Thrift Store challenge quilts: part 2

Have you ever made a quilt from used clothing?  We love this thrifty idea.  Here is part two of the thrift store challenge quilts featured at the recent Arizona Quilters' Guild show, featuring quilts made from neckties, blouses, dresses and cotton scrubs. Do any of these inspire you to use thrift store materials in your own quilts?

Grandfather's Flower Garden, 42 x 42", by Margit Kagerer

We love this original and beautiful quilt made from silk neckties.  Winner of the third place award in the Theme category, Margit Kagerer says: “Grandfather went through his stash of neckties and revived them as flowers. He arranged the tips in hexagons like grandmother did for her garden.”

close up, Grandfather's Flower Garden by Margit Kagerer

Goodwill Hunting by Sandra Branjord

"Goodwill Hunting" won a blue ribbon for its creative use of thrift shop materials.  Sandra Branjord says: “My inspiration was the thrill of the hunt. This is a mixed media quilt using all materials from Goodwill. I cut apart and reused garments and recycled batting.”

close up, Goodwill Hunting by Sandra Branjord

Sandra used all animal-themed prints to make this artistic quilt.  In the close-up photo you can see pieces of some of the blouses, including the buttoned front and clothing label of a zebra-prnt blouse. The words "Goodwill Hunting" were spelled out with Scrabble tiles.

close up, Goodwill Hunting by Sandra Branjord

it was fun to see all the different materials and embellishments that covered this quilt.  Sandra incorporated buttons, beads and bottle caps, a wooden necklace with carved animals (in the upper right) and other metal pieces.  She must have had so much fun "hunting" for all of the different materials.

Delightful Thrift Store Challenge by CJ Fuhrman

CJ Fuhrmann made this very cheerful wall quilt with one yard of fabric and six different shirts/blouses from the thrift store, spending $25 or less.  She picked up the colors of the tie-dyed fabric in the various flowers, and added interest with squiggly quilting lines.  The block pattern was called "Fanciful Flowers" by Lori Hein.

Delightful Thrift Store Challenge by Gayle Reed

Delightful Thrift Store Challenge by Gayle Reed. “What to do with a dress, two mens shirts and a scrub top? Make appliques by fussy-cutting the stitched flowers from the dress and [adding] a braided border to tie it all together!”  We thought the braided border was the perfect finishing touch.

It's Not Easy Being Green by Judy Peters

Judy Peters says that her quilt was inspired by the 2013 Cool Globes exhibit in Boston, which focused on "hot ideas for a cooler planet".  The adorable Kermit-like frog is pointing at the earth, while wooden Scrabble tiles spell out the title: "It's not easy being green."

close up, It's Not Easy Being Green by Judy Peters

All of the materials were purchased at thrift stores.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.

Q.I. Classics: Quilts of Guatemala by Priscilla Bianchi

From her home in Guatemala, Central America, Priscilla Bianchi creates quilts, fabrics, and quilt patterns in a dazzling array of color. Her quilts are inspired by the vibrant "huipiles" or tunics, woven by the native Mayan women in patterns that are unique to each village. We first featured Priscilla's work at Quilt Inspiration in April, 2010.

Natura Florida II by Priscilla Bianchi

The Mayan people of Guatemala live in the highlands jungles, where vividly colored flowers and tropical plants have flourished since the beginning of time. This quilt showcases the lush magenta, fuchsia and lavender hues of exotic orchids and other captivating blossoms which have long inspired the lovely textile art of this region. Natura Florida II also celebrates the rich geometric patterns of the native villages, along with the traditional indigo blue and cochineal red fabric dyes used for centuries.

Colors of San Ildefonso, 59 x 71", by Priscilla Bianchi

'Colors of Ildefonso' is inspired by the orderly, geometric shapes on the 'huipils' (women's blouses) from the village of San Ildefonso. Choose interesting stripes and coordinating colors for a vibrant quilt with clean lines and high visual impact. This is one of the art quilt patterns available at Priscilla Bianchi's website. 

Mayan Kente by Priscilla Bianchi

Phyllis says, "I've long been attracted to 'randas', the heavily embroidered decoration found on the front of native Mayan women's skirts. Its linear nature suggested 'weaving' to me. The continuous motion of weft over and under warp is the fundamental essence of textiles. As I worked the design, it reminded me of Kente cloth from Africa." Mayan Kente is Phyllis' tribute to weavers around the world, whose skill with color and design creates a legacy of functional, beautiful clothing.

Cruz de Chichi (Chichi's Cross) by Priscilla Bianchi as seen at El Azar Cultural 

Made with Guatemalan hand-woven textiles, Indonesian batiks, and commercial cottons, "Chichi's Cross" symbolizes the community of Chichicastenango united around the sign of the cross. The intricately detailed kaleidoscopic center contrasts with the simple, large areas of deep color around it. This stunning quilt was featured in a 2011 exhibit of Priscilla Bianchi's work at Museo Ixchel (Guatemala).

Guatemalan Reflections by Priscilla Bianchi

Here is one of Priscilla Bianchi's quilt patterns which is made as a string quilt; strip sets are made and then cut into triangles which are pieced together.  This quilt is a great way to feature colorful Guatemalan fabrics, or, to use up scraps.  You can read more about the design, including fabric requirements, in an article at Simply Quilts on HGTV.

1000 Rainbow Pyramids by Priscilla Bianchi

1000 Rainbow Pyramids is a "charm quilt", a type of construction in which no two fabrics are similar throughout the entire quilt. This work utilizes 480 different fabric triangles. It leads the viewer's eye along a pathway of both contrasting values and warm and cool hues, in which the entire color spectrum is explored.

Guatemalan Flora by Priscilla Bianchi


Guatemalan Flora is a free, downloadable quilt pattern which Priscilla Bianchi designed for Robert Kaufman Fabrics. You can see her love of bold, bright, strong prints which characterize much of her wonderful work.  Plenty of quilt inspiration and patterns also can be found in Priscilla's book, Caliente Quilts.



Guatemalan fabrics, similar to the ones shown in the cover quilt above, can be purchased at Priscilla Bianchi's online store, here.

QI Milestones: 400 posts + 1000 followers + 1 million page views

This week we're celebrating some milestones at Quilt Inspiration, and we couldn't be more excited. When we first started Quilt Inspiration, in February 2010, our goal was to feature the most beautiful and interesting quilts in the world. So far we have published over 400 posts, and we've met so many delightful and creative people along the way.  We are thrilled to belong to this worldwide community of quilters!  On August 30, 2012, we reached 1000 members:

And on September 24 we exceeded 1 million page views !

See the red Pinterest button on this screen shot ?  Many of you know that Pinterest is an online pinboard where you can organize and share things you love. Come join us at Quilt Inspiration on Pinterest !  We've been on Pinterest for nearly a year, and just yesterday we reached 3,000 followers:

Our 40 different Quilt Inspiration boards include contemporary quilts, vintage quilts, folk art quilts, Dear Jane quilts, cat quilts, quilts that make us smile, recycled clothing creations and more:

And now, we would like to send a big hug to our readers and followers. By way of thanks we've created a free and fun tutorial which will appear in our very next post (the theme is "waste not, want not").  Stay tuned... and THANK YOU for visiting us at Quilt Inspiration!  ~Marina & Daryl Lynn

200 posts and 200,000 page views

We recently hit two milestones:  200 posts (on July 18) and 200,000 page views (this week).  We're very pleased, and we think it's time to say THANKS to our readers, and to the many talented artists and designers who inspire us all.  We moved up the index on today's sidebar so that everyone can see what - and who -  we've featured so far.

Readers have said that they love the free patterns on our sidebar. Unfortunately, we're running out of room! We're considering adding a new blog page, where we can post all of the free patterns in an organized way that is searchable. So, for example, if someone is looking for a free Dresden Plate quilt pattern, they'd be able to find it easily. What do you think? Please leave us a comment. We'd also love to hear your ideas about themes, and anything else you'd like to add to our brainstorming session.  Many thanks !

~Marina & Daryl at Q.I.

Red, White and Blue

Happy 4th of July !  As today is Independence Day in the U.S., we decided to show a small red, white and blue quilt project which Marina has been working on.  We've been interested in red, white and blue ever since we posted about this color combination. I'm pleased with the combination of cyan, blue-violet and blue-red.

Red, white and blue, 24 x 32", by Marina Lynn, at Quilt Inspiration

The project was inspired by an antique commissioning pennant, circa 1837, seen at auction.  I used batiks for the red, white and blue background.  The "stars" were printed on fabric using a cyanotype process. Right now it's just a quilt top, but it will be quilted soon.  You might notice that the cyanotype strips have a wrinkled or "distressed" appearance... I'd like to think of it as lending an antique look, but in all honesty it comes from not ironing the fabric before it was "printed". I've decided not to let it bother me!

Happy Indpendence Day, and thanks to everyone who is following our blog.  We love our readers !