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.

Norm and Barb's quilt

Matt and I made a larger "stained glass" quilt with our denim and serging technique. It was machine pieced and serged, and hand tied with narrow black satin ribbon. The quilt was filled with polyester batting.

Mom and Dad's quilt

This one is kind of an oddball - an unusual mix of the denim quilts Matt and I enjoy making together, and the Frank Lloyd Wright inspired stained glass window quilts I've tried. We used the exposed serging on some of the seams to be the leading in the glass. ;) I think what's most appealing about this quilt is the size (a large lap blanket) and the soft corduroy backing. From somewhere I can no longer remember I received a whole bolt of this corduroy, and it's shown up in many projects over the years - a quilt backing here, but we've also made a little jumper that our girls made and a cushion for the wagon out of it. It shows up in the oddest places. ;) The red satin was left over from the bridesmaid dresses my mom made for our wedding.

The quilt was machine pieced and serged, and hand tied. The tag was hand embroidered and machined onto the back of the quilt.

Hannah's quilt

This quilt was made for the first child of my college mentor, Sheli Hedlund. It's another very large one - only a few of these that we made were this large. The squares are our standard 4.5" cut size (4" finished). I think by this time we had friends saving old jeans for us - I know my grandparents (Kelbe) were giving us theirs. We experimented a bit with the pattern on this one by putting in a few double-size rectangles.

One note about this photo - we laid Hannah's quilt out over the top of our bed which was covered with the denim quilt that my grandparents had made for me that became the inspiration for all following denim quilts that Matt and I have made.

Grandpa's quilt

This was made for Matt's grandpa, Walter Glewwe, the first Christmas we lived with him (2001). We like the pocket that had a "W" embroidered on it! This one is in what became our standard size, a 10x14 grid of 4.5" (4" finished) squares. Grandpa used this one a lot to lay over his lap when he sat in his chair. We have since given it to our first-born, Owen Walter, who uses it not only as a blanket, but also to drive his cars on, the stripes on the fleece backing being roads and houses in his mind.

Machine sewn/serged in red, hand tied at every other corner, polyester batting.

Matt and Andrea's quilt

This is the quilt that Matt and I made together during our engagement, and it has been the quilt on our bed together ever since our wedding. These photos were taken in 2016, although the quilt was made in late 1999 and early 2000.

We purchased the reddish and the brown floral, but all the rest are scraps from my collection. Many of them have special memories for me in particular because of the projects they were left over from, so in many ways, this quilt is a summary of most of the things I had sewn in my life at the time of it's making.

The "cow" square is a nod to my Dad who'd been in the dairy business, and was left over from Damaris, a stuffed cow I made myself. Even though the light/dark wasn't perfect on this one, I knew I wanted it in the quilt.

Many of the blue/yellow blocks are combinations from Katie's quilt, definitely one of my all-time favorites.

These bits are all from the clothes for a cute set of stuffed cats I made as a store model while working at the fabric store when I was in high school. I still have the cats!

This one I love mostly because of the beautiful watercolor-ish fabrics.

This is a memento from my very first quilt.

Another one from Katie's quilt.

Beautiful fabrics from Jenny and Andrew's quilt. Funny - the bit of the blue paisley that I have left I have sitting out now (2016) on my sewing table planning to be used in a quilt for Gloria and one for T.

Hi, Reuben! (He loves to drive cars on this quilt, just like his big brother Owen used to do!)

Ha! This was fabric I chose to decorate my bathroom in the new house we moved into when I was 12. That was the one short period in my growing up years when we had a bit of flex financially, and not only did Sara and I have our own bathroom upstairs, but I got to help Mom decorate it. We picked out some fabrics, fish posters for the walls, AND new towels. Talk about extravagance!