Well, it's official: I'm a quilter!  This spring I have been prolific in sewing, if not orderly in blogging about it.  For the record, here are the quilts I worked on in March/April of 2021, in the order that I worked on them.  I will come back and add links as I blog them:

1. The Meadow Quilt is a long-term project I've been working on, forgetting about, then revisiting for years.  I picked it up again in March 2021, when I read the book Finish by Jon Acuff and decided to finish the blooming thing!  Then I got distracted by other, fun and exciting projects, so I still haven't finished the blooming thing.  I am doing the quilting for this one on my home machine Boudica. 
2. The Organized Chaos quilt for my niece was a kit, which I made with help and instruction from my friend Rosanne.  In particular, I learned about cutting with the rotary cutter, squaring off, and strip piecing.  I sent it to a professional long-armer for quilting. 
3. Flush with accomplishment, I conceived and started drawing an original quilt idea, a Dandelion quilt.  But I didn't have confidence in my ability to translate picture into pattern, or to do the math and figure out yardage, so it remained an idea. 
4. A "Simple Illusions" quilt was next, based on this pattern by Pleasant Valley Creations. 
5. Then a rather dorky utility quilt, which I put together mostly out of boredom, and to experiment with setting blocks on point. 
6. Then I started the Dandelion quilt, using math and pattern skills I had developed while working on the Simple Illusions pattern. 
7. Concurrently with the Dandelion quilt, which is a thinky project, I also started the string piecing quilt I dubbed Pick-Up Sticks/Acid Trip.  It is not a thinky project, so it's a nice alternative when I don't have the energy for the Dandelion quilt. 
   

Some people get bitten by the quilting bug; I came down with a quilting virus, which lay dormant in my system for years, flaring up occasionally, but never overcoming my garment-sewing resistance.  I had enough quilting projects to justify a tag, but I didn't call myself a quilter. 

No more!  Just as viruses awaken when resistance is low, so my quilting virus awoke as I lost motivation to sew other things.  Since June 2020, I have been happily working at a job which requires me to wear boring clothes.  What's the fun in spending my days-off sewing a silk dress or pair of jodpurs, only to deck myself in polyester matte jersey pants and a tee shirt for my work week?  If I never get to wear the fun stuff, why sew it?  But quilts are useful always, and make great gifts...

Time to get the first thing off my UFO pile!  I started these quilted jumps, a kind of casual 18th Century substitute for stays, back in 2015, using an older sewing machine.  I re-found them in 2017, and put them in my working pile again, and now I am finally done!  (Just as Spring arrives and I have no reason to wear them for months!)

Several years ago, when I was newly arrived in Portland, OR, and I had a basic, borrowed sewing machine and no experience with either pattern drafting or quilting, I found Sharon Ann Burnston's website and was taken with the idea of making my own version of 18th Century quilted jumps.  Mainly, I wanted them because I was cold.  I'm always cold in the winter, and I simply hate being cold.  The jumps appealed to me as a garment to keep my core warm and leave my arms free, which would be an improvement over wrapping myself in blankets, and more interesting and unique than the "puffy" vests which were then fashionable. 

The Ahsoka Tano dress being done, I had to make a few accessories to really create the character.  The biggest thing was the belt with its apron front.  Then gaiters for the feet, and leggings with diamond-shaped cut-outs.  I'll post about the belt and leggings today, but not the gaiters, because (I'll be honest) I found the gaiters really annoying to do and I'm not happy with them.  They're not bad... just not gonna be in this post.  Maybe I'll post about them in future, when time has passed and I can be objective. 

On May 13th this year, my friend Rosanne and I went to the Northwest Quilters' Quilt show.  For me, it was an art show!  So much artistry, so much beauty.  I want to share it with you! 

Re: the pictures... I did not talk to the quilters or get their permission to post these pictures here, but as they'd already made their work public by exhibiting it, and as I was within the rules of the exhibition to take pictures, I think it's all right to show their workmanship here as long as I credit them.  If the work is yours and you object to its placement here, Contact Me and let me know, and I'll remove your stuff.  Ditto if I've mis-attributed something and you want me to fix it.  Thanks! 

As always, click on a picture to see it enlarged.