SusanB's Quilt Gallery

My First Quilt

A six block, hand-pieced and hand-quilted sampler quilt set on point. The sixth block is the four triangular blocks at the center of each side. Started in 1988 and finished in 1990.

Bargello Madness

This bargello quilt is the product of a Midnight Madness "class" at our local quilt shop in Fair Haven, New Jersey. Everyone brought strips of fabric in bags and traded bags. The quilt is rotary cut, machine pieced and machine quilted. Made in 1989.

Hot Compasses!
or
Which Way is North?

A Mariner's Compass sampler quilt with pieced border. The quilt is cut using templates, machine-pieced and hand quilted.

The quilt was pieced in May, 1993 in a class in Fair Haven, New Jersey. The quilt hung in the Rebecca's Reel Quilters guild show in 1994 (Middletown, New Jersey). I finally finished the handquilting in the border in the fall of 1998.

The four mariners compass patterns are from Judy Mathieson's book, Mariner's Compass (copyright 1987, published by C&T Publishing; ISBN No. 0-914881-11-6). The pieced border pattern was provided by the instructor, Lynn Kough.

Closeup picture of mariner's compass sampler quilt

Heavens Above the Mountains

This quilt was a Christmas gift for friends in December, 1993. It is made about three-fourths the size of the quilt design in Lorraine Stangness's book Heavens Above!. This is the only quilt I have ever made to the recipients' specification. My friends picked the quilt pattern they wanted, told me the size of the space where it would hang, and gave me a pillowcase so I could "match" their bedroom linens. Machine-pieced and machine-quilted.

Southwest Pottery

This quilt was started in a class taught by Christal Carter at the New Mexico Quilt Fiesta in 1993. The pattern is Christal's "Indian Pottery", with a brown print fabric replacing the pattern's pieced border.

One hundred, 2.5-inch square, log cabin and courthouse square blocks create the pots. The arrows are applique with embroidered details. Machine pieced, hand appliqued and machine quilted. The quilt was given to friends for Christmas, 1993.

Amish Mini-Trip

A small, 9 square by 9 square, Trip Around the World quilt in Amish colors. The quilt is machine pieced. The center is machine quilted and the border is hand quilted. A gift to my stepsister, the middle one.

small Amish inspired Trip Around the World quilt

Stevie, Spider and Friends

A sampler of cat blocks, the main challenge was finding the various patterns. Sources:

Middle block in right column drafted based on a block I once saw in a book. I have no idea what the book was.
The three cat block in the lower right and lower left corners is from the Cat Family, a commerial pattern published by Red Wagon, Liberty, Missouri.
Most of the remaining blocks are from the book, The Cat's Meow by Janet Kime, published by that Patchwork Place.
The fish were a paper piecing pattern pattern from the World Wide Quilting Page.

I had fun making the blocks, determining the block layout and sashing the blocks together with the blue background fabric and a colorful mouse print. The quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted.

Made in 1994 as a gift to my stepsister (the younger one), I finished sewing the binding and sewed on the hanging sleeve after gifts were opened on Christmas Day. My mom's cat had to inspect the work.

A Rosy Mystery Quilt

During my brief time in the Starlight Quilter's Guild, Shawnee Mission, Kansas, they distributed instructions for a quilt in six monthly installments. Each month, we got instructions for fabric strips to be cut and / or blocks to be made. Only in the last set of instructions was the mystery revealed and the layout of all the blocks shown. Started in the summer of 1995. Finished spring, 1997.