The first memory quilt (SewingBAG)

This was the first "memory quilt" that I made. A client approached me with the idea - it was made of his dad's old clothing as a memento for his mom after his dad passed away. Incorporated into the grid of 6" (?) squares of clothing were five 12" denim squares, each embroidered with the names of their children and grandchildren and framed with the red plaid that we chose to visually tie the quilt together and also to use for the backing (wrapped around for the binding as well.)

This quilt was machine pieced, hand tied with red yarn, and used polyester batting (8oz?).

Flannel and t-shirt memory quilt (SewingBAG)

 This is one of many "memory" quilts I made for clients of my sewing business. This particular one is a combination of college and high school t-shirts and a collection of flannel pajamas that the recipient's grandmother had gotten for all of the grandkids for Christmas every year. We pulled in some of the flannel pajamas onto the quilt top to make enough material, and also used some of the solid parts of the t-shirts to do the same (and to unify the color scheme - the green is a good example of this - I also used the green as my inspiration for the cotton fabric I bias cut for the binding.)

This was machine pieced, hand tied with polyester batting - probably an 8 oz weight. The back of the quilt (top photo) was a new adventure for me, piecing together all of the random bits and fitting them to make a correctly-sized rectangle.

Owen's quilt

This was the quilt Matt and I made for our first born child, before we knew who we were expecting (boy or girl). We liked the color combination, thinking it would go nicely with the yellow in the bedrooms upstairs, and although the purple/blue was maybe a hint feminine, we thought it tended blue enough that it could go either way. We were especially delighted with the fabric we found for the border - the same blue-purple, but with tiny kitty paw prints all over it.

I took these photos of the set of three quilts after finishing Leah's the summer after Reuben was born. Owen, in the photo above next to his quilt, is five years old when the photo was taken.

The quilt was machine pieced (my first venture into curves!), machine quilted to echo the geometric pattern of the quilt, and used 100% cotton batting.

VCBC quilt

This was a fun quilt - I believe I made this one while still working at the Hancock Fabrics store, because I think it was a store display model (meaning I didn't have to pay for the supplies, just do the sewing. That means I must have made it in 2004, even though the photo was taken in 2006.

Featured are two version of beautiful batik flannel, highlighted by black and turquoise sashing. The quilt has polyester batting and was machine quilted at the borders, and then hand tied at four points in each large square with aqua yarn. I believe it was a twin size.

We donated this quilt to Village Creek Bible Camp for their quilt auction.

Isaac's quilt

A small one - 9x12 grid of 4" finish size squares. This one was made from khaki pants instead of denim for a different, more sophisticated :) look for the first child of one of Matt's best high school friends (Kathy). The batting was polyester, and the backing was flannel. Another feature was a large-scale square with a functional pocket.

Machine pieced and serged (showing), and hand tied at every single intersection.

Joshy's quilt

Now this is a special quilt to me. First of all, it was made for the first child of one of my dearest friends. Secondly, it was made not just by me and Matt, but also with the help of another very special friend (while she was pregnant with this baby's cousin!) When I saw the fabric that we chose for the back, I knew immediately it was the one. The bright colors, and the unusual pattern of the stripes - it was perfect!

Hand tied, machine sewn, poly batting and fleece backing.

Kathleen's wallhanging

After making a larger one for myself inspired by this book, my grandma was interested in having a small one made for her house. She gave me some pretty specific dimensions, and the colors she was hoping to highlight, and away I went. I enjoyed making something special for her that I knew she would like to hang in her beautiful home.

This was machine pieced (high precision work because of the narrow "leading" pieces - cut at 3/4" wide and seamed precisely to 1/4" finished size.) I used a thin fusible polyester batting because I was still not very skilled at basting with pins. Machine quilting was done around the inside of each white piece, and sometimes a second row in some of the larger elements.