Dallas quilt & Spaceship monkey

I had been eager to take a photo of the monkey quilt that I recently completed.  However, it was inspired by a much more important quilt, the Dallas Police Quilt, that you can see below.  This quilt was my first attempt at a more free-form design and it was my most cathartic work thus far.

Dallas Police quilt made and donated to those affected by the 2016 summer tragedy.  My camera wasn’t working properly and the color is washed out a bit, but trust me…this quilt was much more vibrant in person.

This past summer I made a quilt for the Dallas police ambush that killed 5 officers and injured 9 others.  The quilt had 5 stars, representing each of the fallen officers.  The blue stars at the bottom of the quilt represent the community, which still has work to do in healing the racial divide.   The quilt was a labor of selfish love which provided me with a way to channel my shock and grief, all while making something tangible for those impacted by this horror.  The quilt is much more vibrant in person, and reminded me that my photography skills need improving.   I was grateful to donate this bed-size quilt to the Fort Worth Modern Quilt guild to pass along to those impacted.  **The FWMQ guild has since written an update that explains the distribution and impact of the many quilts they received.  

The label on the back of the quilt says “Five golden, shining stars watch over this field of patchwork blue hearts.  May we all know harmony, love and peace in our lives.”

 

Close up of the largest star from the police quilt.

Close up of the stars at the bottom of the Dallas police quilt.  This was my first time using so many low-volume fabrics and they brought a nice texture to the design.  

Those same stars came to mind as I dreamt up a new doll quilt for a space-loving kid.  This quilt top had been done for quite awhile, but I finally pulled it all together.  Back in the donated box of fabric from Rosemary was a nice swatch of night sky fabric with gold dots in it.  I took one look at that fabric and saw a star-filled sky.

 

Monkey Spaceship, Doll quilt, 18″ x 26″ Look at me embracing a scrappy background and liking the results!

After making the two large scrappy stars, I felt something else was needed.  So naturally, a spaceship came about and of course…it had to have a sock monkey at the controls.  So this is my fun and free style quilt.  I don’t know why I took so long to pull it all together because I had a “blast” (see what I did there) with quilting it.  I added orange doodle-like swirls space wind and wide swirls in the stars.  The rocket had to have red flames for take off.  Finally, I used a straight navy binding with a red accent at the bottom to accentuate the lift off!

This quilt will be going to A Doll Like Me just as soon as I can part with it!  Thankfully, there are always happy projects to mix in with those more serious ones.