Quilt Finishes September 2019

Spring, and now summer, have come and gone. We are entering a new season and it occurred to me that I have many quilt finishes to share.

First up, when I was teaching sixth grade science last spring I wanted to commemorate Earth Day with the students…and there’s no better way to do that than with a quilt project!

Each of the 162 sixth grade students made a planet Earth using sharpie markers and Isopropl Alcohol on a piece of white muslin. We learned about chromatography in the process:

Here is the quilt top and backing before Jill quilted it. Each student signed the fabric for the back:

Here is the front after quilting, before binding:

I love how each Earth is different…just as each student is different!

Here is the back with the signature panel:

The quilt will hang somewhere down at Ochard Middle School.

Next, I finished this wall hanging. Do you remember that I made two of these? I sent one to the round robin for my Modern Quilters group (stay tuned for that quilt finish) and kept one to be a wall hanging:

Speaking of wall hangings, the next finishd piece was for our quild guild fabric challenge for 2019 entitled “Initial”. Each year, the guild committee chooses a fabric for our challenge. Quilters must make something that represents the theme and uses a recognizable piece of the prescribed fabric.

I honored the “Initial” theme in two ways. First, I asked Jamie for his initial reaction to the swirly blue fabric. He said it reminded him of the slack water in a trout stream. Second, I wanted to capture my initial attempt at a new technique, in this case reversing the PDF of a paper-pieced pattern.

I was so pleased with the result! I layed the two paper-pieced fish on either side of the fabric eyeball and decided to use yellow thread to quilt light rays passing through the lens.

I resisted the urge to perform the calculations for exact angle measurements because this is meant to be an artist’s rendition…not a physicist’s.

I won third place in the challenge category at our quilt show!

Up next is another art piece:

I was asked to donate a quilt for the silent auction. Last winter I used silk roving (raw silk fibers held together with fabric medium) to make the sunset scene. I then quilted it onto the background with silk thread. I called it “Summer Sunset on the Columbia”.

I made large quilts too! The next two are entitled “Strong Women” but lovingly referred to as “The Twins” becaue they are sister quilts…not exactly alike but akin to one another.

These two quilts are inspired by my friend Jill’s slave-era quilt patterns. I spent some time studying the pattern while listening to slave-era music. One song in particular stood out for me:

I selected the feminine and edgy fabrics to represent strength conveyed in the lyrics of the song.

I also listened to this song from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis:

I chose the stark black and white grungy music note fabric as well as the slashed fabric to represent where we are today.

Listen to the lyrics.

They are in the quilt.

Next, I was asked to make a quilt for our club team swim coach. The team gathered up T-Shirts from all the years and sent them over:

The team presented the gift at Coach John’s retirement party.

Along the way this summer, I added quilt design software to my repertoire. With the help of EQ8 (Electrcic Quilter 8), I wrote my first quilt pattern!

Here is “Adventure Quilt”:

This quilt is sewn together with one purpose: to be taken on adventures!

I’ve finished two so far:

I’m happy to report that both Aventure Quilt No. 1 (right) and Adventure Quilt No. 2 (left) have been selected to be in a juried quilt show – Northwest Quilting Expo in Portland, OR – later this month!

I’ve been busy in my sewing room. While I’ve been drafting this post I finished one more piece:

Puffins! I brought this pattern back from Alaska last summer and I love it!

Whew! It seems like a lot of quilty finishes when I put them all together!

I told Jamie about this blog post and he said “how many quilts do you still have going?”

Let’s not talk about it, ok? 😉