A Look Back at Alice's Quilts!

My first blog post was so much fun to write, here I am on the same day writing another! I thought from time to time I would talk here about some of my past quilts. The first quilt I ever made took me three years to complete. It was a log cabin, king sized, and I hand quilted it! At the time (early 1990s) I didn't know that it was considered just as acceptable and "worthy" to machine quilt! I was still teaching at the time, and so I worked on this quilt for three summers. One to piece and two to quilt. I've not been able to locate quickly a picture of it, but that I can do later.

The next two quilts were also hand-quilted, and

those were wedding quilts for Kathy and Susan.

The color scheme of Kathy's quilt was black, gray, white, and a bit of blue. She helped me choose all of the fabrics here in Waco. Unfortunately, the sashing fabric between the blocks--a black with white dots--faded considerably, and it faded not to gray, as you would expect, but to BROWN! I have learned to live with this, though it bothers me every time I see it. At the right is Kathy's quilt at home in Newport Beach.

Here is a more recent picture of Kathy's quilt. the "crazy quilt" pillow on the bed now was a 2009 Xmas gift to Kathy and Roman. It is made up of New York City fabrics--fabrics I bought on that same visit to NYC when I made the Wee Folk dolls for Locke. Friend Linda helped me choose these fabrics at the fabulous City Quilter store. Note in this newer picture the fabric that faded is even more obvious!

Susan's quilt shared a theme with Kathy's. Both

of these quilt consisted of blocks that were from the states important to both daughters and their husbands. Thus Kathy's quilt was made up of blocks from Texas, Arizona, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and California. Susan's had blocks from Texas, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. Michigan was still in the future for Susan and Scott! Here is Susan's quilt, in their first house in Michigan. Like Kathy, she helped me to choose the fabrics, and she wanted hers to be primarily green and blue, with accents of red and yellow. She specifically wanted some plain areas, and in those areas I quilted a wreath design. I was particularly proud of the inner border of flying geese. When these meet at the corners, small stars are formed; you can see one of these blue stars at the upper left corner of the bed. I made the throw pillows on the two beds for both daughters, too, for their first Christmases with their husbands. To the left is still another Alice-made quilt that Susan requested me to make. This quilt hangs in her stairwell, which has a high wall that was crying for something bright and eye-catching. For this quilt, Susan chose the quilt pattern and all of the fabrics, which were purchased at a wonderful quilt fabric store in Kalamazoo. This quilt was quilted by a woman I found on the Internet who also lives in Kalamazoo, and was a Christmas 2008 present to Susan and Scott.

All four grandchildren have two quilts each made by Grandmommy Alice. Each has a crib quilt and each a quilt for their "big boy" beds for Malcolm, Locke, and Dawson, and a "big girl" bed quilt for Lia. But those talk about them and pictures of those quilts will be the topic of another blog post!

I've just begun to blog!

I've just finished a quilt for a baby, the third son of a young mother who was recently widowed. She was a dear friend of daughter Susan's in elementary school. Therefore, it seemed fitting and sentimental to use some of the leftover blocks I had from quilt projects for Susan's son Malcolm, as well as my grandson Locke. Here is that quilt, with a transportation theme

Lately I've been working on a quilt for a great nephew, whom we fondly call "Little Mac." But his quilt isn't yet done, so I'll wait to talk about it when it is.

I'll share two recent projects, though, that were, in one case, gifts for grandchildren and, in another, Christmas crafts with two of them. First of all, the gifts. Grandson Locke, his mother Kathy, and I were in New York City together in November. I found a book of dolls called Wee Folk that I hoped to make with Locke. They proved to be challenging for me to make, so Locke's chief role was that of designer. He would specify colors for clothes, hair, eyes, etc. Because he loved these dolls so much, and had such fun playing with them in New York, I made some additional wee folk for him of favorite book characters: Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and Friar Tuck. Later, I added to the Robin Hood collection by making a Little John and a Will Scarlet as Valentine gifts. These dolls are made from chenille stems (crafting pipe cleaner-like products), felt for the clothes, embroidery floss to cover the doll's body, wool fleece for hair, and in many cases, an acorn cap for the hat. (Locke helped locate acorn caps in Central Park!) For Locke's sister Lia for Valentine's Day, I made her a Harry Potter and a Hermione, both from the Harry Potter books.

These are 3 of the first Wee folk dolls. Notice the acorn caps!

Below left are 3 of the Robin Hood characters and Harry Potter.

Then with grandsons Malcolm and Dawson in Michigan, we made snow men from small, old bottles which I purchased on an online auction, basing my design on an article in the magazine CLOTH, PAPER, SCISSORS. We stuffed the bottles with shiny, glittery objects like "pearl" garlands and tinsel, used snowflake and letter stickers on the outside of the bottles, hung found objects around their necks like luggage locks and keys. We made the heads from white air-dry clay, sticking tiny pins with black heads for the "coal" eyes, orange clay or felt for the carrot noses, and then doll top hats or cowboy hats.

These projects are history! Soon, I'll blog about on-going ones!