Saturday, January 29, 2011

A Place for Quilts

Recently I looked around and realized that there were quilts almost everywhere. 
 Is there such a thing as too many? 

Like many of us who came of age in the sixties, I was drawn to crafts.  I knit, I sewed and I wove. But I bought quilts made in China and learned that they quickly fell apart at the seams. So, I decided I'd make one to last.  Armed with Mary Ellen Hopkins' classic "The It's Okay If You Sit On My Quilt Book",  I sat down to design my first quilt. I spent hours and hours with graph paper and colored pencils.  I began hand-piecing it in 1999 and discovered that I enjoyed machine piecing even better. Never one to be without handwork, I began to hand quilt it. Two years later, I was awfully proud to show this at the Quilter's Guild of Brooklyn.  The "she" was our Maine Coon, Peri.

It's Okay if She Sits on my Quilt
November 2001
And another journey began.

During this time, I thought I'd give hand-applique a try.  I made this for my sister. Just in case she ever got tired of white t-shirts from the Gap, I threw in a black one. 

 "What Should I Wear Today" 2001.  



I had just learned how to do needle turn applique. Like many of us then, I gravitated to Sew Brooklyn, which sadly is no longer open.