What can I say about this quilt!! It is so great. My customer does wonderful piecing (I quilted 3 of her Tshirt quilts). Each of these mermaid blocks was made by the paper piecing technique. Some say you either love this technique or hate it. Haha, I hope people learn to love it because it makes complex blocks, that would be difficult to make without paper piecing. And her embroidery on the faces is just precious.

We decided that just wavy lines across the top would be ok to show the “water” in which the Mermaids swim! I used monopoly thread and a wavy ruler to make the random wavy from side o side. In the top and bottom corners of the border, I free motioned a few shells. Just a bit of a surprise to show another item in their home.!!

I forgot to take a picture when this quilt was done !!:( I tried to edit out my messy studio :) Here it is as I was loading onto my longarm. I have said before that “this is the largest quilt I’ve done”. Now I think that THIS is the largest I have done! A wonderful winter panel surrounded by borders of great winter colors and pieced blocks. This top was custom quilted using monopoly and matching threads using free motion thread painting on the panel, rulers on the borders. When done, this was a heavy quilt. Just imagine how cozy it feels on the bed during these cold winter nights. What a great gift this customer was giving her friends.

The pantograph for this pretty pinwheel quilt looks like winds swirling around, just perfect to give movement texture. This quilt top was made by one of my past Roanoke friends. (She is still my friend!!) On trips to Charlottesville, Richmond and Williamsburg, she will drop off a top. This time I was able to get it back to her when her grandson was making his way back to VA Tech. I passed it along in a McDonalds parking lot :)

A grandmother and grandfather bonded together with their grandson through playing cards :) This great top was pieced so well and absolutely looks like it is for a young man - who also loves to golf. The novelty fabrics, the plaids and shirting fabrics are just perfect. I found an edge to edge pantograph for playing cards, with diamonds, spades, hearts and clubs connected with loops. I know the grandson love it :)

Sometimes it takes a group of ladies to make a very warm and pretty quilt. The sewing ministry of our church wanted to show our new pastor how happy we are to have him by making a quilt for him to give his mother as he is visiting his family over seas. An elderly qilter made a wonderful top. I quilted a large rose edge to edge design for her. Other members made binding and sewed it on. Our great leader presented the finished quilt to him before he went on vacation. It was her idea to do this. Thank you, Judy :)

Here is a project that was truly a group effort. The Sew and Sews ministry from our church wanted to make a quilt for our pastor who was moving on to another area and church. There was no pattern but just a wonderful vision of these ladies. I helped a bit with the paper piecing, others did lots of cutting, sewing, binding. I did the quilting. Lots of stitch in the ditch :) Shams, pillowcases and pillows were also made. We appreciate our pastor!

This quilt is one of the prettiest that I have ever worked on. The fabrics were so soft and the colors were so very pretty. It was about the size of a double bed. This “feathers” pantograph gives so much texture. It looks so classic but has a modern twist just like this log cabin layout with a center medallion. I really did like working on this quilt. :)

This is the second quilt top that was pieced by my same customer that pieced the above quilt that I loved so much. So, this quilt is a “family member” of that quilt - using the same cream, mint, and salmon colors. The block design is simple but the colors and great work really makes this quilt amazing. The yellow paisley fabric is just such a sunshine pop when the quilt is turned over. I quilted a pansy edge to edge design. It’s hard to see but it is a sweet design for a beautiful quilt.

This customer brought me 3 very well made t-shirt quilt tops from a special daughter’s shirts. The top row below shows the 3 quits. I used monopoly thread on top to stitch around each shirt and then quilted around most of the pictures to give definition and quilted different background designs that I think went along with the type of shirt. Each backing was the same - a very pretty dark blue, navy, dark turquoise mottled fabric. I used thread to match the fabric. I will also post these pictures on my T-shirt quilt page.

This is another quilt from my Roanoke friend. Occasionally they drive up to Charlottesville and drop off a finished top. This is a great monochromatic design and palette. I think this swirl pantograph gave the straight lines lots of texture.

Here is a sweet quilt I just finished for a friend from Roanoke. It is nice to see past friends when they stop off to drop off tops on their way to Richmond or other places north. It will be a gift for her son and daughter-in-law. But the lilacs and purples just said “you need to quilt the pansy design” in lilac thread. I think it turned out just right.

Here are two quilts that I recently finished for my quilting friend that lives in Williamsburg. She does such precise work, whether piecing or her specialty, hand applique. It is always a joy to work on her quilt tops. She and he husband are moving into a just built “apartment” built onto her daughter’s family house. How great these will look in their new space :)

Have you ever heard of the Gee’s Bends Quilts?

Many years ago, I saw an exhibition of Gee’s Bends Quilts in Washington, DC. I had not heard of the quilts at that time. But the utilitarian nature and the fact that they were made with “recycled” fabrics - old clothes, blankets, feed sacks, any bit of cloth that was useable if holes and worn areas were cut away - spoke to me. After that time, I did some research on the quilts and from time to time would read an article about them in a quilt magazine or online. Even though I loved the history and workmanship of the quilts, I never thought about trying to made a similar quilt. And then I had the opportunity!…..

For those of you who would like to find out about the Gee’s Bend quilts, here are two web sites. I’ve copied a bit of info from each site. Please go to these sites and read more of the history of these quits and the artists who make them.

https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers

GEE’S BEND

The residents of Gee’s Bend, Alabama are direct descendants of the enslaved people who worked the cotton plantation established in 1816 by Joseph Gee. After the Civil War, their ancestors remained on the plantation working as sharecroppers. In the 1930s the price of cotton fell and the community faced ruin. As part of its Depression-era intervention, the Federal Government purchased ten thousand acres of the former plantation and provided loans enabling residents to acquire and farm the land formerly worked by their ancestors. Unlike the residents of other tenant com­munities, who could be forced by economic circumstances to move—or who were sometimes evicted in retaliation for their efforts to achieve civil rights—the people of the Bend could retain their land and homes. Cultural tradi­tions like quiltmaking were nourished by these continuities.

https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2015/quilts-gees-bend-slideshow

When enslaved women from the rural, isolated community of Boykin, Alabama—better known as Gee’s Bend—began quilting in the 19th century, it arose from a physical need for warmth rather than a quest to reinvent an art form. Yet by piecing together scraps of fabric and clothing, they were creating abstract designs that had never before been expressed on quilts.

These patterns and piecing styles were passed down over generations, surviving slavery, the antebellum South, and Jim Crow. During the Civil Rights movement in 1966, the Freedom Quilting Bee was established as a way for African-American women from Gee’s Bend and nearby Rehoboth to gain economic independence. The Bee cooperative began to sell quilts throughout the U.S., gaining recognition for the free-form, seemingly improvisational designs that had long been the hallmark of local quilt design. As awareness grew, so did acclaim, and the quilts entered the lexicon of homegrown American art.

Now for my story! Early this year, I was contacted by a customer who wanted to know if I was interested in making and quilting a rendition of a Gee’s Bend quilt. She had purchased the Gee's Bend Lazy Gal Variation Quilt pattern from a shop on Etsy. Having decided that this could be done, we corresponded via email and texts, met at a quilt shop between the two of us for fabric selections, and scoured the internet for fabric that was out of stock locally. She modified the pattern to fit her bed and supplied me with a spread sheet :). She came down to my home twice (nearly an hour’s trip) to decide on quilting designs and thread, bring me supplies. After cutting out and sewing the quilt top, I quilted it with her chosen center pantograph design and straight line quilting along the 4 edge asymmetrical borders. After binding, the Gee’s Bend quilt was done. I designed two pillow shams, based on the Lazy Gal pattern and sewed them with zipper enclosures on the back (a first for me :). After many months, the set is now complete. My customer is an artist. She must love color and the simplicity of the design. She says that above the bed where it will lay, she has an art installation that contains these colors. I am anxious to see this quilt and shams on her bed. Thank you, Diane, for asking me to make this set for you. Sorry it took so many months!:)

The following quilt top is just so sweet. A large top, it had 42 appliqued hearts - some having piping and lace - and many “plain” blocks - all on point. Each seam was stitched in the ditch as well as each heart and border. The background of each mint heart block got a small free hand paisley design and I used several small designs in each heart. Because the printed fabric had small rose buds and ribbons, I choose to do a random ribbon design on each of those blocks. Along the outside mint green border, I free hand quilted a simple vine heart. The backing was the very pretty rose bud and ribbon print. I was asked to do the binding too, so my customer received a completed quilt. This is going to be a gift. What a wonderful gift.

This quilt had cute jungle animal blocks with solid color blocks randomly spaced. So I quilted a large meander in the body of the quilt and then a “jungle grass” design along the four edges to form a type of frame - to keep all those jungle animals inside!

Here is a quilt that reminds me of sherbet! I love the orange colors in this quilt although that color has never been my first choice! This customer loves color and this quilt top has it. Look at the backing! She also included a table runner - a great idea if you have extra fabric, backing and batting. I can load the runner just below the top when I am finished quilting it. When the longarm is unloaded, the runner is just cut away from the larger top.

This is a beautiful small throw size quilt that my customer is going to give to her great grand daughter. The colors of blues and teals with the white background with small grey flowers are just very striking. The little girl’s mother says she is going to save it for her and bring out when she is a little older. We chose the design “Roses and Leaf” for this little girl. I use this panto design quite often as it always quilts out very well for a quilt going to a girl. I chose So Fine 50 thread in a light grey. The design does not overshadow the piecing but adds texture to the front and you get a peak of the design as it travels over the darker blocks.

Today, a customer came to pick up one of the largest quilts I’ve ever longarmed. The pictures show it on my queen sized bed. It’s puddling on the floor on both sides of the bed! There is lots of “cuddle room” to keep warm under on these really cold January nights. The pantograph is called Touchdown and I added Seeing Stars :)

She is learning to quilt and doing a good job on big projects! A few months ago, I quilted one of her’s just like this except it was a bit smaller. She sent it off as a gift. This King sized quilt she is keeping. Go West Virginia University!!

This second quilt job of the new year was just an amazing fun quilt top to work on. I’ve had it since Oct 2021 since this is a good customer from Roanoke - “down the road a bit” :). I thought alot about this top over the months. My plan was to use ruler work with lots of straight lines radiating out from the “star burst” and lots of individual geometrics in the diamonds and triangles. Then I saw this pantograph. I saw so many things in it - crazy “cat tails”, balls, balls of yarn, the berries on the center circle of fabric with the cats….. It just screamed fun to me which fit perfectly with all the Tula Pink fabrics. It even mimics (?) the backing large olive circles. And of course those random swallows on the back are just precious. My customer has not seen this finished quilt yet. One of these days I will deliver to Roanoke. Do you think she will be satisfied??

January 3, 2022

This is the first quilt finished this year - 2022. I loaded and started quilting after Christmas but just now getting done so it is the first:)

There are 36 white squares on this wonderful tropical background of 2 1/2 inch squares. The last picture shows the backing - absolutely scrumptious blue cabbages with clusters of green flowers and vegetables!

Doesn’t the top just remind you of a tropical white sands beach?? I free motioned 4 large tropical looking flowers in the white squares. Then started at the first and repeated the 4 so that the flowers would be in different places in the columns. In the “sashing” between the squares I ruler worked trellises. On the inner tropical border, I quilted a leafy vine while on the narrow white border, I quilted a continuous Touching leaf pattern using a round ruler. The outer border is done simply in a beadboard pattern to simulate a simple fence surrounding such a rain-forest garden. I hope my customer likes it!