Senior Night

My daughter plays volleyball for Chugiak High School.  Her senior year was what she had hoped it would be...a concussion early in the season sidelined her for all but a few games.  She sat on the bench and cheered for her team.  Although our team lost, senior night was a success.  We had a great crowd of students in attendance to show their support.

In all, we have five seniors on the team.  I wanted to do something special for them all, something to remind them of high school, volleyball, teammates and friends. I thought about a t-shirt quilt, but those tend to end up in a box in the attic.  The only thing I could come up with that would last and grow up with them was a quilt in school colors.

Six weeks later....three quilts using the Road to Bali pattern, one Friendship Star quilt, and one Square Dance.  The smiles say it all.  I am so very proud of all of them.

Dreaming Pink

This quilt was pieced for Nikki in 2002.  She was the little sister of one of my students.  Nikki spent a lot of time ill and in and out of the hospital trying to determine what was happening to her.  I believe that she had a degenerative muscular disease. Her mom and I were talking about the hospital stays in Seattle and that Nikki missed the parent that stayed in Alaska with her siblings.  I pieced the quilt so that they could cuddle together under while in Alaska and then when she was in Seattle it would smell like home and mom or dad.

Play Ball

One of the best ways to fight cabin fever in the winter time is to stay busy.  Nothing beats a good movie you've seen a couple of times and an idea for a quilt.  Over the summer of 2001, I found a baseball cap fabric and thought it would be perfect for my nephew Bernard.  He is my older brother's oldest boy.  This was one quick and easy with a lot of strip sewing. 

Bug Jar

2001 was a busy year for me.  It was my end of my second year and beginning of my third year of teaching.  My daughter was three years old at the time and learning to sew on her own machine.

Somewhere along my visits to quilt stores gathering fabric, I saw a bug jar quilt.  My first thought was my nephew, Bishop, would really love a bug jar quilt.  First step was to purchase enough bug fabrics to make a large enough quilt!  That may not seem like a difficult task, but at the time, there were not as many bug fabrics as I have seen today.  Once the fabrics were collected, I started making the jars.  I didn't make them all the same size, which proved to be challenging when I started putting it all together!  I am sure that there were a few colorful words in the process.

As if that wasn't enough, I decided what would be better than creating a sandbox for the back of the quilt!  I added a truck, a shovel and pail, and some of animals out of their jars.  The small jar with the open lid has bees escaping!  If I find a close up photo of the escaping bees I will post it later.  His older brother Ben was a little jealous, because to date the only quilt he has from Aunt Katrina was a baby blanket to match his nursery.  I still owe him a larger quilt!  I haven't quite seen the perfect pattern and fabric for his yet.

Block Party

"Block Party" was pieced and quilted in 2001 for my niece Brittni. The quilt is a simple sixteen patch block with bright pink lattice.  If memory serves correctly, all of the individual purple clocks are 3 or 3.5 inch squares.  The lattice was 2.5 inches.  I had enough left over to make a throw pillow for her as well.

Square Dance

Living and teaching in rural Alaska had its challenges.  One of the biggest was fresh produce.  When given the opportunity to travel to Bethel for teacher training, we would jump at the chance, and bring a cooler, box, or large suitcase if possible to bring home our booty.

Naomi and I were befriended by a teaching couple, Jim and Debbie, and spent many weekends over the years on their pull out beds.  The money we saved on hotel rooms was used to purchase lots of fresh fruit, veggies and eggs.  We always left fresh produce for their family in exchange for their hospitality.


Debbie was also a quilter.  The square dance pattern was one she shared with us during a visit.  I decided that I would create a small wall hanging for forth of July to determine how difficult and time consuming this pattern would be since you sew quilt blocks together, cut them apart and then sew them together again to create the pinwheels in the pattern.


 
I also used this pattern to create a quilt for my ex-husband's oldest daughter, Jessica.  If I remember correctly, I sent this to her for graduation.  I am not sure why, but I decided to hand quilt this one.  I can remember sitting on the floor at my parent's house at Blue Lake hand quilting this one.  My mom sent me many of the fabrics that are in this quilt from stores in Michigan.

Deep Blue

While living in Kipnuk I had a ton of extra time to piece quilts. This top was pieced in 2000.  It is a mystery quilt from the Fat Quart Quilt by M'Liss Rae Hawley.  

This particular pattern calls for half square triangles, nine patches, four patches, double four patches, and rails and square blocks.  Many of the blocks used strip piecing which made the construction less complicated.  Depending on how you chose to put the blocks together, your design could be significantly different.

It is one of the few quilts that I've made over the years that I kept for myself.

This is "Purple Mystery" pieced and quilted by my daughter in 2008.  This quilt does not have the double four patches that are in "Deep Blue"

 This quilt, "Soothing Fields", was pieced and quilted in 2004 for my very dear friend Jenn.  The fabric was given to me so it would match her decor.  This one includes the double four patches that are not present in the purple quilt.

Whore's Red

When my daughter was ten months old we moved from Fairbanks to a small village in rural Alaska.  I had a lot of time on my hands to spend with the munchkin, and to quilt.  During this period I completed many quilts.  It wasn't difficult to do because there weren't any other distractions.  The first year in the village we had our own housing in the village.  The second year, we roomed with another teacher, Naomi, who was also a quilter.  

But you are probably wondering about the whore's red post title.  My older sister, Kim, who lives in Florida wanted a quilt to go with her new bedroom decor....and she wanted whore's red.  I have to tell you, when you live in a village, it is difficult to pull together a large number of red fabrics.  It looks a little Valentine's to me, but she was very happy.

I chose a simple rails pattern for this one, and I tied the quilt instead of quilting on my little machine since this was a large quilt.  The colors were perfect for her bedroom.  The picture is a little blurry, because it is a scan of the original photo.

Tesselations

In the process of my crazy life after divorce, I gave birth to my lovely daughter in 1998.  She was a surprise.  I always said that my pregnancy was God's finest joke!  For years I didn't think I would have any children, but knowing my family's record for unplanned pregnancies even with precautions, I was vigilant with taking precautions.  And then she arrived....and I know that God was laughing at me.

This quilt kept me from losing my mind as I prepared to be a single mom.  Unsure if I was capable of raising her on my own, I didn't even tell my parents about the pregnancy until I was well over three months along.

I learned many things about 45 degree angles and keeping track of which  blocks went where.  I could have chosen a much simpler pattern, but keeping with my ignorance regarding patterns, I liked what it looked liked and jumped right in!

I believe I finished it right before I went into the hospital to give birth.

Star of Bethlehem Quilt

I drove back to Alaska, found a place to live, a job, and enrolled at University of Alaska Fairbanks to finish my degree.  When I wasn't at school or work, I spent my evenings at the Silver Spur drinking, dancing, and finishing my homework...After all, I was single again.

In 1996, I met a man that made me swoon.  Wasn't looking for it, didn't want it, but there it was...and as all things that are too good to be true, he was as well.  It took me too many years to figure it out and a lot of heartache in the end. But in the moment, it was fantastic.  The Star of Bethlehem quilt was meant to be a gift for him, but instead ended up as a dog blanket.  Chance used it until if fell apart.

 
Was it worth it....yes and no.... In the craziness of our relationship, I became pregnant (1998), and in the end he and I would not spend our lives together.  


In front of the quilt is my daughter Samantha. You may be wondering what is all over her face....Did you know that if you wet washable crayons with your tongue you will have a grease pencil and can draw all over your face?!?

Quilt Therapy Beginnings

The first quilt I ever pieced was for my little brother's wedding.  It was born from the pain of divorce and with the hope that they would have a lasting marriage.  I had never thought of quilting before, but over the years I sewed many formal dresses for our military balls, and children's clothing for my friends' children.  With that in mind, I decided that a quilt would keep me occupied as I contemplated where I would begin this new phase of my life.  I was raised in Michigan, and that was where my parents lived.  With the military, we lived in Germany, Texas, Alaska, and then New York, but the only place that felt like home was Alaska.  So as I planned my return drive to Alaska, I began their quilt.

I wanted to create something for by brother and his new wife that was unexpected.  I am not even sure where the idea came from, but probably walking through a bookstore perusing the aisles.  The next thing I know, I've purchased a book, picked a pattern, purchased cutting supplies and fabric and sat down at the table for hours and hours of cutting and sewing.  Little did I know that I should have started with larger blocks! At the time I didn't know anything about quilting, or batting, or backings.  I made things up as I went along.  I sandwiched the layers-the top, a blanket (like the quilts my grandma used to make) for the middle, and a backing.  If I think about it, the backing might have been a sheet, or muslin.  As I type this, I cannot believe that was 20 years ago in 1995.

As I sewed their wedding quilt, I shed tears for the end of my own marriage.  I thought of the plans that were discussed that would no longer happen.  My mind reeled with decisions about my future as a single woman, where I would live, and what I would do with my life. I continued to sew. About the time I finished the top of the quilt, I had decided that I was going back to Alaska.  I borrowed my dad's truck, rented a U-Haul, loaded up family pieces of furniture and personal items, and drove to Michigan where I put everything in storage.  At my parent's house, I layered and tied the quilt.  The original plan was to hand quilt the layers, but I realized that with the blanket in the middle, that was almost impossible and I wouldn't have it finished before their wedding day.  My mom helped tie the quilt and then I sewed on the binding.  I managed to finish the quilt in time for the trip to Texas for the wedding.

That quilt was the best therapy for my divorce.  I was able to focus on something positive as I dealt with what, at the time, was my biggest failure in life...my marriage.  Little did I know that quilt would be the first of many--given to friends, family and strangers over the years.  Quilting is my therapy...whether as an escape from the frustrations of work, coping with family crisis, or just a little me time to regroup, my quilt room is my haven.