Rajordan (rā'-jər-dăn')

Quilts by Grandmother, Grandma, Mom, and Me

"First Quilt - Three Generations" - Machine sewn by three generations and hand quilted by Mom. Grandmother started this quilt for me when I was born. It was made out of the scraps of fabric from the various items she had sewn for me and my family. It was one of her first quilts and she disliked cutting and piecing all those little points together. I remember using sandpaper as the pattern pieces to hand cut out the triangles. Then while sewing, I was also frustrated by that knot of fabric at the points. Grandmother died before she could finish the quilt. As a surprise Mom finished the top and quilted it for me for a Christmas present 22 years after it was started. There are two dates embroidered on it - Christmas 1956 and Christmas 1978. It measures about 78 inches by 66 inches.
"Pink Rings" - Hand appliquéd, hand quilted by Grandma, she made this quilt from her scrap bag. The pink circles keep this from being strictly a scrappy quilt, but the rest of the fabrics are from the scrap pile. Around 1984. It measures about 96 inches by 66 inches.
"Max's Zig Zag" - Machine sewn by Rajordan, never quilted. Max wanted to design his own quilt, so I helped him pick out colors and a helped choose a design. Sometime in there he said he wanted strips of white between the colors. After I agreed to it, I realized I had just doubled my work. September 1991. It measures about 100 inches by 60 inches.
"Study in Baby Blocks" - Machine sewn by Rajordan, hand quilted by Grandma. I ordered a bunch of die-cut triangles from a catalog and when they came, there were many, many pairs of matching fabric. After much shifting of pieces, I decided to "strip piece" a Baby Block quilt. Although hard to see, this quilt was constructed out of strips of carefully matched triangles. May 1996. It measures about 60 inches by 53 inches.
"Vaglica's Baby Quilt" - Machine sewn and machine quilted by Rajordan. This was not near as hard as it looks. The original material was the colorful stripes, so I just cut strips and sewed the stripes back together - one stripe off. The quilting was done with a fancy stitch with multicolor thread. If this side seems too bright, the back is white with multicolor butterflies prints. Size: unknown. March 21, 1999.
"My Stars!" - Machine sewn, hand quilted by Grandma. She made this quilt from her scrap bag sometime in the 1980's. It measures about 78 inches by 60 inches.
"Pink and Blue Log Cabin" - Machine pieced, machine quilted and tied by Rajordan. My first successful quilt. I discovered rotary cutting and strip piecing from Eleanor Burn's Quilt in a Day which I would recommend to everyone. I cut and sewed this quilt together Christmas week in 1990 while watching a Jimmy Stewart Marathon on TV. It measures about 72 inches by 48 inches.
"Christmas Log Cabin" - Machine sewn by Rajordan, never quilted. Another log cabin quilt using Eleanor Burn's Quilt in a Day. I have always liked red and green and Christmas colors. October 1991. It measures about 72 inches by 48 inches.
"Q-U-I-L-T Spells Quilt" - Machine sewn by Rajordan, hand quilted by Grandma. I saw someone else's quilt but did not like the way she did the edges (ragged following the letters) and they were not consistent with the sizing and spacing. I kept sketching on graph paper until I had the pattern I wanted - consistent and squared off. Look for the Q-U-I-L-T spelled out from top to bottom and from left to right. November 1993. It measures about 77 inches by 60 inches.
"Lone Star in Teals" - Machine sewn by Rajordan, never quilted. Still afraid of all those points coming together, I took a class about strip piecing the Lone Star. In two weeks, I had the finished top. November 1997. It measures about 54 inches square.
"Pineapple Practice" - Machine sewn by Rajordan using paper patterns and machine quilted. It measures about 30 inches square.
"Maria's Quilt" - Machine sewn by Rajordan. Never quilted. I learned the "quick flying geese" rectangle from Maria using folded fabric. With one seam, it is very easy and ends up being three dimensional. That Christmas I asked for jewel-toned cotton fabrics. I got lots of fabric print from several parts of the United States and several different solids from one person. I had fun laying out the different solids with the different prints. The black sashing really set off the colors.
"Scrappy Double Irish Chain" - Machine sewed by 27 students and hand quilted by Handcrafts Unlimited. This was a class project in August 1995.