From Quilts to Carpal, My Journey Down the Tunnel

 I like to sew.  I always have.  My Gammie taught me to stitch wee little fabric squares into a doll quilt when I was four.  Before that, I dimly recall sewing on preforated cards with yarn. I think at that time, I was 3.  So I was a precocious stitcher of stitches.
As time passed, I discovered quilting and  became

a prodigious stitcher of stitches.  I discovered the charms of hand quilting, and the marvels of the ergonomic rotary cutter and a world of fabrics available to me via the interwebs.  And I stitched and stitched and stitched some more. And discovered how much fun it is to freehand machine quilt using glossy and glittery rayon thread.  And applique...there's an entire world out there for the adding of lovely fabrics upon other lovely fabrics.  Hand-sewn or fused, it's all good.

 And so it went.  There were so many different reproduction fabrics to play with.  The cheerful pastels of the 1930s repros, and the deeper shades of the 1880s repros.  And new patterns to try.  Always, always something new to try.  The clever quilters behind the Aunt Amy book, updating vintage techniques really hooked me in.  The clever way they did the Drunkard's Pathway block was too much fun to resist.  The top and middle quilts at left represent the tip of the iceburg of  those. 

And they had a really awesome twist on the Arabic Lattice block.  That's a king-sized bed quilt there in the reds and blacks...and every block has different red and black fabrics. Over 100 different red and black fabrics.   

Jan Mullen's clever ways of joining fabrics prompted another half dozen or so quilts.

 The 1930s repro fabrics called out for hand quilting.  (Photos are not cooperating - scroll down a bit to view those quilts.)


Below and to the right is a fun take on classic blocks. It's the Snail's Trail Cat Tails.  If you are a true quilt traditionalist, you'll be aware the corner blocks are Birds in the Air.  They have to be in the air, obviously, or they'll be entrees.

  Traditional blocks with an edge, traditional blocks turned on edge...it's all there waiting to be tried.

That leaf quilt above left is a traditional maple leaf block done in every color a leaf could be and  a few they couldn't.  I called this quilt Kudzu because it just kept growing and growing and covering everything in its path.  It's a kingsize and then some, and every single block is different.  There are 256 blocks, and while some fabrics do appear twice, no block contains an identical combo of leaf and background fabric. 

 

Variations on the crazy patch quilt are on the right.  Two of  many.  These are scrap quilts, so all the blocks are all different. 

 

So here you have it.  A tiny handful of my quilts, representing probably less than 5% of the quilts I've made.

 

And now I have Carpal Tunnel.  Go figure.