Quilts for My Nephews

Roman's birthday was in January, and Caleb's is this month. I wanted to make special quilts for each of them, so since Ro likes cars and trains and things I made a transportation themed quilt for him.

Caleb likes pirates (but his mom and dad aren't quite as keen on them) so I made a quilt that has a big treasure map on the back, framed with misc. piratey things, and the front is a wavy looking set of Snail's Trail blocks with some stars, on point.

My friend Ami Krenzel did the quilting (see close up) with the cool scroll pattern. She's a professional long arm quilter. If you'd like to see more of her stuff or hire her, her site is www.enchantingquilts.com. Tell her I sent you! :)

Blocks for the Bushfire Quilt Project

I was intrigued when I read about a project Tia Curtis was doing in Australia. The terrible fires there this summer burned hundreds of homes, and she wanted to make quilts for the victims. She suggested we make 12.5" unfinished stars with light backgrounds. One popular block is the Maverick Star block. I went to a quilting retreat in AZ in late February and brought a number of white and off-white squares of fabric to start the process. Another attendee at the retreat, Pat (Pat the Cat) brought her scrap bin for us to rummage through, and I found lots and lots of colorful triangles. I used all that I could find and put them into my 8 Maverick Star blocks. I finished the blocks after I returned home from the retreat, and also included in my package to Tia a spool of thread and 8 yards of scrappy batik binding, enough for one 60" square quilt.

For more info on the project, see http://www.flickr.com/groups/bushfirequiltproject/