Sewing Projects in 2014
New Chanukah Door Banner
 |
In January I decided to make a more colorful banner for our kitchen door to display next Chanukah. The menorah design was inspired by one in Mae Rockland Tupa's book "The Work of Our Hands". The candles attach with Velcro and live in a pocket on the back when not on the menorah. |
 |
Gabe loves to play with the wooden Chanukah candles and play matches I made for his daddy many years ago. So in January, I made a new set of candles even more colorful than the old ones. Then I made a drawstring bag to store them with a candle appliquéd on the front and another drawstring bag for his growing dreidle collection with a dreidle saying "Gimel" on the front. |
 |
When Janet and Paulina saw the photos of Kate and Mark's wedding quilt in January, they said they'd like a star quilt, too. Theirs is also based on designs by Judy Martin and was drawn with my Electric Quilt 6 software. It has a black background to match their black sofa and red stars to match the used coffee table that Janet refinished for their first apartment together. |
|
|
When Connie Barlow retired as director of the New England Quilt Museum where I volunteer, the staff and volunteers decided to make her a retirement quilt. The design is based on the museum logo and 2 antique quilts in the permanent collection. Many volunteers helped make the blocks and I did the assembly. The masterful machine quilting was done by Cheryl Dennis, a museum staff member. |
|
|
The New England Quilt Museum had an exhibit of antique charm quilts (just one shape but no two fabrics the same) which inspired me to make one for myself. The center patches are antique fabrics given to me by an elderly family friend and I bought some additional antique fabrics that were donated to the museum for the border, back, and binding. |
|
|
A little doll quilt in the museum exhibit had inadequate information about who made it, when, where, and why. That inspired me to label my quilt so all will know why a doll quilt was made of 19th century fabrics collected in the 20th century and sewn in the 21st century by a quilter who has no daughter or granddaughter to play with dolls. |
|
|
The bibs I made for Gabriel 3 years ago are getting pretty worn out. So for Chanukah, I made more for Ezra. As a result of experience, I now make them with colored backgrounds to hide the food stains and I used hand embroidery instead of markers and crayons this time. I hope they'll look fresh until he outgrows the drips and drools of baby days. The patterns were taken from Ruby Short McKim's "Roly Poly Circus" quilt design in 1923. |
|
|
My cousin Ben Schatz got a baby quilt from me when he was born. When he married Saskia Shuman they got this wedding quilt. Now that they are new parents, here's the quilt I made for their son which is a variation on the one I did for his daddy years ago. |
|
|
And just before the end of 2014, I finished our grandson Ezra's wall-hanging. It has hand-embroidered kids doing activities I think he'll like when he's bigger. The kid is "assisted" by a dog who participates in each activity. The 2-inch pinwheel blocks in the sashing were fun to sew because I combined 15 different blue and 15 different green prints so that no two pinwheels have the same combination of fabrics. |
Updated December 2014
