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The quilt guild I belong to periodically has quilt challenges. Sometimes they will provide a piece of fabric that needs to be used in a quilt along with other guidelines such as size or a certain block that needs to be included.

I decided to participate. In this challenge they provided some fabric, dimensions of the wall hanging and a Ohio Star block needed to be used as well. We picked our own theme and fabrics. Since I live near large lakes and oceans I decided to do something water related. One day while shopping I over heard someone say they were waiting for their ship to come in. So I decided to use that as the theme of my wall hanging since we are all waiting for our ship to come in.

I used the fabric provided for the ship sails, Sun Bonnet Sue’s dress and the pilings for the dock. I found some really neat water fabric, blue fabric with small stars for a night sky and yellow fabric for the Ohio Star block. I guess that could be the North star. I have some whale fabric so I cut out some of the whales and placed them in various places in the water. While at a bead shop I found an anchor charm so I attached it to the boat.

I had fun making the wall hanging. I didn’t win any prizes but that is okay. I’m still waiting for my ship to come in.

I have a niece that loves to crochet. So one day while we were visiting with her Grandmother she got on the phone. She commented that if I made her a quilt she would crochet a blanket for me. I agreed and asked her what her favorite colors were and patterns she might like. She indicated her favorite color was purple and she loved stars. She also wanted a music theme, specifically piano, if I could find piano fabric. I said I would try and see what I could find.

The star block I choose to use is called Sawtooth Star. The center of the star is a nice size and features a themed fabric nicely. I found a dark purple fabric for the star points and four different coordinating purple fabrics for the star backgrounds. Luck must have been on my side because I found a fabric with a collage of piano keyboards and another fabric with music notes so I bought both. I used the piano keyboard fabric in the center of half of the stars and the music notes fabric in the center of the other stars.

One day while visiting a local fabric store I saw fabric that looked like piano keys on a piano. I was so excited I was almost jumping up and down with joy. I felt really silly because I grabbed the bolt of fabric so fast that if someone saw me they might have thought I was insane or a crazy woman. I did not want to loose the opportunity to get the perfect fabric! I used the piano keyboard fabric for the quilt border.

The next challenge was finding a fabric for the back of the quilt. When I can, I try to find something for the back of the quilt that goes well with the front of the quilt. Well, I didn’t think I could top the piano keys fabric, but I got very close. The backing fabric counts as a second perfect fabric. I found fabric that looks like sheet music. This time I did not act like the crazy, insane woman in the fabric store. I bought the second perfect fabric.

I am not sure which was more fun, making the quilt or giving it to my niece.  I had mailed this quilt along with her sister’s quilt to my mother-in-law to hold for us. While we were visiting our family for our other niece’s wedding, we were all hanging out in the living room, so I got up to get the perfect music quilt. My niece happen to be in a recliner when I walked back into the living room. I walked up to her and said, “Remember when we agreed to make each other a blanket?” Her face lite up and she said, “Yeah.” I pulled the quilt out of the bag and covered her up with it. Because she was so excited the recliner started wiggling with joy too! She kept saying it was perfect and more than she had expected. Her reaction was priceless and made me so very happy to have made it for her.

Since then I have given her some of the fabric used in her quilt so now she has matching pillow cases. The piano keys fabric looks really cool on the pillow cases too.

Here is the crocheted blanket my niece made for me.

I really love my husband’s mother. We always have a great time when we get together. So when I started making quilts she indicated she would love to have a quilt in shades of blue. We talked about different quilt patterns and decided on the Log Cabin pattern. I found several light to dark blue toned fabrics and several white on white fabrics. I used a white flannel for the backing. Blue and white quilts are really quite beautiful. I received several compliments on this quilt. I really like the Log Cabin pattern and enjoyed making it. Mom loves the quilt too.

This is my first Halloween quilt. It was one of the first quilt kits I ever purchased. The cob web fabric around the dogs and cat in the middle glows in the dark as do the faces in the trees. It took me two years to gain enough experience to complete.