Polka Party 1
August 2022

Polka Party 2
August 2022

Polka Party 3
August 2022

Polka Party 4
August 2022

Here are four baby quilts that were designed and pieced by Jocelyn over at Happy Cottage Quilter. She had made these as part of this year’s Hands to Help Challenge, but had sustained a shoulder injury before she was able to quilt and bind them. She reached out to me to ask if I would like to finish them, which I did! I really enjoy quilting baby quilts, as they are a great way to practice and improve my quilting techniques. For Polka Party 1, I quilted straight lines, a 1/4″ on both sides of the seam lines. Polka Party 2 is quilted in large, overlapping circles. The third is quilted in a harlequin/diamond pattern, and Polka Party 4 is quilted in hourglass/wavy lines.

Why Polka Party as the theme across the names? As it happened, after I had done the binding on the first three quilts, I realized that I had unknowingly chosen polka dot fabrics for each of them. So, I kept this going and found another polka dot fabric to use on the fourth. I will be sending these to Little Lambs Foundation based in Utah, who were one of the handful of recipients of this year’s Hands2Help challenge comfort quilts. At the close of the challenge back in the Spring, there were a total of 562 quilts that went to the participating charities! Little Lambs Foundation provides backpacks full of comfort items for children from newborn to 17 who are transitioning into foster care, emergency shelters, or hospitalization.

24.5554° N
June 2022

The inspiration for this recently finished quanket came from Kate Spain’s block #8 which was part of Moda Block Heads 4. The center of each of the four 22″ blocks was fabric given to me many year’s ago by a family friend. I had been waiting for just the right block design to use these very special pieces, as I did not want to lose the beautiful floral designs by cutting them. While the block design was intended with a white center, these sample pieces from the iconic fashion brand, Key West Hand Print Fabrics, were the perfect substitute into the center of each ‘wild geese’ block.

Between 1962 and 1985, prolific textile designer Suzie Zuzek created over 1,500 designs for Key West Hand Print Fabrics in Key West, Florida, which were used by Lilly Pulitzer. Suzie Zuzek’s design contributions were on exhibit last year at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City. The eclectic patterns Zuzek designed defined a uniquely American style, often spotted on fashion icons such as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

This will be donated to a child in foster care.