Yo-Yo Pattern Christmas Ornaments

I made these yesterday. They're grab-bag gifts for my book club members.

Reverse side

Old quilts

Winding Ways, made by my mother, Mary E. Ramey

Bear's Paw, with Flying Geese border

Made by Joanne Cage, 1980

Mexican Star
Top by Mary E. Ramey
Quilted by Joanne Cage

Sailboats
Crib quilt by Joanne Cage

Ohio Star
Mini-quilt by Joanne Cage, 1982

Log Cabin
By Mary E. Ramey

Flower Basket
By Mary E. Ramey

Double Wedding Ring
By Virginia Anne Cage, 1976

Una's Quilt

A sampler quilt inspired by the book Ahab's Wife or the Stargazer, by Sena Jeter Naslund. Each of the nine blocks represents an image or event from the book. The blocks/events are not in chronological order.

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The Crossed Canoes block (#1): Two months at sea in an open boat, the burning sun by day, the starry sky by night, the blood, the survival.

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Storm at Sea (#2): Not the traditional Storm at Sea pattern but similar, this block shows the storms of confusion and guilt in the minds of the three major characters, more than the real weather.

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Schoolhouse Block (#3): This represents the Kentucky cabin where Una's baby was born and died, where Susan hid from the bounty hunters, where Una first encountered David the dwarf.

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The Snail's Trail pattern (#4): I thought this was an ideal Piscean pattern to portray Giles and Kit, the two men whose first glimpse of Una was of her fighting off an eagle on the balcony of the lighthouse. The white represents Giles, and the red block is the blood that caused him to commit suicide. The blue represents Kit whose life was controlled and directed by his haunting conscience, his obsession with atonement and forgiveness, and his basic psychosis. The dark yellow recalls the vile and childish acts of his mother and of Kit himself. Overall, the block shows the results of the boys' contradictory natures: Giles, the brilliant, scientific objectivist committed suicide because he couldn't live with his guilt. Kit, the religious fanatic, is still alive at the end of the book, insanely searching outside himself for expiation.

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The central block, the Mariner's Compass (#5) is only a symbol of the sea, and of Ahab, the center of Una's heart.

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The Milky Way block (#6) is symbolic of Una's stargazing.

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The Log Cabin block (#7) is the Log Cabin quilt that Una's mother made for her.

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The Pinwheels (#8) represent the four winds and the four seasons.

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Block #9 doesn't have a pattern name, as far as I know. Maybe Palm Leaf. I used it to represent Haley's comet, which Una watched with Maria Mitchell.

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The star borders (Lemoyne Star) illustrate Una's title role as the Stargazer.

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The quilt is to be a wall-hanging, the size is approximately 36 by 48 inches. The top was made by both hand-stitching and machine, finished July 30, 2009. I plan to quilt it in August, 2009.

Didn't make the cut

This started out to be my favorite block in the Una quilt, but it's just too dark. I may do something with it yet. That streak is supposed to represent Haley's comet.

Broken Sash

I made this quilt in 1983. It has more than 6,000 pieces.

Unfinished quilt

I hope to finish this project in August (2009).

Charming Girls' Quilt Club

There's a link to this and explanation of the project on my Sourwood Mountain blog, and copied below. Here's what I've done so far on the Una quilt (above).

The second project I joined through Susan's blog is at Kelly's Charming Girls' Quilt Club. Kelly challenges members to post an unfinished sewing project, and finish it before the end of the month. The rules include prizes for finished projects, but I think the chief reward is getting some of my dozens of unfinished pieces done. My project for July is to finish the top for my Una quilt wall-hanging. So far, all I've got done is the central block and a pile of discarded attempts at more blocks and borders. Plus cutting out all the diamonds for the star border.

This is the finished central block. I probably won't show any more blocks until the quilt top is finished.

Una's Quilt

These are the actual fabrics I'm using for this quilt. It's inspired by the novel, Ahab's Wife, or The Stargazer. At the rate I'm going, it could be finished in the year 2011. But a lot of stuff has been going on since I started it.

Tuckahoe Angel

This is the first complete quilt that I made, 1979-80 (click the picture to enlarge). I regret to say that I copied the design from one in a magazine. The lady who made it called it "Tuckahoe Angel," and I was too ignorant to know that I shouldn't use her design without permission.

The friend that I gave it to brought it by this morning for me to photograph. I'm so pleased that she has preserved it in new condition. She said that she has washed it more than once, but it's still just perfect. It doesn't have a hanging sleeve on the back, so I had to spread it on the living room carpet and couldn't get far enough away to get a good photo. The border is very wide, black and pale yellow stripes, supposed to represent light rays.

Small Quilts

The two small quilts shown above are wall-hangings that I made last fall as gifts for my two sisters. The cat quilt is 32" square, the star 48" square.

Since I started quilting in 1979, I have made nearly a hundred quilts. I've sold or given away most of them, and have no photos of them. The quilts shown on this blog are ones that I own, or that I had enough foresight to photograph before letting them go.

I love miniature things--almost anything in miniature fascinates me. Shown below are some of the doll-size quilts I've made.

At left is the first "doll quilt" I made, with a sort of free-hand attitude. It's about 16 inches square.
The three shown below were more carefully cut and sewn. The basket quilt is about 16 x 24". The Old Maid's Ramble (left) is approx. 14 inches square, and the Pinwheel (right) about 12" x 15".

At right is a large block made by my mother, and in 2008 I made it into a miniquilt (size 30 inches square).

The sweet Christmas wall-hanging at left (32" square) was made by my sister Susan.
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Below is one I made several years ago by the Tree of Paradise pattern. It's 48 inches square.


At left is one that I made for my mother many years ago. (25" x 22") Both of these cat quilts were made from a pattern in a book by Georgia Bonesteel.
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These two doll quilts were made by my daughter, Virginia Anne Cage. The sunshine and shadow (left) is 10.5" x 12.5", and the one at right is 14" square