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	Quilting Projects

For those of you who want to skip the Gallery, here is the is Informational stuff and links.

Disclaimer #1: I have this love/hate relationship with my camera. I love taking pictures to capture the memory; the camera hates me. It's nice Ph.D. one (Push Here, Dummy) but I have never quite mastered how to center something so the resultant photograph is good ... if it's centered within the hashmarks in the viewfinder, it's skewed in the photo .. if I "adjust" to accommodate the viewfinder, I never know what the picture is going to come out like. Maybe one of these days, I'll get a better camera or learn how to use the one I have better. :-) Anyway, that's the excuse I give for some of the photos of the quilts being less than terrific.

It's always possible that I can re-take the picture of the quilt ... but that would only be for those quilts I still own. I have given many away as gifts and obviously, the picture that I have is the only one available.

On the following pages are various quilts that I have made over the years. They are arranged in chronological order. For each quilt, there will be a large photograph and various links that will result in a pop-up window (love them pop-ups!) which will show fabric swatches or details of the quilt. Samples of the fabric swatches will vary, as in some cases, I no longer have any scraps left.

Most of my quilts are machine pieced and machine quilted ... and as for that, generally speaking, it's been 'quilt-as-you-go'. I'm not a great fan of doing hand-quilting myself. I have frolicked with 2 small hand-quilted cheater quilts, as well as one baby-sized throw that was all traditionally hand-quilted and decided that eventhough I absolutely adore and love hand-needlework of all sorts, hand-quilting is incredibly tedious and boring. I don't even entertain the thought anymore. That being said, I have the utmost admiration and appreciation of quilts that are hand-quilted. I know how much time, energy, talent and perserverance is required to do a quality job. Those who hand-quilt are absolutely awe-inspiring. Addendum in 2004: a long-term UFO was pulled out the pile and was diligently worked on. This was my very first hand-pieced and entirely *hand-quilted* sampler quilt. It's listed in the first section (1978/1979).

It wasn't until recently that I became aware of how important putting a descriptive label on the back of the quilt was, noting such information as who made the quilt, who for, date(s) involved and any interesting tidbits. With that in mind, I created a label for myself (instead of using one of the many lovely designs available) using my "pirate" persona. Personally, I like it quite a bit (!) and regret that my previous quilts don't have one of my nifty pirate labels. (Hint: if any of you who were recipients of one of my quilts would like a pirate label, let me know, OK? I'd be more than pleased to put one on your quilt for you!)

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Gallery of Pirate's Quilts links are in chronological order, going from left to right, top to bottom.
The Early Years (the pickin's were slim)
1978? 1979?	Log Cabin - first machine pieced	-----First Quilts!!------	1978? 1979?	6 block sampler - hand pieced & hand quilted
April 1980	Maria Rodgers' baby quilt		1985 Spring	Angela Branco's baby quilt
after 1983	Peter Rabbit baby quilt		after 1983	Carousel horse wall hanging
1992 Spring	Catherine's Brownie Quilt		1993 Spring	Amy Rodgers' baby quilt
1994 Summer	Quilt of Borders		June 1995	Jane Kowalski's Quilt
1996 Summer	Woven Ribbons "Weaver Fever"		1996 Winter	Irish Chain with Celtic knotwork
1999 Winter	Stack-n-Whack		December 1999	Log Cabin in a Window
199x sometime	Girl Scout Baby Quilt
So, let's total this up: 15 quilted items in 21 years. Man .. that's some slow quilting! However, there were mitigating circumstances: I was heavily involved in doing needlework of all sorts and garment sewing. In 1983, I had my first daughter and in 1988, I had my 2nd & 3rd daughters. My focus wasn't on quilts as an entity; quilts were just another item to be sewn. With three daughters growing like weeds, quilts weren't on the top of my list. However, I did make a TON of clothing! (While I haven't got that section of my website constructed yet, I eventually will do so.) Under some very suspicious circumstances, I found myself being squeezed out of my sewing spaces, to the extent that towards the end of the 1990's, I was sharing my sewing area in a VERY small enclosed back porch with the laundry room, the pantry, my home-based word processing business. My supplies were scattered all over the house and storage sheds. It was incredibly frustrating. Fortunately, (in one sense), my younger girls had begun middle school and I no longer was sewing clothing for them. On the other hand, I simply didn't have the physical space necessary to sew anything, anyway! Did I mention it was incredibly frustrating? In retrospect, I think I was a very cranky Mommy for a number of years .. I never realized just how important being creative was to me until I wasn't able to do anything.
Then BINGO! 2000 happened! The heavens opened up, the sun shined upon me, the Fates were favorable, Mr. Pirate loves me .... we demolished the old enclosed back porch, remodeled it into a new 400 square foot room, subdivided into 3 areas: laundry/pantry, office and A 200 SQUARE FOOT SEWING ROOM!!! I thought I had died and gone to heaven. :-) By the end of 2000, I could see that I was really going to have a new sewing room the spring of 2001, but I couldn't wait. In a very small area in the living room (where a LOT of the stuff from the demolished back porch was being stored), I set up a temporary sewing area and made a quilt *for me* (what a concept!). I was estatic! I was thrilled! Just call me "butter" cuz I was on a roll! I was sewing and wasn't going to stop! In the winter of 2000 alone, I made a combination of 6 quilts, 3 blocks for 2 comfort quilts, 5 quilted Christmas stockings and begun my now (in)famous Forever Project. That's FIFTEEN quilty projects in FOUR months! Compare that to the previous 15 quilts in 21 years. :-)
September 2000	Halloween 2000		September 2000. Finished: July 2007	the Second Forever Project - hand-pieced Cathedral Window
September 2000	comfort block for Hunter		September 2000	Train baby quilt (Beta testing)
September 2000	Pigs in Space		October 2000	comfort block for USS Cole
October 2000	Lone Star with Celtic knotwork		November 2000	Folded Flowers Quilt
November 2000	Beth's shoes wall hanging		December 2000	Stained Glass Christmas Stockings
December 2000 - March 2001	Stack-n-Whack with squirrel quilting
And the quilting train just kept on chuggin' ... 2001
January 2001	Stars and Stripes Zig Zag		January 2001	Red, Black, Cream Double Wedding Ring
March 2001	Sushi Cats		May 2001	Celestial Lone Star
May 2001	Stained Glass Christmas Tree Skirt		May 2001	Cat block in Cat Fabric swap and Quilt
August 2001	Stained Glass Challenge: Garden Maze sashing audition		August 2001	Stained Glass Challenge: Sewing Notions (initial idea)
August 2001	Stained Glass Challenge: Passing Through Stained Glass (final project)		September 2001	9/11 WTC Memorial blocks
August thru October 2001	"Sew This is What It's All About"		September 2001	Kitten table runner
December 2001	Stack-n-Whack Fans		December 2001	Chinese Lanterns for Ewe
December 2001	Garden Gate - Eleanor Burns block		December 2001	Rene's San Francisco 49'er quilt
December 2001	Rene's 49'er Serendipty quilt		December 2001	Family Signature Christmas Tree
2001 produced 16 quilts, 1 memorial block and 1 quilt started that remains unfinished for a total of 18 quilty projects! Life is good when you can be creative. :-)
The creative juices kept flowing ... 2002
January 2002	Corsair wall hanging		February 2002	Joy Sargent's baby quilt
January thru April 2002	Tesselating T (class at Thimble Creek)		March 2002	Mardi Gras Mariner's Compass (class at Thimble Creek)
June 2002	Catherine's Double Wedding Ring		July thru October 2002	Falling maple leaves (class at Thimble Creek)
August 2002	Victorian Hanky Pockets (class at Cotton Patch)		September 2002	Fantasy Flying Fish
November 2002	New Hampshire Star table runner		November 2002	Shawn's pillow
November 2002	a Comfort quilt for Susan		December 2002	Jelly Belly pillow
December 2002	Mardi Gras Challenge (an About.com swap)		2002 sometime	Batik Cat Squares pillow
December 2002	Rene's quilt for her grandfather		January 2003	Lisas' quillow for her great-aunt
2002 burned as brightly as previous years with 16 quilting projects being done. 13 were completed; 2 were done by my daughters and 1 is on hiatus. However at slightly more than one per month, that's really not too shabby. :-)
Another year turned the corner and new projects were waiting ... 2003
January thru April 2003	West Virginny Moonshine		February 2003	Wheel of Fortune block from Sharon (alas still a WIP)
February 2003	Comfort block for the Columbia Space Shuttle		March 2003	Dave's NASCAR bumper protector
April 2003	Little Girl Sewing wall hanging		April 2003	Hawaiian Crazy Quilt
July 2003	Arkansas Crossroads Josephine's companion quilt		July 2003	California poppies pillow
August 2003	Border print placemats		August 2003	Vern's 80th birthday quilt
October 2003	Mike's train quilt		October 2003	Diane's tropical Stack-n-Whack
October 2003	the ubiquitous Funky Chicken		November 2003	a school of SLO fish
2003 produced 14 quilty projects: 1 block for a comfort quilt, 1 non-quilted fowl creature, 1 project on hiatus BUT ... 12 completed quilted items!
Another year .. more projects ... 2004
January 2004	Aurora Pinwheel (small)		January 2004	Over the Edge wall hanging
April 2004	Arizona Quilting Retreat Signature Quilt		May 2004	7 Curved seam projects
May 2004	Lisa's Wizards and Warriors		June 2004	Sewing room window treatments
July 2004	Alex's wedding quilt		July 2004	Early American tinware
July 2004	Deco Crystals - Shades of Tiffany		September 2004	Get the Lead Out Stained Glass
September 2004	Butterfly pillow for Angela		December 2004	the Practical Christmas tree for apartment dwellers
2004 count: 18 projects. Now, I feel compelled to add at this point that in November 2004, I bought myself a Janome 300e embroidery machine. I had been having waaaay too much fun with this new toy and doing embroidery projects. You can see those projects on the Machine Embroidery page.
The next year: 2005
January 2005	Kanjii friendship pillow		January 2005	Look Boris! It's Moose! (no squirrel) pillow
March 2005	Original quilt pattern being readied for publication! You do notice that it's still not ready!		April 2005	woven pillow from Grandma's scraps
April 2005	Tucking in the round pillow		May 2005	Could be Celtic pillow
May 2005	Zundt Corners		August 2005	Rail Fence baby quilt
August 2005	Four Star quilt for Clete		August 2005	Cathedral Window pillow
August 2005	1 blanket & 3 quilts for Kevin Sanders
2005 count: 13 projects.
Moving right along to: 2006
March 2006	the Together quilt (or Quilting the Golden Gate Bridge)		April 2006	Chiclets Quilt (or who knew a king-sized quilt would be THAT big?)
April 2006	Garden Twist pillow
Let's see ... the "Together Quilt" is the only completely new & finished quilt this year; Chiclets is still an unquilted top and hence, technically speaking a UFO. Garden Twist was a UFO that was finally finished. Other UFOs that were completed in 2006 but already had an listing in a different year are: (2000) Lone Star with Celtic applique, (2004) Early American Tinware and (2004) Deco Crystals-Shades of Tiffany.
2007 What DID happen to 2007's quilting? I was sure I hadn't done any quilting whatsoever, but in looking back through my computer files, I find that I actually DID do exactly 4 quilting projects in 2007, with one a continuing WIP.
July 2007	the Second Forever Project The biggie is that I actually FINISHED my Cathedral Window Forever Project! 7 years in the making .. stick a fork in it cuz it's DONE!		August 2007	Peace wallhanging, a hand-appliqued Asian character FINALLY! a hand-applique method that is practically fool-proof! No templates, no freezer paper, no glue! This method is AWESOME!
August 2007	Toile Duvet cover Rene's high school graduation bed covering		Fall-Winter 2007	AHH! Real Monsters! A WIP. Applique!
But 2007 is a big, ol' long stretch of time for a mere 4 projects. You probably think I was watching the soaps and eating bon-bons. HA! My ::ahem:: dear daughters have, once again, pressed me into service for sewing garments for them. You'll need to go to my sewing page to see what was taking up the majority of my time in 2007.
Look what snuck up on me: 2008
January 2008	God's Eye scrap quilt a desperate attempt to subdue my scrap basket. (It seems to have multiplied since the Chiclet quilt of 2006)		February 2008	Twist-n-Turn scrap quilt
April 2008	a Pirate Stack-n-Whack quilt another quilt whose size got away from me.		April 2008	a playmat
April 2008	a panel quilt		April 2008	an I-Spy
June 2008	stained glass placemats and napkins and coasters! and reversible!		June 2008	a Family Tree wallhanging picture and verbage coming soon!
July 2008	Teahouse Garden Drunkard's Path block using Asian Fabrics		August 2008	non-embroidered, alternative layouts for Zundt Corners (original done in May 2005)
The projects above that don't have a live link either aren't completed yet or the write-up hasn't been completed yet. They'll eventually get done. Sometime. :-)

Pirate's Informational Pages I now have an RSS feed available! Get automatically notified when I add new pages! Subscribe through or direct your RSS reader to
Bookmark File:	Here's my bookmark file of Quilting stuff, as of October 2004. Disclaimer: some of them haven't checked in a while, so they may have gone 404. You have been forewarned.
Fold Your Stash Efficiently!:	I found (someplace) a really nifty way of folding my quilting stash. You will be rewarded with uniformly folded fabric and an easy way of estimating how much yardage has been folded. It is much easier to organize your fabric if it is all folded to the same dimensions. This method will also make it very easy for you to cut strips from the folded stash WITHOUT completely unfolding it! It took me several nights of watching many TV shows but I eventually got all of my quilting fabric re-folded in this manner.
Continuous Bias Tape:	Ever wonder why you should use bias tape for binding instead of straight-of-grain? Ever wonder how to make yards and yards and yards of continuous bias tape easily? Click here for an explanation, yardage requirements and construction technique.
Joining double fold binding - the simple version!	Here is a foolproof method on how to join the ends of double fold binding so that the seam is FLAT and the length of the finished binding is exactly what is needed for a perfect fit.
Envelope Quilt Label:	Here's a clever quilt label that resembles an envelope. You open it up, unfold it to read the label ... and there's lots of room for writing!
SWAK envelope block - the BETTER directions!:	Here are much better instructions on how to make the SWAK (Sealed With A Kiss) block. This is a revamping of the horrid instructions given on the HGTV webpage that accompanied an episode of Simply Quilts.
The Alternative Finishes Series.	Tired of your quilts all having the same straight edge finish? Want to have your consciousness raised so you know there are alternatives to a traditionally bound edge? Want to put some pizzazz on the edge of your quilt? Then this is the series of handouts for you! The Alternative Finishes Series is a set of 4 pdf handouts that I use in the classes that I teach. Alternative Finishes 1: Bound Edges, Knife Edge. Shows simple techniques to jazz up a traditionally bound edge quilt and four different techniques of knife edge finishes. Alternative Finishes 2: Wrapped Edges, Scallops. Shows two variations for a wrapped edge, where the backing fabric is brought forward to show on the front, and two techniques for finishing scallops. Alternative Finishes 3: Prairie Points (part 1): Individual, Strip pieced, Continuous pieced. Shows the traditional way to make prairie points and then two alternative ways to create a whole string of prairie points in one or two colors. Alternative Finishes 4: Prairie Points (part 2): Piped, Reversible, Two-color. Shows to make accented prairie points, prairie points for two-sided quilts and bi-color prairie points. Knowledge of information presented in part 1 is nice but not strictly necessary.
Mitering Corners on quilts that have sides of different colors.	I was asked if I could think of a way to do miter corners on a quilt that had sides of different colors. I was sufficiently curious so I made a mock-up, using a Half-Square Triangle as a stand-in for the real quilt. These pictures and text are my attempt at thinking out loud and experimenting. The final result isn't terrifically wonderful, but you'll get the idea.
Freezer Paper Piecing	Do you love the precision of paper piecing quilt blocks? Do you really, really hate tearing the paper away when the stitching is done? How about a technique that combines the best of both worlds .... precision piecing, no removal of the paper foundation afterwards AND you can re-use the paper template? Sounds too good to be true? In this case, it really is true .. come and learn this technique, popularized by the diva of Mariner Compass construction, Judy Mathieson, who uses this technique exclusively.
Pirate's Practically Perfect Pillowcases	Like so many other seamstresses, I've made my share of special pillowcases. I've used many different directions with many different techniques. Over the years, I have cherry-picked the best pieces of all of them into my own set of directions, so that *I* am happy with the finished pillowcase. What I like about my directions are: All the seams are finished or enclosed. I HATE, HATE, HATE seeing the seam allowance showing at the edge of the pillowcase. It looks UGLY. Yes, it's faster to sew the decorative band on first then do the side seam, but if you're making something, why on earth would you want to make something that doesn't look nice?? If you're under a time constraint and can't get a beautiful gift done on time, give the recipient an "I owe you one pillowcase (in progress)" coupon. Or start sooner. :-) The accent strip is a separate piece of fabric, allowing you to coordinate it with the body and the bottom band. I've used directions that use a tuck for a faux accent strip. That works, of course, but I like the accent strip to be noticeable. I have been taught to make the inside/reverse of something as beautiful as the outside (or as nearly as I can). It's a matter of pride in one's work. Yes, it does take a little longer, but the result is a finished item that you can be proud of. You never look at it and say that you should have done it better. Therefore, I use French seams on my pillowcases. There's no trick technique or fancy smoke-and-mirror procedure. It's all just basic sewing. Best of all, I use the full width of fabric for my pillowcases. Most directions I've seen have you cut down the yardage to 40" wide so that you have a 20" wide pillowcase. That leaves you with a skinny,lengthwise strip that is practically worthless. I hate that! So, I use the full width of fabric and my pillowcase are just a skoosh wider ... no waste. :-) No webpage of instructions but a PDF version is available. Left mouse-click to look at the PDF; right mouse-click for download.

Pirate's Link Pages to sites I think are particularly nice.
Long Arm Quilting.	I would like to direct your long arm quilting needs to Janna Bailey of The Quilting Company. Janna is awesome. She specializes in free-form quilting (not using a pantograph), and in my most humble opinion, creates the most amazingly beautiful designs. Janna is an artist in the highest sense and works with you to create the absolute best quilt motif for your quilt. She has the most incredible ideas and her workmanship is impecable. If you are you local to Walnut Creek, CA you can bring your quilts in and if you're not, you can mail your quilts to her.
Quilt Block Patterns.	Quilter's Cache. Quilter's Cache. Quilter's Cache! Need I say anymore? Marcia Hohn's site is the most comprehensive site of quilt block patterns available on the Internet. You don't need to be a member; you don't need to pay a subscription fee (although if you'd like to help her out, you can buy something from her store). Not only are most of the well-known and traditional quilt blocks available for free, but a LOT of original blocks, designed by Marcia, are also available. In addition, Marcia has a number of very helpful links and informational pages on her site.
General Purpose Blocks and Information.	Benita Skinner's Victoriana Quilt Designs site has a plethora of goodies, including many informational files that she is happy to email to you. The ones that I have found endlessly helpful are her Triangle & Setting Triangle Chart and her Cutting Strips & Squares Calculator.
The Absolute BEST Templates.	Let me preface this by saying that I am not a template fan. If a quilt can't be done by strip piecing, then I'm not interested! Until ... I used ARDCO templates. Oh my goodness .. what a revelation on what a template should be! These templates are made of coated (enamel, maybe?) metal, about 1/8" (or so) thick. These template are not going to twist or warp on you. They are made in a "window" style of template, meaning that the entire template is a 1/4" wide "frame" so you can see the fabric in the interior of the template ... this allows you to do 2 things: 1)if you are fussy-cutting, you can see exactly what part of the motif will be in your quilt and 2) if you are a hand-quilter, you can trace around the inside of the frame with a pencil to mark your sewing line. The outside of the template includes the 1/4" seam allowance for rotary cutting. And yes, you can use a small (18mm or 45mm) rotary cutter to zip/zip/zip around the edges to get an accurately cut piece of fabric. But what sold me the most about this brand of templates is the fact that on the side that faces the fabric, they've put a sandy/grainy non-skid substance that absolutely will not slip on your fabric! They aren't the cheapest templates around but they will last you a lifetime. Personally, I think these templates are absolutely the best around.

California Quilting Retreat of May 2002 "Four Eye Patch"

Over Memorial Day 2002, I hosted a "quilting retreat" of sorts for members of About.com's Quilting Forum. From an initial tentative guest list of 11 people, 7 ladies actually were able to make it out here. The most distant person came from Guam (yes! the island!), the next distant was from Arizona; the rest were "local" from California. We had a marvelous time! We even got some quilting/sewing done! [grin] Pictures are here.

Pirate's Home Page

I would love to hear from you via an email ... the link is below! Thanks for looking at my pages. :-) You can email me at my email address.

Credit for graphics used on the quilting pages .. give credit where credit is due
Vikimouse	Pat's Web Graphics	Moonlight Designs