Broken Dishes, Band Camp Quilt and a Work in Progress!

 

 

 

The broken dishes quilt.

 

       After working on that little quilting class sampler, I decided to go big, and make my daughter  a  bed quilt. I chose a traditional "broken dishes" design.  Without knowing better, I chose a very heavy white fabric, and used other home decor fabrics, not appreciating that quilting fabric was lighter and easier to handle.   Anne's room was painted a beautiful shade of blue, and I made a dust ruffle and shams to match the watercolor floral fabric.   I hand-quilted this piece, which is why it took two years to finish!   I must admit, I still adore this quilt!



 



A close up of the fabrics in the broken dishes quilt.



A close up of the hand-quilting around the perimeters of the triangles.  The watercolor fabric is used for the binding, as well as some of the triangles.

         I had really caught the quilting bug, and by the summer of 2001, I had finished several quilts, and entered them in the local county fair.   Thes Broken Dishes quilt actually got an honorable mention.  (I think there were very few entries in the hand quilted category)


Anne's quilt displayed with other lovely quilts.

A close up of the quilt, with its white ribbon!

      I also entered the "Christmas in July" quilt I had completed that summer. 
   

The "Christmas in July" quilt

 

         If you look really carefully at the bottom shelf, in the back, you'll see it! 
 

No ribbons for the Christmas in July quilt!

 


      That summer, my daughter was going off to a week long band camp for the first time, and I sent her with a happy pastel quilt.  I used scraps from various sewing projects, including dresses I had made for her, doll dresses made for her American Girl dolls, and some of these other quilt projects.  I used a fast and easy fence rail pattern.  I love how the soft colors all blended together.  Over the years, this quilt traveled to many seasons of band camp, and to college.

 



The band camp quilt. 

A shot of the full band camp quilt.  Thanks to my husband, the quilt holder!

A close up of the variety of fabrics in the band camp quilt.

 

     My work in progress  -

 

     I am still working on some projects that I can't quite share.  In the meantime, I am starting to use the 6 inch square blocks I found of the Jane Sassaman "Exotic Garden" fabrics.   I located 23 blocks.

 

The various squares, likely left over from the drunken path blocks I had made with these fabrics.

     I am going to try my hand at a minimalist modern quilt, with a grid surrounded by white.       I have been trying out combinations on the carpet.

The beginnings of the grid.

     Here is the grid, assembled.    I can't wait to see how this will ultimately turn out!

The blocks separated with 2-inch strips of  Kona white. 

 



     I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend.

Take care,

Gretchen