The Empress' Magic Tiles
July, 2001. Here, on my driveway, lies a wedding present of Chinese-style prints for Wu Juan and Meng Fei in China. The Empress quilt is based on Kathleen Bissett's Magic Tiles pattern. It's a great pattern that looks great with all fabric combinations; I've done two others so far and taught at Piecemakers retreat. The gold borders depict the Empress' clothing, I think from the Q'ing dynasty. Faye of Orchard Quilting finished this quilt in about a week, but then I realized that proportionately, it needed a wider border. So I added fabric and machine-stippled.
Ellingson Star
November, 1997. A simple receiving blanket of nine-patch sawtooth stars intensely quilted by machine with a Hari Walner design from her book "Trapunto by Machine." The light yellow background, one of my favorite fabrics, is a Mary Ellen Hopkins print of umbrellas. The reddish border of coffeepots also indicates that James' and Chris' baby girl resides with them in Seattle.
Best Wishes
August,1997. An Album Block crib quilt made of music prints for the birth of Nora Kathleen Lynch. Like Sleeping Beauty's fairy godmothers, I wished these gifts for Nora:- Joy
- Music
- Love
- Faith
- Generosity
- Beauty
- Wisdom
- Courage
Nora's mom, incidentally, is romance novellist Elizabeth Lynch, author of "Dear Deceiver." (July, 1995)
Bears Paw: Fire and Ice
My quilt group, the Alameda Bridge Club, spent a weekend at tiny McCloud, California, for a Bears Paw getaway at a quilt shop. It was pretty hard to concentrate, surrounded by bolts of fabric, but I managed to make 320 half-square triangles that weekend. Yeesh! Yup, that's where the photo on my homepage was taken. Here's the result, a month later. I doubt I'll do another queen-sized Bears Paw unless someone else does the pressing.
Album: Grateful Gerry
My cousins Lynne and Harold Jacobs had a baby, Gerald, in February, 1996. They're Deadheads, which is why I creates this from celestials and tie-dyes. But Gerald isn't named for Gerry Garcia. They named the baby after Lynne's late father, Gerry Stearn, who was a wonderful man.Like "Best Wishes," this is an Album quilt made with a Trudie Hughes Template-Free technique. It went together quickly. A drawback of the technique is that you have to picture the entire quilt before you begin cutting.
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