Mosaic of Tiffany

  A couple of summers ago I decided to make a mosaic quilt of one of my granddaughters, "Tiffany."  I had taken a picture of her up in NC the past summer and loved the colors of her very red hair and the turquoise blue dress and scarf around her neck.  She is a very beautiful young girl (spoken like a true grandmother, but actually, she is gorgeous and just as sweet as she looks) And, of course, you know that I have another blond granddaughter who is a knockout!  And, grandson? oh, my he's soooooo handsome.......(This grandmother just tells it like it is! TRULY)  (live with it!) :)
   I put the picture on my computer and "tiled" it to get the half inch grid just from her neck up.  Wow, there were over 2 thousand little squares.  It was such fun working on this project.  I started at the top of the head, and worked down, very slowly.  I had to really search to find the 75 different pink fabrics that I used in her face.
   Most of you know that you have to stand perhaps 2 room away from the picture to see her as she really is or was at that time.  The hardest part of this quilt was to decide to machine quilt over the face.......oh, my.  I still haven't done much quilting, even though I know I should.  I just hate to distort all of those little squares, as I worked so hard to have all the intersections perfectly matched!
   This was such a great fun project, I want to do another one, most likely the blond!  Wonder how much beige and tan fabric I will need for that one?  Oh, my!

MY FIRST WALL HANGING 1990

WOW, SEEMS LIKE ONLY YESTERDAY THAT I MADE THIS LITTLE QUILT.  After going to the Quilt Expo Europo II,  with the quilters from the U.S. in 1989, I was so thrilled with quilting. I had only made one quilt block, the Ohio Star, and had used that to make a throw pillow.  When anyone on the bus asked me what kind of quilting I did, I would reply, I make quilted pillows.  I'm sure they were impressed.
The trip started in Bergen Norway, then a railroad train ride across Norway to Oslo.  We took an over night ferry to Copenhagen, Denmark.
From Copenhagen, on to Odense, Denmark, where the quilt expo was held.  Odense was also the home of Hans Christian Andersen and I fell in love with that part of the world.  After seeing "The Little Mermaid" sitting on a rock in the harbor at Copenhagen;  watching the "Ugly Ducklings" in a little stream behind his house in Odense, it was truly a dream come true.  I have loved his stories since I was a little girl, and seeing where he lived and worked and dreamed up all those wonderful stories, I felt like I was kin to him in some way.
     While we were visiting Odense, the whole city had silhouettes of him at every stop light.  He had such a wonderful profile, that I thought I had to put him on a quilt. 
    One afternoon while sitting in a park just enjoying the scenery, I met Ellie Sienkiewicz, the Baltimore Album guru.  What you must understand is that at this time in my life, I had no clue who any of these guru quilters were.  I had just started quilting, and had brought about 50 3 1/2" squares of a weird shade of yellow fabric along with me, to get everyone on the tour to sign one.  I thought it would be fun having that to make a little wall hanging when I got home.  When Elly signed my little square, she did it beautifully in script, and all decorated so pretty.  I was most impressed with this lady; never dreaming who it was until much later in my quilting career.
     Another hilarious thing that happened in Odense was that I was sitting in the lobby one evening waiting to go to dinner. The lady that I sat down by was named Bonnie, too.  We chatted for a long time and I finally asked her if she would sign one of my squares.  You know of course, it was Bonnie Lehman, the Quilters Newsletter magazine founder.  I had no clue who she was nor why everyone was so chatty with her...........duhhhhhhhhhh
      Anita Murphy was on the trip as well.....Marti Mitchell was on the trip.  They are all on this little wall hanging if you look closely.  Elna Dick was my roommate, and she would be so excited every evening to see who I had gotten to sign my little squares.  She knew a lot about quilting!
     I bought all of the fabric in Odense, and really didn't know a thing about choosing colors for a quilt. 
     I finished this little wall hanging, which happens to be my 1st one, and sent it to the Houston International Quilt Show.  They hung it in the show!!!!! I look at it now, and see the binding doesn't hang quite straight, and there are several other goofs in it, but I just love it.  In this case, ignorance was bliss, as I had no idea why everyone was so excited over my little quilt.

Christmas Bride Quilt

I am sharing my quilts with you on my blog.  I shall try to put a new one on it the beginning of the month every month (if I live long enough....ha)  Does that tell you how many quilts I've made and kept in my quilting career.  I have made oodles that I've given away as presents for some reason or another.  I even forgot to take pictures of several of them.
Today's quilt is a celebration quilt that I made in honor of Sweet Precious Mr. Whoozy, my husband at this writing, and my deceased 1st husband Sweet Dear Dave.  I married one of them on the 23rd of December and the other one Dec. 28th.  I love Christmas weddings.  It is hectic getting ready for one, but so beautiful to decorate the church for such an occasion at Christmas time.
This quilt is mostly applique, mostly done by hand with pieced blocks here and there.  It is highly embellished, so I hope you'll enjoy looking at each block while you're here at my blog.
Being a musician, the music blocks are the actual notes to "Here Comes the Bride."  The little "bow tie" blocks are fun to piece and they are on the bottom row of the quilt.  Paper pieced little church and hearts are also fun to make.  I love poinsettias, so they are my own pattern.
The use of so much red and green just makes the quilt cheery!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU QUILTERS OUT THERE. 
I  PRAY FOR A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR, WITH GOOD HEALTH FOR ALL.  QUILTERS LIVE A LONG LIFE, DUE TO THE SOCIAL INTERACTION WITH OTHER QUILTERS.  STITCH, STITCH, STITCH!!

My Album Quilt

I'm sure all of you know that I have another life besides this blog......just teasing...........but, I try to get the picture on here that I talk about in my newspaper articles........but, sometimes, I am a little delayed in doing so........today, I got something in my eye about 4 o'clock this afternoon and have just now gotten normal vision..............so here is my Album quilt for you to see.. It is a work of love. It is all by hand....not a machine stitch on it..............except the embroidery for names, etc. enjoy.......

Those Autumn Leaves are still falling

Such fun working with autumn leaves. I shall continue to tell you to save the leaves to use for quilting. There are so many things we can do with God's nature found just outside your window. Thought you'd like to view one of these blocks up close to see the details of the satin stitching and quilting.

My Admiral Quilt

Some of you have just seen a picture of My Admiral quilt that I made a few years ago. It is truly one of my "treasures" to pass down to family in years to come. It is "priceless" as the items sewn onto the quilt can never be duplicated. I promised to show you the back of the quilt. It has a pic. of My Admiral.....and a folder that has his entire career printed on it and folded onto the back of the quilt. It has a "legend" that tells the origin of each squadron patch on the front of the quilt. This type of thing is necessary on this kind of quilt, as in years to come, it will be harder to trace the meaning of some of the patches. I shall be putting the front of the quilt onto this blog in a few weeks. It is a difficult quilt to photograph as it is so very large.

Autumn Leaves Quilt

NOVEMBER JUST BRINGS TO MIND AUTUMN LEAVES FALLING ALL AROUND US NO MATTER WHERE WE LIVE. Fond days of raking leaves, piling them up and kids jumping into them and spreading them all out all over the lawn again, comes to mind, too. The beautiful leaves on the massive trees in North Carolina triggered my brain to make a quilt as if I were looking through a window.....thus, I used the attic window quilt pattern that I shall put on this blog this next week. This quilt was made from drawing around the actual leaves that I had gathered out of my yard up in the mountains of NC, using them for my patterns. The added little picture of the water wheel in the center came as an afterthought. It added a little action to the quilt and a little more interest, I thought. Quilting the leaves was easy, as I had the actual leaf veins to copy, using metallic threads for interest. I like a little glitz on some of my quilts. I shall be putting pictures of my quilts that I have made over the years, for you to see on this blog. I'll share some of the patterns with you as well. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!