Michaele's Memory Quilt

I made this memory quilt out of Tshirts, sweatshirts, and sports jerseys worn by my older daughter Michaele.  The items range from childhood thru young adulthood.  She was a 3 sport varsity athlete in high school, participated in marching band, played on multiple intramural teams in college, and was a volunteer for several years for an annual triathlon event in central California.  She was a Human Resources major in college.  Among her jobs were working at a hospice in San Luis Obispo and the Oakland A's and San Jose Earthquakes in Human Resources.  
The backing of the quilt is fabric called "Effervescence" which describes her personality. 
The quilt is a collage style setting, machine pieced and quilted with a walking foot in gentle curves.   

Jessica's Memory Quilt

I made this quilt out of volleyball jerseys, cheerleading tops,T-shirts, sweatshirts, and a varsity letter representing my daughter Jessica's activities from childhood thru college and young adulthood.  

It was pieced using the collage style arrangement.  I thought this caused the eye to look more for the individual components to the quilt.  It was machine quilted using both free motion as well as walking foot designs on my domestic machine.  

Dimensions of the quilt are 58" X 70".  

The beautiful backing fabric was also used for binding.

Smith Farm Pumpkins

Sitting atop our fireplace mantel

I made this quilt to place behind my vintage window sash.  The top part is pieced from an autumn fabric from my stash.
The middle part with the wagon and tractor were copied from photos onto fabric.  The tractor is an Oliver model, which is the model my father-in-law used while farming outside Kirksville, MO.  
The bottom pumpkin patch is a combination of pumpkins cut from an autumn fabric using broderie perse applique as well as ones cut from various gold and orange fabrics.  

Sew Many Strips queen quilt

Sew Many Strips

Close up of center quilting in a feathered wreath motif

Close up of border quilting

Label

Backing

This quilt was a quilt along with American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.  I used scraps from my stash to complete it.  Some of the fabric dates back to the 80's.  
The quilt was machine pieced and machine quilted on my domestic Babylock machine using both free motion for the feathers and a walking foot for the straight lines.

Antique fabric screen

My husband Chris replaced the decorator fabric in this antique screen.
The screen belonged to his grandparents or great-grandparents and had been stored for years in the granary on the Smith family farm in Missouri.  He retrieved it from the junkpile about 30 years ago.  He cleaned it up, refinished the wood part, and we put in a floral fabric.  It was time to put in a new fabric as the former fabric didn't go with my present color scheme. 
It took him several days to get the old fabric out and put in the new fabric.  There were nails in the way and it was very hard for him to evenly put the fabric in the grooves and keep the fabric pulled taut.  But he finally was able to accomplish it.  I told him I wouldn't make him do it a third time!

Antique 3 panel fabric screen

Close-up of middle panel

Close-up of right panel

Hoosier Cabinet

1921 Hoosier cabinet

My husband Chris just completed the restoration of a 1921 Hoosier cabinet.  This cabinet was in the Bloomington, IL house my parents bought in April 1950 when they were married.  The cabinet was in use in their kitchen until the mid 1950's when they built a new kitchen addition to their house and installed wall cabinets.  The Hoosier was relegated to the basement for storage where it stayed until the early 90's when my mom sold the house after my father's death.  I took the cabinet to my home in Cedar Rapids, IA where it was placed in our walk up attic.  It was used for storage.  We then moved to San Jose, CA in 1999 where it was placed in the garage for several years and then finally moved to my sewing room in the late 2000's.  We moved to Georgetown, TX in 2016 and at that time I asked my husband to restore the cabinet.  Since it had been in the basement for many years, the panels had deteriorated.  It took about 2 years of intermittent work.  Chris replaced the bottom, side, and back panels on the base unit and the back panels on the top unit.  The doors, drawers, and frame are original.  He also replaced all the hardware except for the metal brackets that hold the top to the bottom.  We purchased the replacement hardware from Kennedy Hardware in Indiana (about $200 for nickel plated).  The legs were also replaced as they had been missing the whole time it was in my possession.  I still have the original stickers that identify the model and that it is indeed a Hoosier cabinet.  These were replaced onto the back panels as they originally were placed.
My mother would be thrilled to see the restored cabinet.  It looks almost like new. 

The tambour doors are missing as is the interior flour sifter, etc.

Close up of new hardware

Me as a baby in 1954 with the Hoosier in the background.

Oliver's woodland baby animals quilt

I designed a woodland baby animal theme quilt for my grandson Oliver Reed Ellis.
I made the pattern using Pinterest, google, and clip art images as my inspiration.
The animals were fused and appliqued with either a blanket or satin stitch.
The sashing was quilted with a walking foot.
The outer border was quilted with a free motion foot as was the background of the blocks.
Finished size of quilt is 44" X 44".

Oliver's Woodland Animals

Quilt backing is Shannon Minkee fabric

Bunny

Raccoon

Robin

Beaver

Red fox

Skunk

Barn Owl

Fawn

Squirrel