Back To School

It's that time of year again--Back To School!  Love those words!  In fact, I love school so much, I became an elementary school teacher and taught first grade in the inner city for a number of years.  As a tribute to those years, would like to offer you a chance to travel back in time and revisit the quilts I made for various schools.  Come and join me in my time machine and we'll set the dial to February, 1995.....

For my last year in Camden, had each class contribute a crayoned block of what Black History meant to them:

Polaroids don't scan that well....

Everyone seemed very happy with this quilt!  It was intended it to be a present for H. B. Wilson Elementary School, but the Camden Board of Education liked it so much they hung it in their offices.  They even called the Courier Post!  The kids were so proud their efforts were in the newspaper!

When our oldest daughter entered first grade, I offered to make a thank you gift for her teacher.  It was her first year teaching and she did a wonderful job.  Each child made their own block and I assembled it.  She felt so appreciated!

Each of the children's names are quilted in the borders.

 For the second grade teacher, we made a quilt as a family for lovely Mrs. Pliner.  Time was short, so Paul helped me clip the seams on this rag-style quilt--I have the best husband ever!

Mrs. Pliner has a room in her house dedicated to school related items and this quilt hangs proudly there.  Every time she walks by, she remembers how much she is loved.









Third grade rolled around pretty quickly!  This year's teacher was also a farmer.  And a man.  Certainly did present something of a challenge making a masculine quilt, but didn't want him to feel left out.  Maybe his wife would appreciate it?

The star centers were the phrases he often used in his class.

The backing fabric was John Deere tractors--perfect for a farmer's quilt!

The following year, the room parents remembered my ability to quilt and recruited me to make another quilt for the teacher.  Unfortunately, we had a terrible car accident and my collar bone and foot were broken.....and the quilt wasn't quite done being quilted.  I asked a dear friend and exceptional quilter to finish the names in the border for me and she did a wonderful job.  In all the excitement, I'm not sure where the picture of the finished quilt is, but I still have the EQ design so you can get an idea of what it looked like:

Imagine fourth grade art work in the blank squares.

On a recent Back To School night, we went to visit this quilt and were horrified at what we saw...almost can't type it.....those of you with sensitive stomachs may want to look away for the next few sentences......in spite of the hanging sleeve on the back of this quilt, the teacher cut two holes in the corners so she could hang it by two hooks. I was in total disbelief she would CUT holes in a quilt!  People really need to be educated in quilt care!



Imagine my surprise when the next year's room parents remembered I had made "thank you" quilts for teachers!!  This particular year was our older daughter's last year in elementary school, so I was willing to make what I thought would be one more quilt.  And, since our younger daughter started kindergarten that same year, I didn't want her teacher to feel left out, so I did one for her class, too.  My mantra that year was, "What was I thinking??"

The fifth grade quilt

The dedication blocks

Detail of our daughter's block.

The teacher seemed pleased to receive the quilt and the kids were so proud to present her with such a keepsake.

Here are some pictures of the kindergarten teacher's quilt:

The teacher just loved all things Disney!

Have to say, the kindergarten teacher gave the most enthusiastic reaction I've ever experienced when presenting a quilt!  She bounced up and down and hugged me so hard--it was wonderful to see someone so happy!

If we continue on our time travel adventure, fast forward to 2009.  A few years had passed and I took a break from making teacher quilts, mostly because many of the teachers already had one! One day, I received a phone call from the art teacher asking if I'd be willing to work with her to create a quilt for the district art festival.  Of course, I would!  At the time, I was also the president of Love Apple Quilters and those generous ladies were always looking for a community service project.

Money was limited, so I hand-dyed muslin and Love Apples contributed all the fruit and veggie fabric they could find.  The block was designed to allowed for all 100 students in the fifth grade to contribute their own fabric art.

Here is Marlton Elementary School's "Farm Fresh Fifth Grade":

A Love Apple donated her awesome quilting, but would prefer to remain anonymous--talented and generous!

A special group of fifth graders were selected to draw the alphabet letters and their accompanying fruit.  Turned out to be a great cultural experience, including tasting a variety of new foods.  Loved hearing the kids tell their parents about the quilt and showing off what they made.

Since the 2010 project went so well and our youngest daughter was in fifth grade, it was suggested I would also make the 2011 district art project.  Mrs. Gordon  decided our project would be influenced by the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, and the students did a fantastic job!

"Fifth Grade Fantasy Flowers"

Again, the budget was tight, so I hand-dyed the muslin, but that allowed for custom colors.  The kids used paintsticks to achieve these fantastic fantasy flowers.

Well, our faithful time machine has brought us back to the present.  Hope you've enjoyed our little journey! I've never seen all these quilts together and am amazed at how much my style has changed and grown over the last sixteen years.  Wonder what the next sixteen will bring?

As a quilter, please consider sharing your artistic endeavors with as many children as possible--they are the quilters of the future!

Fifth Grade Art Project 2011--Part II

You may remember from an earlier post I've been honored for a second year to help our elementary school's art department by tuning their original art into a quilt ( Fifth Grade Art Project ).  Well, it's been stitched, quilted, bound, sleeved, labeled and is now ready to go on display!

Think Friedensreich Hundertwasser would be very pleased!

The students did a fantastic job capturing Hundertwasser's vision under the art direction of Mrs. Randi Gordon at Marlton Elementary School.  Each child made a flower with paint sticks to keep with this year's art festival theme, "Fantasy Flowers."

Flowers lend themselves to bugs, so I took some liberties with the quilting and included a critter or two.

A tiny spider's web and spider....

A butterfly looking for a good place to land...

And a dragonfly near our daughter Sarah's flower.

Given our Sarah's intense dislike for spiders, she requested a dragonfly near her flower.  The spider and his web were banished to the other side of the quilt.

Sarah is going to be a demonstrator at the art festival this year, showing others how to create a gargoyle like hers!  She is thrilled with this special honor and thankful for the opportunity!  (Pictures will follow!)

Love Apples Quilt Show--March 26-27, 2011

Love Apple Quilters put on their biannual quilt show this past weekend, welcoming over a thousand visitors to view nearly 300 quilts on display made by its members!  The hard work of the Quilt Show committee, led by Mary Cahilly, produced a show far exceeding everyone's imagination.  Not only am I very proud to be a Love Apple, but am humbled to be the president of an organization filled with talented quilters.

We were thrilled to see an eager crowd fill the lobby and spill into the parking lot Saturday morning!  Some came to see the quilts, some to cheer on family members displaying quilts and some to visit one of the many vendors--regardless of the reason, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and passed along positive comments to anyone who would listen.

One of the many vendors

Some even found a comfortable seat for a quick rest--looking at 300 quilts can be exhausting!

Junior Quilts were exhibited by new quilters aged 8 to 15 to encourage the next generation of Love Apples....

Made by a quilter age 11

Made by a quilter age 10

Here are a few of the quilts I entered:

"Acorns and Oak Leaves" made from fabrics purchased in Ireland

A mystery quilt quilted by Leanna Spanner of Anilee Creations

"Sedona Sunset"

Worked very hard on "Sedona Sunset."  My DH purchased this kit for me while we were in Sedona at Quilter's Store Sedona & Gallery in 2008.  Took me two years to get up enough courage to cut into all those gorgeous batiks.  Jill Boyd and Patty Krause are exceptional designers and the directions were very clear (with all the pieces in each block and fabric variations, it could have been a disaster!).  Not only was there built-in fabric "insurance"  in case of a cutting error, but each fabric was marked to correspond with the pattern--with all the slight color variations, those cute little stickers were a huge stress reducer! 

Some detail of the quilting

Close up of the sunburst in the center of the quilt

Spent several days quilting and finished just in time for the show!  Am thrilled all the effort paid off in the form of a "Vendor's Choice" ribbon from the Village Quilter in Mount Holly, NJ!

To date, my "Sedona Sunset" quilt is the most complicated quilt I've ever attempted and now it's time to seek out a new challenge.  As I keep looking, think I'll quilt all those tops I've accumulated and reduce my UFO pile.  (Starting to run out of walls to hang quilts and am pretty sure my DH isn't going to build another addition to the house!)

Thank you for reading to the end of my brief summary of our quilt show!  Hope you can join us next time!  If you're interested in becoming a Love Apple and share in the fun of putting on a big quilt show, check out our website, Love Apple Quilters .

Love Apple Quilters 2011 Challenge

This quilt show's challenge was "A Tisket, A Tasket, Looks What's In My Basket."  There were only a few rules that we had to follow--144 inches in perimeter, a basket with something in it and had to be turned in on-time.

My challenge is named "A Tisket, A Tasket, Oops!  I Spilled My Basket!"  My dear husband and I sketched it out over lunch one day and he named it.  It was fun to play with colors and scale to make it look like the blocks were falling off the quilt.  Guess it turned out to be something of a quilted collage since the blocks are barely stitched down, some corners flapping in the breeze to a completed quilt of a basket made of low contrast fabrics.

Am pleased to report that the guild liked my entry, giving me a second place ribbon! 

Red And White Quilt--Wish You Well

To celebrate the opening of Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts at the American Folk Art Museum in NYC, we're blogging about our red and white quilts and having a virtual quilt show on the Repro Quilt Lover.

This quilt is my own design and was entered in Love Apple Quilters 2007 quilt challenge. Am pleased to say  it won an Honorable Mention.  Louise McDonough design talents show in the machine embroidery designs.

Notebook Quilt

Love Apple Quilters is having an October challenge making a "Notebook Quilt." Seemed like a perfect way to try out a technique I learned several years ago at Quilt University. The technique involves a tracing of a photograph and machine applique. (You should really take the class--it's fascinating!)

Wanted to incorporate my flowers into my quilting, so took a host of pictures looking for one that was simple enough to finish in a limited amount of time. My fifteen year old hibiscus proved to be a perfect candidate. Of course, this past summer wasn't very sunny, so the leaves are a less than perfect. Was excited for the chance to use some of my hand-dyed fabrics, but putting scissors to them was not easy!

Got to work, tracing, cutting, stitching, outlining and trimming. With very well-written directions, the learning curve was kind and I made only a few mistakes and easily recovered.

Here's how it turned out:

Happily finished putting the last few beads to realize that the challenge required the object to be oriented in a vertical position. Ugh!! With the excitement of finally doing a project I had waited to do for over a year, getting my flowers in fabric and using my hand-dyed fabrics, completely forgot to look at the directions one more time!

Hope the kids don't realize I didn't follow directions! Perhaps I should listen to myself when singing the virtues of reading the requirements before starting the project!

Quilt As You Go

As Love Apple Quilters' workshop chair, I have the pleasure of scheduling the talented ladies from our guild to teach at our affordable Saturday workshops several times a year. Thankfully, the ladies are very vocal in what they want to take as a class and this project was one of those requests.

Having never made a "quilt as you go," had to conquer the learning curve before I could teach the class. Thought I would keep it simple by making a lap quilt. Used 1 1/2 yards of backing, comparable sized batting and a kit for a rag quilt that I got on clearance at the NJ Quilt Show. The rag quilt strips were cut in 2 1/2", 3 1/2" and 4 1/2" strips--perfect! The strips could run from selvage to selvage and be added easily to lengthen the quilt.

The hardest part of this lap quilt was stuffing it into the sewing machine while keeping the backing/batting from puckering. I used basting safety pins to keep the batting and backing smooth, but it seemed like spray adhesive would work well, too. And, since the kit was flannel, it was a bit steamy binding it in July.

Knowing that I haven't given my sweet nephew a quilt in the past month or two, this one is for him. It has little rocket men, stars and trains on the back. (Seems like a strange combination, but he just loves trains! Maybe some day, he'll like spaceships, too!)

Quilt Store Inspiration

In years past, I made most of my Christmas presents, but now my list is long and I don't enjoy the luxury of time I once did. Not expecting to make any more presents this season, I needed to take a trip to the Village Quilter for my monthly fix--my Buck A Block and peruse through the store to see what is new. Kind of a mini vacation that I take once a month to a quiet fabric filled paradise.

This trip something caught my eye--a cute fabric with an assortment blond, brunette and red-headed skaters. Since one of her granddaughters is red-headed, one a brunette and her grandson red-headed, it seemed like the perfect gift for my mother. Add in the artwork, reminiscent of a favorite childhood card game we would play of little kids taking dragons for a walk, it was sure to be a hit.

Susan suggested a piano key border, so I picked out some complimentary fabrics. Was able to assemble the top in a Sunday afternoon, but finishing it was tricky. With all the necessary Christmas preparation, pagents and concerts, time was at a premium. So, another deadline was missed and now it is a New Year's present.

Expecting this entry to be the last for this year, but looking forward to many more finished projects to post in 2009!

One Less UFO

This Christmas wall-hanging is one that took far too long to be finished. While at a quilt show, my mother saw this quilt kit and asked me to finish it for her. Of course! The fabrics were so beautiful--an assortment of greens, lovely background and a wonderful border print. Did find out, however, that the instructions had some serious flaws. Took me quite a while to recover from their miscalculations. Really wish that pattern designers would test their patterns more! Nothing is more frustrating than trying to recover from mistakes.

Did run into a glitch or two of my own when I went to quilt it. Prairie points and a machine quilting frame are a tricky combination. Had to finish the quilt while sitting at a machine which takes much longer. After a while, late is late, so one does the best they can.

Happily, it is now done and I can give it to my mother and before this Christmas--only several Christmases late!

Bull's Eye Quilt

Finishing this quilt is sort of closing a chapter on a very trying time in my life. The girls and I were hit head-on by a truck which resulted in several broken bones, one of which was my collar bone.

A friend of mine had made this same quilt and had given me the pattern years ago. I had started collecting all kinds of homespuns, but there were so many other projects on the list before it. After the accident, accurate piecing was not an option while in a sling, so this simple pattern of sewing circles was perfect. Once the piecing was done, the dilemma of how to quilt it presented itself. Played with many designs, but had to pick one that was easy to do on my Little Gracie frame. With only 9 inches of quilting space under my Brother 1500, it was a challenge to do a complimentary design. Opted to go more primitive, since that seemed to be the feel of the quilt.

Every time I worked on this quilt, it brought back unpleasant memories of the accident. After three years, decided that it was time to put the accident behind me and finish the quilt. Now it is done and will bring warmth and new memories to those who use it.

Fall Wall-hanging Swap

One of the fun activities Block Buddies sponsors is periodic wall-hanging swap. We all do our best work in creating a simple project that can be used as a reminder of the friends we have all over the world.

This year, I made a Nancy Halverson design from her Autumn book. Used the machine applique technique I learned in Karen Kay Buckley's workshop to do the angels. To save on time, the embroidery machine did a wonderful job on the lettering. Was very pleased with how all the colors came together, especially since I did not buy a single piece of fabric to complete this project--a personal first!!

Quick, Before He's in High School!

Well, it's finally done! When my brother and sister-in-love called me back in February to tell me that they were expecting their first child, "excited" is an understatement! Our guild was having a quilt show the next day, so I searched out the vendor that would have the best fabric to welcome this little love. My brother is a history major and it made sense to pick reproduction fabrics. Since the gender was unknown, red and blue fat quarter packs to make a controlled scrappy quilt seemed to fit the bill. Found the baby "talking quilt" package and then set out to create a design.

Unfortunately, after the quilt show I experienced significant back problems and subsequent back surgery, which delayed its completion. Did manage to finish a couple "drag around" quilts, but wanted him to have a quilt that told him how much he was loved, literally.

My brother and sister-in-love honored my hubby and I in asking us to be their pride and joy's godparents, so the quilt needed to be done. Didn't quite get done in time for the baptism--not for lack of trying. On second thought, this plan may work out just fine--a quiet time as a family without the audience of a party.

So, tomorrow morning, the quilt is going to live at its new home, where a sweet little boy can drag it around and enjoy it for a long time to come.

Noah's Ark Ensemble

After taking more time than I care to remember, my new nephew's bedroom wall hanging and curtains are finally finished. Thank heavens for an understanding brother and sister-in-love!

The theme for the room is Noah's Ark, complete with happy animals looking through portholes, two by two. Had just enough fabric to make two valances for the windows with a complimentary fabric. The wall hanging was a panel with a boatload of happy critters, all outlined quilted. Verses from Genesis 9 were quilted in the borders along with the baby's name.

Now the happy little baby will have smiling animals and the Word of God surrounding him while he spends time in his room!