Jacob's Window Quilt

The Bountiful temple was dedicated when I was a teenager. I helped with the open house and I remember thinking how beautiful and peaceful it was. I especially loved the stained glass windows. My tour guide described the design as influenced by native American designs and inspired by Jacob's vision of an angelic ladder in Genesis. (I'm not sure the inspiration by Jacob's Ladder part is true, as I've never heard anyone else refer to the window design that way.) I promised myself I would be back. I kept that promise and have been back many times. Several times I would find myself just staring at the windows. I loved the design and it occurred to me I could use a piece of the design and make a quilt. I first came up with a great queen sized design. Then I remembered, Oh yeah I still slept on a twin sized bed, and as nice as it would be to make another quilt for the unforeseeable future, I wanted a quilt I could use right away.

I was renting a room in a house with some awesome girls. I was in the mood for change and I decided to redecorate my bedroom as it was all I had to myself. I chose to use the colors found in this sweet little tissue paper sun I bought at an art fair.

 I color coordinated the whole room, I even  made new artwork for the walls and used these colors. I think I must have been feeling down, so I surrounded myself with bright warm colors. I made the quilt very light weight so I could use it year round. I bought lavender sheets so they would match. All the strips in the quilt are the same width, two inches not including the seam allowance. I used two reds, two yellows, one orange and one purple fabric. The colors in the temple windows change from top to bottom and from one window to another, but I couldn't afford that much time or fabric so I stuck with one set of colors. I may make another someday and have the colors change from one corner to the other.

The finished picture is a little blurry, but the quilt is a bit big for photographing indoors. 

The quilt is 88 x 61.5 inches.

I wanted to call the design Jacob's Ladder after the supposed inspiration for the window design, but that name is already claimed for a different quilt pattern. I decided to call it Jacob's Window. I entered it in the Bountiful Handcart Days Arts and Crafts Competition and won third place. The Bountiful temple is still very important to me. Alan and I were married there in 2011.

Indiana Mission Tie Quilt

You have been called to serve. You will say goodbye to your family and friends and spend three inspiring/exhausting weeks in the Missionary Training Center. Then you say goodbye to your new missionary friends, go to the airport and fly

 to  the

Where you are greeted and driven to the mission home in Carmel, Indiana. You will have some additional training for a day, and the next day you will meet you new companion, go your assigned area, and get right to work in spreading the gospel.

 You will rise early each morning, often before the sun.

You will study the scriptures every morning for two hours, one alone, and one with your companion

Depending on the week you will either ride your bike,

or drive a mission car, reminding yourself this is the Lord's car and you will drive carefully.

You will pray around fifty times a day, realizing you depend on the Lord for success, and mental, spiritual, and physical sustenance.

You will knock  on many doors, and sometimes, people will let you in.

Step around the concrete goose on the porch.

Try not to be distracted by, or trip over the many pets.

 Serve and love the people with open hands and hearts.

Keep a positive attitude.

Take the opportunity to testify of the truthfulness of the gospel whenever possible, it will invite the Spirit to touch the hearts of investigators and will strengthen you.

Teach from the scriptures, nothing is so powerful as the word of God.

 Remember why you are here, to serve the Lord's children, to love them with the pure love of Christ, and to help bring their souls to Christ.

Before you know it, it will be time to get on another plane and go home. You will take home experiences you could have not had any other way and you will leave a piece of your heart behind.

The finished quilt is 60 x 60 inches.

 My first mission president's wife would cut off the tie of every departing missionary at our Departure meeting, where the missionaries on their way out would share one last testimony before flying out the next morning. She had these tie fragments made into a lovely, orderly quilt, with each missionary's name embroidered on a strip of fabric sandwiched between two strips of their tie. My second mission president was of course under no obligation to continue this tradition. He didn't even know about it at first, but someone let him know soon enough, and he liked the idea, so the tie cutting continued.

I was ill on and off throughout my mission. I did my best and kept a positive attitude to the point of delusion. My dear president had an interview with me a month before my scheduled departure. He told me some of my former companions let him know how hard missionary work was for me and how frustrating it could be for them. I just didn't always have the energy to continue work and had to take a nap here and there when the exhaustion would catch up with me. (and I honestly had no idea how often I had to do this.) He gave me the choice to go home early or to serve in the mission office for the remainder of my mission, where I could take a nap when needed and not be wracked with guilt for not working harder. The idea of going home early was breaking my heart, so I opted to stay at the mission home and work in the mission office.

I spent the rest of my mission staying with President and Sister Quist. I just loved them, and got to know them pretty well. I volunteered to make the mission quilt and Sister Quist was very excited, since she hadn't known who to ask. She gave me carte blanche with the design. After I went home to Utah she would periodically send me a package filled with severed ties and some scarves from the sisters. Elders usually would wear their ugliest tie to their departure meeting, knowing it would end up chopped. Sisters sometimes wore a tie too, just so it could get cut off, but really so they would have something to contribute since not all sisters wear a scarf. I, myself, used a bright blue piece of fabric that had been tied to my luggage so I could identify it at the airport. I included every tie sent to me, except the one entirely made of duct tape. I have to admit the ugly ties were my favorite, you do get tired of handsome red ties after a while. Some of the ties were used more than once, but only early on, when I didn't have as many to choose from. The white, mint green, and royal blue jacquards are all additional fabrics from the store I used for the backgrounds of the larger blocks.

This was my first applique quilt and I learned as I went. I would unpick every tie, remove it's center, iron it, judge if I could use it's front or if the backside of the fabric would suit my needs better. Then if it was part of the applique I used fusible webbing to hold it in place so I could sew it on. The silk/polyester fabrics in ties are highly unsuitable for machine applique, at least with the somewhat antique machine I had at the time. I did try to machine sew them, but the machine would pull the pieces all out of shape, so all of the applique is sewn by hand. This is time consuming, but I had time. The Quists didn't need the quilt until the end of May, 2004. I had over two years to finish it. I did need the time though since I never knew what ties, or how many I would receive every few months. The Quists sent me a check now and then to cover assembly materials.

I got the layout for the quilt from a folk art quilt book that I unfortunately don't own anymore. I also got the animal, tree, leaf, barn, and house designs from the same book. The rest of the quilt is my own design, and I honestly didn't think of this until I finished, but I should have used sycamore leaves rather than oak. Indiana is known for its sycamore trees. Oh well. I got one last huge shipment of ties at the end with ties from all the missionaries that weren't leaving yet but wanted their tie included in the Quist's mission quilt. These ties make up the border and fillers between the designed blocks. I backed the quilt with a black jacquard fabric and my mom and sister-in-law helped me quilt it together. I embroidered my name on the back in red as an artist's signature. Then I took all these pictures and over-nighted it to the Quists. (They wanted it before leaving so they could show it to the missionaries at their last set of zone conferences.) Sister Quist called me after the quilt arrived and she was so sweet about it, crying happy tears. The work was totally worth it.



Next time: Jacob's Window Quilt

When All the Morning Stars Sang Together Quilt

This was my first really ambitious quilt. I mean ambitious in size and in the fact that I designed all the blocks and that I entered it into a crafts show. I was working at a fabric shop, which was great for inspiration, and for spending all my wages. (I still have lots and lots of the fabric I bought while working there.) I spent all my downtime at work designing quilts on a little graph lined notebook. After I had worked there for a little over a year, my Bishop called me to serve a mission. I knew I would do it as soon as the words were out of his mouth. The Spirit hit me like a truck and I accepted.

I started right away on filling out the paperwork, but the going wasn't easy. I had some long running health issues and had to go to the doctor a lot. after a couple months I finished the paperwork and my Bishop mailed it in. Then the waiting started. I had a lot of nervous energy so I filled my evenings piecing a quilt. I would work six hours at a stretch, hardly stopping to eat or drink. A week after my papers were sent in, I received a phone call. The mission office wanted a second opinion on my health. (They have to deal with a lot of medical issues for missionaries and wanted to know if I could take the exhaustion of missionary work.) I would need to see another doctor. I made an appointment that day, but the second doctor couldn't fit me in for another month. So now I really had time and even more nervous energy.

I had never pieced a quilt design with anything more complicated than squares. Oh well, I was in for it now. The grid layout is traditional and I'm not sure if anyone else had used these exact star designs, but for me they were completely original and mine. My inspiration was Job 38:7 "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy". I had been getting theme inspiration for quilt designs for some time from poetry and scripture. ( Although I've made only a very few of those quilts so far.)

 I made each star design in two different color combinations and used every color on the wheel but green.

Each star design was used six times in the quilt, three for each color combo.

I really love how yellow and orange just pop against blue and purple.

Then I grouped three of my shooting star design blocks around each corner for a total of twelve blocks.

  The finished quilt has thirty 13 x 13 inch blocks and measures 87 x 102 inches.

 

I finished the top of the quilt in very early June of 2000. A lady in my ward was in charge of the Bountiful Handcart Days Art and Craft competition and suggested I enter something. The due date was June 20th. I scrambled to finish the quilt in time. I did most of the quilting but Mom helped and called in the troops. (The sweet ladies from the Bountiful 12th Ward Relief Society and a few aunts and cousins.) We finished just in time to enter, well almost, I requested and was granted an extension since binding the quilt took about six hours longer than expected.

 The quilt was submitted just after I received my call to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Indiana, Indianapolis Mission. I was to leave in six weeks. My youngest brother Jack and I were going to the Missionary Training Center just two weeks apart and we were both very excited and helped each other study and prepare. So when it came time to go to the awards ceremony for the show, my mind wasn't really on it. I was surprised to find out I had won the blue ribbon! Wow, that was a first. Later they announced the people's choice award, and I won that too! The show's run didn't end until after I left for the MTC so Mom picked up my quilt for me. It sat in storage for years after I got home since I still slept on a twin sized bed. I didn't make a really big quilt again for this reason until I helped with Jack's wedding quilt.

A million years later when Alan and I got married, I had a ready made quilt and Mom didn't have to hustle to finish one for me. We used it for the first few months of marriage until we got our tax refund and we bought a bed set with a king sized bed. Now my quilt is on the guest bed, at least until the bed gets kicked out for a crib.

Next time: The Mission Quilt.

Two Crows Quilt

As I have mentioned before, I like birds. I see all kinds of birds in the field behind our yard, hawks, an eagle from time to time, flocks of brewer's black birds, robins, the stupid woodpecker that likes to hang out all winter above my front porch and poop all over it, magpies, and black crows. I really rather like crows. I know they have a scary omen of death reputation, but that is just from the fact that they are carrion birds. I don't care about that, lots of animals and birds eat things we humans find disgusting. Besides crows are smarty pants, they are so smart they have to make up games to keep from getting too bored.

I was designing a Fall wall hanging and found a design I liked better online called One Crow. This quilt actually has a pattern so feel free to buy it at Country Threads for only $7.00. I have a hard time following patterns, I'm always looking for different ways to do things. If you look at the example for the pattern, you'll see it has a log cabin block background, where I was too lazy that day and just used easy nine patch squares. I also left out the second border and black strips at the top and bottom of the center design. The appliques are almost identical to the pattern, except I used two rather than one crow.

I used cotton fabrics from my stash for all but the black fabrics. The crows are made from the reverse side of shiny black polyester.

 The second crow got a little warped from the flame I used to melt the edge threads.

I didn't bother with fusible webbing on the appliques, I just pinned them down and stitched around them. The black in the border is a rayon I originally bought to make into a work skirt. The orange fabrics have been sitting around for years waiting for me to make a Fall quilt, so I'm glad I finally got to use them.

The finished quilt is 29.5 x 35 inches

Next time: my first prize winning quilt.

Super Girly Quilt

Our house does not have a basement because of the high water table in our neighborhood. I still think of our ground level as a basement, because we keep it kind of dark and it is cold year round. Three months ago I realized I use Alan's flannel quilt a lot more than he does, mostly because I spend more time downstairs. This worked out fine of course, but I decided that is was time to make a quilt for me. One could argue that most of the quilts I've shown on this blog were for me, which is true, but they are for the wall, not for use.

I told a friend at work that I decided to make a flannel snuggle quilt for me, she asked if it would be a University of Utah quilt since I made a BYU quilt for Alan. (I think it was sweet of Alan to fall in love with me even though I attended his biggest rival's school.) I laughed at the idea because I made Alan the BYU quilt because he loves BYU football. I'm not going to make a U of U quilt because I just don't care. I did have a great experience there, but I'm done. Well, as soon as my loan is paid off later this year, I'll be done for good. ( I just want to interject here how I think it is hilarious how the PAC 12 thought they could tell U of U fans that they are no longer rivals with BYU, but with a team in the same conference. As if a rivalry can be dictated. Rivalries are emotionally driven, it isn't a cold, calculated decision. Alan spends a lot of time on a BYU sports chat board and it gets trolled by U of U fans all the time so clearly the rivalry isn't over.) Anyway, I decided to make a quilt I would actually want.

I went to Jo Ann's on an extremely busy sale day (not on purpose) but I found a whole bolt of a cute brown paisley flannel for $20 so I stood in that really long line and bought it. I came up with the design a few weeks later and bought more flannel to flesh out the design.

I made sure to add lots of birds and hearts,

with doves for peace,

and love.

I added my favorite flowers:

magnolia for creativity,

iris for spirituality,

daisy for friendship,

and rose for love and family.

 I added a floral wreath and a tree just because they make me happy.

The finished quilt is 60 x 67 inches

I chose the colors to be deliberately girly. I don't really have a favorite color anymore, but I have always liked pink and green together. The flannels I used are all good quality except for the white. The white appliques started fraying right away and I fear, will disintegrate after the first wash. I took lots of pictures, in case the quilt looks well loved a little too soon. I may take some steps to preserve it, but nothing too drastic since I make quilts to be used up and worn out. If I wear this one out, I'll have an excuse to make a new one.

Next time: Pumpkins, Crows, and an applique pattern ( I mean it this time).

Football Love Quilt

The man I love, loves football. I mean really loves football. He fortunately doesn't love all football, just Brigham Young University football. I have learned a lot about the sport since we've been together. I just didn't care before, in fact I found it boring. Lets face it, the teams kick the ball, spend a few seconds running around, then stop reset, hike, spend a few seconds moving, stop reset, and so forth. All the stopping and starting always felt pointless and couldn't hold my attention long enough to catch my interest. Alan spent some time tutoring me on plays and terminology when I explained I didn't even know what a "down" was. I do understand more about football games now and can even watch a whole game without rolling my eyes. I still don't love watching televised games, but I really do enjoy attending live games with Alan. Fortunately Alan is well versed enough he can give me my own personalized running commentary (when he isn't yelling at the refs) where he explains what is happening on the field. ( I never can understand the announcers at live games, echo, echo, echo.)

When we were engaged, I didn't have any money to spend on a Christmas present for Alan. He really loves technology related gifts, but those all cost money. I had some blue fabric, but only scraps. I designed a quilt big enough to wrap around two people to keep warm at a football game. I didn't have a lot of free time either, since our engagement was all of two and a half months and Christmas was three weeks before our wedding. I managed to finish the quilt top in time to wrap for Christmas.

 I didn't actually stitch the quilt with a batting and a back until the next November. I got a fancy Grace quilting frame (which I had never even seen anyone use before) with our tax refund. I assembled it myself, but I had a mental block on how to get a quilt on the frame so it sat there for six months before I finally enlisted Alan's help to get the thing started. I needed his help for about five minutes before it all clicked and I was able to proceed. The football quilt was the first to get stitched on my frame.

 

There are five different blue fabrics used on this quilt since I had to scrounge to find enough non girly fabric. the four large rectangles and the Y are a waffle knit, the light blue center is flannel, and the white is all from an old bed sheet. I used fusible webbing to place the lettering around the sides and football corner detail. I didn't use it on the Y, I just pinned it down and stitched around it old school style. I was able to afford new fabric by the time I got around to the quilting, so I bought a nice navy flannel for the back of the quilt. I quilted it with navy blue crochet thread. I thought of it as a compromise between tying the quilt with yarn and quilting with thread. I also thought the crochet thread might be easier to use than quilting thread. (It was actually quite difficult to pull through the fabric layers, but it made for an interesting look.)

 

When I photographed the quilt it was already a couple years old and had been laundered multiple times. The colors are holding up well, but it does look slightly warped and pretty wrinkly. This is from mixing knits with woven fabrics and because the white fabric had been laundered so many times before use that it didn't shrink at all, where the other fabrics shrank a little ( and yes I did pre wash them this time.)

The finished quilt is 66 x 66 inches

Next time: a snuggle flannel quilt of my own.