Clarke Co. Fair - Part 3

Joan visited Japan for two weeks in 2005 and became interested in the Japanese culture. A pattern in the Love of Quilting magazine showing English tea pots and cups was modified into this quilt and it is named Oriental Tea by using oriental fabric fat quarters purchased by Joan. The handles on the cups were eliminated because Japanese tea cups have no handles.
Note the contrasting thread used to stitch around the tea pots and cups and the antique silver buttons placed on top of the teapots. Machine quilted by Beth Lura of North Dakota.




Change of Heart
After a friend, Sue, adopted Caitlin over 18 years ago, she planned a baby quilt using white blocks with appliquéd hearts from primary colors. As all new mothers of infants find out quickly, there just was no time to make the quilt. Some years later, Sue gave the fabric to her friend Laurie and told Laurie to do with it what she wanted. Well, Laurie liked the idea of the baby quilt and dreamed of making the quilt as Sue had originally planned, surprising both Sue and Caitlin. However, once Laurie received Caitlin’s graduation announcement in the spring of 2009, she remembered the fabric that was still untouched in her sewing room. Thinking it would be fun to do something with the original fabric, Laurie knew the original plan would not fit the grown up Caitlin. Caitlin had developed a love of the arts, music and stage production. With only several weeks to make the quilt, Laurie dug into some quilt magazines and found the pattern that would work. And she knew batiks would fit Caitlin’s personality. The result was a warm palette on which to appliqué the red hearts – the original red fabric Sue purchased for the quilt. Once the quilt was done, Laurie felt certain there would be times when Caitlin would appreciate a cooler, quieter quilt, so made a second cool quilt that serves as the back of the quilt. The pieced binding finished off each side with corresponding colors. Needless to say, both Sue and Caitlin were surprised with the graduation gift, a “change of heart” from the original plan, but filled with tons of love for them both.