And so ends 2022…

This year was such a good one in the studio.  The Fika Tote by Noodlehead is my current bag crush.  This one is my third, and I have two more planned.  We aren't traveling much these days, so I have to find people to gift these bags to.  So far my sister and Cristina are the lucky one.  This bag to the left?  It doesn't have an owner.  Yet.  What is so special about this bag is the use of some bits of Yoshiko Jinzenji fabric. I'm awaiting the arrival of small additional red fabric with Kanji writing for the next bag.  

My current project is to work my way through my ever-growing pile of scraps.  Here are my purples and teals.  Below are strips made from blues and violets. Although there's a thin line between purples and violets and I cross it all the time.  To keep from getting bored, I think I'll tackle reds next.  Or perhaps oranges.  My goal is to make long strips of scraps and join them together with some leftover neutrals.  We'll see...

Occasionally I have projects that I don't care to do.  This one to the left is one of them.  It's a quilt top made in the late 1930's or early 1940's that was never finished.  The appliquéd butterflied and basket in the middle represent a  lot of handwork.  A LOT.  And somehow this top was folded up and boxed.  It took over 2 hours of pressing just to get the top smooth.  And these fabrics are old and thin.  It's been batted with wood and a Kona cotton backing.  There's machine quilting in the sashing.  And there's hand quilting around each butterfly and the floral basket in the middle.  While the quilt now is absolutely useable, it's still something I would not recommend washing.  You know that musty smell that old fabrics get?  This quilt top did not and does not have that.  I think the owner, the maker's granddaughter, will be pleased. This quilt top is now waiting for its label and then a trip to Atlanta to February for delivery.  While I wasn't particularly happy working on this quilt, I recognized that this quilt deserved to be finished.  Best of all, this restoration/completion was a paying job.  I think I may have to go fabric shopping!  

But now on to the fun stuff!  This quilt belongs to a guild buddy, and I volunteered to hand quit it for her.  Unlike the appliquéd butterfly quilt which weighed 7 pounds and was a beast to keep repositioning, This is a much smaller quilt and - imho - so much more beautiful. 

These dark days of winter are so perfect for hand quilting.  The process takes me back 8 years when my mom died and how soothing I found the hand quilting process after her death.   The same is true for me today.  And I'm eager to finish this quilt because I have one of my own in queue for hand quilting.  More on that in January.

Almost daily John or I will remark how the move to our condo has been such a good one.  We are thrilled with our space and where we live.  There's a long hallway leading to our front door, and currently no one lives across from us.  So I have started to look at this hallway as quilt-hanging opportunities.   And coincidentally both of these quilts involve my niece Leslie.  The small one at the end is made from leftovers of her high school graduation quilt.  And the big one will be going to her shortly.  She and her boyfriend are engaged, and they have selected this quilt at their wedding present.  

There is going to be great sadness in 2023 but there will also be great joy.  I'm so thankful for my studio and what happens here. 

For Cute Little Girls

My niece Laura has three very cute little girls - Amelia, Olive, and Elle. I don't see these girls often, but tomorrow we are celebrating my dad's 85th birthday on June 24, my mom's 82nd birthday on June 21, and Laura's 25th birthday on June 22nd. I've made them little bags before, and I'm sure I'll make them little bags again. These three little girlie bags are what I'm giving the girls tomorrow. Great-uncle John will fill them with some little goodies. Fun, fun, fun!

My Niece, Altruism, Scraps and a Reversible Quilt

When my brothers' daughters were little, they were part of Camp Quilt for three summers. My mother and their mothers would pitch in, as would Uncle John, and the result was that Laura, Candace, Leslie, and Ali all made quilts, pretty much by themselves. Of course the Good Quilting Fairy was a part of this process. The first summer each girl kept their quilts. The second and third summers I suggested that they make quilts for the church nursery or someone else. My recollection is that they didn't (maybe Candace gave one to her Grandma Miller and maybe Ali gave one to a friend) and that there was eye-rolling at the suggestion. The winter of my niece Leslie's senior year of high school, she asked if she could make a quilt for a friend of hers who was going away. Aha! She above all got it: that quilts were meant to be given away. (Leslie also enlisted my help in making her parents a Christmas photo quilt but that's a separate blog entry).

So when Leslie was her working on her 4th quilt, we decided it was time she learned how to use the rotary cutter. My teaching style is to give some basic directions and then try not to hover. Leslie had her fabrics, knew what to do, and was just cutting away. She asked at one part, pretty far into the process, "Should I be starting at the 0 instead of the 1?" She had cut quite a bit of fabric 1" short. I remember scooping up the miscut pieces and telling Les it was no big deal, and she continued her cutting, this time using the correct measurements by starting at 0.
I saved these scrap pieces, and they became part of a demonstration in foundation piecing for a reversible quilt class that I was teaching. The quilt pictured here has 48 blocks. One side's blocks are all half-square triangles using fabrics from Leslie's quilts. The other side are scrap strips from various projects. Look at the February 6, 2008 blog entry when the body of this quilt was originally done. It's just been sitting, waiting to be completed.

My friend Cathy is on the committee to find a suitable going-away present for her long-time minister Laura at the Downers Grove United Church of Christ and asked if I had any quilts just hanging around. Cathy spotted this scrap quilt. So I finished it, giving a bit of unity by using the same border on the front and the back. Even the binding uses scraps of bindings from various quilts. Reverend Laura is a wonderful woman who has a great ability to bring various personalities together into a unified whole. This quilt is symbolic in some ways of Laura's talent and ministry. That this quilt started with my niece Leslie's altruism makes it even more special. 58" x 74"

For Baby Elle

Who isn't even born yet - she's still incubating in Laura's tummy. But when she comes out, sisters Amelia and Olive will be there with their quilts and this quilt to welcome her. (Not to mention her grandfather and grandmother, Poppa Doug and Memaw Kim!)

"The Quilter's Eye" runs in the family

Cassidy Horvath, a 7th grader, made her first quilt this fall. She and Grandma Terry did a great job of incorporating big pieces of Cass's feature fabric into a traditional Fence Rail pattern. Since Em did her 2nd quilt, does that mean cousin Cassidy's 2nd quilt is in the thinking stages?

A Great Aunt's Quilts

My brother Doug is soon to be a grandfather for the 2nd time. His daughter Laura's 2nd daughter is due March 17. When Amelia was born two years ago, I had to make her a quilt, despite having a grandmother Kim who quilts. So of course this second baby must have her own quilt from Great Aunt Donna.



Amelia's quilt was yellows, purple, and greens - little fishes swimming in opposite directions. New Baby's quilt is the same colors, in fact some of the same fabrics, but in a much bolder basket-weave pattern.

Nieces and Nephews and HS Graduation Quilts

When Chris Thompson graduated from St. Joseph, MI, high school in 2000, he knew he was going to the University of Michigan. So for his graduation I made him a quilt of Wolverine Blue and Gold. And then it dawned on me: I started a tradition that must be followed for the remaining kids. Jennifer Thompson graduated from the same high school in 2002 - her quilt was a lovely blue and yellow with an appliqued dancer in one corner. Then Laura White and Candace White both decided to go to the U of I after their hs graduation in 2003. The girls had matching orange and blue quilts using an "attic window pattern." Leslie White graduated from Richards in 2005, and Ali White is graduating this May.

For Leslie's quilt I tried a technique new to me that involved creating fabric from strips of 17 other fabrics and using curved templates. The colors and fabrics in Leslie's quilt were ones that spoke to me, and the design is subtle and rich.

Ali's quilt is the same pattern using the curved templates. The use of sashing strips and corner stones give this quilt a much different look. Her quilt is Burgundies and Golds and bright and curvy and in-your-face, a bit like Ali in some ways.

These quilts contain all the possibilities of the future. When I sew I naturally think about the recipient. My thoughts become a prayer and a blessing for having such interesting siblings who have such interesting kids. Ali's a bright girl who doesn't know what she wants to do. I hope she reaches for the stars. She'll figure things out.