sports for everyone

Yellow Brick Road - My biggest project - 93" x 102". When I finish quilting by hand, it will be a gift to my daughter who lives in Mississippi. I hope to finish by Christmas. I've done other quilts. I had the blocks of another quilt that were made by my husband's grandmother, that I put together for another daughter. I am nearly blind as the result of Bell's Palsy, so I consider this a real accomplishment.

Let The Fun Begin - Each year in June the 'Mateel Community Center' of Redway, California brings us a fine Festival. It is no secret that I am all about celebrating and helping children as they explore their lives. I tried to feature them in this quilt – depicting some of the different exhibitions that go on at the 'The Summer Arts & Music Festival' each year. Those of us who have lived in the area know of the Kinetic Sculpture races and might remember the 'bubble lady' going up and down the street blessing us with Happiness. I knew she had to 'bless' this event for us, so I have her holding the banner! The redwoods and the river in the backgroumd with sky fabric from Ricky Tims. Gail Crosby (Salmon Creek) is working on her sprit house and Betty Hayes (Healdsburg) wearing one of her many charming hats is spinning yarn. On a personal note, I have depicted my grandchildren in this quilt. In the center is Kaitlyn with her butterfly painted cheek, Alex (AJ) is playing the harmonica and walking on stilts, Heather is playing the sax, and Laura is singing up a storm while playing the guitar. My nephews Cody and Dillon are playing the horn and trombone. The quilt next to the rugs has one of my patterns ‘Nan’s Square’ (copyright 2002). UNFORTUNATELY -- this quilt was stolen off the Mattle truck after the 2007 Festival -- so far no leads

25th Anniversary Redwood Run - Each year I make quilts to raise money for our mountain community school (pre-school - 4th grade) . This quilt raised almost $11,000.00 during the 25th Redwood Run festival held in our area each year. I made 3 dimensional trees to represent the massive bark that the redwoods have. I also used the Harley Davidson eagle pattern rising above the Avenue of the Giants Redwood Grove. My husband, Jack said I had to have stars in the sky because they are beautiful at night if you are driving on the avenue. So, April Sproule made them out of threads while doing her amazing quilting. The borders have the same eagle on two corners with the Harley Davidson patches on the other two. Old T-shirts from past festivals were shown within the border with April Sproule useing varigated thread for the quilting. I made this quilt special because it was an anniversary and I was very excited when the first tree was done. I knew it was going to be very beautiful. The school was very excitted. They got a new roof out of the money raised! Good lesson learned: It would have raised more money but the parents of the school forgot to leave the tickets at the local businesses when they displayed the posters! People were asking all over town - ' how do I buy a raffle tickets?

Lucky Find - Beautiful full-size quilt bought at estate tag sale for DD; there was another one with more primary colors which I wish I'd also bought! Didn't realize how gorgeous this quilt was until I got it home and under decent lighting....was really hoping DD would decide she didn't want it, but no such luck! :)

SUN BONNET SUE IN THE 30'S - ALL 20' & 30's Aunt Gracie fabrics were used to create this quilt. I made this quilt for my great neice who I absolutely adore. All of the Sun Bonnet Sue's were cut out by hand by me, and then embroidery floss was used to sew and embellish the Sue's onto the squares. I then used matching fabric to make my large half triangles around the Sue squares. I had the quilt longarmed by a dear friend and an excellent quilter herself Lynn Haight.

DIANA'S 50TH BIRTHDAY QUILT - THIS QUILT IS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL IF YOU PLAN IT JUST RIGHT. YOU WILL NEED A LIGHT FLORAL AND A DARK OPPOSITE FLORAL USE A VERY GOOD CONTRAST SO THAT THE INTERLOCKING PATTERN EMERGES. I MADE THIS FOR A DEAR FRIEND OF MINE WHO BEAT LYMPHNOMIA CANCER IN STAGE FOUR. I MADE THIS FOR HER 50TH BIRTHDAY MARCH 1, 2008. IT GOES PERFECT IN HER COTTAGE UP NORTH IN HER BACK PORCH ROOM.

MIKE & EMILY'S WEDDING QUILT - I MADE THIS BEAUTIFUL DOUBLE WEDDING RING QUILT FOR MY SON AND DAUGHTER IN LAW'S WEDDING SHOWER. I USED ALL NORTHCOTT FABRICS FOR THIS QUILT. THE HAPPY COUPLE GOT MARRIED MAY 3, 2008 IN MICHIGAN.

NANCY'S NEEDS - THIS QUILT WAS MADE FOR MY YOUNGER SISTER NANCY WHO I LOVE SO DEARLY . AS CREATIVE AS SHE IS ESPECIALLY WITH HER LITTLE KIDS BOOK SHE PUBLISED, SHE JUST DOESN'T WANT TO QUILT. NANCY FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS QUILT I MADE SO I SURPRISED HER AND GAVE IT TO HER FOR HER BIRTHDAY JANUARY 4TH, 2008. I USED MODA FABRICS FOR THE ENTIRE QUILT.

BILL'S DEER - BILL IS AN ADVID HUNTING, HE DOESN'T MISS A TRICK OR A DEER FOR YEARS. I COULDN'T THINK OF ANYONE BETTER THAT WOULD APPRECIATE THIS QUILT WITH PICTURES OF DEER ON IT THAN BILL. I MADE THIS FOR HIM FOR CHRISTMAS 2007. HE LOVED IT!

MICHIGAN WOLVERINE'S - MICHAEL IS MY OLDEST SON WHO RECENTLY TIED THE KNOT. BIG,BIG, SPORTS FAN AND MICHIGAN IS HIS FAVORITE COLLEGE TEAM. SO I SURPRISED HIM FOR HIS WEDDING SHOWER AND MADE HIM A MICHIGAN QUILT WITH NOTHING BUT MICHIGAN FABRICS.

Laura's Granny Quilt - I live in California and my grandchildren live in Kansas. So I made a 'Granny Doll" with-in a biscuit quilt pattern from a book called Easy Puff Quilt by Virginia Gore. I had to learn how to make a face and a doll head. I used a neighbors daughter (Sierra), to draw her hands and feet because she was about the right size. I made her 'granny gown' from a pink and white striped soft flannel and a eyelet lace edged night cap. Then I used paint for her face make-up and curls for her hair. Of course I had to paint red on her nails and toes. Us granny's can't keep our legs together like we use to and thought about our bling we wear but felt it wouldn't do well in the wash. I had to have the head detachable (so it could be washed by hand), we are tender heads now ya know. I hand wrote a little letter on the back which read something like "I'm here to play and share stories with you and your friends. I can take naps or share a book. When your sick or feeling sad I can put my arms around you and hold you until your better and feel safe. Just know I am here to listen and to love you always ~ your grandma Branch

O Tannenbaum - This was my first BOM pattern I started it in 2005 and finished it in 2007. The piecing and embroidery embellishments had been done for a long time but I was skittish about doing the quilting, I was afraid I would ruin all the hard work I did piecing it. In the end, the quilting made it look much better. I did things like quilt the shingles on the roofs and added some texture to the tree and the rest of the quilt – in fact I may have gotten a little carried away with the quilting.

12 Days after Christmas - We had removed a picture to hang the O'Tannenbaum quilt in our dining room during Christmas and decided we didn’t want to put back the picture we originally had up there, we wanted another quilt. So, using a modification of the quilt pattern that my husband bought me at Christmas, I made this quilt. We call it the "12 Days After Christmas Quilt" because I made it within 12 days after Christmas, just in time to hang it in place of the Christmas quilt.

Yellow Brick Road - I bought this quilt as a kit because I loved the fabrics. It was also my first attempt at doing a whole quilt in free motion stippling.

"Sunshine" and Shadow - I bought April Cornell's Sunshine Fat Quarter Bundle this spring and this quilt was the result. I had just enough material to piece the top with very little left over. This was the first bed sized quilt that I quilted on a domestic machine.

Bear Paw - The blocks for this quilt were completed many many years ago but I had never put them into a quilt. My sister-in-law purchased a new Long Arm quilter and I wanted to play so I thought this would be the perfect quilt to use as my trial run! Long Arm quilting is fun!

Butterflies and Baskets - Half basket blocks machine pieced and quilted and half butterfly blocks hand pieced and hand quilted. Yellow polk-a-dot scalloped border.