Saturday, October 23, 2010

Quilts in Our Home

I’ve made between 75 and 100 quilts, ranging in size from three-block table runners to one king-sized quilt, one queen, several double-bed quilts, and many wall hangings and baby quilts.   (I’m not counting my raw-edged journal quilts in this tally). Most of these have been gifts to grandchildren, children, nieces, nephews, great-nieces, friends, etc. But some few of them I made for us. Today was a red letter day, since my last big art quilt, Jubilation, (which has been the subject of several of these posts) was finally hung in our living room, high on the wall in this two-storey room. I am pleased with how it looks!



Picture taken from the upstairs "bridge" that overlooks our living room.

The hand-quilted, whole-cloth quilt in the dining room

Aqua in Abstract
The Stone Arch Bell quilt
Others of my quilts in our house are white quilt in the dining room; a traditional quilt above our bed in the master bedroom; a quilt of my own design that I made for Bob’s 70th birthday in the living room; and the first “art quilt” I made, the Stone Arch quilt in the landing of the stairwell. (This quilt won a red ribbon in the Temple Quilt Show last year.)

My second art quilt, Aqua in Abstract, also a prior subject of a posting, was hung today as well, above the television set (I’m running out of empty walls!) in our bedroom. I’m in the process of slowly—very slowly!—making a king-sized quilt that uses all of the aqua and turquoise fabrics that are in this small quilt, in addition to many others.

The star quilt above our ged


The star quilt in the bedroom is composed of two different star blocks, the Friendship Star and the Sawtooth Star. In these stars, no fabric is used more than once; and every star is different from its fellows. I made this quilt in a class taught by my good friend and quilt-buddy Patty. It won a red ribbon in the Waco Quilt Show one year.

Bob's 70th birthday quilt
Bob’s quilt features stars that are associated with various states in the union significant to our family: Texas, of course, (my birth state and that our daughter Susan), Arkansas (where Bob lived most of his growing-up years), Tennessee (his birth state), Georgia (where our two eldest children were born, Kathy and Rob), Michigan (where two grandsons were born), and California (where our granddaughter and her brother were born).

6 comments:

  1. It is really nice to be able to enlarge the photos to see the fine work you have done...and such a variety. I hope people can see the beautiful quilting on the Jubilation quilt, but they won't be climbing up to that height. Amazing you could get a photo. How satisfied you must be with all you have done w "real" quilts.

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  2. Actually, it is amazing how Judy's quilting shows up on Jubilation, even way high up! Especially on the lighter areas and that bright blue against the black background. As for designating these quilts "real"--Calling these larger ones "real" is certainly not to denigrate the journal quilts! They are of course "really quilts," but as certain people keep reminding me, they really need their edges to be finished! And until they are, I won't let myselt really "count" them in my tally of completed quilts.

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  3. As usual, I still especially like the arch quilt. This is the first time I've seen Bob's quilt up close. I like the variety of stars on the quilt. The detail is impressive. I think I like it best of all your 'star' quilts. Congratulations on all your wonderful work. It bogles my mind!

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  4. I love, love, love your Jubilation quilt, Alice. All your quilts are beautiful and are wonderfully placed on your walls. I couldn't see the dining room quilt. It looked white from here. Did anyone else say that???

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  5. Sherron, you have seen in person the white, whole-cloth quilt on my dining room wall; you just don't remember it! It IS an all white quilt. I hand quilted it--the last one I hand quilted. The quilting is the star on whole cloth quilts.

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  6. You should have all of us that have children with your quilts send pictures of the quilts in their homes for your blog!

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