African Whole Cloth Quilt Finished!

I have finally finished!  As implied by the title, there was no piecing of this quilt top.  I loved the fabric so much I just couldn’t cut it into pieces so I just quilted it.  I attempted to do some machine trapunto.  The effect is less than I had hoped.  I think I should have used an even higher loft polyester batting for the trapunto.  I might even should have used it for the entire quilt rather than switching to Hobb’s Heirloom cotton batting.  Still, it is lovely and my photos don’t do it justice.

It is machine quilted in an echo pattern.  The quilt measures 52.75 in X 70 in. 

Here you can see the some of the echo quilting. Notice the animals could use a little more “stuffing.”
Another photo to try to show off the quilting.
Here’s the back (really the fabric is a lovely green)
Here you can see the quilting better.  Again not the animals could use a little more “stuffing.”
Another photo of some of the back detail
I haven’t decided what to do with this quilt.  I have a few options in mind, but am open to suggestions.

 

WIP -- African Whole Cloth Quilt (January 20, 2012)

Family T-Shirt Quilt

I made this quilt for my husband around 1997 (forgot to put a label on it).  He had all these t-shirts from Civil War reenactments, car stuff, etc but not quite enough.  I had some t-shirts from trips for meetings (Chicago, DC, San Francisco) and races (Elby’s 20K in Wheeling, WV and a few local ones).  So I combined them to make this quilt using old blue jeans (both of ours) in an attic windows setting.

The quilt is machine pieced.  It measures 79 in X 97 in.  I used iron-on interfacing to stabilize the t-shirt fabric before cutting it to the finished size.  I did not do the quilting (too thick for my basic machine), but sent it to Peg’s Quality Quilting to be machine quilted.  I did do the binding of thin denim fabric.

The two shirts on the left and the upper right were my husband’s.  The Smithsonian one was mine.
In this set, the two on the left and the lower right ones’ were my husband’s shirts.  The Chicago one was mine.
The upper left one here was my husband’s and the other ones were mine. 
All of these were my husband’s.  I brought the one from San Francisco to him from a meeting trip.
I love the words on the bottom of this t-shirt:  “From the lips of God to the hearts of man, let the past be past. Let the dead be dead now and forever American. Anonymous, 1863”

My Ring Pillow

I’m still working on the whole cloth African quilt, so I thought I’d show you the ring pillow I made in 1990 for my wedding.  I cross-stitched the design (don’t recall the source), then added some ribbons to tie the rings.

Here’s a closer view of the center.
Here’s the back edge with our initials and the year.
Here’s my nephew who was 3 yrs old then, now is a freshman in law school.  He loved the tux and did not want to return it. 

Old Cross Stitch Pieces and An Update

I’m still working on the Whole Cloth African quilt, so I ‘m just going to share a couple of old cross stitch pieces I did years ago.  The first one I did during medical school during my senior year pediatric rotation spent out-of-town shadowing a pediatrician in private practice.  It was good on many levels.  I loved watching him interact with his patients and their parents. 

This piece was framed at one time and hung on the walls of my apartments in Baton Rouge, Wheeling, Pittsburg, Boston, and even here in Little Rock.

This bookmark (one of the problems with e-books is these aren’t needed) I did in Boston during my plastic surgery residency.  I actually took a 6 week sailing class on the Charles River.  I haven’t done any sailing since moving back inland. 

Here’s a small segment of the Whole Cloth African quilt with the corresponding view from the back below.  The colors aren’t true in this first one.  The color is more green.
Here’s from the back.  Making progress, but at the point in the project where it’s seems to be slowed to a crawl.

Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017--all links removed as many no longer active.

Dr. Rob (@doc_rob), More Musings (of a Distractible Kind), is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s Grand Rounds Vol 8 No 25: Super Tuesday Edition here.

Welcome to grand rounds, the best around the world of medical blogging! 

For those expecting a silly recitation of today’s posts in rhyme, this post will let you down.  But don’t be sad, as I have provided with an alternate version of grand rounds on my other blog, Llamaricks, which (if you hadn’t guessed) is not quite as dedicated to the serious side of things. 

Since today is “Super Tuesday” ……

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Check out Doctor David’s (@david65) blog for as he put it on twitter:  the “story I won't forget. Watch the video -- the look on my patient's face says it all.”  The post:  Music Can Heal

Well, maybe music can't cure cancer, but it can certainly heal the spirit.
Drew Seeley released a new song today that he wrote for my patient.
Watch the video here……

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H/T to @tbtam who tweeted this: “ The Before. Sad, beautifully written , perfectly told. We docs have all been there. . jama.ama-assn.org/content/307/9/… (Need JAMA subscript).  The link is to an essay by Jennifer Frank, MD:  The Before

This is the before. A moment suspended like a bubble floating on a warm summer breeze gently but inevitably toward the ground. I feel the pop coming, an implosion of the very center of your life. Anticipating what this moment would hold, I nevertheless hoped for something different. To be able to eagerly dial your number and shout out the good news to you in a breathless rush. It's not what we thought. It's not cancer.

Instead I take a deep breath, pressing each number slowly, cautiously, drawing out the moment before the burst…………….

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Go read Elaine’s (was @medicallessons, now @elaineschattner) new post:  Harsh Words, and Women’s Health at Risk

I’ll open with a confession –

Women’s health has never really been at the heart of ML. Your author has, his­tor­i­cally, rel­e­gated sub­jects like normal men­stru­ation, healthy preg­nancy and repro­duction and natural menopause to her gyne­col­ogist friends. Sure, I learned about the facts of life. I even studied them in med school and answered ques­tions, some cor­rectly, along the way. By now, I’ve lived through these real life-​​phases directly. But these topics never drew me. That’s changed now.

Women’s care – and lives, in effect – are jeop­ar­dized on three fronts:……………..

Flag Kite Tail Quilt

As with the quilt I posted last Friday, this one was done for QOV.  It uses 4.5 in X 6.5 in fabric flags in a kite tail quilt pattern.  The quilt is machine pieced and quilted.  The quilt is approx 52 in X 73 in.

Here is a photo of the label made by the quilter (not me, I only pieced and did the binding for this one).

Leadership and Goal Play

Paul Levy’s (@paulflevy) book “Goal Play” is out!  If you read his blog you will recognize many of the vignettes as I did.   He teaches us lessons of leadership (not management) he has learned from coaching soccer. 

Easy to read.  Engaging stories as examples.  You can read from the beginning to end or flip through and read at random.  Either way you will gain valuable insights.

The book is available both at Amazon and at Createspace.