Toe Away Quilt

Toe Away Quilt

I'm part of an online community of quilters who celebrate each other's joys and support each other in times of need.  One such need happened in the Spring of 2015, when Melissa's husband, Tyler, was involved in a gruesome workplace accident, resulting in the impending loss of a toe.  They had a good sense of humor about it, and even posted about having a "toe away party."  A quilt idea was born!

  Kimberly reached out to a few of us about this idea and we quickly came up with some block submission ideas:   Using bruised colors, Black , Blue, Green, Purple, create a 10" block that is toe or foot themed.   We also asked for 9-patch blocks to be used as setting squares, since Tyler would have only 9 toes.

In typical 'snowflake' fashion, the FB messenger chat was very active with folks posting photos of their quickly done blocks and all-in-good-fun insults about our different sewing styles and preferences  (hand done, fussy cut, funny puns).  Kimberly, the queen of memes, create this gem, 

and then the blocks started arriving in the mail.

Toe Jam

Foot Print, missing toes

  

Twinkle Toes

Toe Truck

Big Foot crossing

Bear paw, missing a toe

Bruised, bloody foot Print

foot print truck

 

Kimberly came to Brooklyn to sew these amazing blocks together, with more 'bruise' colored fabric:

At some point, we learned that Tyler would lose half of another toe, so he would have only 8 1/2 toes,  so every 9-patch block was 'edited' to be 8 1/2 blocks: 

And Kimberly created this very special block: 

Here is the pieced top, which we then mailed out to Janet in CA for quilting.

  

Megan's block arrived a little late to be included in the top, but I used it for the label:

Little Foot

The quilt then went to Flaun for binding,  and sewing on the label, then finally was shipped to Melissa and Tyler in September 2015.

Lots of love there!

Peace

Aaron and Sarah's Wedding Quilt

Our cousins Aaron and Sarah were married in 2015.  They enjoy watching Doctor Who together, so I decided to surprise them with this themed quilt:

The center image was made using a pattern by Hunter's Design Studio - Relatively Dimensional.  The border includes some Doctor Who fabric from Spoonflower, and then some special embroidered bits. 

One corner has this image:    Which translates to "Aaron and Sarah" in Gallifreyan, the language of Doctor Who.    I used an online translator to generate the image, then I embroidered it.  

Another corner includes Aaron and Sarah's names, and also a famous saying from Doctor Who:  "a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff"

The back includes rows of left over blocks and fabric.

  Here we are unveiling the quilt top - it took me a few extra months to finish the quilting.

I've long been connected with "little" cousin Aaron.  He was a very smart little boy, very interested in math and science concepts, and I always enjoyed interacting with him at family reunions.  As young adult we talked about programming, because I was also a programmer.  (He has since far surpassed my math, science and programming knowledge!)

Now as a grown up man, he found a likewise very smart and wonderful woman to love.  Sarah is sweet and warm with my cousin Aaron, she's a great addition to our extended family and I adore them both.

The word of the day!   Photo by Nicki Fietzer

Here's to a long and wonderful marriage, you love birds!

Peace.

Wrapping Kelly in Love

I made this quilt for our wonderful daughter-in-law, Kelly. When we lived in California, Kelly spent many Sunday afternoons at our kitchen table with me and my sewing buddies - waiting for her boyfriend Sam to finish Tutoring for the day - so she knew what went into putting one together.  To make sure Kelly felt like one of the family (after Sam and Kelly were engaged) I wanted to make a quilt for her, just as I had for my other children. 

Kelly picked the pattern and colors 

Then I cut some random width strips, and started piecing

Once the blocks were made, I had Kelly help with the arrangement  (at our last California Thanksgiving before our big move)

I wrapped her in this love on my last night in California. Phew!  finished just in the nick of time!  (I'm noticing that I was wearing sandals, in January.  Yup, that's Los Angeles weather.)

Here's the back:

We are so lucky to have Kelly in our family.  Thanks for picking her Sam!

Peace.

Roland and Sebastien's Wedding Quilt

Just before they were married, I was checking in with Roland about a wedding registry, when I asked, "Instead of selecting something from your registry, what I would really like to do is make you guys a quilt.  How do you feel about that?"  Roland responded, "I didn't dare ask!  But we would love that!" 

So began the wedding quilt journey, in which we looked at pictures online,  decided on quilt colors, then shopped for fabric together.   This quilt took a very long time to complete, because of the quilting, but I had until their 1st anniversary, right? 

 

The pattern is a double disappearing nine-patch, designed by Kim Lapacek. 

It is quilted all over with "I love you" in various languages, because Roland works with people from all over the world, and Sebastien is from France.







This is the hand embroidered quilt label

I finished it up just before our move to NYC, in January 2015.  Since then, R&S have also moved, and I wish them well in their new adventure.

Lots of love guys!!

Peace,
Paula