Pink square: This is one of the earliest quilts I made from my dad’s work shirts. I was surprised to find a pink one! and a wine! colored shirt in his stash. When I first started helping him with more things around his house, I discovered a closet full of work shirts – about five new shirts a year for 30 years! I was driving a Prius at the time and the entire rear end was full! I have made multiple quilts from these and still have a bunch. I try to hide one piece from one of these shirts in almost every quilt.

Gray and red Flying Geese. A girlfriend from college dropped off a box of fabric her mom cleaned out of a closet that included pieces she remembers from childhood clothes and 4-H projects. These were my first flying geese units. The gray-toned jelly roll helped pull all of the colors together. The quilting is supposed to represent the wind and the backing has little bees on it to complete the aerial look.

Todd’s favorite color is burnt orange, so this was his Christmas gift at some point. It was the first layer cake quilt I made using the quick 8HST method. It was a good lesson to be consistent with my seam allowances and cutting AND ironing! This was a pattern I saw Jenny demonstrate on YouTube at MSQ.

The grey and orange quilt is one I made for my son and his wife for their wedding. There are lots of textures – minky, upholstery, and flannel to give it more textile interest. The back is solid flannel amber and I free-motioned the Van Gogh’s Starry Night motif. I was so excited with how it turned out and the video of them opening their wedding present makes my heart melt every time I watch it.

The Purple. This was a paper piecing project I did with a dear friend as a wedding present. We learned so much doing these curved pieces and working out the pattern. It was such a joy to co-author this creation! It was fun to work on a quilt, a wrap, and a gift. I couldn’t have done it by myself!

When I started these strawberry blocks, I ended up having a funny number because my math skills sometimes are lacking.  So instead of making one large quilt, I decided on two baby sized quilts.  At the time I started, there weren’t any baby girls in my orbit.  By the time I was done, low and behold – my dear friend Heidi had recently had twins!  What a great way to make two similar quilts for twin girls!  It made me feel like the quilt goddess was guiding my needle and scissors!