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The first quilt was made for my Aunt Patti & Uncle Jerry.  Patti sent me a picture of a quilt she liked in an artist’s open studio that was made using batiks with circles.  So, I whipped up this wall hanging with some batiks I had.  I decided to to add the circles using raw edge applique because I haven’t quite managed circles yet.  I’d really like to learn how to piece circles sometime this year, but for now raw edge applique works for wall hangings.

I have to give a shout out to Weeks & Bill Ringle of Funquilts for their amazing binding method.  I definitely still have room for improvement, but I’m really happy with this method of binding.

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The next project was a set of rag letters for my great nephew, my niece, and a daughter of a dear friend from high school.  I’ve read research about the benefits of tactile manipulation of letters in improving the understanding of kiddos learning their letters and thought these would be perfect for the little ones in my life.  They’re pretty time consuming to make but are great ways to use up small pieces of fabric and batting.  I also got to practice my free motion quilting and tried doing different patterns for each letter.  Here’s a link to the blog, Ohsohappytogether where I found the tutorial: Rag Letters Tutorial.  I made little drawstring bags to hold the letters using an alphabet fabric which I think complements the rag letters perfectly

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The next project was for my Mom and Grandma, rice heat therapy bags.  These bags are great for aches and pains, they contain rice which  holds heat for about a half an hour after 2-3 minutes in the microwave.  I love to heat one up and put it under the sheets a few minutes before I go to bed in the winter, it heats those cold sheets up right away!  It’s very easy to make, but while the tutorial recommends putting essential oils in with the rice I found that to be too overpowering and  instead I cut up dried cinnamon sticks and put a few tablespoons of those in with the rice.  The tutorial is available from Sew, Mama Sew!

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I made the next quilt for my Dad for Christmas.  I used all blue fabrics for the star pattern.  The back is a much more modern look with solid blocks of color.  I have to say that the back is a bit more up my alley, but I think Dad will prefer the front.   A friend from my quilt guild, Beth, helped me pick out the binding color which picks up a green some of the fabrics in the stars and gives the quilt a crisp, but slightly surprising edging.

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I made a zig zag block using three Kaffe Fassett patterns in blues. My inspiration for the block came from two hippos who makes simply amazing quilts!

I received a block with gorgeous, rich colors from Yolande, and I hope to do it justice! I’m thinking about how to continue the hexagon pattern she has started…

So, one of the couples just had a baby in January, Olivia, you can see her with the quilt I made for her birth here. So, since I’m going to see her this weekend, I decided to maker her an elephant! Here’s some pics of it, I definitely did much better on this one than on the prototype. Now I need to make one for my new nephew, Asher, also born in January.

I used brown and white felt for the eyes this time, I think they turned out well!

I used green yarn for the elephant's tail, and even though it doesn't match exactly I think it looks cute

Here’s the elephant I made for Asher, pretty cute

But the quilts, oh the quilts, they were incredible.  By the way – if you want to see more detail on any of these quilts, just click on the image and it will enlarge.

These first few quilts are antiques – all over 100 years old, and some closer to 200 years old.

This quilt, Petal Palette created by Jean Smith in Florida, was my favorite of the more modern quilts at the show.  I’ve included a shot of the detailed embroidery in one of the petals below.

Crocus by Maggie Weiss of Evanston, IL. I love the contrasting greens and purples in this modern design.  I need to look up more of her work, she’s just a hop, skip, and a jump away!

Grape Hyacinth and Tiny Dancer both by Margo Fiddes of Edmonton, Alberta. These are lovely, bright, and bold while impressionistically portraying the flowers.

Grid Growth by Margie Davidson of Edmonton, Alberta – (second image is closeup).  I really like the juxtaposition of the organic leaves in this quilt with the structured grids.  The embroidery work on the leaves is beautiful.

The next quilt was created by a group of twenty quilters in Canada.  They chose a painting by a Canadian artist, Anne Savage’s Saint Sauveur, and cut it up in to twenty pieces which they created independently.  Then they rejoined all of the pieces in to the quilt below – and it turned out so amazingly lovely!

Seven Steps to… By Laura Libigs Colby of Holiday Island, AK.  This quilt is more realistic than a lot of the modern quilts I liked at the show, but I love the colors used and how the leaves feel so three dimensional on the quilt.

Five Pebbles by Dianne Firth of Turner Canberra, Australia.  Ms. Firth describes her quilt as embodying the character and quality of water flowing around pebbles in a stream.  The embroidery work is just amazing.

Evening Dandies-Lions, that is!  By Leighton Taylor of Indianapolis, Indiana.  What a creative and artistic quilt!  I was pleasantly surprised by the lions’ faces in the dandelions!

Autumn Rainbow by Debbie Cimaglio of Gurnee, IL

Bridging the Gap by Robin Robboy of Decatur, GA

Focal Point by Sylvain Bergeron of Oswego, IL.  This quilt just blew me away.  It won third prize in computer aided machine embroidery.  The quilt uses five waves of color – four that start in the corners and one that starts in the middle.  You can see the different colors and how they interact in the close up images.

Quilts for Kids distributes quilts to kids in need — whether they be in hospitals or shelters — around the country. They supply the fabric and suggested pattern for a small-ish quilt (36-40″ x 45-46″), you supply the batting. They also encourage volunteers to contribute an additional quilt of their own to “double the number of children we are able to wrap quilts around.”

The quilt supplies for my two quilts for kids arrived while I was in Columbus! Here’s what came in the package – enough pre-cut fabric for two baby quilts and a label, with directions on making a simple quilt.

Fabrics for the Quilt