  One of them was Stack-n-Whack.  This class was very popular and there were about 20 of us in attendance.  The fabrics everyone chose were bright and cheery - animals, lizards, florals, geometrics - mine is a very bright teal-y print with red hearts, golden suns, purple beads, and many other bright colors.  I used lavendar fabric for the connecting blocks to bring out the purples in the design.  During the class, I completed the cutting of my 60 degree triangles and the construction of one block.  Because this pattern uses equalateral triangles, once the piles of matching triangles are cut you need to decide which of the three corners you will use as the center of the pinwheel.  Again, I was SO psyched after this class and seeing the triangle combinations, that I made the rest of the blocks in 2 days and had the rows of blocks sewn together and the borders on this quilt on the third day.  After seeing the completed quilt top laying on top of the bed, my husband called it my "go blind" quilt, because with the busy print the pinwheels almost seem to be moving.  ha ha!  I have purchased a bright backing fabric for this quilt and need to send it out to get it quilted.  This quilt top will be approximately queen size when finished. 

In the summer of 2004 I took several classes offered by my local California quilt guild.  This quilt top was a product of the NY Beauty paper piecing class.  This was my first foray into paper piecing, but the teacher insured those of us signing up that it was easy - don't worry.  Well, I'd heard THAT before!  Most of the fabrics came from my stash - imagine that!  I only had to purchase 2 fabrics to complete the blocks and then the border and backing fabrics.  The blocks wewre very easy to finish, even with the curves.  She showed us how to just pin the center of the arc and to hold the ends and let the fabrics flow together as we sewed.  She was correct - it worked - for the most part - once we had one or two mishaps under our belts.  I finished two blocks in class and was so excited about this class that I went home and had the other 7 blocks finished the next day.  Then I put the borders on and - VOILA! - my Texas Sunset quilt.  Now all I need to do is have it quilted.  What do you think?

The sunflower table runner shown below was made for my daughter-in-law for Christmas 2005 - our "homemade" Christmas.  Julie likes sunflowers, so I used a bright sunflower print and used olive green and gold for the sashing and bindings.  Her dining table is extra long, so I made this tablerunner extra long, also.

For Christmas 2005 my daughter-in-law told me she was suggesting that everyone make the gifts this year.  I thought about something I could make for 4 pre-teen and teenage girls, and after asking a few questions about their bedrooms found out that the beds had no headboards and that the rooms were either all blues or yellow and blue.  I had a lot of blue fabrics from my mother's stash, which I "inherited" after she passed away last summer, so I decided to make personalized headboards for each of the girls.  Below are the results of this project.  Their names are machine appliqued on and then I channel quilted the white around their names and "stitched-in-the-ditch" all the border pieces.  I sewed in fabric hanging tabs on the top so they could hang the wallhangings on a dowel at the head of their beds.  I made a label on the back of each headboard with their last school picture on it and a short narrative with my name, the date given to them, and that it was made as a Christmas 2005 gift.

I will write something here at a later date.

My husband, George, and I took a land trip/cruise to Alaska in the late summer of 2004.  My Alaska Quilt is a lasting souvenir of that trip.  As a quilter, of course I had to stop in any LQS in the towns that we visited.  In those shops I purchased a pattern called I Spy - Alaska and some fabrics with native Alaskan animals.  After returning home, I purchased the joining fabrics at one of my local LQS and put the quilt together.  I am big on labels on a quilt, and the label on the back of this quilt is 8-1/2" x 11" and include the dates of the trip, the names of the towns we visited, the name of the ship we sailed on, and 5 photographs.  This quilt went together very quickly and is a good quilt pattern to use to show off a special themed fabric.

I am new to this BLOG thing, so am not quite sure how to begin.  My first thoughts are that I want to use this site as a scrapbook of my quilts.  I am going to take pictures of ALL the quilts I have that I have made, that were made for me, or that I have purchased.  Some of the quilts pictured will be just quilt tops that I have finished or purchased.  I will write a little about each quilt - its "history" so to speak.