"Frugal Fuzzy Bunny Banky", lap size, January1998
This quilt was built around 2 yards of a gorgeous bunny-print flannel (another Alexander Henry by Nicole deLeon -- my favourite!). I took the 2 yards, added 5 fat quarters of flannel (plus the border fabric) and made the quilt as big as I could without any waste. There was one strip of the bunny flannel left over, and my friend Gail made it into a scarf for her daughter! So this is, without doubt, my most frugal project. It's also the only one with a polyester batting. I didn't want to have to fight with my needle. But I have returned to cotton, cause I like it better. Machine pieced, hand quilted in big stitch with perle cotton.
"Grandma's Quilt", 54 x 62", April 1998
I made this strippy quilt (pieced on a muslin foundation) for my grandma (yes, that's us...but we're cuter in person). She deserves something much more spectacular, but I knew I could finish this one in time to give it to her, since we live in two different countries and don't get to visit very often.
Though you can't really see it in this photo, the main part of the quilt was hand quilted in big stitch with ecru perle cotton. In every horizontally striped block, I quilted a heart, and there are four stars -- one in each corner. The borders were meander quilted by machine. I really like the scrappy binding. (The top photo is more accurate, colour-wise -- and the quilt does lay flat...it's pinned to my flannel design wall, so that's why it looks warpy.) Machine pieced, hand quilted in big stitch with perle cotton.
"Where the sun sets", 9.5 x 12.5" (or so), July 1998
When I gave Grandma her quilt (see above), I asked my Aunt Linda if she would like to do an art swap: one of her paintings for one of my miniature quilts. She agreed, and used Grandma's quilt as a swatch book, picking out the fabrics she liked. I was to use reds and medium blues and a few odd things here and there. The final result amused me, though if I had it to do again, I'd make the outside border narrower. However, I love the strippy binding (also leftover from Grandma's quilt) and thought the golden part in the upper right reminded me of a California sunset. Since my Aunt lives in California, it seemed an appropriate name. (This one lays nice and flat, too. I must be photographing them wonky!) Machine pieced, hand quilted.
Oh, and the painting she did was absolutely wonderful! I gave her a photo of my favourite flowers -- blueberries and cream Violas -- and she brought it to life. I'm honoured to have it on my wall!
"Heart & Soul Mittens", 4" square, November 1998
I belong to a mini-group (or bee) called the Heart & Soul Quilters. We meet once a month, the week after our Guild meeting. And our favourite time of year is the holiday season. This is our second year together, and each December, we gather for a gift exchange and lots of eating and laughing! December 1997's was so much fun that we did it again for Valentine's Day '98!
The rule is that we each make a gift for everyone in our group -- 6 of us in total. It shouldn't be expensive, and we love it most when the gift is handmade. The other rule, which gets ignored every time, is that it should take around an hour to make each one. Yeah, right! :-)
This year, I kind of went insane. I'd just made a full-size mitten pattern for December's Block of the Month at our guild, and when I came across the teensy hangers at a quilt show, I knew what I was going to do. Fusible applique, buttonhole stitch, diagonal grid quilting in the background, real binding, beaded mitten strings and FINALLY I was done! I whipstitched the quilts to their hangers and wrapped them in preparation for the party (it's tomorrow night!).
From L to R, top to bottom: "Marg's Tiny Cabin in the Woods", "Karen's Tiny Fish", "Gail's Tiny Tea & Tulips", "Anne's Tiny Garden", "Barbara's Tiny Houses" and "Helen's Great Big Heart". (Helen has the biggest heart of anyone I know, so I couldn't bear to call it 'tiny'!). Anne is an honorary member of our group (she's Karen's mom) and wanted to join in this December, so there were 6 quilts to make, instead of 5. And I ended up liking them so much, I made a 7th...for me! "Amy's Tiny New England" (see below). Each quilt represents something that reminds me of each of us...and they were a big hit! All hand stitched, except for step one of the binding.
Made for my Mom, at her request. She collects Quimper pottery, which is characterized by rich colours of blue and yellow, with green highlights. She has this wonderful double-handled tureen which sits in the centre of her 7 foot pine harvest table. She asked me to make her a runner to match this piece, and sent me home with a colour-accurate photo as my guide and a range of measurements. I decided early on that I would feature the blue and white as the main theme, and found Bou Bou Dima batiks from Holland to use as the mainstay. I then spent all 1998 collecting just the right greens and procrastinating.
As I finally sat down to make the sawtooth star blocks (in the sage green fabrics with the batik as the background), I found that the batik background would overpower the rest of the quilt . So instead of doing a row of stars as planned, I toned it down by using a center panel of a lovely Moda fabric from the Versailles collection. I love Modas. The rich gold was in my stash already -- a Mumm print -- and it was an exact match for the gold in the pottery. And the final blue border also turned out to be a Mumm from my stash. I had just enough to make the border. The corner blocks are a different fabric from that same Moda collection in blue and white, and my favourite poison green fabric from the Smithsonian Little Sister collection in a simple 1/2 square triangle. As always, machine pieced, hand quilted.
Oh, by the way, Mom loved it!
quilts from 2000
all contents © 2001 marblehead