Kings, in Maplewood

In the middle of Maplewood village, there was a small grocery store where everyone in town came for their small shopping.  I worked there as a cashier for about 10 years.  It was fun to talk to the people and get to know all the neighbors, made it less like working and more like a community.  At some point, they asked me to paint some murals on the small front windows.  These are just two of the ones I did.  The top picture was painted on foam core, and hung above the produce.  It was in honor of frozen food week.  

Basement painting, Maplewood

My friend Carolyn had this basement family room in Maplewood she wanted to appear less enclosed.  She asked me if I could paint a mural there to make it less dark.  A few months before I had gone with them to see a hot air balloon festival in rural NJ.  That seemed to be a great idea for the walls.  Took  me some time, but it was a lot of fun.  In the field below, there are people and children running and watching the balloons.  On another wall, we talked about painting a Jersey Shore picture, but I never got to it before we moved.

Victorian Bathroom Murals, So.Orange, NJ

 We had friends who lived in  really Huge old Victorian home in So.Orange.  She asked Val if she would  paint murals on the bathroom walls,  They found some wallpaper with these Victorian looking flowers and Val went over, using the paper for inspiration, and painted.   I went over a few times and painted some of the panels.  Val started and gave me the courage to be bold!!  It really was a fun project.

Maplewood Train station 1993

We lived in Maplewood, New Jersey and almost every town had a commuter train station in the center of town.  The trains for all the people who went into New York to work.  Anyway, under these stations, there were tunnels so people could walk under the tracks to get to cars, or walk home, etc.  This is a picture of Valerie.  Her art teacher at school was asked if some of her students to jazz up the tunnels and paint murals.  Small groups of students submitted ideas and when they were approved, the students got to go over and paint the walls.  Val and her friends painted an undersea world.  This is just part of it.  I know there was a red lobster there somewhere.  Their mural was on both sides of this stairway leading down from the parking lot.  Really a wonderful achievement.  Over the  years a few of the ladies and I went over and touched up the murals, or added new ones in some of the other places.  That's when I did the Amish quilt.  The walls were sometimes targets for grafitti, which we scrubbed out, or painted over.  Also, the dampness ruined small patches, which we repaired.  I did this for  years, until we moved away.  

Train Station, Amish quilt. 1993

An Amish quilt I painted under the train station in Maplewood.

Smurfs in Blue

This is the Smurf room painted blue.  You can see that I saved the Smurfs.

Holly Hobby, So.Orange, New Jersey

For a change of pace, I'm posting some pictures I painted or other stuff.  In our house in So,Orange, New Jersey, Jill and Sonya shared a room.  I painted these pictures of Holly Hobby on the walls.  I thought Holly Hobby would be around forever, but probably nobody remembers them now.  Anyway, it was fun for their room.. The top picture is of Jill, Sonya, and Karin, a friend, Feb. 1975.

For KIC, Throw Size, 2015

I had these little squares of black fabric, from somewhere, with the bunches of little flowers with pink, blue, yellow and green.  I could have just thrown the black fabric away but I looked through my stuff and found the perfect material to go with it.  I cut the strips and sewed them to the squares without measuring the length so it was easy enough.  The left over pieces I put on the back, piecing it into an old sheet of pale green and white stripes.  

Full Size Quilt, "Hidden Pinwheel" 2015

This pattern was taken off Pinterest.,  It's called "Hidden Pinwheel".  First  you make a large pinwheel, then cut off the edges, turn them and that creates the squared off corners.  I made it for my friend, Georgia.  She said she liked blue.  It was kinda fun.  I like this new technique where  you sew big pieces into a block, then cut it up, reposition the parts and sew them back together.  It always makes it look more complicated to achieve.

Quilts of Valor Throw Size, 2015

I made these two quilts to take up to SLC for the quilt show, to put in the bin for the veterans who want to pick them up.  The middle picture is the backing of one that I pieced.  I found the top pattern in a Fons and Porter magazine.  It was a little tricky, and I ended getting it kinda in the wrong order.  But it looks okay.

Double Wedding Ring 2015.Queen Size

 Clearly the hardest quilt I've ever attempted.  It's a queen sized, and I made it for someone I don't even know.  Karleen, Vere's sister in California, has a friend whose daughter was getting married.  Karleen volunteered to make her a quilt and they picked this pattern.  Then I got interested and offered to cut out the pieces, then offered to sew it together.  My gosh, I'm crazy.  It was so hard, but I sure learned a lot.  Really beautiful quilt.

Baby Quilt for Tina, 2015

I made this baby quilt for Tina, baby due summer of 2015.  I used similar design as the last quilt, but Tina wanted very bright, dark colors.  I made the blocks and thought to put the blue ones all around the outside, but decided to group them mostly on one side and put the red ones in the other corner.  It's a little dramatic, and individual.

Same quilt again, closeup.

This a closeup of the last quilt, showing the animals, lion and elephant, and the heart quilting pattern.

Baby Quilt, for friend 2015

I made this baby quilt for a friend at church - I mean her daughter who was having a baby boy.  I mad a couple types of squares, and fussy cut some squares from a novelty fabric with cartoon animals.  It was fun, and I think it turned out well.

Balloon Quilt, Full Size, 2015

I saw a quilt like this in an antique shop in Oregon when I went on a Bus tour that took in the special quilt show in Sisters, Oregon.  I thought that wouldn't be too hard to make.  Wrong!  It wasn't hard, just took a long time.  I started it in 2012 and finished it barely in time for the Moab quilt show in 2015.  It involved cutting circles, running a gathering thread around the edge and pulling it tight, then ironing it with starch, then appliquing the balloons in the pattern.  Then embroidering the strings.  I hand quilted it in long lines, avoiding the balloons with the stitches.  Amazing quilt, not for bed use.

Pioneer Sunbonnet

Val asked me if I had a pattern for an oldfashioned sunbonnet.  On Google, of course.  I made this for her daughter and it looks very cute on her.  Look at that sweet face, especially the third picture.

Zentangle quilt, wall hanging 2014

This small wall hanging quilt, I made just for the fun.  There is an art method called
"Zentangle" which involves drawing, or "doodling" with black pen on white paper (usually).  I thought it would be fun to make a small quilt using this art form, but didn't know how to do it.  Draw the doodles on fabric?  Sew the doodles with thread, or embroidery?  Then I realized it would be easy to do a crazy quilt using black and white fabric already designed.

Baby quilt for Esther, 2014

Sonya's friend had a baby boy and Sonya asked me to make a quilt for the baby.  I chose my favorite squares I had made and put them together for this baby quilt.  Still a very good block to make for a baby or a full size quilt.

baby quilt, whole cloth

This quilt was some fabric for the Relief Society, I put together with my favorite quilting stitch.  It's a simple quilt for a newborn at church.

X's and O's, Full Size 2014

My friend Ann, in Seattle, has a friend from her years in Arizona, who has some physical problems and is also the caregiver of a husband with Alzheimers disease.  So Ann asked me if I would make a quilt for her friend's birthday.  (She paid me for this)  I made the quilt using the pattern I had used for the baby quilt a few months before, using some of my favorite fabrics from my stash.

Queen Sized, "Migrating Geese" 2014

This is one of my all time favorite quilts.  I had some of the plain fabric for a lot of years waiting for the right project and this was it.  I put some fabric from my stash that kinda matched to add zing.  I found this pattern on Pinterest and thought it would be hard, but it turned out to be surprisingly easy, just very time consuming.  I had Lou Gostlin quilt it on her long arm machine.  I had told her I wanted it quilted all over "meander", but she was looking at it and could not bring herself to do it that way.  She quilted it this way which was so much better.  Love it.  It was for Peter Wasden, a young man, son of our friends in NJ.  Val actually used to baby sit for Peter when he was a baby.  Now He's married!!??I was impressed, they sent back a thank you note right away.  Guess they liked the 

quilt too.

.

Full Size, Dresden Plate #2 2014

 When I made the Dresden Plate earlier with the blue sashing, I made too many of the blocks, so decided to make enough more for another quilt.  This one I made with yellow sashing.  And... I again made one too many blocks so I put it on the back, instead of making 29 more to go along with it.  I still have this quilt and have someone to give it too at some point.

Two Half Square Triangle Square, baby quilts 2014

These two quilts I made from the "Marion" fabric.  I had cut tons of 4 inch squares to use in this way.  Notice the pink on the backing, from the material described in the earlier post.  The boy quilt as a strip of the triangle squares sewn into the back.  I think these quilts went to Newborns at church.  I really love the look of half square triangle quilts and it's fun to make an all over quilt with them.

Two Baby Size, 2014

I had this large piece of plaid fabric and didn't know what to do with it.  It seems a theme, that I have fabric and don't know what to do with it.   It seems as if I wait long enough, I figure something out.  The piece was black and white with a thread of yellow running through it and it was a good size for a baby quilt.  So I piece the back, or it could be called the front, in grays and yellow and did a fun quilting stitch on it.  One quilt I rather like.

I had some bits and pieces of material to put together and had just enough of the pink for the back for a good sized baby quilt.  This pink I bought on sale many years ago, I think 13 yards for a dollar a yard.  I knew I would use it, and it's almost gone.  Has come in handy!!