homespun hexagons | a quilt for Becca

My mom and I worked on this quilt together (but separately) for a friend who recently welcomed her fourth baby girl into the family. It seemed fitting to take pictures of the quilt at a Smithfield conservation area because Brenda's family has lived in Smithfield for generations! The family that donated the land to the town almost certainly knew Brenda's family, and probably my great-grandmother's family too.

just peachy | a quilt for Olivia

Blake and Josh are about to welcome their first baby, Olivia. I had been wanting to use Bonnie's peach fabric in something for a while and I thought Blake would like it so I ordered a yard and a half without a any ideas of what I'd made. I didn’t plan on making a whole cloth quilt but after I got the peach fabric I decided I couldn’t possibly cut it up. The back is a soft burnt orange double gauze. I had fun echoing the peaches with some free motion quilting, and then when I didn’t find anything in my stash that would make a suitable binding, Rory and I walked down the street to my local sew shop (so convenient, I can never move) and picked out this metallic gold print. Again, not what I planned, but perfect!

hearts full of hope | a quilt for Sarah

Last year a friend of mine was diagnosed with an incurable stomach cancer. Another friend and I both wanted to make her a quilt so we decided to collaborate. We invited sewists from our church to make heart blocks and I also asked my quilting friends on instagram if they’d like to contribute. So many people made hearts for Sarah that we had enough blocks to make two quilts! We decided to make the second one for Sarah’s mom who lives down the street from her and is helping their family (Sarah and her husband have two young children) throughout this trial. Lorraine and I both made blocks and we each pieced a quilt, and then Lorraine quilted them on her long arm (isn’t the swirly heart design so cute?) and bound them both. We did a socially distanced drop off to Sarah and her mom and they both loved the quilts! Oh, I almost forgot - I pieced the word “hope” into Sarah’s. I’ve made that free pattern by Denyse Schmidt so many times, it just feels right for so many occasions. The heart pattern is free too, it’s by Cluck Cluck Sew. Please keep Sarah in your prayers.

 

twelve | a quilt for Ethan

I delivered a quilt to a guy I've known since he was a toddler and now he's a college student and I'm feeling very old. Ethan taught Ezra piano all last year so I made him a quilt to say thank you and also to congratulate him on his high school graduation. Only took me five months too long! I'm always intimated by quilting big quilts and I end up kicking myself when I make them, but Ethan is an adult and needed an adult size quilt. I started quilting and got overwhelmed by the bigness and put it aside and just looked at it where it sat in a heap on my floor for a while. After getting a few baby quilts done to recover my confidence I was ready to finish it and I got it done over the weekend while watching Never Have I Ever. Anyway, Ethan is a coffee addict (and he works at Starbucks!) so I made twelve coffee cups since he completed twelve years of school (we're ignoring kindergarten to make things easy, thirteen cups would've been weird). I kept the rest simple and the back is completely plain because I'm not sure any college freshman wants my idea of a fun quilt on their XL twin bed at URI. - Fun fact: Ethan lives in the same dorm that Matt did! - It was quite an adventure getting to Ethan's house today (car accident in front of us, flat tire, two hours on the side of the highway, it was fun) but this was a real bright spot in what is a very stressful day for so many reasons. So, Ethan, thanks for teaching Ezra how to play the piano and congratulations on your graduation! You're going to do amazing things in life and I can't wait to see what they are

seaside stars | a quilt for Ives

I made this quilt for Ives, my dear friend Ari's third baby. She knew pretty much exactly what she wanted for pattern and color and I set out to recreate it. Luckily my quilting friend Tina pointed me in the right direction when I asked what the pattern was. I’m not very familiar with traditional blocks and I thought this was a variation on a sawtooth star, but Tina informed me that they’re actually Ohio Stars - thanks, Tina! With that knowledge I drafted a pattern so I could figure out how much fabric to buy and let me tell you, I didn’t make a single mistake. I calculated how many squares and how many quarter square triangles I needed exactly. Honestly, I couldn’t believe I did so much quilt math successfully on my first try. I dug through my stash to find the perfect blues and then went off to Ryco and bought way more fabric than was necessary. I spent a day cutting and sewing while watching Emily in Paris back in the fall (HOW did it get nominated for a Golden Globe, I'd like to know) and finished the quilt in time to give it to Ari at her zoom shower (I dropped it off at her mom’s house the week before). I’m so pleased with how it turned out and I hope Ives is too!