Here are the two other quilts I made from clothing. This one is a golfing theme with the four patches going diagonally across the quilt. The diagonal from top left to bottom right has theme fabric with golf balls and tees in it.
And this one is the handy-man quilt. Notice the Binford tool shirt logo in the upper left corner. I used a theme fabric of power tools in this quilt.
Last summer I was contacted by a lady who wanted me to make several quilts for her from the clothing of her late husband. She planned on giving the quilts to her children for Christmas. She divided the clothing up by theme – softball, golf, and maintenance. Her husband had been the coach for their youngest daughters softball team. In this bag of clothing was several team t-shirts with team signatures, team sponsor t-shirts. etc. Besides the theme clothing, she also had a bag of shirts, slack, and jackets that she wanted included in each quilt. I initially agonized over just what to do with this rather miscellaneous collection of clothes. After some brain storming I thought I’d see if she would mind if I added a theme fabric for each of the quilts. She agreed, and the search for just the right fabric began. Since my family was planning a trip out of state, we made a day of stopping at several quilt shops in towns as we progressed on our way. I found a great golf fabric, a tool fabric and one that kind of looked like paint splatters. When we returned home, I took to searching the web and found the perfect softball fabric. And here is the first of three quilts, the softball quilt. On the back of the quilt I sashed the large pieces of the t-shirts with team member signatures. I really like how it turned out. And this sweet lady all but cried when she picked the quilts up. She said the quilts were even better than she imaged. Phew, I’m glad I got these quilts right for her!
Today I came across Lisa Oceandreamer’s Event sponsoring a way for bloggers to meet and participate in a art give-a-way/trade. Since I’m kind of new to this world of blogging, I thought I’d join in! Now, what to offer as a trade? I’m starting with this little amulet pouch, and since I do far more quilting than fiber arts at this time in my life, I’ll add some fat quarters. Pictured is the back of the amulet. I’ll hopefully add the fat quarters photo later today.But even without the fat quarters photo, I hope others will want to enter their name in my give-away!
As explained on the Cyber Fyber website: CYBER FYBER is an exhibition of international fiber art scheduled for January 8th through 20th, 2009 at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, USA. The brainchild of Susan Lenz, this exhibit will focus on the supportive, global community of fiber artists with whom Susan regularly shares new techniques, contemporary approaches to textiles, and finished work by Internet websites and blogs. The exhibition will include three primary areas: Fiber ATCs (Artist Trading Cards); fiber postcards; and the work of several invited artists. The exhibition will also include FIBER DAY and ATC trading day. From the beginning, Susan Lenz is documenting CYBER FYBER on a blog/journal.
I took the plunge at my daughter’s bidding and have asked to trade for fiber postcard #21. I’ve asked for this one because Susan says it is based on the 6th century mosaics in Italy. The mention of Italian mosaics took me back 35 years !! when I got to spend a month touring Italy, with the exchange student who stayed with my family the previous summer. …
I’m waiting for Susan’s reply. 
Sigh, the bobbin tension on my Bernina has been acting up. I did a search to find the closest dealer/repair service, since the shop in my town has closed. Upside of the story is my husband and I took a trip to Shipshewana to the Bernina Dealer today. It’s a fun town to visit. I imagine it was once a quiet Amish community but now caters to tourists, with museums, buggy rides, convention center, lots of shopping, etc. We ate at the Blue Gate Restaurant. Yummy homemade bread and pies! We split a sampler platter and shared a piece of apple crumb pie. We (OK, I tee hee) shopped at several quilting stores, and the B&N bulk food store. And we will have to return next week to pick up the repaired sewing machine. Today I limited myself to just buying items for the white quilties swap I signed up for through Lenna’s swap blog. While at the Bernina shop I learned that they sell attachments to turn a Bernina into an embellishing machine! I’ll have to think about the pros and cons of that over buying a separate machine just for embellishing. Any thoughts anyone?
I found the picture of the quilt my friend Twila made for Shanette the current director of Kibbutz el-Shammah. So I happily share it with you! This past weekend I attended a quilt retreat held at StillWater Retreat in Yoder, IN. Their website is not up at this time. But they are just back from a mission trip to South Africa. They took three more quilts to the Kibbutz for us. And they brought back video of presenting the quilts to their owners. It is so cool to see the faces of the people we have made the quilts for, as previously they were just names. I don’t know if I can get the clip to play on my blog – will have to look into that.
Today I wanted to share the quilt my friend Twila made for the current director of Kibbutz el-Shammah. But alas, I can’t find a photo of it. So since I was thinking about the Kibbutz, I’ll share two other quilts sent to staff members. The two quilts shown came to me as one king size quilt top. I seamed ripped it in half, removed parts and then did new piecing in coordinating fabrics for the outside borders. I’m pleased with them. And I still have the parts I removed to start another quilt.
This is the first of several quilts I will share that I’ve made for the staff of Kibbutz el-Shammah in Worcester, South Africa. This quilt was made for Erena who developed this Christian Kibbutz as a home for street children in the Roodewal area. The ministry has grown and changed over the years and Erena is no longer the director. But, on one of her visits to Indiana, she asked if I would make quilts for the staff. Over the past few years I have made many such quilts along with the help of several friends. I will show their quilts in upcoming posts.
It is Thanksgiving Day , and TA DA!! THIS is my first blog entry. The banner is a section of the quilt below. I made it several years ago for a challenge sponsored by the quilt group I used to attend. I used commercial and hand painted fabrics. The flower petals is the challenge fabric. This little quilt remains one of my favorites. My plan is to hang it in my newly remodeled kitchen See my husband’s blog of the remodel. 