[paisley]

I used to quilt. Actually, that makes me sound like a former quilter, which I don't consider myself to be. Rather, it's one of my hobbies that has been placed on the back burner, so to speak. I make art quilts for the wall, mostly. My one attempt at a twin-sized bed quilt became too overwhelming when it came time to quilt it. (Which is where Karen's expertise and services would've come in handy).

I was in a quilt guild for about 4 years, and even exhibited some of my art quilts in a local quilt and needlework show (Sotterley in So. Maryland), in addition to the guild's biennial show. I won a couple second place ribbons for the categories my quilts had been placed in. I joke that I'm pretty good at getting second place. LOL Actually, the first place winners were rightfully chosen as such, so I'm honored nonetheless, of course. And as a guild, we would rent a bus and go to the big quilt shows in Pennsylvania. It was fun to be around people with the same interest, and have trunk shows and guest speakers and whatnot.

I made a lap quilt for charity once. It had paper-pieced stars and went to a wounded veteran at Walter Reed. I did make something for Project Linus as well, although that one was crocheted. I also knit. My hubby jokes that I have too many hobbies, but I say they're all related: fiber arts. 

And I made a super cool Pirate quilt with removable pieces for my kids some years ago. It's probably my neatest quilt. I was going to link to the book at Amazon, but I can't remember the title right now.

My latest quilt was one of those rag quilts: flannel, with exposed and snipped seams facing the front of the quilt. That was quick to make. Nice and cozy as well, a lap size.

I'll have to take some photos and post them--perhaps next week, when I get the chance.

 

[paisley]

I love seeing all these quilts! We've got great talent and creativity here! It's nice to see those who appreciate quilting as well.

Here's photos of two of mine:

This one I call "Calypso Star" and it's a Cathedral Windows pattern. It's made up of 672 3 inch squares (I noted that on the label--LOL). It was made for a guild challenge: everyone got the multicolor fabric and could create anything they wanted. All those edges around the windows are hand appliqued. I really need to replace the cheesy metal springrod with something oak. It hangs in a niche in our kitchen.

And this is The Pirate Quilt. This isn't my original idea--I got the pattern from a really cool book, but I added a few elements of my own. It has a glass message-in-a-bottle, a mesh bag of enclosed shells, and some other things that weren't part of the designer's pattern. It's hard to get a photo of it. I did add a hanging sleeve, but it doesn't hang on the wall. Instead, it gets draped over a stairway railing. The removable items attach via snaps, and there's also a mesh bag which represents the fishing net. The net holds extra playthings. The sails have thicker batting and they've just been tacked down at the edges. The pirate used to be holding a glass bottle with "rum" in it (a scrap of orange-ish satin being the rum), but it kept falling off, so now it's in the mesh fishing bag.

Here's a few closeups:

The mermaid.

The oyster with a black pearl.

I wish I had taken photos of the guild's raffle quilts. Those were done every other year, and it would naturally be coordinated. Everyone would make a block and it would get put into a big quilt. We'd take turns passing it around for handquilting, and then it would be raffled off at the quilt show to make money for guest lecturers and whatnot.

One year I volunteered to be the Door Prize Coordinator for our quilt show. That was fun. We must've gotten 200 items donated: everything from scissors and thread to patterns and quilting hoops.