Endless Summer

I saw this quilt in the window at the Cherry Pit Quilt Shop in Sevierville, Tennessee. I knew that I had to make it. I love the beautiful blue batiks against the striking white on white fabric. This quilt was accepted into the AQS Quilt Show in October 2008 in Des Moines, Iowa. I pieced and Debbie McMurray quilted her.

My Beautiful Contrary Wife

Debbie McMurray designed this quilt using the Contrary Wife quilt block. We enjoy making two color quilts that show off the perfect piecing and beautiful machine piecing. My Beautiful Contrary Wife was accepted into the Amercian Quilter's Society Oct. 2008 Show in Des Moines, Iowa. I pieced this quilt and Debbie McMurray completed her with beautiful machine quilting.

Celestial Guides - The Space Quilt is redefined

"The project is a "space elevator" and some experts now believe that the concept is well within the bounds of possibility--maybe within our lifetime." This quote is from CNN.com/europe

Sometimes we support our family members as best as we can. My brother-in-law Bert and my son Aaron are on the National Space Society team to build a space elevator. You can read more about this at http://www.nssspaceelevator.org/

My sister Dawn and I decided that we would help the team out by making this Space Quilt. There are many shades of grey in this quilt to give it depth. Caryl Bryer-Fallert's gradation fabric was perfect for one of the colorful borders. The outside wide border gave paper-piecing a new meaning. It took me over 4 hours to complete one side of the border. Dawn painstakingly paper-pieced each of the moons and stars and then appliqued them to the quilt. I cannot begin to determine how many different fabrics and how many hours went into the designing and sewing of this quilt. Debbie McMurray took machine quilting to a whole new level on this quilt. Thank you Debbie!!

Donna's Quilt

My youngest sister Donna is not a quilter even though she loves them. My other sister Dawn and I decided that we would make a quilt for Donna to give her for Christmas 2006 (I know I'm a little slow posting pics to my blog!)

Dawn and I decided that we would make the Wuthering Heights by 3 Sisters Quilt Kit by Moda-their fabrics are so wonderful. We also decided that we should each have the quilt since it was made by 3 sisters and we are 3 sisters. (What were we thinking??)

Dawn is also a proficient quilter and loves to paper piece and work on smaller projects while I love to piece large quilts. Dawn made the center block, mailed it to me in Tennessee and I finished the quilt piecing. Debbie McMurray, my business partner, machine quilted the quilt with exquisite stitches. When she was finished I put the binding on and mailed it back to Dawn in Baltimore to put on the special label.

We all met at Donna's house in New York and surprised her with Wuthering Heights.

PS We still do not have our quilts made yet---

Dr. Chelle receives her childhood in a quilt

Ginger and Bill had saved T-shirts from their daughter Chelle's childhood through her college and medical school experiences. When they brought 80 T-shirts to me I couldn't even imagine how large this quilt would be!!! Well, after much deliberation Ginger narrowed it down to 57 shirts. The finished quilt measured 80" x 100". Ginger and Bill took Chelle and her husband on a trip to San Francisco to celebrate Chelle's birthday. There they presented her with the quilt that was a history of her life.

Jason's Special 50th Birthday "The Dale Earnhardt" Quilt

Periann wanted to surprise her husband Jason on his 50th birthday. As an avid Dale Earnhardt fan Jason had collected many T-shirts over the years. Periann brought them to me to make into a quilt for his 50th birthday. These were some of the most colorful, detailed shirts I have ever seen. The final quilt was 88.5" x 88.5".

The back of the quilt had a custom label which included a special song for Periann and Jason, the words from Bette Midler's song "The Rose."

Birthday present quilt for Laura

At the Foothills Craft Show I met Faye and Bill. They wanted a special quilt for their daughter Laura who works in Washington, D.C. It took them many hours to pick out just the right shirts for their beautiful gift. They spend many hours with me designing and placing the shirts. It was wonderful working with parents who had kept every shirt their daughter ever owned!!! They even had her YMCA Tadpole shirt when she baby swimming lessons. We had so much fun putting this quilt together for Laura.

Elizabeth's Graduation Quilt

Elizabeth shows off her graduation quilt.

Rae is ready for her Special Day

Rae was pleased with the design and fabric choices for her Prayer Shawl

Rae's Prayer Shawl for her Bat Mitzvah

Many times I am commissioned to make items that have special meaning. One day I received a call from "Debbie" who was wondering if I was willing to make a prayer shawl for her daughter "Rae" who was celebrating her Bat Mitzvah in November, 2008. Of course I couldn't say no to such a challenge.

Rae's platform for her Bat Mitzvah was an awareness for taking care of the environment. She decided on a beautiful blue and purple hemp fabric that would showcase her grandmother's hand embroidered hankies. These were very special to Rae since she was named after her grandmother.

Curves - Only 30 minutes a day!!!

Curves Quilt - Maryville, TN

Having time for exercise is always a challenge. After joining curves here in Maryville I was asked by Denise the owner to make a quilt using some of the T-shirts she has collected over the years.

Tennessee "T's" Quilt

The Tessellating "T's" quilt pattern is from the late 1800's and the early 1900's. It is a repeating figure in which a "T" fills the surface of the quilt without any gaps or overlaps.

The orange fabrics I used in this quilt represents the spirit of the Tennessee Volunteers from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. It's a perfect collectible piece for those who "bleed orange" and is for sale. If interested, please contact me. Heidi Leberman is the machine quilter for this project.

The Primitive Victorian

The Primitive Victorian quilt was made as a special gift for my cousin Belinda Spink.







Pieced and machine quilted by Darlene Bakos.

Tennessee Valley Authority Celebrates 75th Anniversary

Joy Kimbrough/The Daily Times
Debbie McMurray (left) and Darlene Bakos were commissioned by TVA to make the agency’s 75th anniversary quilt that hangs in the entry of a TVA office tower in Knoxville. Included in the quilt are photographs ranging from 1930 to 2007.

Sew full of memories: Quilt crafted by Blount women reflects 75 years of TVA By Joel Davis of The Daily Times Staffjoel.davis@thedailytimes.com

Two Blount County quilters have sewn 75 years of Tennessee Valley Authority history into the fabric of a new quilt on display at the agency’s office complex in downtown Knoxville.Darlene Bakos, of Maryville, and Debbie McMurray, of Alcoa, were chosen by TVA to create a quilt to celebrate the agency’s legacy. They incorporated 24 photos into the traditional Sawtooth Star pattern of the quilt, said Katie Bell, senior manager of TVA community relations.“We found very few quilters who work with photographs,” Bell said. “The quality of Debbie’s and Darlene’s work is outstanding. The back of the quilt is as beautiful as the front.”“It was quite an honor to be commissioned to do this quilt,” Bakos said.The two women, Bakos of Gingersnap Quilts and McMurray of Creative Quilts, specialize in incorporating photos and other memorabilia into quilts.“This is a standard part of our business — memory quilts, photo quilts and T-shirt quilts,” Bakos said. The 24 photo squares in the quilt display images from a mix of historical and contemporary photographs chosen by TVA historian Pat Ezzell and others. “We went through hundreds of photos to find a good representation of 75 years,” Bell said.Predominantly designed in shades of blue and white, each quilt block consists of a center square surrounded by right-angle triangles. The quilt’s center square displays the TVA logo.“That is the TVA dark blue,” McMurray said. “The other colors were chosen to give it contrast.”It took Bakos and McMurray more than 100 hours to design and sew the quilt to their exacting standards.“It gives a new meaning to perfect points,” Bakos said.“It’s just amazing,” Bell said.McMurray free-handed the outside border of the quilt, not relying on mechanical means to keep everything straight.“She is the stitch regulator herself,” Bakos said.“You get into a zone,” McMurray said.TVA turns 75 years old in May. The agency commissioned three quilts from the two artists. One will be displayed, one will be auctioned during the agency’s United Way campaign later in the year and one will be donated to another organization, Bell said.
Originally published: March 09. 2008 3:01AMLast modified: March 08. 2008 11:31PM