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| Empress Garden |
Empress Garden
This One Block Wonder Quilt was started in a class at A Piece In Time Quilt Shop in November 2011 with my quilting buddies Paula and Carol. Amazingly, only one fabric is used in the center of this quilt. The first technique learned was cutting all those triangles, then sewing them together into half hexagons and sewing the strips into full hexagons row by row. I think the most difficult technique is carefully placing the hexagons to form an interesting pattern or design. But each and every hexagon is just a little different from the previous one, keeping the excitement to see what the next one will look like.
Empress Garden was displayed at the 2012 Stow-Munroe Falls Library Quilt Show and won a first place and judge's choice award. Also awarded first place at 2013 Baskets of Quilts Cascade Quilt Show in Cuyahoga Falls. It is shown here at the 2013 Lake Farmpark Quilt Show.
Quilt is quilted by Coburn's Quilting with a gingko leaf design.
Batik Double Sawtooth Stars Quilt
As many quilters do, when I viewed the Double Sawtooth Stars Quilt in a magazine (I don't know which magazine, but will post when I find it), I knew I had to make it. However, the pattern was in just three colors, light blue, purple and dark blue. Of course, I made it my own scrappy type of quilt, deciding to use batiks in purple, aqua and green.
I
n my quilt guild,
twelve of us participate in a birthday fabric exchange. At least one month before our birthday, we request a particular type of fabric. Then, on our birthday, we receive 3 fat quarters from each participating member of that fabric. During the year 2011, I requested dark and light Christmas batik fabrics in purple, aqua and green.
As you can see, I received 33 beautiful batik fat quarters.
First, I planned each block using one light fabric, one medium and one dark fabric. The small star in the center of the block was made using the medium fabrics, the large star used the dark fabrics, and the background was the light batik fabrics. In all, this quilt has 49 -- 10 inch finished double sawtooth star blocks.
Next, the sashing was made using light and medium batiks. Each year, we are supposed to present our finished quilt on our birthday. Well, in 2012, I presented the top, without borders, on my birthday. It was not completed by my birthday on May 15. I actually spent the summer completing the borders.
The inner border is a red Christmas batik fabric, also used as a dark large star in several blocks, and as the binding. The large outer border, also a Christmas batik fabric, is found in the blocks as a large star. The center border used half square triangles which were the remains of the triangles trimmed from the large star point.
Not all the fabrics are Christmas batiks, but using several of them creates the effect of winter stars. The quilt is king size and is the Christmas/Winter quilt that covers my bed. It is extremely precious to me because my quilting buddies have contributed to this quilt and warms not only my cold feet here in cold NE Ohio, but my heart as well.
