Sunrise and Sunset

I’ve recently finished these two commissioned quilts. My client has two spare bedrooms with a bathroom in between. She wanted two related quilts and I was originally going to use some Ghanaian fabric that her daughter had purchased in Ghana. My ideas for incorporating the African fabric were not resonating, so my client decided to ditch the idea of African themed quilts. When I showed her photos of my Tropical Matrix quilt made from my template-free Op-Art Kaleidoscope blocks, she loved it and decided that she’d like similar quilts. I’ve been collecting hand-dyed fabrics for several years, mostly purchased from Judy Robertson who would come to our local annual quilts shows as a vendor. The block design lends itself well to using these fabrics. The border fabrics are also hand-dyed and were from Cherrywood. Sunrise has a soft color palette with a blue border, and Sunset with purple borders tends more towards the brighter oranges. The quilts are around 75″ x 75″ and sit on top of the king sized beds. They were both beautifully long-arm quilted by Wanda Rains. The Op-Art Kaleidoscope technique is illustrated in my videos and the pattern is available at my on-line store.

Teddy Bear and Doll Quilts

I’ve used most of my left over rogue quilt blocks and a few odd samples from workshops that I’ve taken to make little teddy bear and doll quilts. These are a great way to use up scraps and I also had several odd four-patches ready to go that were left over from all the baby quilts we made to send to Mongolia last year. My local quilt guild, Kitsap Quilters’ Guild, collects these from our members and donates them to Kitsap Community Services. We wrap teddies and dolls in these little quilts and our local police, firefighters and social workers give them to kids who are in distress or in traumatic situations. I recently delivered this pile of 13 quilts to our guild representative who coordinates this Kitsap Snuggles outreach project.

Kitsap Quilters’ Guild Show, May 2019 (4)

Our 33rd Kitsap Quilter’s Guild Annual Quilt Show at the beginning of May was a great success with over 200 quilts on display. Selecting a small number of my favorites to share from the wide selection is always difficult. Last week I shared three quilts and here are another two. These two are both multicolored on dark backgrounds using curved motifs, but they are so different.

Wild Rose was pieced by Cheryl McCurdy and quilted by Debi Snyder. Cheryl used the pattern Vintage Rose by Judy Niemeyer, but named hers Wild Rose because it didn’t look at all vintage. The piecing is all foundation paper pieced and was challenging. Here’s a detailed shot of the center. I love this burst of color and the combination of points and curves on this gorgeous piece.

The second quilt I’m featuring is Cartwheel made by Vicki Adams and quilted by Libie Peterson. Vicki was our featured artist at the show and her special exhibit was highlighted in an earlier blog. The Cartwheel pattern is from Kaffe Fassett’s book Quilt Granduer, but Vicki designed her own border.

The detailed shot shows the lovely array of colorful fabrics and rickrack added for embellishment. I love the whimsical cheerful nature of this quilt. Techniques include machine piecing and hand and machine applique.

Kitsap Quilters’ Guild Show, May 2019 (3)

Our 33rd Kitsap Quilter’s Guild Annual Quilt Show at the beginning of May was a great success with over 200 quilts on display. Selecting a small number of my favorites to share from the wide selection is always difficult. Brilliant Beauties of Joy pieced and quilted by Debi Snyder was absolutely stunning and glowed. Debi made this from a Jacqueline de Jonge pattern. This quilt won first place in the Individual Large Pieced category.

Debbie Flood made Montana Stars from a pattern by Bette Faries, and beautifully quilted by Marybeth O’Halloran.

Debi purchased the pattern in a quilt shop in Bozeman, Montana and made most of the stars on yearly trips to Montana. There are 315 stars! The pink border with the delicate sawtooth triangles offset the center perfectly. The detailed shot shows Marybeth’s exquisite quilting.

While I tend to gravitate towards the more traditionally based pieced quilts, I loved this pictorial dog quilt, Ty’s a girl, made by Wanda Rains, using the photo pinned to the bottom right. Wanda so realistically captivated the spirit of her dog Ty. She did a five day class with instructor Susan Carlson in 2017 to learn collage and it took almost two years to complete the rendition. Everyone thinks Ty is a boy, hence the quilt title and pink nail polish.

Farewell, Retro-Radiation

I recently gave this bed quilt, Retro-Radiation, away to a friend who lost most of her belongings when her apartment caught fire a few weeks ago.

I gave her a choice of two quilts and I accurately predicted that this would be her pick. She loves the colors and since she is a piano tuner, the piano keys borders seemed most appropriate. Here you can see four of the 16 Op-Art Kaleidoscope blocks. These blocks are made using my template-free technique (see my video) which is very easy and fun. I have patterns available at my on-line store. Look closely to see the awesome long-arm quilting by Wanda Rains.

Below, the border is illustrated. The wavy line which looks like rickrack is a fussy-cut fabric. The piano keys border features all of the fabrics from the center field of the quilt. In the lower left corner, you can see the small Kaleidoscope block which is in the mid-point of the side. This looks like a radiation warning sign.

Kitsap Quilters’ Guild Show, May 2019 (2)

Our rescheduled 33rd annual Kitsap Quilters’ Guild show the first weekend in May was a great success. We had a wonderful array of 200+ quilts and guild member, Vicki Adams was our featured artist. Here’s Vicki in her lovely display area.

Vicki’s immersion in fiber arts began at an early age. Her mother and grandmothers sewed, did embroidery and other handwork and Vicki took to it naturally completing her first embroidered piece at the age of five. She loves knitting, counted cross-stitch, clothing construction, and all kinds of embroidery. She began quilting in 1976 after she spotted a quilt at the local county fair and replicated her own version of it using all her fabric from her bottom dresser drawer. Since then her fabric stash has grown and she’s always finding new techniques to try.

Vicki writes, ” I love sharing my love of quilting and skills with others. One of my greatest joys is sewing baby and doll quilts for our guild’s charity projects.”

The two purses are knitted and then felted, including the large flower. Below is a gorgeous embroidered peacock, which was a project that Vicki inherited when is was barely begun. The detail is exquisite and her choice of frame is perfect for the piece.

Baby Quilts for Mongolian Newborns (2)

The response to my request for baby quilts for newborns in Mongolia has been fantastic and we have received over 100 quilts! I’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity and support of the quilting and my church communities for this project. Thank you to you all. Quilts have come not just from my local area, but from as far afield as CA,IL and OR. We’ve also received some crocheted baby blankets. Special thanks goes to Wanda Rains, who long-arm machine quilted 50 of the quilts. On Sunday we covered the pews at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Bainbridge Island, WA with quilts for our 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. services and the parishioners laid their hands on them for a special blessing. Everyone was delighted to see the quilts and the church looked especially beautiful.

These quilts will be packed in boxes this week to be shipped in a container leaving for Mongolia next week, (6th May, 2019). They should arrive in early July. We will display them at the 3rd International Mongolian Quilt Show at the State Department Store in Ulaanbaatar on 1st-3rd August. This quilt show will celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Mongolian Quilting Center. After the quilt show, we will travel in the Mongolian countryside and distribute the quilts to babies in rural hospitals.


Baby quilts arriving here after tomorrow and before the end of June, will be carried in our suitcases when we go to Mongolia in July.

5th Grade Quilt Project (2)


Earlier this year, I spent time at Chestnut Hill Academy in Bellevue working with 5th Grade students to make two quilts. This blog features one, The Rain Forest, and my blog last week featured the other, The Ocean. In their science classes they were studying different habitats and each child selected an animal for detailed study. They made line drawings of their animals on 10″ quilt blocks and then spent 2-3 weeks hand embroidering.


We were delighted with the results and the enthusiasm with which the kids embraced this project. The embroidery was challenging for some, but they all enjoyed it and persevered. When the blocks were completed, I took my sewing machine to school and worked individually with each child as they machine stitched the block frames. They were proud of their work and so were we. Here are a couple of detailed shots.

The children determined the block layout and decided to arrange it according the height of rain forest which each animal occupied, hence the canopy dwellers are at the top of the quilt and the ground dwellers at the bottom. I assembled the quilt top and Wanda Rains machine quilted it. The quilt was auctioned at a school fundraiser the proceeds of which go towards special projects and field trips to enhance the curriculum. The two quilts raised just over $5,000! For me, the educational value was enormous and the money generated at the auction was just the icing on the cake.

5th Grade Quilt Project (1)

Earlier this year, I spent time at Chestnut Hill Academy in Bellevue working with 5th Grade students to make two quilts. This blog features one, The Ocean, and my blog next week will feature the second, The Rainforest. In their science classes they were studying different habitats and each child selected an animal for detailed study. They made line drawings of their animals on 10″ quilt blocks and then spent 2-3 weeks hand embroidering.

We were delighted with the results and the enthusiasm with which the kids embraced this project. The embroidery was challenging for some, but they all enjoyed it and persevered. When the blocks were completed, I took my sewing machine to school and worked individually with each child as they machine stitched the block frames. They were proud of their work and so were we. Here are a couple of detailed shots.

The children determined the block layout and decided to arrange it according the depth of ocean which each animal occupied, hence the surface dwellers are at the top of the quilt and the deeper dwellers at the bottom. I assembled the quilt top and Wanda Rains machine quilted it. The quilt was auctioned at a school fundraiser the proceeds of which go towards special projects and field trips to enhance the curriculum. The two quilts raised just over $5,000! For me, the educational value was enormous and the money generated at the auction was just the icing on the cake.

Baby Quilts for Newborns in Mongolia

In August, Elaine Percival, Barbara Peterson and I will be traveling with Selenge Tserendash in rural Mongolia after assisting at the Third International Mongolian Quilt Show celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the Mongolian Quilting Center in Ulaanbaatar. We plan to visit rural hospitals and take baby quilts to the maternity wards to give as gifts to mothers for their new babies.

Would you like to make a baby quilt to send to Mongolia? We are hoping to make 50-60 quilts, so would love your help. The quilts should be completed by the end of May and will be sent to Mongolia in a container in early June, taking about a month to get there. Any late arrivals will be carried in our suitcases, with the final deadline of 10th July.

The recommended size is in the range: 32-38” x 36-48”, square or rectangular. The Mongolians love brightly colored prints, which of course are unobtainable in Mongolia. Please contact me if you are interested in participating in this project. If you live locally, (near Bainbridge Island, WA), and need help getting started, you may visit my studio and I’d be happy to supply the fabric and a simple pattern.

Update, 18th April, 2019

The response to this project has been amazing! Thank you to all of you who have contributed baby quilts. Our goal of 50-60 has already been exceeded! The container for Mongolia is actually leaving in early May, and not June as stated above. The completed quilts will receive a special blessing on 28th April before being packed in boxes to go into the container. They should reach Mongolia by mid-July. They will be displayed in the quilt show before we distribute them to the babies. Any baby quilts that I receive after 1st May will travel in our suitcases. Thanks again for your support.