About as different as two quilts can get.

I finished two tops the other day.  One I had been working on all week. The other just needed borders.  But it occurred to me that they were about as different as two quilts could be in design.  One really scrappy made of flannels and the other a foray into the Modern world.  I like all kinds of quilts and I try to make all kinds of quilts, but usually not all on the same day. lol

60" x 78"

I call these kind of quilts Big Chunk quilts 'cause I go through one of my scrap bags (in this case dark flannels) and I pick out a lot of big patches Some are 6" x 10" or more.  I just put them up on my design wall and try to make them fit together like a giant puzzle. 

54"x 68"

This quilt top was inspired by two free 4"charm packets I got from Andover at the Portland FabricMart.

The colored patches were slightly textured and the pallet seemed just perfect for a Modern quilt?!

The flannel quilt (I guess) qualifies as a UFO 'cause some of the scrappy units in it were leftovers from my previous scrappy flannels see here.  But the Modern top is a start and finish in a short space of time.  They were both fun and easy to make just very different.

cheers, Claire W.

Almost a Quilt?

Do double sided receiving blankets that are quilted count as quilts?!  It's kind of like a summer quilt for a baby, right?  Well whatever you like to call it I made one for my first grand child expected in Dec.  I've been hoarding some really cute flannels and thought it was a good time to break them out.

back 

Especially this one with I Love Lucy.  Remember the episode where Ethel and Lucy get the job working in the chocolate factory?

 I've got a couple of other quilts going for the baby but I wanted to get this one in the mail because my son (the soon to be New father) is having a birthday at the end of the week And I wanted to send him a quilt for his baby with one I have made for him.

This is a summer quilt too.  I started this quilt for my son when he went off to Africa in the Peace Corps.   I told my son I was sending him a quilt he said don't send it 'cause he did not want to worry about taking care of it and getting it back home.  

So I put the quilt away and kinda forgot about it until the other day when I was trying to decide what to send him for his B-day.  I dug it out and finished it.

  It's nothing fancy but I liked the idea of making a Trip Around The World quilt for my kid who had, in fact, taken a trip around the world!  All the shirting plaids and chambray came from shirts that had belonged to his paternal Grandfather and the sun and moon fabric was some left-overs from Sam's bedroom curtains.  Fabric which he picked out when he was about 10.

I hope the kids enjoy their respective 'blankeys'.

Oh, and another UFO done!

cheers, Claire W.

Vntage Tops

While at the Sisters show last summer I made a few vintage purchases. Kathie's blog on her 16 patch reminded me of this top.

It's a little younger and the layout of the blocks is different but it has the same 'graphic' feel to it that Kathie's quilt has.  

You can see the progression of the piecing in the yellow block.  It was probably constructed like a 16 patch but then the blocks were further combined to make the 8 x 8 patch blocks. The tag said 1920's.  I think that's about right, the indigo's and reds might be earlier but the solid yellow and orange I think are from a little after 1900.

The blocks are all hand pieced and the top has kind of a soft bouncy feel to it.  I love the crazy layout and vibrant colors.  I think this will be my next hand quilting project.  Here are some of the other tops I picked up that day...

 I love this churn dash, great indigo, pink and brown prints.  blocks were hand pieced and machine sewn together.

Somehow the Reds never photograph as vividly as they really are.  It's an interesting block layout.  Essentially a 9 patch of subunits of hst's but if you try to read the pattern from left to right it's hard to figure 'cause that end starts with only 2/3rds of the block.  Start by looking at the lower right corner and the pattern is clear.  It's the intersection of 4 main blocks that makes the large red hexagons which creates the secondary pattern!

Look at this charmer!  I wish I was better at applique I would make a reproduction of this for my first  grandchild.

I think this quilt was definitely a kit.  The vendor had another finished quilt with all the same blocks only a different color way.

My friends and I at Randy's quilt retreat had quite the debate about which quilt to finish. Altho' some of my Wisconsin friends were lobbying heavily for the red quilt I think I will stick to the checker board top.  Which would you pick?!

Have a great week!

cheers, Claire W.

A Few More Finishes

My T-shirt quilt prompted me to review my other T-shirt projects and I decided to finish this one for my daughter as a Birthday present.  Naomi is turning 24 later this month. These shirts range from grammar school through college.

I used a fleece blanket for the backing and dark blue flannel for the binding so it will be really snuggly!

I like the way the quilting looks on the back, you can even see the girl running!

You may remember this quilt from this post.  I found some more of that border fabric and decided that would be a good way to frame it. This quilt is going to the Wheelchair bound Vets quilt project.

It's fun to quilt these kind of quilts 'cause you can just doodle and goof around and it even looks on the back.

While we were at the cabin I managed to finish this top and I got it quilted and bound last week.

These fabrics came from a scrap bag I purchased at a Talbots factory oulet many moons ago.  I think it cost all of $5.00 and there's probably enough fabric left in the bag for a couple more quilts like this.

This quilt will be donated to City of Hope.

I love Scrap bags!

Cheers, Claire W.

It's My Quilt and I'll laugh if I want to!

I don't know exactly why but I've always had a weekness for T-shirts with fish on them. Usually with some kind of joke or eye gag on them.  But eventually these T-shirts get so thread bare and stained that even I am embarassed to wear them in public!  And yet I cannot part with them!  I have made many T-shirt quilts for my kids; but, awhile back when I was culling T-shirts for the Goodwill and was wondering what to do with THOSE T-shirts,  I decided to make a T-shirt quilt for myself!  What a concept!

  It's real simple just 17" squares sewn together side by side.

I think this is the shirt that got me started collecting. The copy right says Ray Troll 1988!  I loved that shirt, you gotta' laugh!  I subsequently acquired two more of Ray's designed shirts.

I'm not really much of a goin' fishin' kind of person but a lot of fish shirts do center around that topic. 

I think my interests are more centered around the health of our water ways and oceans.  Which are in serious trouble. 

Fishes are also an incredibly diverse group with over 29,000 species world wide!  That makes them the most numerous of their number amounst all the animal groups with back bones!

(sorry just had to work that in, old Bio teachers die hard) 

I still buy fish- T's.  I got this one in Isreal last year.

simple, simple, simple!  I will back it with something soft and It will be MY blankey!

And as a bonus another UFO of long standing bites the dust!  Yipee!!!

Cheers, CW