Tribute to Rebecca

In the fall of 2014 Ruth Steiner, Pat Falb, Laurel Horst , and I made the decision to collaborate our joint efforts on a quilt for the 2015 OH MCC relief sale. This time we chose to do a Double Wedding ring design with an applique border. During the last week of December I began cutting the posts and some melons and centers and then in January Ruth and I began looking at our fabric scraps from our previous year's of working together on quilts (?17 years) for the rings and the floral applique. We cut some 388 end pieces, 788 middle arc pieces, 194 melons, and 42 centers. The assembly of the arcs>melons>centers involved curves and I gained some skills in piecing the convex to the concave. How I wished that I had paid attention to my grandmother, Rebecca Gehman, when I was a young girl and would enter her sewing room. The double wedding ring was one of her favorite patterns to work with. Now I would love to have watched her method of constructing the rings.
The melons:

 The beginnings of the rings.

After some concentrated effort I completed my half of the rings:

Ruth joined the 2 halves, appliqued a narrow border to square the edges, sewed on border #1 and then the final applique border and marked the quilt. It is now in the hands of Laurel for completion of applique (most was done while we were working on our piecing) and Laurel and Pat will quilt it for the most part. I am glad I had a chance to work on the DWR design and consider it a tribute to my Grandmother Rebecca.

The first two weeks in February 2015 I have been focusing on finishing 2 other projects. The first one a throw I have been working on off and on for about 2 years for Janelle. I have named it "Moonbeams and Blossoms". I quilted around the flowers and vines and Decatur knotted the rest about 4 " apart.

 It is packaged and ready to send to Janelle this week. Below is the label in "petal form".

The second one was also a throw that Kristin and I designed and worked on for Kay White. We called it a Prayer Quilt as Kay is going through a difficult time with some health issues and receiving chemo and radiation for recurrent cancer. She will be facing a Stem Cell Transplant in March and April at Hershey Medical Center.

 The bird fabric was Kristin's left over from another project. the "bars" were from our stashes, and we did purchase the borders and the fabric used to sash the bird blocks.

 We named it "Beneath the Noble Cedar Tree" from Ezekiel 17:22-24. The throw is packaged and ready for the mail this week. We Decatur Knotted the quilt to hold the layers together.

And now on to other projects and prayers for Kay. Below is a detail of a bird block. The blocks were 9" square. The scripture sections were 3" x 9" with 3 strips of fabric to make it a 9" block.

Creating from my Stash

As the year 2012 ended and the New year 2013 came into focus I focused on engaging my creativity and choosing a small project to "upcycle" some left over fabric strips from various and sundry other projects. On New Year's eve day I chose instructions from Quilting Arts on how to make a fabric bracelet. Sewing the narrow strips was a bit tedious, but here are the results:

It was kind of fun actually and I liked the results.







Speaking of upcycling, I did a bit of that with some of the Christmas gifts I created. I used embossed red velvet from my bridesmaid's gown from our wedding of 40 years ago for the base of a pin cushion I created for my sisters and my 2 daughters.

This was the first of the
pin cushions for sister Irene. For
this one I used dark green velvet for the
base. This first one I filled with crushed
walnut shells. For the others I used wool form
our sheep.

Early in January my 96 year old mother moved from Fairmount Retirement Homes to Lincoln Christian Home in Lincoln. She mentioned that when she sits in the solarium her legs are cold, so that motivated me to create a small lap quilt for her. For this project I raided my "blues" box for assorted blue fabrics and used the Tossed Nines method, cutting my initial squares 4.5 inches. These were sewn into a nines block and then cut in half and half again. The resulting squares were arranged into a top that measured 36" x 48". For the backing I used a soft light blue fleece.

 

The quilt was then Decatur knotted .

Today I completed another "stash" project: a "Sunset" tablerunner. I did machine quilting on this project- I much prefer the look of hand quilting.

White Chocolate

 

 

In 2011 I began work on a quilt for MCC Connections quilt room. The pattern was called White Chocolate and consisted of assorted light and medium beiges, approximately 64 different fabrics. The quilt was quilted in the quilt room at Connections and was sold in the 2012 Ohio Relief Sale. I believe someone from out of state was the purchaser.

Chrysanthemum Cakewalk

In the summer of 2011 I pieced this quilt for the Adriel Benefit Auction. I used the pattern Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs for my basic design, but used a theme fabric for alternate blocks and turned the blocks on point, adding a triangular inset before the border.

The theme print featured a chrysanthemum floral design - hence the name Chrysanthemum Cakewalk.

Peacing it Together

Vest

The other quilt top I pieced for display at the January 2011 fabric sale in the Quilt Room at MCC Connections. It was a fun and easy one to piece and is called Charming Fractions. This month I am piecing a quilt for the quilt room called "White Chocolate". Look for that one in a later blog. Waiting in the wings for the pieces to be cut is a pallet of pinks and browns for a quilt top called "Raspberry Truffles". Don't these names sound delectable? Yesterday while we had another episode of winter outdoors I worked on a smaller project: a pieced vest. I had won the pattern during one of the quilt shop hops. If I like the vest I hope to make another one using a piece of silk that my daughter Kristin brought me from Cambodia.

Charming Fractions

Quilt Frenzy

November 2010 the quilt room at MCC received a large fabric donation. Plans were made for a fabric sale to be held in january 2011. It was decided that several quilt tops should be assembled for display during the sale days. Six women busily began designing, cutting, and piecing. I chose pallets for 2 tops, one of them a design called "Spinning Rails".

Color pallet of the Spinning Rails quilt. All the strips and squares are cut - let the piecing begin.

Chain piecing triangles on the "rails".

The "block" of the Spinning Rail quilt pattern

168 block units ready to be sewn together.

The finished quilt: Spinning Rails

Border deatail of Spinning Rails; I really did like the combination of reds, beige, and black accent.

Spinning Rails - What a feeling of accomplishment to have it completed. This quilt was started before the MCC fabric sale in January, but I realized I would be too pressured to complete the quilt top before the sale dates; I sewed together several rows, enough to display as a sample.

A Day at the Park

A Day in the Park - a quilt for Raleigh



A few days ago I finished quilting a baby quilt Kristin
and I designed for my sister Irene's new grandchild, Raleigh.
The design is original featuring framed Winnie the Pooh
scenes. Kristin appliqued the "Pooh" block and I appliqued
the "One Hundred Acre Tree" block. Rainbows & pinwheel
flower blocks were used as "fill-in" blocks.







Quilt backing- a Nursery Ryhme print

Pooh following his footprints

Detail of Pooh's footprints

Detail of quilt

- "Bike trail"

Quilt label