Sewing Projects in 2018
Dogwood Blossom Quilt
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Ben's mother-in-law, Barbara Newman, helps raise funds for the "Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation" in Poughkeepsie, NY for the support of those effected by breast cancer in New York’s Hudson Valley. This year's donation could be a baby quilt or a wall hanging. It's a pattern I've wanted to make with paper-pieced curves for the points. I used pink fabrics collected for previous breast cancer projects. At the silent auction at their spring luncheon it raised $125. |
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My cousins Ben Schatz and Saskia Shuman had a baby daughter in August and I made her a quilt in the same size, shape and colors as the one I made for Ben back in 1983. In fact, the blue and yellow floral fabric around the yellow star is the same fabric saved from Ben's quilt. The hearts and her name and birth date are hand embroidered and the whole quilt is hand quilted. I was thrilled when Ben said they would hang it next to their son Jackie's quilt on their living room wall in their Brooklyn, NY apartment. |
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When Kate and Mark Reid told us their newly renovated vacation home on the shore in Rockport, MA would now have a master bedroom with their four-poster queen-size bed, I offered to make them a nautical theme quilt. We began planning in the fall with books from the Quilt Museum library and images from the internet. The design progressed using Electric Quilt 7 software. Kate and I shopped for fabrics together. I machine pieced the central mariner's compass using freezer paper templates. Then I inserted the circle into a 40 inch square of ships fabric. Next I machine paper pieced a border of twenty 5 inch stars around the compass. |
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The next challenge was the simulated rope applique border. It needed to be made of two strands of jumbo 1.5" wide polyester rick rack in off-white to match the light fabric in the compass and star points. Only white rick rack was available so I purchased 2 colors of special RIT dye for synthetic materials and got patiently coached by John in their customer service laboratory to dye the 14 yards of rick rack that I bought from JoAnn's fabric. It is machine stitched on the outside edges to the second border. The third and final border is pieced of more ships fabric with help from Kate to make sure the seams are invisible by matching the design very carefully. |
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Now that the top is complete, Kate and I are searching for the perfect fabric for the back, a talented commercial machine quilter to do custom quilting in the center and a watery quilting pattern on the outer border. Finally I'll add the binding and perhaps some throw pillows of the same fabrics with sailboats for fun. Watch for final photos next year. |
Updated December 2018
