Quilts

Cat-scrapaganza

This cat quilt was made for a good friend. I used the basic block from the pattern "Meow–a-pa-looza" by Laura Heisler. The fabric came from a big set of shirting scraps and small pieces I was given by another friend. I added my friend's two cats in the bottom right corner.

Hartman Triplet Quilts Bonus: Llama

A large pieced llama on a light lavendar background. She wears a blanket pieced of purple, pink, and blue strips. There are pompoms above and below her. A bonus quilt which accompanies the trio of quilts which I made for triplets born in 2019. This large llama, also from a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman, was made for their older sibling who was going from being an only child to the oldest of four. I found some really fun colors for the llama's embellishments.

Light and Shadow

A quilt made up of nearly log-cabin like blocks with rich medium-tone and dark-tone fabrics. Diagonal runs of small and medium white blocks separate them. The colorful bits make a kind of augmented plus sign between the diagonal rows. It's got quilting lines that form 90-degree diamonds with might more angular nested diamonds inside them. This was my first machine-quilted quilt, using the walking-foot method. I got it as a kit from another quilt guild member who was downsizing her stash. It's not quite a log cabin but feels log cabin-inspired. I was particularly drawn to the rich medium-tone colors in the kit.

Hartman Triplet Quilts: Foxes

A green quilt with three orange foxes on it. There orange, purple, and yellow flowers appliqued onto the quilt. The quilting is mostly done in straight, broad lines with some finer quilting on the foxes themselves. One of the flowers overlaps an orange border a little for whimsy. One of three quilts I made for triplets born in 2019. Each repeats a single animal three times. This uses a fox block pattern by Elizabeth Hartman, tripled and embellished with flowers.

Hartman Triplet Quilts: Hedgehogs

A quilt with three spiky hedgehogs on a rich green background. The top and bottom edges have borders of pieced mushrooms in purple, orange, and creams colors. There are clumps of applique mushrooms between and around the hedgehogs. One of three quilts I made for triplets born in 2019. Each repeats a single animal three times. This uses an hedgehog pattern by Elizabeth Hartman on a green background with pieced and applique mushrooms.

Hartman Triplet Quilts: Otters

Three pieced otters float on a variegated blue background evoking water. Borders above and below them are pieced fish in purple, orange, and yellow. A set of appliqued 3D fish and turtles swim around them. One of three quilts I made for triplets born in 2019. Each repeats a single animal three times. This uses an otter block pattern by Elizabeth Hartman on a bubbly-ish water background with other water creatures.

Bulls (Still) on Parade, or, Rage Against the Budget(s)

A throw-sized quilt being held in the sunlight. The words Weapons Not Food Not Homes Not Shoes Not Need are pieced in a white cotton fabric with little red flowers on a deepl and blood-like red background. On the left side, punctuating each line like bullet points, are appliqued bombs, again in white fabric with red flower prints on a black background. The lyrics of Rage Against the Machine's 1996 "Bulls on Parade" have been in my head quite a bit as I've watched budgets and bombs over the last couple years. I raided my fabric stash and inscribed what I was thinking and feeling into this quilt. It's going to my church for now, as a hanging.

Fence Flags

A small quilt which appears to show the side of a house (with white siding) and a rather basic light blue fence which comes up in a point on the left side, then has a circle effectively connecting two points on the right. Another mini quilt from in 2020. There were only so many places we could walk and all but one of them took us past this neighbor. Their blue fence had a gorgeous circular gate. A row of prayer flags hung between their main house and an outbuilding. I combined the two in this very small quilt.

Batik Geese

A large square quilt draped over a porch railing. The quilt is bright jewel-toned batiks in pinks and blues and greens and yellows especially on a black background. Bigger triangles form diamond shapes around central black diamonds that are set in multi-colored batik squares. I don't have a name for this quilt, but the base block is one I'd call "Big Goose, Little Goose" (there may be a name I'm blanking on). It's just that, repeated and arranged so the big geese form diamonds and the little ones form up around them. I saw a photo online and felt inspired by the idea. I started it in Indiana and finished after moving to PA. It was a trade to a friend for a 1913 Singer treadle sewing machine which had been in the family for several generations. Her house and aesthetic really give off "jewel tone" and I was inspired by the vibrancy of these batiks. While they're washed out in a few pictures, I think you can pick it up from all the photos I've included here. The pieced back includes wool scraps we found in the drawers of the treadle's cabinet. They appear to be from men's trousers which someone had hemmed.. Also a 2018 selfie of me.

All Hallows Garden

A throw-size quilt hangs on a porch railing in the evening sun. It's made up of 9 large motif blocks set on point as diamonds with small motif blocks between them and out to the brown broder. The large blocks are stars with alternating purple and orange points, like a striped flower. The alternating blocks are green pinwheels with a green border. The effect is a bit like a neatly-planted garden with green separating the flowers. This quilt sat partially-finished for many years, I think between 2012 or 2013 and 2017, when I finished it while living in Indiana. I took the repeating star and pinwheel pattern of the "All Hallows Variation" examples I saw on Quilter's Cache and asked myself "but what if it were flowers in a garden?" I saw the pinwheels as leaves enclosed by borders of more leaves separating the flowers. Looking at it now, I could also see doing the pinwheels in pink. I finished assembling blocks and border while in Indiana, then quilted it and donated it to the Michiana Relief Sale.