Childhood Memories - I was inspired when I visited The Keepsake Quilt Store in N.H. three years ago. I bought a few of the border fabrics in hopes to find my daughter's doll clothes her grandmother Findling made for her. Once I found them I knew what to do. I started by hand applique with embroidery floss in the blanket stitch on 30's fat quarters I had in my stash. The quit will be for my daughter when finished for her 46th birthday. Not having any grand daughters I hope one day my grandson Peter will have a daughter one day to hand this down to.
Batik Butterflies - Squares of batik fabric were folded in half to make triangles. These were then stitched to the same size black squares, folding back the folded edge of the batik triangles 1/2 inch in the center and tapering to nothing at the ends. Topstitching on the inside edge of the fold, to make the butterflies 3 dimensional. The squares are then arranged to form butterflies. The quilt was long-arm machine quilted only on the black area with feather vines. I made this "black" quilt for my sister's 50th birthday.
Basket Balls - May this quilt for my grandson on his 13th birthday 3/18/2005. He lives in Paris, France and loves to play basketball. The quilt is all flannels,
A Portrait of Us - This quilt is a rendition of the technique found in the article called "Stitch a Sketch" by Faye Anderson found in the Quilters Newsletter Magazine. It is a portrait of my husband and I.
Mary's Secret Garden - Bought this as a kit at Amidon Quilt Shop in Poway, CA. It took me four years to complete. The quilting was done by hand and it is the first hand quilt I have ever done. The size is a double.
Name of Maker: Melissa El-Assi and Mrs. Smith's First Grade Class
Words of Encouragement - My daughters have gone to school with a boy named Caleb and have had him in class the last three years. His Mom, Crystal, has been fighting cancer for all three of these years so we worked with the first grade class and made his mom a comfort quilt. She absolutely adores it and was very surprised by the class effort!!!
Alivia - I made this for my nieces first birthday. I really practiced on freehand quilting...I did lots of bugs around the border. I also did embroidery using my new machine.
Sarah's Quilt - My oldest daughter Sarh moved into her own bedroom away from her two other sisters!!! I made her this quilt to go with her new "Big Girl" decor.
Thinking Outside the Block - Really easy and fun to put together. Best selling pattern for our little company. Work well with just about anything you put in it. For more details visit our website: www.toadusew.com
Feminine Potential - The figure of the woman and babies are my first try at hand drawing and painting human figures. They are appliqued and pieced using commercial fabrics. The poppies are fussy cut from one of my favorite fabrics. It is unquilted because my vision for the quilting is currently ahead of my abilility.
Mariners Compass Medallion - I used the compass (paper pieced) from Elm Creek Quilts and some elements from other quilts from the book to come up with this layout. I need something to hang above my couch and it uses colors in my living room.
Spencer's Quilt - For Spencer, my nephew's son, for Christmas. Started with an ABC panel, cut it apart and rearranged, added sashings and extra blocks. I put my own letters on the back spelling For Spencer in large block letters.
Heart of Roses - This was an Amish made quilt top that I had won at auction on Ebay. I had had it for over a year and waited until I felt comfortable enough quilting it on my longarm. I used machine trapunto and then quilted it for my inlaw's 60th anniversary. They loved it!
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