Quilts for Twins!

My friend has two new baby granddaughters.  

Of course I planned to make quilts.  But it took some thought.

For twins, do you make them different?  What if one likes the other's better?

Do you make them the same?  What if they argue over who's is who's?

Here's how I solved the issue.

 

The blocks are from Sujata Shah's book, Cultural Fusion Quilts.  

The letters are from Tonya Ricucci's book, Word Play Quilts.  

Both are very fun techniques, and no two blocks are alike.

I started with flannel sock monkey print scraps from making 

their older brother's quilt three years ago.  

When I ran out of flannel, I went to my corduroy stash.

The quilts have corduroy backs, one floral and one plaid.

Very soft!

I got to give them to the twins and their moms last weekend.

Older brother got his out and modeled it for us too!

Another Finish!

"Contentment"  49" x 49"

I've been going through my pile of flimsies, thinking about the ones I want to quilt.

This one cried out to me recently.  

I put it together a year or two ago, with leftover blocks from five different projects.

The words came from instructions in Tonya Ricucci's excellent book, Word Play Quilts.

On second look, the original house block seemed a bit muddy.

So I decided to do a little "home improvement."

Hmm, not exactly what I was looking for.

The third time was the charm.  Now for the quilting.

After stitching in every ditch, I sewed thin matchsticks around all the letters.

Then I added easy back and forth designs and small stippling.

I used puffy wool batting so the letters would pop out.

The half-square triangles got their own simple flower shapes.

Dark binding popped the colors.

Wa-la!

Don't you just love finishing?

I surely do!

Gratefully Done

I've been hand-quilting this for the last two months.  Finished at last!  
It's 40" x 40."   

It started with this block that I designed in an appliqué class with Gwen Marston.
I thought I'd be making the block into a pillow.

I'd also been fooling around with words, using Tonya Ricucci's book, Word Play Quilts.

Then Tonya visited in July, and designed this quilt with my orphan blocks.

Many of you helped with advice on dealing with hand pain.

And that got me through to the finish line!  

I like the way it looks over the fireplace, and it's a good reminder!

Tonya's Book is Here!

Tonya, the "Unruly Quilter," has a brand new book, Word Play Quilts!! I've been itching for months to get my hands on a copy and make a quilt with words all over it. At last, it's available today!



Surely most of you already know and love Tonya. She calls her blog, "Lazy Gal Quilting," but she is anything but lazy. She's the ring leader of us gals who chuckle at the quilt police, yet her quilts are tastful, whimsical and beautifully made. Somehow she gets around to supporting and encouraging all of us as we push our creative limits. Best of all, she makes us laugh.



I'm posting this quilt today in honor of Tonya. It's my version of a quilt inspired by an African American quilt maker named Anna Williams. Tonya was leading the charge to try to get a book of Anna's quilts published. I don't know what happened to that goal, but it was a brilliant and courageous effort.

CONGRATULATIONS, TONYA!!!