Border Play - Class based on Border Workbook focused on adding special borders to spruce up a quilt. Different border for each block.

Heritage Hearts - Fabric and pattern purchased on special family visit to IL several years earlier. Made as gift when Liz and Matt married.

Amish Window - Because no pattern was available, I drew on a shopping bag and graphed it when I got home.

Spring - After my father passed away I wanted to make a "hopeful" quilt. I found this pattern in a quilt calendar I'd purchased and I fell in love with the design by Debby Kratovil. This is my first totally handquilted piece, and it took me a year to do it in my spare time. It is machine pieced, appliqued and bound. If I had to do it over, I would have done the binding by hand as I'm not satisfied with how it looks on the back. I may still rip it out and redo it. I made it smaller than the original, knowing that my spare time is rare if any at all. My sisters and I are looking after my mother now that she's 90, and I am happy to say that she and my grandmother were both quilters and I'm the only daughter that caught the "bug".

Earthly Falls - My father was diagnosed with cancer about this time, and I got very sad, yet I wanted to work through the feelings with a quilt that symbolized the cycle of life. I love autumn and I knew it would be the theme of the quilt. I hand appliqued the leaves with buttonhole stitch around them. I had sewn a lot in my younger days (first taught by my grandmother, who was excellent at it). I had dabbled in stained glass but found it made holes in my carpet (molten lead) so I decided to make quilts instead. Because of my training in stained glass, I wanted to make the sun shine through the quilt so I posed it in front of a window. Cloth doesn't wear as sturdily as stained glass, so I decided not to leave it in front of the window.

For Haley - Joy and I made this quilt for a co-worker who was having a baby girl. It was Joy's first time quilting a quilt by machine. We really had fun doing it.

Animal Fun - Trying to introduce sewing to my daughter with her own sewing machine. We designed the quilt and she sewed the squares together by herself. I did the applique pieces for her.

Garreths Hero - This was my first completed quilt, which I made for my Grandson's 5th birthday. I started in October of 2005 and completed in December, just before Christmas.

Gift of Thanks - A fat quarter quilt design. I made as a Thank you to my Ceramic Teacher . It was my first fusible web applique.

Let Freedom Ring - This quilt has been donated to Quilts of Valor. It is my first completed full size quilt.

Celebration Sampler - This quilt was made as a block of the month put on by my local quilt shop. It took me all of 2008 and I finished the quilting in 2009. Each block is either all applique, just block, or a combination of both. I really like the combination of block and applique. I modified the quilt pattern some by cutting the amount of blocks. I didn't want a large quilt. When I completed the quilt with most of the quilting done, I noticed that it was way to long for our queen size bed and just wide enough. So I added some side strips - in the quilt as you go method. Luckily I had enough fabric. My son and his wife now own the quilt and loots great on their bed.

John 3:16 - I made this quilt for a very, very special friend. She is an angel on earth and this was a thank you gift for her.

D Pillow

Christmas Pinwheel Pillow - This was one of my first attempts at making Holiday Pillows. These, too, became profitable for me for a little bit.... I even decided to make a stock of them well before Christmas one year, but realized I'm way too impulsive to pull that off.... so I stopped. I work a lot better under pressure, and the holidays should be limited to the holidays. Hard for me to work with Christmas fabrics in July.

Tony's Quilt - I wanted to try this "swirl" block situation, so I made my cat, Tony, his own little quilt...it now sits on an ottoman on which he likes to sleep.

Tumbling Pansies - This is a quilt I made for my mother-in-law...she is always cold so this Christmas I gave her what better gift then warmth. A friend at quilt class explained the method for making the block and the results are what you see.

Daylilies Four Ways - A photo of daylilies in my garden was the inspiration of this quilt, which reconstructs the image using 4 different techniques - (1) printing the image on fabric, (2) fusible applique (3) simple machine applique and embellishment and (4) machine piecing. Each section was constructed separately, then the four were trimmed and squared and sewn together using a large zigzag stitch. The separating sashing was sewn on last.

Slideshow - My granddaughter Sharon made this quilt with Grandma's help. We started it about a year ago and finished it just this week. Sharon pieced the quilt together and used the quilting machine to put patterns in each block. We are very happy with the beautiful colors and patterns!