Quilts

Murray started his shirt collection 60 years ago during his studies at MIT, with shirts won from “shirt races” (where the rowers in the losing boat gave their shirts to the rowers in the winning boat). Additional shirts were added to his collection, during his coaching years. He had always indicated that someday, he might…

Lisa, contacted me in the fall of 2020, told me that she had recently lost her father and asked if I could take his shirts and turn them into small quilts for her and her 3 siblings. The four quilts are, for the most part, the same design with only 2 small changes for the…

Tabitha’s queen size memory quilt made from her family’s favorite t-shirts and PJ’s. In addition to the memory blocks, it also contains star blocks in a variety of sizes, as a decorative fill-in. The background fabric contains splashes of pink, blue, yellow and green on a white background. Accent fabrics (stars and borders) are a…

This quilt was made for Haley. During their high school years, both she and her brother Whitney, were members of our rowing team.

Our son-in-law lost his father June 2019. Shortly after returning home from the funeral service and burial, he and his mother noticed a cardinal in the back yard.  The first they’d ever seen there.  The quilt label explains the significance of the cardinal’s visit at that particular time.

Luke’s quilt is fits a full size bed and contains shirts from his entire school career.  It’s backed with faux fur Minky shades of grey.

Whitney’s quilt fits a queen size bed and contains shirts from elementary school through high school. It actually has fewer shirts than usual but many of them had designs on both the front and back. The quilt is backed with Minky, an ultra soft velour type fabric.

Brian’s quilt fits a twin size bed. He didn’t have many t-shirts so I used both the front and back designs from all the shirts that had both. I framed each design, added a shadow effect for depth, and finally included uneven sashing. I finished it all with a 2″ border, which matched the sashing,…

Ava Joy’s quilt fits a double/queen size bed and contains 49 of her shirts from high school, church, and volunteer work. It’s quilted in loops and swirls with playful cats in both bottom corners.

My mother turned 99 in June of 2016 and I wanted to do something special for her last 2-digit birthday. I requested hand prints from my siblings, nieces, nephews, their children and grand-children. Those that sent prints got their own block. Those that didn’t (and, sadly, there were several) got their names on a household/group…

This Table Runner was a 70th Anniversary gift for my Aunt and Uncle. At the time I started researching colors and/or gemstones for the 70th, all I could find was Platinum and Smokey Quartz.  (I specify “at the time” because on a recent search I found that the “traditional” gemstone is Sapphire Jubilee and that…

This 3D wall hanging is from a purchased pattern but I saw it made up and I couldn’t resist making one for my mom who would not otherwise be able to fit a Christmas Tree into her tiny suite. Although they’re not obvious in the photo, I did take the liberty of adding some sparkle…

This quilt is an over-sized Twin in a puzzle layout.  I quilted around each design, to make them stand out, and quilted the background in a grid.  For the borders, I quilted his last name into the top border, the year he graduated along the bottom, and a custom design (lizards) up each side.

I made this one for our daughter. She was never fond of traditional quilting, however, she does embrace that small portion of her heritage that is Irish.  One day, on an unrelated search of anything “celtic”, she found this pattern and became an almost immediate convert. The quilt is named “Celtic Cobblestones” and was featured…

My first big quilt.  “Joined Hearts” – A wedding gift for my niece and her new husband. Although the layout is altered slightly to fit a larger bed, the pattern is from Creative Log Cabin Quilting.  The book was first printed in 2004 but you might be able to find it in your local quilt shop….

Like me, our daughter has a soft spot for cats.  I knew immediately who needed this quilt the second I saw the pattern.  I personalized it some by adding some of the accents with my embroidery machine. The quilting was done entirely on the sewing machine

This is Emma’s quilt and my first attempt at this “Hugs and Kisses” design.  Now it’s my go-to baby quilt pattern. It’s paper pieced which creates perfectly aligned blocks but pulling the paper off the back once it’s all together is rather monotonous.  A good project to keep your hands busy when you’re sitting in…

These two lap quilts were my first attempts at quilting and started me on my journey. They were gifts for my mom and dad back in 2004. The quilting was a combination of free-motion quilting and ties. Looking back, they were pretty crude and I show them here just to say don’t give up.  Everyone…