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.

Two at Once

I recently had a friend visit me who was expecting TWO great-grand babies at just about the same time.  So while she was here, we produced two baby quilts for the new little ones.  One request for for a monkey-themed nursery, and the other said it didn't matter.  Here's the results, and both young mothers seemed pleased.

2011 Just Like New Boutique Quilt

Every year I make a quilt from the scraps leftover from cutting the squares to make the catnip pillows.  Somehow, there are always just enough scraps to make one quilt.  I added some solid blue and red scraps to make a Roman Stripe pattern this year.  It will be raffled off to benefit the JLN fund.

California Quilt

In an unusual move, made to keep!  It is in one of my guest rooms.  I used a whole bunch of food oriented fabric, mostly healthy, but added some ice cream and frosted donuts.  I call it the California Quilt--land of the fruits and nuts!

Baby Quilt/Stepping Stones

Yet one more in the Little Feet series.  I used the same stepping stones block that I did on Alex's dorm quilt.

Cowboy Jack

One of Polly's Texas friends was having a baby, and that called for a cowboy boot quilt, with a reproduction of an old Wild West poster to go on the back.

Fourth of July - Pimm's Cup and Pie

In July 2011, Steve and Holly Massey announced that after 20 years of having an annual Fourth of July picnic, they were throwing in the towel (or tablecloth, whichever).  I decided that deserved a quilt, so I string-pieced one out of patriotic fabrics.  The solid red strips were just right for the participants to sign as a remembrance, and I had enough patriotic Hoochy Mama fabric to make an interesting back.

2010 Just Like New Quilt

Isn't it funny how there seem to be just enough scraps leftover from cutting the catnip toy squares to make one quilt?  This is a slightly different arrangement of the string piecing.

Catnip Toy Quilt

There are always some scraps leftover from cutting the squares for the catnip toys, and Jackie Barnett and I starting making quilts from them to sell or raffle off to benefit the Just Like New Fund.  Jackie pieced this one, and I quilted it.

Star of the Sea

Over the years I have accumulated a whole bunch of crab fabrics, so in 2011, I made two raffle quilts for crab feeds, one for Tri-Valley Animal Rescue in Dublin, and one for a group in Suisun City.  It's almost as easy to cut two quilts as it is to do one.  I used some of all of my prints, but I seem to have begun accumulating more since then.  Is there no end?

Trip Around the Rose

Trip Around the World is traditionally done with highly contrasting fabric to show up the design, but I wanted to make this one blended instead.  I tried to make it look like a giant rose, with a yellow center, and the color gradually lightening toward the edge of the flower.  All the fabrics used in the rose itself are rose prints, and the "leaves" on the edges were made from leaf fabrics.  This went to my friend, Fae Massey.

Trip Around Kansas

This variation of Trip Around the World was a birthday present for my cousin Maurice Misegades, who comes from Coffeyville, Kansas.  I used a whole lot of sunflower (the Kansas state flower) prints in it, but I don't think that makes it look too girly.  If any flower can be said to be "masculine," it would have to be a sunflower.

My Cats Blush Charmingly

This quilt was made for the Amador Valley Quilt Guild's 2009 Quilt Show Challenge:  black and white, plus one other color.  I had a good-sized chunk of a pink bali, and decided to use it as the background for my favorite cat block.  Each of the cats (121) is made from a different fabric, so that makes it a charm quilt.

Jackie's Chicken Quilt

When our friend, Jackie Barnett, was put in hospice care, Natalie Avery and I decided to make her a quilt.  Jackie had raised a batch of chicks that spring, and had an elaborate house and pen made for them, so we decided to feature her chickens on the quilt.  Working like crazy, we got the quilt mostly done in a week, and had all her friends, from both the Quilt Guild and Valley Humane Society, sign their names on the blocks.  We put the blocks together and Joanna Collins quilted it for us.  In less than two weeks from the start, we presented the quilt to Jackie, and it warmed her last days.  This picture was taken at the 2011 Quilt Show, which had a section dedicated to Guild members who had passed beyond.

Baby Quilt/Trip Around the World

Another of the "Little Feet" collection, done in scraps of matching colors.

Baby Quilt w/hearts

This is a raw-edge applique, done after the quilt sandwich was put together so that appliqueing and quilting is done simultaneously.  Another of the "Little Feet" quilts done for Stanford Hospital's preemie unit (sure hope they don't get tired of this fabric, because we have a lot of it!)

Baby Quilt/Stars

This is my latest baby quilt, one of the "Little Feet" series.  The stars are done in raw-edge applique, sewn on the completed quilt sandwich, which means that you are quilting at the same time you are appliqueing.  Looks good on the back, too.  I did yarn ties in the middle of the stars because babies like to play with the little fuzzies.

Musical Cats

I created this quilt to be auctioned off in support of the Band program for my grandsons' high school in Willoughby, OH.  It has both short cats and the tall, skinny ones (just like real cats!).