Doll Quilts

The Doll Quilts group I belong to distributed 968 quilts this Christmas!  Didn't quite reach our goal of 1,000, but we will next year.  Rock Island Schools Head Start - 474; East Moline schools SKIP program - 360; Davenport Schools - 100; East Moline Wells school - 24; Davenport Police Dept. - 30 to go to their Domestic Violence shelters.  Many boys and girls are now enjoying our efforts

Quilts of Valor

Mississippi Valley Quilt Guild has a very active Quilts of Valor group. 

They meet once a month and sew beautiful quilts to give to veterans.

Today I joined them from 9-2 and made 12 blocks as well as a pillow case.

This was a fun block that starts with a 10 inch square.  You sew around the outside then make specific cuts to end up with 4 half triangles 4 arrowed strips and 2 smaller squares already

sewn down the middle with which to make your 4 square for the middle.

Hexi's

I am putting together a kit of fabrics so that I can make hexi's while recovering from hip surgery.

I am going through my fabric stash and pulling smaller pieces.  The ones below were made from a strip that was a little larger than 2 1/2 inches.  My hexi's are 1 inch along each side.

These are good because I won't need to be at a cutting table or ironing board.  I also won't have to sit up to a sewing machine since I make them by hand.  The above ones are basted but not sewn together yet as I am not sure how I want to put it together.  If I make enough I will do a Grandmother's flower garden quilt.  If not, I will use them as applique flowers on another quilt.

I used plastic reusable forms to get the shape.

Christmas Table Runner

A fast and easy Christmas table runner made several years ago from just 2 fabrics plus a backing.

I donated it to a fundraising auction for the Intermediate School I worked at.

Random Roses

Took two classes on Thursday from Karen Eckmeier.  

She taught us how to make random roses:

This is my first rose.

Here are two roses auditioning on a green fabric for leaf background.

4 roses completed

Student tiger attic window

My school's mascot was a tiger, so students in my homeroom made blocks to show tigers.

I put them in attic windows and filled in 8 squares with fussy cut tigers 

since I had only 27 students in my homeroom.

Of course if you quilt with cats, they always check out your work and give their opinion.

Tibetan Spaniel lap quilt.

Tibetan Spaniel lap quilt, that is still a UFO.  I have the top completed, just not quilted yet...

Love this fabric and in my mind it looks very Tibetan.

This is where a design wall would come in handy.

English Language Learners' Culture quilt

My colleagues and I would hold a week long orientation for students new to 

this country and new to our school the week before school would start.

We would stress that everyone was unique and had their own cultural background.

We handed them squares of muslin and asked them to draw something that was a part of their culture.

They picked the already cut strips the color that they wanted to frame 

their square and then they hand stitched it on!  The boys were a little unsure of this

activity, but all of them tried it to differing levels of success.

 I ended up machine stitching over several of their seams, 

but most did a good job and needed no reinforcement.

This quilt hung in my classroom for about 4 years.

Little Red Riding Hood and apron

 My granddaughter is going trick or treating as Little Red Riding Hood.
My daughter asked if I would sew a white apron and a red cape.  Here is the apron.

The cape:

Hanging with the dress underneath...

She will be carrying a basket with a red checked cloth inside.

Batman's arm got in the way, but this photo shows how the cape drapes.

Student book quilt

Students at Sudlow made quilt blocks showing books they had read.

I made the block in the top left corner and they made the rest.

Students used fabric crayons and then I ironed them.

Since this quilt I have gone to fabric markers, they are brighter.

It hung in the school hallway for a year or two.

attic window dog raffle quilt

Dog quilt for raffle at our annual akc dog show.

I like attic windows although I cheat on the corners and use a half square triangle...

Added some hearts to stretch my dog print fabric.

 

No, I don't like the bone heart in the middle of my dog print windows, 

let's put them at the corners.

I pieced the back to stretch the fabric I had planned on using and 

to use up the extra heart block that is in the middle.

I really liked the back of this quilt!  

Bird Log Cabin

I found a wonderful fall bird print and wanted to make a quilt using fall colors.

I love log cabins so that was an easy choice, I just fussy cut the centers to include a bird or two.

The problem was figuring out what design I wanted to use in putting it all together.

Not liking the alternating block border, will try something different.

Decided I did not like this border, it was too bland.

The border is much better!

Here is the design I decided on and the border I decided to use.

dog club raffle lap quilt

I wanted to make a dog fabric raffle quilt for our dog club out of fabrics I already had on hand.

College family reunion auction quilt

My challenge to myself was to make a quilt to auction off at a family reunion.

My plan was to use college fabrics from Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas.

I had to design a block that would be good for the women as well as the men.  Sports fans as well as just quilt fans.

Using black as a background made the colors pop.

The floral fabric worked into the blocks and border had the reds, oranges, and golds that I needed to compliment the college colors.

                                 

I made it a lap sized quilt.

flannel rag quilt

The fringed side of a flannel "rag quilt."

A great way to use up scrap batting.  Each block is made separately then sewed together.

One side is a rag look and the other is smooth.

These photos don't really show the true colors of the green it is more the color of the photo above.

Hint:  cut the fringing with every few blocks you sew together and use a 

VERY sharp scissor that springs back after cutting.