Live a Colorful Life Quilt Diary: August 2026

290. Aaron's Quilt

Years ago, when Aaron and Christa were living in the Portland area and he was going to optometry school, he made a quilt. I had completely forgotten about it. But he was going through some things and found it. It was only the quilt top and he wanted to know if it could be finished.

He had done an excellent job of piecing--the top was all flannel, which is not always the easiest to keep nice and straight.

I was happy to take on the project. It mainly involved piecing together a backing and then handing it over to Halene for quilting.

I had some California fabric that I had never found a use for, along with some Portland bridges and a California state panel. To finish it out I had some other travel-related fabric that I added to the sides.

He didn't know I was finishing it for his birthday so it was a fun surprise.

Quilt Name: Aaron's Quilt

Pattern: Unknown

Made by: Aaron Wiens

Backing by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Helene Shannon

Completed: 2025

289. Ramona

Ramona is a pattern based on a traditional quilt block, using four half square triangles for each block.

I have a beautiful minty green fabric that I used for the background. For the prints, I had some 10" squares by Tula Pink and I added some prints from my own stash that went well together.

Quilt Name: Ramona

Quilt Pattern: Ramona by Penelope Handmade

Made by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Helene Shannon

Completed: 2025

Size: 65" x 72"

Gifted to: Christa Wiens for Central Valley Justice Coalition

288. Inner Light

Twenty years ago, I purchased some gradient fabric after seeing an article in a quilting magazine.

I had eight half-yard cuts, in both a light colorway and a jewel-tone colorway. The blocks were constructed by cutting strips and sewing them end to end, and then constructing a log cabin block. The fabric was very clever in that the end of one colorway would blend with the end of the next colorway.

The published pattern showed five light blocks and four jewel-tone blocks but I wanted to use up ALL the fabric, so I made as many blocks as possible.

I found the perfect stripe for the binding.

I also had two half yards in gray scale, one light and one darker. I used that yardage on the back along with extra blocks.

This was a really fun quilt to make. I'm not sure why it took me 20 years to do it.

Quilt Name: Inner Light

Quilt Pattern: Inner Light by Michael and Debra Lunn

Made by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Helene Shannon

Completed: 2025

Size: 50" x 67"

Gifted to: Judy Kulekjian

287. Knitted Blooms

Knitted Blooms is a pattern by one of my favorite designers, Brittney Lloyd of Lo and Behold.

I used some of my favorite solid, a line by Alissa Haight Carlton from years ago--I wish I could stock up on more of this fabric--it's really beautiful. It was fun making the color combinations.

For the background, I used one of my favorite dots, Hello Bear by Bonnie Christine.

The backing was a paint-by-number print by Erin Michael.

Each of the blocks had a LOT of little pieces. I'm kind of used to that with the Lo and Behold patterns I've made in the past--but Brittney writes very good patterns.

Quilt Name: Knitted Blooms

Quilt Pattern by: Lo and Behold Designs

Made by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Helene Shannon

Completed: 2025

Size: 57" x 76"

Gifted to: Christa Wiens for Central Valley Justice Coalition

286. Rainbow Over Head

This was a special quilt for a very special person, our niece's partner, C.J.

This is a pattern by Rachel LaBour of Stitched in Color and was constructed in quadrants. I began by cutting so many squares, first a rainbow of solids, and then a lot of low-volumes.

C.J. is brilliant--and has one of those math-y minds, so I used as many math-related fabrics as I could find. I was surprised to find I had quite a few in my stash.

I added this typewriter as a reference back to me, as I spent much of my working life on a keyboard.