Here are some more of my "cuddle quilts," where I was playing with string quilts.

The blue and red one used dryer sheets as a foundation and adding machine tape for the thin lines.  The jungle one on the bottom went to my cousin Shannon Jenkins in Michigan--she's as big an animal lover as I am.  All of these quilts were made with scraps in a vain attempt to cut down on some of my accumulation.  It never seems to get any smaller and I'm convinced that fabric scraps and coat hangers fornicate in the dark when you aren't looking.

And I have a new great-grandson!  Max is the son of my grandson Alex and his wife Yan.  Needless to say, I had to make him a baby quilt, and in honor of his ancestry, I used a whole bunch of my Asian fabrics.  Using half-square triangles, I had a lot of different choices for a layout, and I thought this was the most interesting.

Whilst traveling in Ireland (good British term, no?) a couple of years ago, we visited Blarney Castle and strolling the grounds I was delighted to see some examples of yarn bombing on the trees.  I guess I never realized that it was international, but why not?

My faithful companion Derek traveled with me from California to Florida.  Here he is in some of his ever-changing outfits.

When it has been eight (!) years since your last post, you have a little bit of catching up to do.  Since my last post, I have moved across the country from Northern California to the Space Coast of Florida to move in with my gigolo, Bob Godwin.  We travel a great deal so my quilting has slowed down considerably, but I have found that doing applique blocks allows me to create while on the move.  I joined a small quilting group in my community, which keeps me in touch with fellow fabric artists.  We make small "cuddle quilts" for children who are sponsored by a local charity.  Here are a few I have done recently, using the same basic design:  one in black/silver/white, one in brights/white, and one in blue/silver/white.

Joseph's Coats

I've accumulated quite a stack of nickel (5") squares, mostly textures, but a lot of metallics and balis mixed in.  I decided to make some lap quilts for Christmas presents, and started divvying up the squares in three groups:  1) harvest colors in browns/yellows/oranges,  2) light/medium/dark for a shaded effect, and 3) brights, for a stained glass look.  At 12 x 12 (a 55" square quilt) that used up 432 squares, but I still have an amazing amount left!  And each quilt is a charm quilt--all the squares are different.

Doxies

I don't usually do commissioned quilts, as between what I do for friends and family and my guild work, I have more than enough to keep me busy, but a close friend asked me to do a quilt for her relative's birthday.  She wanted to feature her cousin's dachshunds, and a little questioning revealed that they were long-haired doxies at that.  Fortunately, there is a website that has fabric featuring every breed you've ever heard of (and many that you haven't!), so I checked Hot Diggity Dog and found not one, but two pen-and-ink depictions of what I wanted.  I did the star points in paw prints and dog bones, and Joanna Collins did her usual fine job of long-arm quilting--she always makes me look good.