Stitches in Time

I have participated in exactly one challenge and this is the result - I loved it, hubby and family loved it...but my fellow guild members weren't at all impressed! It is the mostly black quilt just over hubby's head in the picture. Everyone was given a number of pieces of the same fabric. One is allowed to add a given amount of other fabrics and do any technique. One look at the fabrics and I knew immediately I wanted to depict one of my favorite hymns - "I Come to the Garden Alone." Seen full on, it depicts the sun just coming up to break the dark of night and there is a small gold heart placed as the light blue is forming. It was a real labor of love. Here is a picture of a tremendous lesson learned. Wanting to earn some extra money, I advertised to finish quilts for people. The owner of these Sunbonnet Sue squares was an elderly lady who had had the squares stored for about 40 years. We discussed at length how she wanted them completed and then I set out to do it. Almost immediately she began to call me almost daily to see if it was done yet! The stress grew and I knew I wasn't going to be able to do as much hand quilting as I had intended and still get it done in what she felt was a suitable time frame. Once done and returned to her she showed great disappointment in what I had done - although her daughter was very pleased. I think I got around $75 or $80 dollars from the job - and never, ever offered to do such a thing again!

A wedding quilt for a neighbor girl that we loved. I found out we were invited to her wedding about 3 weeks or so before the wedding. What you see is as much applique and hand quilting as I was able to get done. I told her to return it after the wedding and I would finish the edge...she never did, tho' she told me she always used it. Below is a detail of the center applique.

Some original designs I came up with that proved very popular - Christening, Dedication, Baptism baby quilts. I was able to look up the appropriate symbols for the various venues and hand quilted details on a whole cloth quilt. They might feature baby's name, birth date, special date and religious symbols. I sold quite a number of these.

CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME

As a member of Love Apples Quilt Guild, I was really happy to get to make charity quilts - many of which were dedicated to AIDS babies. The quilt below had come to me in squares, I made additional squares and completed and quilted the quilt for a charity through the guild.

The following quilts are more I made for charity. A Cheater's panel, with the center trapuntoed (stuffed from the back of the quilt for more definition.)

A fence full of charity baby quilts.

Our guild had speakers who presented their results from working together on a quilting book on Amish quilts. They inspired me so much I immediately bought the book and made exactly ONE of the projects. I love it to this day and hope soon to find time to make more of them. Stars in Baby's Eyes - made for a grandchild.
Golden chord across the miles. Made for an on-line friend on the West Coast who shared her old postcards with me...hand appliqued and hand quilted..features a golden cord representing the lines of communication by which we communicated.
Little Angel wall hanging.
"Stained Glass" Quilting - on left for my in-laws who loved the desert. On the right "Peace Be Still" for a couple of friends who had recently lost their baby to Reye's symdrome.
Turquois Star...tried a new slicing technique which I loved. Gave to my kids who were decorating in South West style but it creeped them out...they thought it looked like a pentagram. So I took it back. Not sure what happened to it after that.
Darling friend found a complete set of newspaper quilt patterns for a State Flower quilt. Just in time I got pneumonia - was out of work for a couple of weeks - gave me the time I needed to transcribe the patterns and get them embroidered. There are, of course, 48 blocks since it was a 1930's pattern.
Little wall hangings I made each of my siblings, my mother, and my sister/brother in law. Feature photo transfers onto fabric of their family members. And finally, a warm little house to house country wall hanging for friends.Hope you've enjoyed a look back at maybe half the quilting projects with which I've kept my idle hands occupied.