Zebra Pinwheels Quilt

Covering a couch that doesn't match

     Another quilt from my basement.  This one is a twin sized pinwheel quilt from Sew Simple Quilts Book two by Jane Davila.  I needed 94 pinwheels.   I made 10 each from nine different black and white prints, and then four pinwheels from a red solid.

Borders and blocks

    I placed the four red ones near the corners.  The borders were a zebra print, from the backing of my attic window quilt and then the black from the sashing of that same quilt.  The red was also from that quilt.

Quilting detail

     I used 2 1/2" Thangles to make all my HST (half square triangles).  They are so much easier to use than cutting odd size squares in half and then sewing together.  This way you just cut 3" strips of your fabric.  In this case I cut 2 strips of each of the colors, except the red.  Then I cut a bunch of white strips.  You then layer it dark fabric, light fabric and paper.  Sew on the lines, cut on the lines, press and tear off the paper.  Perfect HSTs every time.

Label with fun sewing machine border

     I had it custom quilted with a medallion design in each of the solid squares and outline quilted in the pinwheel blocks with some more free form quilting in the borders.  Unfortunately I didn't document the quilter.

Zebra Pinwheels Quilt

     The fabric I had left from the backing was used to make masks as well as a couple of the other fabrics that I used in the pinwheels.  A time consuming quilt but so fun to look at.

Attic Windows Jungle Animals Quilt

Cozy corner in our basement

     Our basement is finished with part of it being an in-home theater with red walls and black couches.  As such, I have made many red, black and white quilts and pillows for it.

Finished Attic Windows quilt

     This one is a small lap size.  The pattern I used was from a book called Attic Windows Quilts with a View by Diana Leone and Cindy Walter.  I fussy cut the animals and then used red and black for the frame.  A grey stripey fabric was used for the ledge and second border.

Block Detail

     
     Red, grey and black giraffes were the outer border.  I cut the fabric the along the length for the side borders so the giraffes were all right side up.

Border Detail

     The backing is black, grey and white zebras.  I used the black for the first border and the binding also.

Backing

     I made paper pieced label for the back and used a fabric marker to write my name.

Paper pieced label

     A fun side note to this, I made this quilt in 2001 and just recently used the leftover giraffe fabric and the grey stripey one to make masks.  It has only been waiting 19 years to be used again.

Basketball T-shirt Quilt

Basketball t-shirt quilt

     A client wanted a t-shirt quilt made for her husband for a special birthday.  She had his old basketball shirts but not quite enough for a 4 x 5 quilt.

Planned layout

Monogram idea

     She sent me a photo with the planned layout and also one with a monogram she wanted for the center.  To place the monogram in the center, we decided to do half squares on either side of a full square in the middle.

Pile of t-shirts

Ready for the interfacing

     Since this is the time of Covid19, all of this was done by phone or email.  She dropped off the bag of t-shirts on my front porch.  Then I set about cutting the fronts off and then ironing on the stabilizer to the backs of them.  I kept the backs at this point so I would have something to use for the middle.

Center idea

     After putting together the front as much as possible, I sent her a photo with my thought for the center part.  I then put that together and worked on the monogram in my computer.  Since it was going to be quite large and on lightweight t-shirt fabric, I opted for applique only styles to reduce the thread count.

Monogram options

     I sent her the three choices and she chose the top one.  As she was using black fleece for the backing, I chose the black t-shirt for the applique fabric.  I did the applique and then finished putting the quilt together.  A slightly different take on the standard t-shirt quilt.

Monogram detail

     Pick up was again no contact on my front porch.  Really happy to have a large covered front porch at this time especially.  I hope her husband liked the blanket.

Hydrangeas and Raspberry Quilt

Finished quilt

     This is a quilt I finished in 2006.  I took a class at Shoo Fly Quilts in Grayslake with my friend Kris.  It was a Stack & Whack class using the book by Bethany Reynolds.  I had bought the fabric a couple of years before taking the class just waiting for it to be offered.

Block detail

     I bought the background fabric at that time also.  I then purchased the accent fabric, flange fabric and flannel backing fabric at Shoo Fly when it was time to take the class.

Border and quilting detail

     The class was fun as usual but it took me a while, close to a couple of years, to finally finish it afterwards.  I think the raspberry colored fabric was a bold choice to use with the lavender background fabric but I like how it turned out.  I pulled the deep green from the print for the flat flange.

Flat flange detail

     I had enough of the print fabric to use it for the border which I cut at 9 inches to showcase the large print.  I was even able to pattern match it for the top and bottom borders.  The side borders were cut from the length of the fabric.

Pattern matched border

     After spending that much effort, I chose to do a really custom quilting job.  I had Paula do freehand echo swirls in the background of the flower bunches in the border, quilt around one motif in the star and then echo swirls in the background of the blocks with outline stitching in the blocks and borders.

Label 1

     I added my labels I made on my embroidery machine and then put on the binding which was the same fabric as the background from the star blocks.

Label 2

     All in all a complicated but beautiful quilt.  I hope you enjoyed this look at some of my older work.