A Quilt for Kennedy

Kennedy is my newest niece, born on December 31, 2017, just in time for her banker daddy to get a nice tax deduction. Here is the quilt I made for her.

Her nursery has gray walls and her grandma made her crib bumpers with peachy pink, green, and white. The quilt is 54" x 63". I always make baby quilts large. I imagine the baby having tummy time on the quilt, on the floor, so I want it big enough for the baby to roll around on. It's also big enough for a toddler to snuggle under.

Till next time......Happy Stitching.

Quilts and Human Rights Wins Prize

The Quilts and Human Rights book that I was honored to co-author with my Michigan State University Museum colleagues, Marsha MacDowell, Lynne Swanson and Mary Worrall was awarded the prestigious Chicago Folklore Prize from the University of Chicago. You can find a review of it on the World Literature Today site, https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2016/november/quilts-and-human-rights-marsha-macdowell-mary-worrall-lynne-swanson-beth-donaldson. If you haven't got your copy yet, you can find it at Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Quilts-Human-Rights-Marsha-MacDowell/dp/0803249853.

You can also find many quilts from the book and many other quilts about human rights on the Quilt Index website, http://www.quiltindex.org/search_results.php?collection=Quilts%20and%20Human%20Rights.

Just downloaded my EQ8 upgrade and will be trying it out tonight.

Till next time....Happy Stitching

Colleen's String Star

I just finished this queen-size quilt for my daughter. The center was an old quilt top she bought at Goodwill for $2.98. I hand-washed, re-cut and re-sewed the string stars.

When half was done, I had them photographed side-by-side so you can see the difference. The block were about 14", but after cutting them down, they are now 12".

The border was re-sewn from a small four patch quilt top. I won it at a silent auction.

Also in the auction offering was about 4 yards of nile green solid. I used the nile green solid to finish the borders and binding. The auction was many years ago at the Quilters Hall of Fame annual induction weekend. I was bidding against Eleanor Burns (yes, the Eleanor Burns). When she saw how much I wanted it, she very graciously quit upping the bid.

 

Till next time.....Happy Stitching

Another Barbara Brackman Blog

Barbara Brackman has created a blog just for indexing quilt patterns! Yahoo. I'm adding it to my list of blogs to follow. It's called Cloud of Quilt Patterns and can be found at this link, http://encyclopediaquiltpatterns.blogspot.com/

She has also added a Pinterest page to illustrate the patterns, BlockBase on Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/blockbase/.


Till next time....Happy quilting

Quilts and Human Rights

I just got my copy of Quilts and Human Rights. Wow, the folks at University of Nebraska Press did a really great job. My co-authors Marsha MacDowell, Mary Worrall and Lynne Swanson are so proud.

You can get your copy from Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/Quilts-Human-Rights-Marsha-MacDowell/dp/0803249853 or the University of Nebraska Press, https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Quilts-and-Human-Rights,677178.aspx

Till next time.....happy stitching

A Quilt for Kathy

This is a quilt for a dear friend who is battling cancer. When you're sick from chemo and radiation, there isn't much you can enjoy. Always cold, maybe a pretty quilt in favorite colors brings a little comfort. This quilt was a product of a block exchange group to which I'm a member. Thanks to Terry, Ruth, Carol, Louise, Jan, Dorothy, Daisy, Bonnie, Phyllis, Eileen, Cindy and Debra for making blocks or being a member of this group. I put the blocks together and machine quilted it. Sending healing thoughts with every stitch. Why does cancer have to strike the best of us?

Till next time....keep stitching

A Quilt for Lily Jean

It's always fun to make baby quilts, but it's even more fun when the baby is born on your birthday. Lily Jean and I share a birthday, 58 years apart. He mom is my daughter's best friend and I get to meet Lily next week. I hope she and her Mom like the quilt.

 

On the close up you can see one of the feathered wreaths and the elephants I quilted.

Till next time.....Happy Stitching.

Katy's Bed Quilt

Last May I posted an EQ7 drawing of a bed quilt for my daughter Katy. I finished it in time to give it to her when she was home for Christmas.

Click on the quilt to see it larger. It is huge, 93" x 102"! It took forever to quilt, but I am pleased with the results. I quilted it on my Bernina 1030. If you scroll down you can compare it to the EQ7 image.

Next up, I am scanning all my old family photos. This will be a big job, but it's fun.

Here I am at my first birthday with my sister Mary Ellen. She's a quilter too and just won the Best Hand Workmanship prize for her quilt Carmen's Garden. You can see it here.

Till next time......Happy Stitching

Beth

Inspired By.....

It's time for the Inspired By Quilt Contest to support the Quilt Alliance. Quilters are asked to  make small quilts inspired by quilts found in the Quilt Index or the Q.S.O.S. I didn't make a quilt for the contest, but two contestants were inspired by my quilts! Very flattering. To see the entries and the inspirations click here and here. While there take a look at the other entries and maybe place a bid or two!

Till next time...Happy Stitching!

The Life of a Clamshell

In 1997 I made a quilt for my book Charm Quilts. Since then, I've entered the quilt in the Quilt Index.

This year the Quilt Alliance, one of the Quilt Index partners is having a contest
Inspired By....



Much to my delight, Deb Hathaway chose my quilt as her inspiration. You can see picture of her very cool quilt, Raw Clams at the Shore on her blog here: http://www.debhathaway.com/2014/06/02/raw-clams-at-the-shore/.

Thank you Deb, I hope you win!!!!

Till next time.... Happy Stitching

Quilts for Desi and Evelyn

Here are two quilts that I've recently finished for new babies.

This one is for my bosses daughter, who just had her first baby, a girl, Desi. The gorgeous top was made by my work colleague, Julie Levy-Westin. Not only did she make the beautiful Roman Stripe, but she hand dyed all the fabric. So gorgeous. I machine quilted it. I love the way it turned out.

 

This quilt was made for my niece Sarah's baby girl Evelyn. Eveyln has two older brothers and made them quilts, too. You can see Zander's here, and Charlie's here. Evelyn's bedroom is decorated in turquoise and pink, so I think this will look good.

Evelyn's room.

 

Now time to finish my laundry and get back to work on Katy's Stars. Above is the version in EQ7. It is for my daughter's bed. She wants a queen size quilt for her Chicago apartment. Below are all the pieces on my design board.

 

I'll be machine quilting it in five parts, then putting them together. 

Till next time......Happy Stitching.

 

A Christmas to Remember

I live in Michigan. Usually we avoid the big disasters like tornadoes, floods, and hurricanes. But every once in awhile we get hit with something. This time we got stopped in our tracks by an ice storm that is the biggest in over 25 years.

While it is beautiful, it is also dangerous.

We've lost some branches and the top of a tree.
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But the worse for us, is the loss of power. We've been without power since December 22, so this makes day 5. I'm very grateful for the crews working around the clock to restore power for over 300,000 people, but it is getting old.

A shot from my living room, looking out the front window. LOL!

The bright side, we've been eating at lots of local restaurants and seeing movies. We've seen American Hustle, Saving Mr. Banks and today's movie is The Wolf of Wall Street.

I am very lucky to have a smart husband who said, "We're going to a hotel." Hotel rooms are at a premium so we're sharing a room at the Holiday Inn Express with our daughter who's visiting from Chicago.

Photo taken before the storm, when he was caught being naughty.

We've been checking on the house three times a day, because our dog Boomer is still there. The humane society recommended letting house pets like dogs and cats "shelter in place" rather than disrupting them by taking them to a kennel. Boomer's a bit lonely, but otherwise is fine. He's spending his days on the sofa in the basement. He's usually not allowed to be on the furniture, but it's easier for him to stay warm on a nice sofa. I also made a crockpot full of Italian beef last Friday and he's been having that with his dinner everyday since it will just go bad.

 I hope everyone had a warm and happy Christmas.

Till next time......Happy Stitching