T-shirt Quilts and Model Blocks

It's so hard to get back into the swing of things after being out of town. One project that's ready to sew together is a quilt of big half-square triangles, and there's a second one in the making. Both of these are from the shirts of Corinne's mother, and these quilts are for Corinne and her sister. I'll get this off the design floor today and then begin laying out the hockey jerseys.






Another quilt from shirts is for Bridgett Toma - she wants this for her aunt as well as two baby quilts out of the leftovers. Here's a tentative layout of the shirts.












Niece Molly has chosen fabrics for her bed quilt. I'm struggling with the design. Here's something very tentative.

Ok, get busy, Quilter Girl! No more delay tactics.

The Dardenelles with Pearl and Varsha

Ok, ok, - I know this isn't about quilting. We met these darling young women on the bus from the Istanbul Airport to our Oran Hotel. Even though they weren't on our tour bus, we had several opportunities to run into Pearl (right) and Varsha during our two-week visit. The second day of our trip we drove west out of Istanbul along the Marmara Sea towards Gallipoli and used a ferry to cross the Dardanelles to get to the mainland, the Asian part of Turkey. Behind the girls is the European part of the country. We always meet the nicest people on our travels! (One fascinating fact I learned on the trip was the connection between the words Gallipoli and Portugal. At one point both ends of the Mediterranean were controlled by the Gauls, as these names indicate!)

Turkey and Lambs

No quilting for me today and tomorrow. We came back from our 2-week Turkey trip, and my jet-lagged brain is still in Istanbul with some of the lovely people we traveled with. We are especially missing our guide Orhan. Our immersion into Turkish culture was wonderful, and we were sorry to see the trip come to an end. But now it's time for my yearly Easter tribute to John's mom. She baked lamb cakes for her grandchildren and passed on her recipe and one of her lamb pans to me. So now I bake lamb cakes for the grandchildren - we'll deliver the kits tomorrow. Along with the lamb cake is vanilla frosting, coconut dyed green, some jelly beans for the eyes and nose, and - as you can see - we haven't found a good way to do the mouth. This tradition is a wonderful way to remember Sophie Moscinski.

Hi Ho Hi Ho, It's...

off to Turkey we go! John and I have done some remarkable things in the past three years - our Central Europe trip, the cruise around the Horn of South America, the week in Beijing. Now we're flying to Istanbul and touring the western half of the country, including Ankara, Konya, Izmir, Ephesus, and Canakkale. I've already outlined the work to be done once I return home. The Hockey Jersey Quilt for Michelle's son and 2 memorial quilts for Corinne from some of her mom's shirts are at the top of the list. Niece Molly's quilt is also ready to start - I have all the fabrics but haven't decided upon a design. And today Bridgett Toma dropped off some shirts of her mother's - she wants a quilt for her aunt.

Bridgett and her sister Sheila were the first ones I ever did memorial quilts for. Pictured here is Sheila's quilt. Sheila is a teacher at Kennedy, and her mother who was younger than me died quite suddenly in the fall of 2004. Sheila gave me their mother's t-shirts and sweatshirts to be made into quilts. Along with all the shirts was a bag of flannel pj bottoms. At the time Bridgett was pregnant with her first child, so I made two baby quilts from the shirts and flannel bottoms.

Sheila had no idea the path her quilt request would lead me on. Since then I have done over a dozen "memorial" quilts . I think the deaths of my cousin Jim White, Joe Keeley, Fred Snively, my uncle Leonard White, Dodie Wallace. And I marvel at how therapeutic quilting has been for me.

So we're off to Turkey. Perhaps I'll find some inspiration for future projects! Be back March 20, just in time for the World Figure Skating telecasts! What a geek - quilting and skating...

Black History Tribute via Valentine's Day

My husband, aka Mr. Jazz, requested yet another wall hanging made from some of his tastiest new jazz t-shirts. I'm passing this off as his Valentine's Day present (yes, I know it's late). It's beautiful, isn't it? John has named this quilt Some of the Great Ones. Mr. Jimmy Heath in the upper left corner is someone I've actually met on jazz cruises - he's a gentle man with a charming sense of humor who makes fabulous music. The Dizzy shirt in the lower left is clever. The inner border takes its cue from the Duke Ellington shirt, and the Count Basie shirt inspired the outer border. Click on this picture to see some of the fabulous detail in the shirts and borders. Our front hall has dark paneling, but this wall hanging brightens up the room quite a bit. 36" x 52"

The Freedom to Experiment

I love having a variety of projects to work on. And then the project that's calling the loudest gets attention. For Sunday's Reversible Workshop, I had to put together examples of quilted borders ready to be added to a quilt - I used my hand-sewn tumbling blocks piece. Which meant I put aside the scrap reversible, which was my original demo for this class. But first I wanted to do John's request for a Jazz T-Shirt Wall Hanging and even pass it off as a Valentine's present. So I've been balancing these projects along with an experimental pillow to go with Cecilia's bed quilt. This is 14" x 14".

I just love the red accent fabric Cecilia chose for her quilt - it's a rich mottled batik. The 1/2" pleats sewn in rows of opposing direction create a pretty interesting texture. This pillow is a symbol of my reinventing wheels. Someone has invented the rules for this technique - I just need to find them. But meanwhile, I do think this is pretty nifty.

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.

Scraps and Modeling and Reversible Quilting

Just like with teaching literature, I want to keep things fresh. And I find the best way to do that is to model what I am teaching. It worked well with research papers, and it works well for quilting. So, I needed to create a new reversible project. Working on the quilts for Dodie's grandchildren made me realize how many fabulous scraps I have and that my scrap piles are getting out of hand. Since so many of my scraps are in strips, foundation string piecing seemed the way to go. The back of the quilt is big half-square triangles of beiges and browns/rusts.

Using scraps makes me feel like I'm honoring the spirit of quilting. And so many of my scrap pieces jog memories of past projects.

Will's Grandma Dodie Quilt

Dodie had so much to say about her first grandson Will. He was her heart -until little brother Charlie was born. My first grandson is several years older than Will, and I freely confided my love for Ryan to Dodie. When Will was born, Dodie reminded me of how much listening time I owed her. No one can understand the intensity of the "crush" or the love for a grandchild except another grandparent. So I listened patiently and willingly as Dodie went on and on and on and on about Will. Various greens surround each of the 42 squares from his Grandma Dodie's nightgown. These greens are all "boy" - not a sissy green in the bunch. The back is a grey-green fabric that looks like weird little soccer balls. I hope each time Will uses it that he feels a connection to his Grandma Dodie.

I thought that I had finished my grief quilting for Dodie after making quilts for her daughers Virginia and Mani. But working on these past three quilts has given me some additonal comfort. I thought that when Dodie died, our friendship was over. But the mother of Will, Charlie, and Meritt - Mani - thanked me for continuing to be a friend to Dodie. And Mani's right. The friendship continues.

Meritt's Grandma Dodie Quilt

Little Miss Ann Meritt Reed is almost 2 years old. Dodie had the joy of knowing her granddaughter and had hoped to live long enough to see Meritt's first steps. But that didn't happen. Mani will make sure that her daughter remembers her Grandma Dodie, and this quilt from Dodie's nightgown will help.

The pinks in this quilt are from various projects over the years, including one scrap from a quilt that my neighbor hs junior Cristina did (look at the bottom right corner, and there are 3 more like it). It's appropriate that Cristina be represented in this Dodie quilt for Meritt. In the months leading to Dodie's death, Cristina was accumulating her behind-the-wheel hours in my car. I used Cris as a sounding board and shared some very serious life thoughts with her. Ah, the circle of life...