Red-work quilt

Ever since I saw my first picture of  a red-work quilt I wanted one. As the other two S's won't make me one I decided to make my own. That said stem stitch is boring after a while, so I am thinking of doing a sampler quilt of different stitches and patterns. If my calculations are correct I will need 90 different squares. I am still  picking out -patterns I want to try. Here is block one. 89 more to go. 

Shop Hop 2008

I'd just moved to the greater Seattle area. You quilters probably already knew this, but...hopping from shop to shop gives you an introduction to backroads you had NO clue existed! The girls and I shopped from Vancouver to Lynden. And then we got busy sewing. I'm admitting progress might have been a little slow. Here are a few of our finished blocks:


A simple but rather striking block. I love seeing the ideas each shop brings together as they design within a theme and with the year's fabric.

Check out the mantis eyes below! And the flower. It looks velvety soft. I want to reach out and touch. Isn't this awesome embroidery? Way to go, S!

A Floral Snowstorm

That stack of 6" floral blocks...we're not sure where we got them. So onward with the mission to finish half finished project -- in this case, maybe less than half finished -- we chose a blocky pattern to mellow the flower. Blocks were sorted by color; hopefully enough of each palette for a complete square. Here's our finished quilt top:


Does anyone know the name of this simple block?

Flowers and Coins

Picture a gallon zip-lock bag crammed full of 5" squares. To be honest these were approximately 5", give or take a bit. We've been working out of this particular sack a couple years and created several quilt tops. This month's challenge: Use orange and pink! And here's the result. A unique, cheery baby quilt.

and the back just as cheery as the front 

R did a a great job on the machine quilting. I've taken a close-up so y'all can admire the tiny flowers and critters. Also thanking Alice Marshall at Running Stitch Fabrics in Kent, Washington for allowing our 16-year-old the opportunity to work on the machine. :)

Gram's Pinwheel Quilt

Gram never was particularly tall and as she got older, she became even shorter. Most quilts were too long and bunglesome for comfort. Her eyesight was also going so I put together a bright, pinwheel pattern, lap quilt so it would be easier to pull up or kick off.

I tied it for extra texture.

Here it is at the design stage, laid out on the floor. If you look closely you'll notice my dyslexia. Some of the blocks spiral clockwise and others counter clockwise.

When Gram passed away, the quilt came to one of the younger girls. Here's how it looks today after many more years of love.