Funky "Going Haywire" Bolster Pillow

Well this was a fun project. I used stuffed animal batting I found at a thrift store or maybe someone gave it to me, who knows, I have so much stuff? For the outer cover I used parts of an old white sheet as the base and machine stitched various other fabrics strips to include burlap, ribbons, bric a brac trims. It's doofy but I like it. 

 

Combining Two Cultures

This quilt started for me when I found a topper at a thrift shop. It was handpicked with what most definitely had to be old clothes and other fabrics repurposed in the time tested tradition of making do with what you have, which is good for mother nature, good for our souls, good for our need to create, and good for passing the time although some would disagree in this day and age, preferring to stare at a screen. And yes, I realize that is exactly what I am doing while drafting this blog.

Above is the top which is the topper I found in a thrift store that is hand pieced. I added a border and a backing which are from white sheets in good condition that I found at thrift stores or that someone gave me or perhaps what I already had and no longer intended to use for the original purpose.  Below is the back of the quilt done with long, slow stitching in straight lines reminiscent of Kantha quilt, which I love.  I used embroidery floss for the stitching. I'd found it also at thrift stores over the years. I used varied shades of pink with this one, partly for fun and partly because I didn't have a lot of one single color. 

This is the quilt folded along the foot of the bed, accenting a bit of color to an unusually (for me) heavily white room. 

Close up, below, of my slow stitching on the hand pieced topper.

And below you can see the finish.  I did not put batting in this quilt, another similarity to the Kantha quilts.

And there you have it. I love that this quilt combines to cultures, western and eastern but women using their hands to make useful items and repurposing what they have due to need. I love that everything I used to make this quilt ended up this way and not in a landfill piecemeal, so to speak, over the years.  

I gave it to a friend. In fact, the friend I gave it to was my original instructor for how to hand quilt. She began teaching me quilting so I could make memorial quilts using my sister's clothing after she died.  I made a quilt for each of her five kids.  

T-Shirt quilt - University of Maryland Theme

 T-Shirt quilt I made for my daughter with her University of Maryland era T-shirts. I loved doing machine quilting on this and had fun going every which way with the rows of machine quilting.  Other than the t-shirts belonging to my daughter, and a large neck scarf she had with the Maryland flag design, the best state flag in the nation, I must say, rivaled only by Arizona's, in my opinion, I used fabrics and supplies that I already had.  The Maryland state flag scarf was used as a border all the way around the T-shirt squares, in the black. Many of our daughter's University of Maryland rowing t-shirts are evident.  She was on the women's rowing team which is really just a "club" at the University of Maryland, even though they compete. 

Sunbonnet Sue Quilts

These two baby quilts were made for the little girls born to our nephew and his wife in New Hampshire.

And here's the back, below.

And here is the other one, the front, below.

And the back.

Below are a couple pictures taken when I was still laying them out and piecing.

Pandemic Grandson's Quilt

I made this quilt for our grandson born in the middle of the pandemic, January 2021.  Our son and daughter-in-law have a greens, a trees and leave motif foe the the baby's room. 

 

Recovered Porch and Deck Furniture

We bought rattan thrift shop furniture for our front porch and back deck and I recovered all of it with various shades of denim scraps and an old green patterned table cloth that I had on hand.  

On the back deck I repurposed, yet again, old scraps of denim that had had another life as covers on our furniture in our fifth wheel trailer. 

Below is the "before" of the front porch furniture.  

Tree Huggers Quilt

I made this quilt for a niece's daughter.  It's all free-hand "drawn" then appliqued by me and free motion quilted on the machine. 

Below is when I was laying out the applique pieces and deciding where everything would be positioned.

And below, I was still deciding on colors. 

And my little grand-niece enjoying her quilt.