Sewing Projects in 2022
An antique top gets quilted
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This small quilt top of fabrics dated around 1900 was found in my friend Edith Smith's old farmhouse by her family after she died in late 2015. They didn't think she'd made it and didn't want it. I added batting and fabric for the back and then it waited for another 6 years. I finally finished hand quilting it in interlocking circles in February 2022. Since it's not large or sturdy enough to be a comfort quilt, I donated it to the New England Quilt Museum store to sell as a wall hanging. It's 43 inches square and priced at $125 or best offer. It hasn't sold yet. Let me know if you'd like it. |
Diagonal Stripe Batik from Africa
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My neighbor Betty Wilhelmsen worked as a nurse on the Hope Ship for a year in West Africa in 1965 before she married. She bought a dress length of diagonal stripe batik cotton in a market in Sierra Leone and gave it to me 57 years later. I used most of it to make this comfort quilt for Concord Piecemakers. The stripes went all the same way but batik is the same on both sides of the fabric. So when I cut it into horizontal slices and turned half of them over and sewed them back together, I was able to make this zigzag pattern. I quilted by machine between the stripes and by hand in red through the navy stripes to add color. The binding also changes color as it goes around the edge of the quilt. |
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With the smaller pieces left from that project, I made a wall-hanging for Betty's dining room. I played with the remaining pieces and found I could make a mirror image design that worked well. On this quilt I machine quilted using heavier red thread to outline all the stripes, then inserted a narrow piece of red fabric inside the border to match the binding for more brightness. I like the way the batik looks like one color lays over the other as a transparency. That's not really happening, just the way the fabric was dyed. |
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Betty also bought this daishiki panel in the market in Sierra Leone. I loved the colors and used it to make a jacket and matching reversible vest. There wasn't enough solid blue fabric for the whole project so I bought the nearest blue I could find and put a narrow strip of red between the daishiki blue and the purchased blue to set them apart. I used the same red to trim the edges of the matching vest. |
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The reverse side of the vest is made from reproduction antique fabrics in a patchwork pattern copied from an antique quilt top I admired. The pink fabric was a gift from my friend Peggy Blumenthal's visit to Old Sturbridge Village with her grandchildren in 2019. I have 4 different sweaters matching these colors. It's great to pack for traveling. |
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Last spring, Concord Piecemakers Quilt Guild decided to make comfort quilts to ship to Ukraine. Beginning in May we made blocks in 3", 6" and 9" sizes with yellow and blue fabrics and any pattern. When met again in June, we arranged our blocks to make 5 quilts. I took one of them home to assemble, quilt, and finish by September. They all got donated to "Wrap Ukraine in Quilts" a charity based in Utah that's shipped over 16,000 quilts so far. |
Granny Square Quilt for Shoshana
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I love making quilts but my kids have made it clear that they don't want to inherit a mountain of finished projects from me some day. Every new quilt needs a destination outside my house. I've already made a quilt for Shoshana's mother Lori in 2013 and one for her sister Hannah in 2020. When I saw this quilt pattern that imitates Granny Square afghans, I wanted to make it just for fun. I decided it would be for Shoshana, a school art teacher. Lori helped me arrange the fabrics for the 12 blocks at Timberlock this summer where she coincidentally was crocheting granny squares to make herself a sweater at the same time. I hand quilted around each color with variegated thread to repeat all the bright colors. |
Elijah's Green Kippah
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When Elijah participated in the Simchat Torah service where the new religious school students were consecrated, he wore a bright red satin kippah that Jonathan had saved from a cousin's bat mitzvah. That was good because Bob and I could spot him in the crowd as we watched on zoom. Larissa told me that he'd like a green kippah (his favorite color) and I offered him this one that I'd also saved from another cousin's bat mitzvah. When I asked if he'd like it to be embroidered, he said, "Yes Please" and I was thrilled. He chose blue thread and I put a star on the top and 6 more around the edge in a border. I also stitched a label inside telling the story of the project. Maybe some day he'll show it to his child or grandchild, saying this was a gift from his Bubi. |
Mill Girl Quilt Shop UFO
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My friend Carolyn Millard died this year and my friend Cheryl Williams volunteered to help her family donate her remaining quilting supplies and unfinished projects. Cheryl gave me this one to complete, knowing I like yellow and blue fabrics. Carolyn had made 11 of the blocks once a month with patterns from the Mill Girl Quilts shop in North Chelmsford in 2001. With 2 blue fabrics from Cheryl and suggestions for the arrangement and quilting pattern (zig zags) from Eileen Ryan, this quilt became a comfort quilt from Concord Piecemakers Quilt Guild. |
Updated December 2022
