Aunt Joyce’s Found in a Box

Aunt Joyce found a quilt top in a box she was cleaning out. She thinks Nana made it, but isn’t sure. She wants to give it to a great grandchild expected later this year. Twins actually, but this will be for one of them when they move into a big bed in a few years. That time lag will give her enough time to lose it in another box.

• 65” x 84 1/2" single bed size
• Quilted in a loose stipple, overall meander. Used light blue thread “Blue Ice” Omni brand 100% polyester from Superior Threads. Free form quilting. 8 bobbins. Quilting by Patty.
• Backing: Blue print cotton extra wide backing. Printed with circle figures. Fabric came from fabric.com.
• Batting: 80% cotton/20% polyester. Comfort Blend from Winline.
• Binding: Light blue cotton print.
• Pattern: Scrappy strips on a foundation made from an old sheet. Light blue sashing and light yellow corner stones. Light blue and light yellow borders.
• Piecing by Nana, Aunt Joyce’s mother-in-law Mrs. Howard
• Pinned into frame August 3, 2021. Quilting on long arm quilter August 6, 2021. (Patty). 
• Binding by Patty. 
• QC by Charlotte—Mother

Dogs and Sea Otters

My ex-colleague Grace Hill asked me to make a quilt for her soon to be daughter-in-law. I resisted at first but gave in finally. Her soon to be daughter-in-law asked for dogs and sea otters in colors of aqua and turquoise! Luckily I found dog and sea otter fabrics that fit the bill. She also wanted queen bed size! Because of the size, I selected an easy pattern with simple rectangles that would feature the dog and sea otter fabrics. The pattern is called “Kyoto Steps.” I don’t know why and the artist’s website gave no reason for the name. Maybe the pattern is named after a site in Kyoto, Japan or maybe a jazz music group? I like the way the rectangles are more dense in the center and space out at the edges. However, the asymmetrical placement and spacing meant I had to keep the pattern close by and piecing proceeded slowly, but easily. The good news (if you can call it that!) about this assignment is that Covid postponed the wedding, so I wasn’t rushed to finish the quilt.

The pattern called for pressing the seams open. I used the seam roll Mother made for a class around the time I was born. It worked like a charm. If the seam roll was opened you’d find a magazine my age (70 years) inside. That’s pretty good longevity for a homemade sewing tool. 

For the quilting I used my new side edge clamps. They worked beautifully. This was also the first test drive of my new Towa bobbin tension gauge. I loved the gauge and it made adjusting the quilting tension much easier and more accurate. I was also impressed that the Towa box prominently features the “Deming Award” given to the manufacturer. Deming was the person whose methods created the Japanese auto industry’s reputation for quality. Deming’s “quality circles” used to be a big deal and made their way into lots of industries, including pharmaceutical manufacturing where I worked for many years. Seeing the picture of the “Deming Award” on the box was a blast from the past! 

• 97” x 94 1/4" queen-sized bed (slightly wider than long, but essentially square)
• Quilted in parallel wavy lines across width of quilt. Used “Pearl White” Omni brand 100% polyester from Superior Threads. Free form quilting. 9 bobbins. Quilting by Patty.
• Backing: Tonal turquoise vine print with a center panel printed with dogs looking over a fence. Fabrics came from fabric.com.
• Batting: 80% cotton/20% polyester bleached, Hobbs Heirloom.
• Binding: Plain turquoise cotton used in the quilt.
• Pattern: "Kyoto Steps” by Robin Pickens
• Piecing by Patty
• Pinned into frame June 22, 2021. Quilting on long arm quilter June 23-25, 2021. (Patty). 
• Binding by Patty. 
• QC by Spencer

à la Great-Great Grandma Short (Quilt for Cameron) #2

How to Make Waves

See the previous quilt for most of the notes about this second version. The above picture illustrates how to tilt the block to make waves. I call this a “dappled” tropical sky. The internet says that skies can be “dabbled”. The contrast of the darker, brighter blue sky with the sails looks better than the pale sky in the first quilt. Pressing the seams open that meet on the sides worked really well for sewing the acute-angled seams together. 

• 68 1/2" x 80 1/4" Single bed size
• Quilted in wavy lines and clouds; loop-de-loops in outside border; spirals in inside border. Both threads were Omni brand 100% polyester from Superior Threads. Used medium blue “Tidal Pool” for top; light turquoise blue “Light Turquoise ” for bobbins.  Free form quilting. 8 bobbins. Quilting by Patty.
• Backing: Light turquoise with white spirals cotton print. Fabric came from Connecting Threads.
• Batting: 100% cotton Warm and Natural.
• Binding: Navy blue tonal cotton print used for the bottom part of the ocean and the inner border.
• Pattern: "Rock the Boat” by Karen Bialik from easyQuilts, Summer 2019.  
• Piecing by Patty
• Pinned into frame April 13, 2021. Quilting on long arm quilter April 13-14, 2021. (Patty). 
• Binding by Patty. 
• QC by Spencer

QC by Spencer

I see a bunny in the cloud!

Fancy Waves in the Ocean

Grandpa and Grandma Short and Some of the Grandkids 

QC by Cameron

à la Great-Great Grandma Short (Quilt for Thomas and a PIGS) #1

My Plans

Grandma Short made a boat quilt for Keith when he was a boy, so I decided to keep the tradition going and make boat quilts for two of her great-great grandsons, Cameron and Thomas. My inspiration came from a quilt magazine. The magazine arrived when Mother was in extended care with a broken neck and arm. Even though it was a chaotic time, I managed to hold onto the idea and remember where I put the magazine. The pattern was for a wall hanging so I enlarged it to a size that can work on a single bed or make a good fort. See my notes above.

Since it was a special project most of the fabrics were purchased from internet sites and did not come from my stash. The boat hulls are the only exceptions; those fabrics were from my stash. For this first boat quilt, I ran out of sky, so the tops of the sky is a slightly darker color. According to the internet the upper part of the sky does look darker than the lower part. So, I’m okay with this quilting hack. 

The pattern called for white, green, and yellow sails. I wasn’t too sure about green sails so I looked up color of sails on the internet. Turns out sails can be any color, especially for the brand “Hobie Cats”. In the old days, sails were primarily off-white, yellow, and red, depending on the fabric and the resin pounded into them to make them water repellent. Makers of red sails in Asia use a different resin than those in Europe. Aristocratic Romans had purple sails, but those were too expensive for the hoi polloi. So, I decided on white, yellow, and red sails. Maybe someone will sing “Red Sails in the Sunset” (Nat King Cole version) to each quilt recipient? That’s probably asking too much.

Where the tilted blocks sewed together made for a difficult seam when seams in the block met acutely. Where seams met obtusely there was no problem. For quilt #2 I will press those seams open and hopefully have fewer issues. Lessons learned! Who knew I would be a fan of obtuseness?

• 69" x 80 1/4" Single bed size
• Quilted in wavy lines and clouds.  Had to remount to do the side borders. Used different colors of thread for the sky, waves, borders and backing (bobbins). It was a pain changing threads and remounting. All that work for a potential fort! I will stick to one color of thread and one direction for quilt #2. All threads were Omni brand 100% polyester from Superior Threads. Used a pale blue “Blue Ice” for sky, clouds, wind in sails, and wind in front of boats; Dark blue “Navy Blue” for inner border; medium-dark blue “Ride the Wave” for outer border; medium blue “Tidal Pool” for ocean; medium blue “OceanBlue” for bobbins.  Free form quilting. 8 bobbins (7 “Ocean Blue” and one left from Aunt Linda’s “Spots” quilt—blue green “Treasure Isle”). Quilting by Patty.
• Backing: Ocean print of jelly fish, anemones, etc. I mounted the backing print upside down compared to the boats. Geez! The jelly fish are swimming upside down! I decided not to worry about it. Fabric came from fabric.com.
• Batting: 100% cotton Warm and Natural.
• Binding: Navy blue tonal cotton print used for the bottom part of the ocean and the inner border.
• Pattern: "Rock the Boat” by Karen Bialik from easyQuilts, Summer 2019.  
• Piecing by Patty
• Pinned into frame March 30, 2021. Quilting on long arm quilter April 4-9, 2021. (Patty). 
• Binding by Patty. 
• QC by Spencer

The Magazine

The Pattern

The Picture in the Pattern

Grandma and Grandpa Short with Patty and Keith

QC Guy on the Job

Sharks in the Water

QC by Thomas

Seeing Spots for Aunt Linda

Build Backing Better (Apologies to President Biden)

Aunt Linda sent a king/queen sized quilt top for me to quilt for her. It was fun! I haven’t had a quilt go this smoothly in a long time. It was going so well, I couldn’t stop and got the quilting done in one day! It’s comforting to know that I can still longarm a quilt without issues. The pattern Aunt Linda used was “Seeing Spots” from the Missouri Star Quilting Company, but she cut her own strips rather than use a jelly roll. I think the use of her own fabrics made the quilt more interesting and pretty.

• 85" x 90" King/Queen bed size
• Quilting: Quilted in a loose spiral stipple. All quilting free form. Used light gray 100% polyester thread (Omni from Superior Threads-named "Silver") on the top and a “zippy” blue green 100% polyester on the bottom  (Omni from Superior Threads-named "Treasure Isle"). 9 bobbins. Quilting by Patty. This top quilted so smoothly I kept going all day for fear that if I stopped it wouldn’t go so well the next time. I credit good piecing by Aunt Linda, high quality fabrics (top and bottom), and the alignment of the stars!
• Backing: WILD BIG print, big tropical looking leaves in greens, aquas, and purples with red veins.
• Batting:  80% cotton/ 20% polyester from Winline “Comfort Blend”
• Binding: To be done by Aunt Linda.
• Pattern: Inspired by “Seeing Spots" from Missouri Star Quilting Company.  
• Piecing by Aunt Linda
• Pinned into frame March 23, 2021. I used a “partial float” meaning the bottom of the quilt top was pinned to the third roller. I wanted to keep the quilt off the floor as much as possible. Quilting on long arm quilter March 24, 2021. (Patty). 
• Binding by Aunt Linda. 
• QC by Mother and Sally

Top before Quilting

Backing before Quilting

Many Pins Required for a Big Quilt. I had to open a new package!

Going Smoothly!

Mother and Sally QC’ing

Marley, Michael and Victoria receiving the quilt.

Always Sunshine and Silver Linings (Baby Quilt for Grace; New Technique Piano Keys Border)

Cousin Kristi’s granddaughter Grace was born October 8, 2020. I thought the baby needed a quilt, the utility kind that you can put on the ground for the baby to roll around upon.

The name for this quilt came from the two fabric lines used to make it, “My Sunshine” is the 10” bright print layer cake used for the star and piano keys and “Silver Linings” is the off-white fat-quarter prints used for the background. I thought the names put together made a good wish for Baby Grace. From my stash, I added bright yellow and green prints for the solid borders and a bright pink print for the binding. 

I used a Bloc-Loc 9 1/2” Square Template to trim the blocks to the correct size. The Bloc-Loc templates (various sizes) are some of the best quilting tool purchases I’ve ever made. They really helped step up my half-square triangle game. The templates have a groove down the diagonal center that just fits the quarter-inch seam and hold the block exactly right during trimming. 

I made a “piano keys” border for the top and bottom to make the quilt a better crib size and less square. The borders were easy to make if a bit oddly proportioned. I knew the pieces would look like fat, short keys, but this size worked best for the overall proportion of the quilt. This was my first attempt at a piano-keys border (new technique).

• 44 1/2" x 52 3/4" Crib size
• Quilting: Quilted in a loose meander with occasional loop-de-loops.  Besides the signature rabbit, I also quilted “Grace”, the baby’s name. Used butter-colored 100% polyester thread (Omni from Superior Threads-named "Butter").  Free form quilting. 6 bobbins. Quilting by Patty.
• Backing: Pink flower print on a blue background from a Connecting Threads sale.
• Batting: 80% cotton/20% polyester. “Comfort Blend” from WinLine. Piece was left from a previous project.
• Binding: Bright pink cotton print from my stash.
• Pattern: "Morning Star Baby Quilt” by Amy Smart from the internet.  
• Piecing by Patty
• Pinned into frame January 29, 2021. Quilting on long arm quilter January 29- February 5, 2021. (Patty). 
• Binding by Patty. 
• QC by Spencer