FAOL Memorial Raffle Quilt

This quilt was made for the FAOL James Birkholm Memorial Raffle. The proceeds of the raffle, which includes many other items, will be used to purchase an engraved stone bench, honoring Jim.

The proceeds also will be used to pay for Deanna, Jim's widow, to come to the 2010 Michigan Fish-In, where the bench will be dedicated. The bench will be placed at Gates' Lodge, on the banks of the AuSable river, in Grayling, Michigan, the home of the fish-in.








This is a close up of the Heron, showing the thread painting of the feathers on the chest.

















This close up of the turtles shows the quilting of the current in the water. The fabric used for the turtles' shells started out as a black and white leopard print that I colored with Prismacolor Markers. Each section of the shells is a separate piece of fabric, joined and sewn to the background fabric.

I absolutely love this quilt and have thoroughly enjoyed making it, I almost hate to give it up!

Dolphin Dreams

I've finally finished the quilt for my granddaughter, Correen's birthday. Unfortunately, that was on March 26, but I was unable to get done before now because of health issues. Correen had requested a dolphin so she could hang it in their new house. I hope she enjoys it as much as I had fun making it!

The dolphin is done with needle turned applique and is padded to be three dimensional. The other fish and coral reef items are all fused applique, then I used a small zig zag stitch to secure them and quilt them at the same time. The seaweed is done with eyelash yarn, two pieces sewn down together, with the very tops left loose to blow in the breeze, to give motion to the quilt.











The dolphin is from the Jan/Feb 2008 Applique Society newsletter, the pattern, Sparkle and Friend by Kathy McNeil.










Here is a close up showing the seaweed, eyelash yarn.








I used the pillow method of finishing the edges of the quilt so that I could have the bottom follow the line of the coral wreath, which was fused and then stitched down.

Old but New

I completed this quilt two years ago and had not put it on my blog because I had hoped to send it out to some shows. Unfortunately, because of my health issues, and being unable to work, I've not been able to afford to do that, so I finally decided to put it up here so that eveyone could enjoy it as much as I have.

It took me 18 months to complete this quilt. That's from it's the design, to finding all 23 white on white fabrics and 16 black on black fabrics for making the cranes. I actually spent 3 hours picking just the colors for the sunset background and the border. I'm sure the owner of the quilt store thought I would never get finished pulling fabrics and lining them up on the floor.

This close up shows the strip piecing of the background, all the strips were 1 1/2 inches wide. The sun was done the same way and then I put irridescent beads around the edge of the sun. I used a crystal bead for the cranes's eyes and then did black irridescent beads around the crystal to give them a lively look.

For the quilting in the sky I did wavy lines to suggest air movement.

I did free motion bamboo quilting in the border, using a variegate thread. I love it.




















There are over 150 pieces in the three cranes, appliqued together and onto the quilt background. I had to put batting between the birds and the background to block out the background colors and to help give dimension to the birds' feathers.




















Though it doesn't show up really well in the pictures, I also used colored pencils to help define the edges and shadows of the feathers, and to define the difference between the white parts of the cranes, like the head and the back.















The pebble effect quilting of the ground under the cranes' feet was done free motion, continuous line, with the pebbles being larger at the bottom and getting smaller the farther up I went, to give a sense of dimension to the "ground".

This quilt was truly a work of love, and had been talking to me in my head for over a year before I actually started gathering the supplies and actually working on it. I think this is one of my best pieces so far.

The Raffle Quilt Is Finished!

Whew! I finally have finished the Kalamazoo Log Cabin Quilter's 2009 Raffle Quilt! This was a real challenge for me as I usually do much smaller quilts. This quilt was adapted from Carol Doak's Michigan Star pattern, from her 50 Fabulous Stars book.

I chose this block to adapt since Kalamazoo is in Michigan. The way I adapted the paper pieced pattern was to eliminate the center part so that we could use a solid piece of fabric for the applique of the apple blossoms. I designed the applique pattern. Apple blossoms are Michigan's state flower.

Though they don't show in the pictures, because the quilter used blue thread, there are outlines of robins in the corners of the outer border. Robins are Michigan's state bird.

The paper piecing and applique was done by members of the Kalamazoo Log Cabin Quilters. The quilting was done by Karen Kortman, a member and owner of the Bernina Store in Kalamazoo. She did a great job!

The proceeds from the raffle ticket sales will be going to local charities. This quilt will be given away at our biannual quilt show this October.

Raffle Quilt

I haven't posted in quite a while, but I had a good excuse! I've been working on the Raffle quilt for the Kalamazoo Log Cabin Quilters, my local guild. I'm chairman for this year's quilt, which will be given at our show in October of this year.

The pattern was adapted from Carol Doak's Michigan Star, in her "50 Fabulous Stars" book. In the original paper pieced pattern, the blue block in the center of each square was pieced. Because I wanted the apple blossom (Michigan's state flower) applique there I had to adapt the block so we could use a solid piece of fabric for the applique.

The geometric outside portions of the block were paper pieced and were done by many members of the guild. I designed the inner (green) border so the red triangle would produce a diamond like those between the blocks.

The two pictures are of the top, draped over tables at the Bernina Store in Kalamazoo, MI. The owner, Karen Kortman, also a guild member, will be doing the quilting for us. She does really beautiful work and I am looking forward to see what she designs to enhance the pattern. She was really excited when she saw the quilt, and wants to own it herself, as do I. I'm sure we'll sell lots of tickets this year!

Productive Day

Last weekend I went to the Quilts On The Grand quilt show in Grand Rapids, MI. While there we (hubby & I) saw a great cutting system and my husband bought it for me for my birthday (a month early!) It's called the Quilt Cut2 system. It has a board that the cutting mat is attached to, it also has a system for holding your fabric in place so that you can cut quickly. It comes with a T-square "bar" that you cut against (you can also set it at different angles), and an adjustable ruler that allows you to make repeated cuts easily and quickly.

Using this system I cut strips from 30 yards of fabric, in about two hours. The strips were for my guild's raffle quilt and they will be cut into smaller pieces to be used for paper piecing the blocks.

In two hours, three freinds from the Log Cabin Quilters of Kalamazoo and I cut all the strips and helped me to prepare the packets of parts for our 2009 raffle quilt, which I am chairing. It's surprising how fast you can get so much done. Once we had the fabric all cut, we lined all the bits up and stuffed the baggies, assembly line fashion. We had great time and it was a lot of fun working with good friends.

I adapted a pattern from Carol Doak's 50 Fabulous Stars book, and we are doing the Michigan star. There will be apple blossoms appliqued in the center of each block and we will have robins quilted in the corners of the outer border. This will truly be a Michigan quilt!

As soon as I have one of the blocks completed I will post it here.

Today's A Sad Day

I'm very sad today because I had to have my cat Bouncer put down. He was fine when we left for a fun weekend on Friday. When we got home last night it was clear he was in great pain and very sick. He had a large swelling on the right side of his face and under his chin and had nasty drainage from his mouth. The vet said that she could not see any problems with his gums and thought that he must have had some kind of tumor that got necrotic and he became septic over the weekend while we were gone.

Bouncer was 4 years old and was a great, loving cat, though a bit on the stupid side. I often jokingly called him my rock, as in dumb as a rock, but I loved him dearly.

I still have one other cat, Peek A Boo, who is 12 years old and very healthy. Of course we thought he was, too. So today I'm cleaning carpets from where his drainage leaked from his mouth and washing all the bedding, since that was his favorite place to lay. It will take a few days, but I know life must go on.