Jean's Quilts

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	I made an "I Spy" quilt for the twin granddaughters of my best friend, Julie. I put two of each motif in the hexagons so they could use it as a game later. They're now about eight months old and they live in New Berlin, WI. I quilted it myself in a long-arm quilting class.
	This quilt was made in a mystery class many years ago in a Dakota County Star Quilter's class. I needed another small quilt for my practice session on the long-arm quilting machine, so I finally put the border on it. It's lap size and I don't have a destination for it, but I like how it turned out.
	My friends in my oldest guild took on making quilts for a new supportive apartment building in Eagan for homeless teens, called Lincoln Place. This was my contribution, a string pieced, tied quilt. It was quick to make. We had a workshop day in Chaska to finish them.
	A kid's quilt for our charity guild, made from a butterfly print Elizabeth picked out for me to make her a dress. The other fabrics came from my endless closet. There's enough of the pink border fabric to use for the back. This one will be tied at one of our monthly meetings.
	This and the next three quilt tops are for Quilts of Valor (QOV). It's a national project to give quilts to soldiers who are wounded. This one is a log cabin made from my endless collection of "strings" (strips left over from other uses). Seeing it here makes me think another row on top and side would have been a better design.
	This was a QOV mystery run by my charity guild. It's all plaids and stripes which were donated to Home of the Brave but seemed more suitable for QOV. I pieced this top in Alabama in 2009 along with a few kids quilts that were kits, which are perfect for a condo without a closet full of fabrics.
	Another Quilts of Valor top, using 19th Century prints with a Columbus 400th Anniversary print as background. For QOV we try to supply a top, back, binding, and a pillowcase for presentation if we're not machine quilters. The project has long-arm quilters who volunteer to finish. I do binding on others to help out as well.
	This is the pattern called "Turning Twenty." It uses 20 "fat quarters". I made it for Quilts of Valor. It was a trick to find 20 pieces in my stash that weren't floral. These are mostly plaids, stripes and dots. It's only a top here. Someone else will quilt it. It's pretty big for QOV, most of which are more lap size.
	I made this for Bob and Kim's first Christmas as a couple. The inner houses were an exchange among my friends "the crazy city." Outside of that is the "boring suburbs." I filled in spaces with trees and it was fun to design. I've always loved tessellating designs. I used more of those houses in several small quilts for auctions. 2009
	Here's our bed with the fan quilt I made for it, from the book "Stack 'n Whackier Quilts." It was quilted by my friend Page Johnson on her long-arm machine. The fabric I used to "whack" shows on the border, a great Jacobean print.
	Our niece, Maggie, graduated from Stonewall Jackson HS in New Market, VA in 2008. Her favorite color is purple. Here she is opening the gift at her party. The pattern is called "Northern Lights" by Sandi Irish and I put the blocks together in Alabama in February of 2008 and finished it when we came home.
	Here's my best quilting effort. The pattern is Twelve Days of Christmas and it's hand appliquéd and hand quilted. It won a red ribbon at the Minn. Quilter's show in 2007. It was started, and all the fabric was chosen, by my friend Maureen Heaney, before she died of breast cancer in 2001. A lot of work, but I love hand work.
	This wall-hanging took a long time to get done. The pattern was in a 2000 magazine and the basket was done, but the magazine and project were separated in our move to Apple Valley. I found it early last year and finished it by the Feb. 2007 show. It hangs in our bedroom. The pieces are small (less than 1" across) hexagons.
	I won most of these blocks in an April 2006 meeting lottery in which I made three and so got three chances to win. It reminded me of chocolate so I used a chocolate box fabric for the border and a different one in one of my own squares. It's machine quilted by my favorite quilter, Page Johnson, in a heart and loop design.
	Sean knew exactly what kind of quilt he wanted for his "big boy bed." He loves puppies and blue and green. He thought the puppies should be blue and green, so that's what I made. I sprinkled in a few surprises, and found one cute puppy in a coloring book. I quilted it myself and had fun making it.
	This is a miniature quilt, about 20" square, I made for the silent auction of Dakota Star Quilt Guild. Made from my collection of food print fabrics in Alabama.
	This is a very similar quit to the one above. It also was sold in a silent auction, this one for Quilt Dreamers in March 2007. I'd run out of the farmer's market fabric I used in the border of the other, so I made more jars. Again, it was close to 20" square. Silent auctions are popular quilt show fund-raisers.
	A portion of the center of the quilt given to Rebecca and Steven Alwine at their wedding. It's an autograph quilt for their friends to sign, and it collected many at the reception. The pattern is from Nancy Martin's Scrap Quilts.
	This little banner is meant to display a set of state quarters. The squares in the blue field have pockets made with white folded triangles. It was a Christmas gift for my friend Julie.
	This is made in batiks, so I had it professionally quilted. It's a variation of a pattern called "Starry Night" and I've named it "Stars fell on Alabama" because I pieced it there in 2005. It will be a winter wall hanging over our stairway.
	This was made in a "paper bag challenge", where we exchanged bags full of fabric, and made each other's quilts with the fabrics in the bag. It's 17"x19" and has 3-D work on the pansies to match the pansy print I got in the bag. The only fabric I added of my own was the greens. For Dakota Star Quilters Guild from the book Petal by Petal.
	This is another quilt for Quilt Dreamers, the group that ties quilts for kids in crisis. This time I actually got to tie a top I made out of misc. fabrics from my stash. These quilts are generally about 40"x60", so we don't have to piece backs. We get batting in rolls from the manufacturer.
	The challenge of this piece was that the instructions were in Dutch. It was a kit that a friend's shop imported and I decided to try it. The egg cups were on a printed piece and were appliquéd to the background. The strips were tricky because of the angles. It hangs in our family room.
	This is a large wall hanging I made for Di to commemorate our trip to Italy in 1991. The design was done in marble inlay in the Medici Chapel and I found a postcard and enlarged it. Then I shopped for fabric that looked marbleized. It was my most challenging piece ever.
	A miniature feathered star done in long meetings by hand while I waited for something to happen. I enjoy a challenge. The small red triangles are 3/8" on a side. It's hand quilted.
	I made this for Mom when she lived "over the river and through the woods" in Mass. in 1980. It came from Needlework and Crafts magazine.
	Elizabeth's special quilt. I started making it before she even was "a gleam in her father's eye". I pieced it over paper the "English" way and hand quilted flowers in each block.
	The first quilt I ever made, for Diana's childhood bed. From McCall's Quilt It Book II, but I added the outer border. Hand quilted on a frame, it took several years to quilt and I finished it when she was eight.
	This was the 2005 Quilt Dreamers guild mystery quilt. I got the racing car fabric as a gift and bought the flame to go with it. The rest came from my vast closet collection. I had enough left over to make a second one almost the same. They're for the kids we serve as our "mission".
	This was made for the kids from a pattern we all chose. Every few months we do a block on a theme, to make things more interesting. They tend to be seasonal, but this is a bit different. I had fun with the space-cat fabric.
	After Hurricane Katrina, I felt I needed to do something to help and also to get me away from watching it on TV. Some of the fabrics were appropriate to the cause - Noah's ark, angels, etc. I mailed it to a group in NC that had a connection to folks in Waveland, MS.
	I made this baby quilt for the granddaughter of our friend Jesus´ Rodriguez. She will be named after his late wife, Carolyn. It's an Irish Chain made from very similarly toned floral prints in pink, blue and aqua, set off by a thin striped border of dark and light aqua and a wider border of aqua.
	This is the quilt I made for our niece, Lisa's, graduation from high school in New Market, VA. The squares are prints of ocean mammals and they're sashed in batiks in watery colors. I staggered the rows to make it more interesting. I machine quilted it in wavy lines like the ocean with some fun motifs sprinkled around.
	Made of half my fabrics and half donated to our guild, I made this Irish chain full-size quilt for our service project - quilts for the beds of the women at our local shelter. Another member quilted it on her machine, and I finished it with binding.
	A child's quilt I made with a few other women. We offered it in the silent auction area of our show. We use that money for batting and backing fabric for more kid's quilts. My section is the diamonds around the center stars.
	This is a log cabin pattern quilt I put together in Alabama, from fabric strips already cut by members of my Dakota Star quilt guild. We're making twin size quilts for women in a local women's shelter. Another member will quilt it, then I'll finish it with binding.
	This is a paper-pieced pattern from MH Designs. It's a small piece, about 14"x19". It will be sold in a silent auction to raise funds for our guild that makes quilts for kids, at our show in March. I pieced it in Alabama and finished it at home.
	I made this at a retreat with guild friends in November 2004. The pattern was a mystery series by Gwen Lundgren, and I hand quilted it in gold metallic thread. It's hanging over the stair well for Christmas
	I made this years ago for Bob. He asked for a nap quilt that would cover from his feet to his neck. It's a traditional tesselating pattern of leaves, and it's getting somewhat faded after many washings.
	Sean's baby quilt in a rainbow of bright colors. It's a nine-patch design with stars from a magazine pattern.
	I made this as a mystery at a sew-in with my guild, for kids in need. A mystery is a project where you're told what kinds of fabric to bring, such as 1/2 yard dark, 3/4 yard light, etc., but the finished project is a "mystery" until you get all the instructions, and get it sewn.
See more of Jean's Quilts