Quilt for a Graduating Senior in Foster Care

Nine Patch Plus Block quilt for Day1Bags

This is a quilt I made to give to a graduating senior who has been in foster care. This quilt project required a non-gendered theme, twin sized, and with a pillowcase to go with it.  

It is hard to imagine what a non-gendered theme quilt is. However, the privacy of these teens is of utmost importance, so they could not tell us gender, or match us with an actual person to make something more specific for that individual.  With that, I simply picked colors that I liked and am hoping that it will find it's person!

In Texas, teens normally age out of the foster care system at age 18.  There have been a few changes to some of those rules, hopefully in response to the fact that teens don't go from kid to adult just because they have a birthday.  It's a process.  I wanted to give a quilt as a show of love and support.  A big wrap of love to congratulate the senior who has come so far, and to keep them warm for the struggles ahead. 
If you would like to know more about Day1Bags you can find it here.  You can also contribute in other ways without having to make a quilt if you are interested! :)

quilting

On Point Challenge Quilt

On Point Challenge Quilt

48" x 68"
for Austin Modern Quilt Guild: a service project donated to charity

I have one adult kid living at home who is not really thriving during the pandemic.  So, I decided to offer up a project, and it would require just one hour a day.  It took us about 6 weeks to complete it.  The very private adult kid has consented to let me share it here.  I am delighted to share it with you!  I definitely am feeling the parental pride thing. And the adult kid also got some pride, both from the work, and the ability to stick to a project and complete it. The quilt is lovely, and will hopefully be loved by someone who needs it.

Learning to sew rows together.

Making our way through the rows on the design wall.

The quilt also had to stay hidden from any social media because it was a contest within our guild.  After everyone finished their quilts, we had a small outdoor quilt show one Saturday and the members voted on all the quilts.  You can see all the quilts here. It was really fun to be able to see quilts in person, and also be socially distanced.  Everyone wore masks too. We didn't stay long, but it felt so good to be around a group of other quilters and see a few old friends.  I look forward to a return of social gatherings. 

I also wanted to say "thank you" to the Austin Modern Quilt Guild for supplying the backing, the batting, and a label for our project!

The Flying Geese Quilt

The Flying Geese Quilt
48" x 64"

This one began with a community service project for the Austin Modern Quilt Guild.  We were asked to make flying geese blocks of any color and donate them.  So, I made some that looked like this: (and donated them)

I had fun making these because they just seem to FLY together (ha! ha!). And that's when I remembered that my old lap quilt made from my very first quilting class was falling apart. 

And, I thought I solved that problem when I made this quilt:

i Quilt

...but the i Quilt went on to bigger and better things, and it is still out on exhibit (Houston QuiltFestival), and I am still cuddling with the worn out thread bare quilt....but I digress. I thought I could whip up the flying geese pattern in no time at all.  I should stop myself right here because quilts don't "whip up" in no time at all.  There is a LOT of work to make a quilt, a lot of decision making, a lot of cutting, and sewing, basting, quilting, and binding.  Every single step takes a lot of time!  But, I like spending my time this way, so I set about to make myself a new lap quilt, for you know, napping between quilt making sessions.  :)
So, I selected a color palette and used fabrics from my stash to make some blocks for my quilt.

Yep!  I like this one.  And when the top was finished, I needed a back and was lacking (once again) enough fabric of just one kind to put on the back, so I pieced another back to make another two sided quilt:

I liked the big scale fabrics and the big scale design.  Fun and fast! (or rather, faster!).  Then I started quilting, 1/4" because it looks good, and what I didn't know at the time was,

that the dense quilting lines, and the small stitch size, and possibly the tension on my machine, made the quilt blocks get distorted.  This quilt was quilted on my Juki Virtuoso Pro with free motion quilting, no walking foot.  I thought it would make a nice practice piece for getting re-acquainted with my giant quilting machine (and it did), but I was honestly surprised at the distortion.  And, my fall back, washing the quilt, or getting it wet, and blocking it did not work.  The quilting lines were so dense and tight that they allowed for absolutely no reshaping or blocking into the correct shape.  It was disappointing that after piecing everything straight, the machine quilting had warped it.  So, I am glad that I have learned something from this experience on a quilt that was not intended to go to the show.  It will be loved and used until it is thread bare.  The colors make me happy!