Trendy Nails Quilt

There's a nail salon at the Garden Market in Western Springs that I frequent. Patti is the owner/manager - she and her family are charming people. This salon has a facial room which Patti has just redecorated, and this quilt was made for that room. Getting a facial is relaxing. This quilt is meant to help that process and soothe the soul. The pattern is the "Trip Around the World" referred to in a previous post. Click on the quilt to see the detail of these beautiful fabrics. 50" x 70"

YIKES! My Parents Have Been Married 60 Years!

Although their actual anniversary was yesterday, today they are taking the entire family to The Barn in Burbank, IL, for dinner. Even niece Jen is flying in from NYC. And this is their treat. What a far cry from childhood days when we'd go to a restaurant after church and get a limit on what we could order ($.99 was the limit for many years, excluding the drink). They have also listed their house and are preparing for a move into an Active Senior community. Hard to imagine 60 years of marriage... Here they are in Springfield, looking at Dad's brick in the World War II Memorial.

Trips Around the World

The first quilt pattern I ever did was Eleanor Burns's Trip Around the World. I love that design and made over 40 of them in my early years of quilting. Neighbor Cristina wants to teach her friend Catya to quilt, and I suggested that they both do a "Trip Around the World." Although Cris has made several quilts, she's never done this pattern. Cris and Catya chose their 6 fabrics, ranging from light to dark. This design is a variation of the Amish Sunshine and Shadow pattern.

Look at the web site Gallery for an album of quilts featuring this design. The fabric choices of Cristina and Catya inspired me, and I am going to do a "Trip" along with them. So is Chris H. Here are our fabrics. First, Cristina's, then Catya's, then mine, and then Chris H's.

Geezer Trip to Springfield

Monday, June 30, my parents and the Sheehan grandsons drove to Springfield with John and me. On the way down and back we listened to Garrison Keilor's Joke CD's, which truly does entertain ages 9 (Brandon) to 83 (my dad). This trip was Ryan's request - we did this 2 years ago, and this time Brandon came with us. Visiting the Springfield Cemetery was Monday afternoon's highlight. For the 2nd time we found the memorial brick that my siblings and I got for Dad. After visiting the WWII Memorial, the VietNam Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and Lincoln's Tomb, we also found the Accordion gravestone belonging to Roy Bertelli. The highlight of Tuesday was the visit to the Lincoln Museum, a place that enchanted all 6 of us for almost 2 hours. Click on the posted pictures to see some of the detail.

Molly's Quilt

Niece Molly has moved to South Carolina. For the first time ever John and I travelled there with Molly's parents for Thanksgiving last November. Molly and Mark hosted the dinner and fried a turkey and were wonderful hosts. We had a ball. This quilt is from fabrics that Molly chose that weekend when we went shopping. The design is mine. It's whimsical and colorful. And it only took 7 months. See the May 1, 2008 entry for some of the struggling involved. 94" by 114" (This doesn't bode well for niece Jennifer's Quilt - she's getting married in 7 weeks...)

Honoring Corinne's Mom

Friend Corinne's mom, Irene Pleto, died last December. She was the same age as my mom is. Corinne brought over her mom's sweatshirts and t-shirts, and we decided to do 2 quilts - one for Corinne and one for her sister Dena. Cor chose the layout, and the result (only one is finished) is a colorful quilt that gently prods fond memories of various trips and events.

Chris's June Project

John's sister Chris teaches at Hinsdale Central. She celebrated the end of her school year by doing a wall hanging for the second floor of her home. This 39" by 76" quilt hangs nicely, and the colors of these fabrics highlight the Carribbean paint colors throughout the house. She was pleased with the results, and I'm amazed at how others can take fabrics from my stash and do such interesting things with them!

The Isherwood Hockey Quilt - and a few other things

Michelle Isherwood is one cagy mom. She gave me her son Anthony's hockey jerseys almost a year ago in preparation for his 18th birthday this month. For some of the jerseys she bought duplicates so that her son wouldn't miss the jerseys she gave me. This quilt is 70" x 90" and - I think - very handsome. The border colors are his Montini HS school colors. Click on the quilt to see some of the details of Anthony's jerseys.

Michelle has a younger son Adam, and she's begun saving his t-shirts. I'm thankful her younger son isn't a hockey player. Hockey jerseys make for very heavy quilts. This quilt only took about 30 hours, but I couldn't work on it for much more than 2 hours at a time. This one will make the next t-shirt quilt seem like a snap.

Hard to believe it's Friday, June 13th. Lots of fun White celebrations are coming up - my mom's 80th, my dad's 83rd, my parents' 60th anniversary, Jen Thompson's shower, and Jen's wedding August 30. Currently there are 3 "life celebration" quilts in my studio. Niece's Molly's Housewarming quilt and Jen Thompson's wedding quilt are providing a nice balance to these 3 sad commissions.

A word about Jen's wedding quilt. She and Tim are having a hard time deciding on a color palate. There's a previous post with a stack of fabrics that are being considered. The answer is - and this is genius I must admit - a reversible quilt. Tim knows he wants blues, navy, and neutrals on one side. Jen wants greens, blues and neutrals for the other. I recently met Tim when my sister Paula and I went to Manhattan to see Jen in a dance gala (is she ever terrific!). I've wondered what kind of man could measure up to Jen. Tim is great - handsome, nice, smart, generous. Now I'm really psyched about their quilt!

The Quilter's Husband

My husband John? No. Check out this web site -Quilter's Husband.

One of the great pieces of equipment I have is a standing table. When I'm cutting or pin-basting a quilt, standing is necessary for leverage and mobility. In fact, it's such a necessary piece of equpment that I could almost use another. But then I could almost use another sewing/sitting surface. What to do? My studio is huge - really, it's 22'x 25'. The answer to my problem is The Quilter's Husband. At this website I found pieces of pre-cut PVC pipe adapted to raise the church-type banquet table from the standard 29" to 36".


The current project is a quilt made from hockey jerseys, some of which are so heavily embroidered that they don't even bend. Still, these jerseys are the basis for a quilt, which must like all quilts be quilted. That means basting together the top layer of the jerseys, the middle batting layer, and the bottom layer of muslin. The two 5' banquet tables with their wonderful additional legs gave me a 10' by 3' standing surface, idea for all the pin basting this quilt needs.

These three layers have created a piece that is fairly heavy. So, off come the legs from one of the table, and it can now be placed in L-fashion to my sewing table. Now it can support the weight of the quilt as I begin to work on it.

Paying attention to the ergonomics of quilting is important. And these little PVC legs are fabulous!

I'm Stuck

Sometimes I get stuck. And I'm stuck on niece Molly's quilt. Her palette is not a comfortable one for me - corals and greens. We went shopping in November, and Molly chose many of her fabrics. I filled in with some from my stash. Look at the March 31 entry. After three months of thinking, I decided to use this fairly complex block that is a 4-patch. Two of the four patches are fence rails, one patch is a 9-patch, and the final patch is one of 2 focal fabrics Molly chose. And I originally thought I would join these blocks with a dark green sashing, as illustrated in the 3/31 entry.

But as I started cranking out these blocks, the dark green sashing fell from favor. And I've begun to experiment with layouts that don't use sashing. This first one staggers the blocks. The second one groups the 9-patches of 4 blocks to create a rather busy secondary pattern. I think I'm leaning towards the first option with the staggered rows. I'll just keep the blocks on my design wall - er, floor - and keep playing for another few days. The hockey quilt will keep me busy enough.

Also check out this picture of the amaryllis. John's sister Terry gave us this in early December, and it is now on its FOURTH set of blossoms. I think it must be very happy in the studio.