I am in between projects right now and was a bit at loss for what to write a blog post about. I guess I have a bit of "Blogger's Block." Looking around my sewing room, I got the idea to have a Trunk Show. Literally, I have a trunk stuffed with antique quilts, finished quilts I have made and quilts I have not finished! Today the Trunk Show will be only about quilts I have made - finished and unfinished. I will do another Trunk Show some other day just about antique quilts.

Now, big disclaimer here... when I made these quilts in the mid -  80's through 90's, color choices, fabric choice and my choices were a whole lot different then they are these days! Even my piecing skills were different. I am a lot fussier about my piecing now and looking back on my work, things are not pieced as good as I remember. On the flip side, looking at the hand quilting that I had done, I was so much better at hand quilting in the day. Only a few of my quilts were machine quilted (by me, on my sewing machine) those were the utility quilts for the kids beds, otherwise, I hand quilted everything, small to large!

Here is one the earliest pieces I have, this little Appliqued Hearts wall hanging. Notice all the "country" colors, it was all the rage in the 80's.

This Single Irish chain quilt was probably my first full size quilt I quilted. I had used an old sheet for the white and there are areas of this quilt that have just worn out from years of use.

Again, this is an early piece. The Bear Paw quilt was a wall hanging quilt. I was really into Amish quilts and my husband and I had gone to San Fransisco and got to see the Esprit headquarters where they have a large collection of antique Amish quilts on display (at least back then they did.)

When my son Ben was three years old, I made this town quilt for him for his birthday. I call this quilt "All Roads Lead Home." He used to drive his little cars around the town and play for hours. The town is made up of buildings and places he was familiar with, our house, the school, the gas station, the library, the park, a farm and other homes that represented family members houses.

Now, you are probably thinking, why does this quilt look unfinished? Good question. It was once finished, hand quilted, bound, done. But, unfortunately, the original batting I used in it, crept up through the top along with he just plum wore out some of the areas of the quilt. When he was older, and not playing with the quilt anymore, I took it apart, took out all the quilting, repaired the worn areas, even went so far as to add another tree to "our house" that was planted since the quilt was originally made! Most of it is re-quilted, the borders still need to be finished - I told Ben he will get it back some day when he has kids, luckily, I still have plenty of time to keep that promise!

I made this School House quilt for my daughter when she was born.

This Diamond Ring quilt I made for my daughter, Anna when she was around 2 or 3 years old. It is larger then the School House quilt and she loved to cuddle up in this blanket on the couch. There are some worn out areas on this one too, it got a lot of use.

I was really into the Feathered Star scene in the 80's, I loved things with points and triangles in them. This throw size is just the top, I never got around to quilting it, I think it is amazing I got it finished to this degree!

This Baskets quilt is a full/queen size quilt. It is pretty much all done, can you believe it, I only had the borders have been left to finish. Good thing I have learned to finish what I start now, or I would be in a big mess!

I do love seeing all the hand quilting!

Now we get to the utility quilt era. The kids were either in twin or double beds at this time and I wanted each one to have a quilt of their own. This one is a Flying Geese design I did for my oldest, Ben. He was a little outdoors man, a Boy Scout and loved the "camp" look. This one was machine quilted and has seen a lot of use and washings.

My daughter, Anna got this Scrappy Squares quilt. Machine quilted and 1930's inspired. The back of this one, as well as many of my quilts is pieced from strips of fabric. I was always very economical and used everything.

My youngest boy, Nick got this nautical inspired Stars quilt. This twin sized quilt was also machine quilted. All these utility quilts have taken on such a nice, soft feel to them from repeated washings and having used classic cotton batting for a nice summer weight quilt.

Here is another one of my quilts that is pretty much all hand quilted but I stopped and put it away.  This Goose Chase quilt was inspired from an antique quilt I had seen in a quilt book. I do love scrap quilts. You get to play with so many different fabrics and there are those triangles again!

I was also on a bit of a pink and brown kick for awhile. This Nine Patch is a wall hanging that let me play with lots of fabrics and do some really fine hand quilting.

Did I mention I used to be crazy for basket quilts too? Well, I loved basket quilts, notice all the triangles? This was going to be a wall hanging I guess. It is basted, but never got quilted.

OK, while I am on the baskets thing. Now, this was one of the last quilts I did (or in this case, didn't) it is about 1/3 of the way done. I am still digging this one. In fact, I have plans to finish this one - soon. I had this fantastic, vintage orange solid fabric, small pieces of vintage prints and a unreal amount of the blue ground fabric (new fabric, that I must have gotten for a steal) so I put together this Fan Basket quilt. It is a nice, throw size and was really meant to be playful. I think it still is and that is why I am glad I dug it up and re-discovered it today.

This Stars and Applique wall quilt top I did right around the time I made that nautical Stars quilt for my son. Again, fascinated by points and getting into small applique projects at that time, I also liked how this one used a lot of colorful prints.

The applique pieces are just basted into place, but not stitched down yet.

Quilt in a box. Here I went so far as to make all the scrappy Nine Patch blocks using new and vintage material of blues, browns, blacks, grays with the occasional pop of pink. I at least had the foresight to lay out my intended quilt design and photograph my layout/concept before boxing it all up and putting it away.

Puppies and petals. I did and still do love to sew by hand. I have bags of these Flower Garden blocks pieced but that is as far as it went. I had drafted my own templates of this Scottie Dog block after seeing an antique quilt of this design in a book. I had plans to make the kids a Scottie quilt, but alas...

So, these are just what I have still here with me. There were many, many quilts big and small done during that period that were given away as gifts. Those got finished!

I hope you enjoyed my little Trunk Show of memories. It does make one appreciate all the selection we have available now in fabrics. I still have a lot of those same fabrics in my stash. Vintage and new (well they were new 20-30 years ago!) add some of today's fun prints and we are looking at a whole new world.