Yesterday I posted about two sweet teachers….Mrs. Helm and Mrs. Harp, and I showed the quilt that I made for Mrs. Helm.
As I was in “miniature mode”, the second quilt was also in that same genre.
The only quilting magazine that I subscribed to was “Miniature Quilts” and the pattern came from there.
I loved the checkered background and how it flowed thru into the border.
It reminded me of stars in a dark sky so I gave it the name “Starry Night”.
After I posted yesterday, I heard from both of these women after they saw the quilt on facebook. Both told me that they still have their quilt displayed in their homes and that just makes me….
Well, it is THAT time of year!! School is almost over and parents are trying to figure out WHAT gifts to give the teachers!!!
Those days are long-gone for me but I still remember two favorite teachers and their gifts!!
Mrs. Helm and Mrs. Harp were elementary school teachers and BOTH of my children spent 1st-grade in their classroom. They were a true blessing to my children and to me. When May approached, I knew that I wanted to make each a quilt!!
Way back in 1994, I was into miniature quilts. I loved the fact that I could spend a lot of time piecing them and almost NO time quilting them.
I had beed reading about paper piecing and this quilt seemed like the perfect place to start…..
I remember that I had used white fabrics for the background and when I finished piecing the inside portion, I was frustrated that there was too much contrast. I almost started over but instead decided to brew a STRONG pot of tea and dunk the pieced portion in.
I was thrilled that it turned the background to the PERFECT shade!!
In 1993, my friend Sandy announced that she was expecting and that she was planning to decorate the baby’s room in a “fish” motif.
I IMMEDIATELY started thinking and planning a quilt to welcome this new addition. Remember that way back then (in the stone age), we didn’t have access to Electric Quilt or other design software so I was relegated to graph paper and pencil…..
My biggest design problem was figuring out how to make the quilt without too many inset seams!!
The first draft of the pattern only had 3 fabrics for the background water but in the end, I decided to use more than that. Of course, part of the decision may have been made because I didn’t have many large pieces of any one fabric. That would NOT be a problem now!!
In my notes about the quilt I wrote…..”The piecing was difficult, but was a lot of fun to do!!”
The back was inspired by a pattern for a goldfish bowl and from the fact that Sandy was a huge cat lover….still is!! The fish in the bowl are made from “cat” fabric, making them Catfish!!!!
It is fun to look back at quilts from a different time!!!
Do you have a favorite quilt from early in your quilting career???
My husband Michael is a master of the written word so today we teamed up to present “TRADEWINDS”…….
Some see pinwheels held by children, others see windmills charged by Don Quixote. A final category of observers, see ever-increasing-colorful movement – movement caused by the wind, and captured by the warmth of deep reds, dark pinks, and tarnished yellows. Appropriately named “Tradewinds”, this quilt pattern reminds me of a 10-day sail through Australia’s Whitsunday archipelago. The splash of deep reds and dark pinks reflecting from Bottle Brush flowers on the island slopes, the coral beds’ tarnished yellows leaping up through the crystal-clear waters. Whatever sweet memories lurk, “Tradewinds” evokes their release.
As of this past weekend, I can say that I have finished with the International Block Swap that I have been involved with. It was sponsored by Make Modern Magazine and I have loved working with 4 quilters from Australia and 1 from New Zealand.
Our fearless leader, Gaye, was the first to present a block back in April of last year….read the post here…..
……and now she is the last one to present a block as the challenge ends.
As I mentioned in the post, her blocks contained 61 pieces in a 10-inch square, which meant that accurate piecing was key!!
The first thing that I did differently from last time was that I used my “Accu-quilt” machine to cut the 1-1/2 strips and in a matter of minutes, all 122 pieces were ready to take to the sewing machine…..
In the post, I said that I had to make a few adjustments to my seam allowance, but in truth, I AGONIZED over getting it exactly right so that the blocks would end up being the correct size.
Over this past year, I have worked hard to figure out where to hold the fabric to achieve a perfect 1/4-inch seam allowance on my machine.
SO…..it was VERY exciting to sit down and be able to piece these two new blocks with minimal size differences.
MAYBE….just MAYBE my plan to “up my game” in the quilting area is coming to fruition!!!
The first block contains some of Gaye’s favorite “Moda Grunge” fabric…..
….and the second is a sweet blend of blue and yellow…..
Tomorrow they will be winging their way to New Zealand. HOPEFULLY, it won’t take 10 weeks like it did last time!!!
This challenge has been so much fun….not only for the quilt blocks that I have received but for the new quilting friends that I now have on the other side of the world!!!
If you have a chance to join a challenge like this, I suggest that you do it. It has been a BLAST!!!!
