1,000 Pyramids, TNG

There's another variation of Mary's quilt that can be partially seen in my Clowdy post. This is the entry I wrote about it on my GeoCities account. Back then, I Sucked At PhotoShop.

Wallhangings

I made this for my neighbor's 18th birthday (the same girl for whom I made the turtle pillow). It was affectionately known as the "Wallhanging That Doesn't", for I was unsure that she would be able to hang anything on the walls of her trailer. I am pleased to report that she did indeed hang it up, almost immediately!


This is entirely machine pieced and quilted. Most of the patterns came from Carol Doak's book "Easy Machine Paper Piecing". The fabrics used in the Foundation Paper Pieced blocks are scraps remaining from outfits her mother had made for her over the years (except for one scrap of my signature "chicken fabric").

Maddy's Guardian Angel

Hand appliquéd, hand and machine quilted. I hand quilted the wings with clear Sulky © Sliver thread. Never again!

This angel watches over my niece and helps brighten her hospital room.

1,000 Pyramids

1,000 Pyramids Machine pieced and quilted. Measures 4 feet by 7 feet.

While I was making Mary's Wedding Quilt my quilting "studio" was the utility room off the former garage (that the previous owners converted to a den), a room I shared with lots of shelves, the washer & dryer, and the water heater. Not much room at all. The only place I had to hang up the quilt-in-progress to get some idea of its size & pattern was the wall over the couch.

Once I had it up there, Mary & her husband-to-be very nearly never got it--it looked SO wonderful in that spot! After quite a struggle with myself, I finally decided to go ahead and give them the quilt (after all, I had been thinking of them the entire time I was making it, so there was no way it could belong to anyone else), but that I'd make another one for that wall as soon as I could.

I had lots of left-over triangles and had bought my very first piece of batik (taupe background with navy triangles printed on it in various sizes & configurations) specifically for the wall project. There are lots of duplicate fabrics from Mary & Jim's quilt in mine, so I think of them whenever I see the one on my wall.

20 years later

At a family get-together last year, hosted by my sister Mary and her husband Jim, she pulled their wedding quilt out of its storage box (it was the middle of summer--the quilt was put away until needed) and explained it was their favorite cuddle-up quilt. I was delighted to hear that! But the years of love had taken their toll on the binding.

This is the main reason I prefer doubled bias bindings. There are plenty of layers.

When I knew I'd be returning the next month for an extended period, to help my folks take care of themselves after some health issues, I grabbed all I had remaining of the original binding fabric, plus likely candidates if there wasn't enough of the first fabric.

Geocities 7-1998: Mary's Quilt

This is an experiment in republishing html pages I created for my now-extinct GeoCities account, back in the day.

Mary's Wedding Gift quilt

"1,000 Pyramids"

This shows most of my sister's wedding gift quilt "1,000 Pyramids" from Diana McClun/Laura Nownes' book "Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!!". Except for the batting, this quilt was made only from material I had on hand. I managed to complete it in just 5 weeks, mailing it to Mary and Jim in plenty of time for their wedding. All machine pieced and quilted. Measures approximately 85" x 101".

The general color theme of this quilt was blue & white. "Blue" ranged from green to blue-violet, "white" was anything from white to dark tan. Various other colors snuck in too -- I'm sure there's some pink in there -- but that just adds to the charm.