Throwback Thursday Quilt Edition: College Quilts

During the past two weeks I've been at both of my kids' homes, which gave me a perfect photo opportunity for a TBT post. 

When my daughter left for college in 1999 I had to make her a quilt. Of course! I tried not to play matchy matchy with her dorm room--I didn't want it to look like I decorated her room, although if she had asked me to I would have. I will admit to sitting on the floor with my nose two inches away from her interesting tweed carpet to see what colors were hiding there. I decided to make something fairly simple and unobtrusive. And dark because who knew when that quilt would get washed. Here's the result:

The back fabric was the basis for the rest of the fabric choices. It was really fun finding neutrals with similar print colors. The darker colors were pretty representative of what is still often my way of using prints that read more as solids. The quilt is about 56 inches square with 36 8-3/4 inch blocks (1-3/4 inch logs) and a 1-3/4 inch border. The batting is polyester, and the ties are perle cotton.The binding matches the backing.This quilt can still be found various places in my daughter's house depending on who needs it. 

My son left for college in 2001. Another quilt--a little trickier because I definitely didn't want it to look like I decorated his room! Dark colors again, for same reason as above.

I forgot to measure this one, but I'm pretty sure that it's about 72 inches square, with 4-1/2 inch blocks from 1-1/2 inch strips. Again, polyester batting and perle cotton ties. I made a strip pieced binding on this one from leftover fabrics. It can be found on various couches around the house. 

Finally, a quilt for my daughter's boyfriend when I was pretty sure this relationship was going to last. (Around 2002?) I certainly wasn't going to waste my time on a quilt for a guy who wouldn't be around forever. Ha! This was the trickiest of all. Would he like it? What would he like? Was it too much from his girlfriend's mother? Yipes! Scary!. But I made it anyway. And I'm glad I did. He's been our son-in-law for more than 10 years now. 

Hmm...don't know why that picture turned. Oh well, the quilt's symmetrical.

Dark colors again. (You know why.) Again, polyester batting, perle cotton ties, solid looking prints. The squares are approximately 3-1/2 inches, and the overall quilt is about 73 inches square. Big enough to keep him warm in an old off-campus house. This quilt is also on various couches or by the trundle bed in the guest room.

I'm thrilled that these quilts are still all in use. They are cozy, and they still look great. Maybe that's because they don't get washed much.(At all?) Anyway, making college quilts was fun. 

You might see that one quilt is missing. I never got around to making a quilt for my daughter-in-law when she was dating my son. Never mind. I'm making up for it. I just finished a quilt for their bed. (Photos coming soon.) I'll call it hers.  

Oh, and one more picture for those of you who have cats in the family. I don't, but my son and daughter-in-law do. Meet Harvey. 

He used to run and hide when we came. Now he comes running to greet us (me), and he snuggles next to me on the couch! I just might become a cat (-ish) person after all. 

I'm linking up today with Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge for Throwback Thursday. I can't wait to see your throwback quilts!

Getting Started

Ooh...my first post. 

Let's start with this quilt:

This is Rail Fence (such an imaginative name, but I'm not in the habit of naming my quilts, except for the people they're intended for), made as a quilt along with amandajean of Crazy Mom Quilts (but mine was a "quilt after" since I made it after the quilt along was done) to donate to Margaret's Hope Chest. One of their ministries is to provide quilts to incarcerated parents to give their children, and they especially need quilts for boys. I think this one might work for a very young boy. 

I found the fabrics at a big sidewalk sale at one of my favorite quilt shops. The block size is 6 inches and the quilt is about 52 by 64 inches after washing. I made it on my Singer Featherweight and quilted it on my Singer treadle machine.  (All my quilts are made this way, unless I hand quilt them.)

I used 1/2 yard cuts of 8 fabrics for the front and pieced the back with 2 yards plus leftovers and pieces from my stash. I used Quilter's Dream Cotton Select batting and Superior King Tut cotton thread in White Linen for quilting. I'm new to free motion quilting and treadling, so I quilted in meanders since that's best for my skill level right now. 

Here's the back. 

Whew, that about covers it. This is fun--and I've already saved a lot more information than I ever have about my quilts. Until next time, I'll keep quilting.