I’ve recently finished these two commissioned quilts. My client has two spare bedrooms with a bathroom in between. She wanted two related quilts and I was originally going to use some Ghanaian fabric that her daughter had purchased in Ghana. My ideas for incorporating the African fabric were not resonating, so my client decided to ditch the idea of African themed quilts. When I showed her photos of my Tropical Matrix quilt made from my template-free Op-Art Kaleidoscope blocks, she loved it and decided that she’d like similar quilts. I’ve been collecting hand-dyed fabrics for several years, mostly purchased from Judy Robertson who would come to our local annual quilts shows as a vendor. The block design lends itself well to using these fabrics. The border fabrics are also hand-dyed and were from Cherrywood. Sunrise has a soft color palette with a blue border, and Sunset with purple borders tends more towards the brighter oranges. The quilts are around 75″ x 75″ and sit on top of the king sized beds. They were both beautifully long-arm quilted by Wanda Rains. The Op-Art Kaleidoscope technique is illustrated in my videos and the pattern is available at my on-line store.

I’ve used most of my left over rogue quilt blocks and a few odd samples from workshops that I’ve taken to make little teddy bear and doll quilts. These are a great way to use up scraps and I also had several odd four-patches ready to go that were left over from all the baby quilts we made to send to Mongolia last year. My local quilt guild, Kitsap Quilters’ Guild, collects these from our members and donates them to Kitsap Community Services. We wrap teddies and dolls in these little quilts and our local police, firefighters and social workers give them to kids who are in distress or in traumatic situations. I recently delivered this pile of 13 quilts to our guild representative who coordinates this Kitsap Snuggles outreach project.

I recently gave this bed quilt, Retro-Radiation, away to a friend who lost most of her belongings when her apartment caught fire a few weeks ago.

I gave her a choice of two quilts and I accurately predicted that this would be her pick. She loves the colors and since she is a piano tuner, the piano keys borders seemed most appropriate. Here you can see four of the 16 Op-Art Kaleidoscope blocks. These blocks are made using my template-free technique (see my video) which is very easy and fun. I have patterns available at my on-line store. Look closely to see the awesome long-arm quilting by Wanda Rains.

Below, the border is illustrated. The wavy line which looks like rickrack is a fussy-cut fabric. The piano keys border features all of the fabrics from the center field of the quilt. In the lower left corner, you can see the small Kaleidoscope block which is in the mid-point of the side. This looks like a radiation warning sign.

The response to my request for baby quilts for newborns in Mongolia has been fantastic and we have received over 100 quilts! I’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity and support of the quilting and my church communities for this project. Thank you to you all. Quilts have come not just from my local area, but from as far afield as CA,IL and OR. We’ve also received some crocheted baby blankets. Special thanks goes to Wanda Rains, who long-arm machine quilted 50 of the quilts. On Sunday we covered the pews at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Bainbridge Island, WA with quilts for our 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. services and the parishioners laid their hands on them for a special blessing. Everyone was delighted to see the quilts and the church looked especially beautiful.

These quilts will be packed in boxes this week to be shipped in a container leaving for Mongolia next week, (6th May, 2019). They should arrive in early July. We will display them at the 3rd International Mongolian Quilt Show at the State Department Store in Ulaanbaatar on 1st-3rd August. This quilt show will celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Mongolian Quilting Center. After the quilt show, we will travel in the Mongolian countryside and distribute the quilts to babies in rural hospitals.

Baby quilts arriving here after tomorrow and before the end of June, will be carried in our suitcases when we go to Mongolia in July.