My first quilt

I had completely forgotten about this quilt. It was made years ago for my youngest son. He's had it stuck in a box for years. When he moved out, he emptied all his boxes and washed everything in them ( while he still had the use of my washer and dryer) Anyway this is a twin size quilt and it now has a few holes in it but the pattern is pretty and I might try it again only this time on a bigger scale. I think the pattern is called twisted ribbon but I would need to check. It was also done before I had a walking foot for my machine and the back has a few spots where the fabric bunched. Still, it's wasn't bad for my first learning quilt.

more quilts

This is a flannel rag quilt I made for my mother. It has flannel on both front and back and has quilt batting sandwiched in between the layers. I made this for her because she is always cold. Since her cancer has returned and she is undergoing chemo, she has lost a fair bit of weight and is often feeling weary. The quilt is now too heavy for her. She now wraps up in a flannel sheet by the fireplace. I suppose I should take the quilt upstairs because this old house is drafty and cold.

I love fabric yo-yo's. You can make so much from them. This is a bed topper I made several years ago. It still sit on the guest room bed. My mom has made a bag load of yo-yo's but has not put them together. I am hoping to get that done for her before Christmas but if not, then in the new year.

This is a quilt I made for my mother-in-law. It was inspired by Cynthia Walters' technique found in Snippet Sensations. I was going to make her a bed quilt to match but I don't think she was too impressed with this. Oh well, not everyone likes the same things. I know she was greatly impressed with my Mammy quilt, below. It was made as a celebration of Canada's role in the emancipation of slaves through the underground railroad. It hangs in the third floor hall and opposite and over the stairs in my tumbling block quilt. The borders are from the same fabric so even though the themes having nothing in common, they compliment each other beautifully. I hand pieced the tumbling blocks while watching a lot of old movies. The templates were made from contruction paper which made it easy to work with. I was working on a grandmother's flower garden but I was using plastic templates. I find them a little hard to work with and gave up on it. I still have all the pieces, I just need to put them onto paper. Someday . . .

Those who sleep under a quilt,

sleep under a blanket of love.

~Author Unknown

Let it snow!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

We have been visited by an ice storm. Fortunately the roads have been plowed, salted and sanded and they are now clear. What remains is ice on the branches of trees. We were driving home yesterday from my mother's chemo session and the sun was bouncing off the ice. No tree I could decorate could be as beautiful as the trees decorated by nature. Autumn is my favourite season but as it slides into winter, I begin to think that they are one and the same. I love winter. Some of my best projects have been made in the winter months. Sitting under an afghan in the summer while you are crocheting it just isn't the same. To the left is one of my snowman quilts.


My friend Jill, once asked me if I liked snow. She and I have a passion for journaling and often ask these kind of questions. Do I like snow? Ha! I love it.

• I love the way it looks.


• I love that it has no real scent.


• I love that it's fresh.


• I love that you can build snowman.


• I love that you can go tobogganing.


• I love that you can go skiing or snowboarding.


• I love that you can build snow angels.


• I love fat fluffy snowflakes and tiny crystal snowflakes.


• I love wearing a black coat and seeing a perfect snowflake on my sleeve.


• I love watching my dogs play in the snow.


• I love rolling a huge, mammoth snowball and just parking in front of a friend's front door.


• I love that cold snow sounds squeaking under your feet.


• I love hitting Paul in the back of the head with a snowball.


• I love watching the snow fall in front of a street light late at night.


• I love trying to identify objects buried under fresh snow.


• I love watching snow drift down our street while sipping hot chocolate.


• I love taking a hike and seeing tiny animal tracks in the snow


• I love the way snow sits on the branches of the evergreens


• I love the way snow drifts over the front of a house.


• I love the way snow looks like white sand dunes in the desert.


• I love that I can see my black dogs at night in the field.


• I love it when snowflakes land on my eyelashes.


• I love that you can build a snowman and leave it on the hood of your son's car.


• I love to be all bundled up and still have cold cheeks.


• I love seeing my breath.


• I love it when Jack Frost visits my windows.


• I love that 2" of snow can balance on something as small as a clothesline.


• I love to watch the pine boughs bow their branches under the weight of snow.


• I love the winter birds that visit our feeders when there is a lot of snow.


• I love winter gardens.


• I love the serenity of snow.


• I love the shadows that go unseen except on snow.


• I love to eat snow. White only!


• I love that snow can stick to vertical surfaces.


• I love to build snow forts.


• I love to put snow in a big bowl and use it to chill wine.


• And if I listen hard enough, I can imagine that I can even hear the snow fall.
  

I hate slush!

To the right is a snowman wall quilt I made. The pattern can be found in Better Homes and Gardens, Christmas all through the house

quilts

I have enjoyed making quilts for quite a few years now. All my quilts are for use and enjoyment. I don't worry about exact corners, perfect seams, mitred bindings, etc. If I did, I would never make anything!

Finished is better than perfect.

~Anonymous

To the left is my flying geese wall quilt. I know the colours don't work with that wall paper but that was just before I redecorated the room, just before we moved. It is one of the few controlled quilts I have made. Most of them have just been scrappies.

The quilt on the right is one I made for my eldest son Jay. I called it Pennies From My Garden because even years after he grew up and became a man, I continued to find lego men, GI Joe's, and Star Wars figurines in my gardens. Every time I dug one of those up, I could almost hear the echo of his laughter from so long ago. The pattern is known by two different names. Chinese Coins and Garden Path. I borrowed from both these to name mine. Pennies represented all the priceless memories I dug up and From My Garden for the latter as this was one of my son's favourite places to play.

The blue quilt here was made after watching an episode of Simply Quilts. The guest was Bethany S. Reynolds and she was demonstrating her Stack and Whack technique. I just had to give it a try. It turned out quite well and now hangs above the bed in the master bedroom. I've received many nice compliments on this quilt.

This next quilt is one I made for my youngest son Alex. It is a log cabin quilt from the book Winter Warmers by Leisure Arts. This is one of the first quilts I made.

"All my scattering moments are taken up with my needle."

~Diary of Ellen Birdeye Wheaton

My picnic quilt is one of my personal favourites. It is made of 4" squares. There are two squares of each fabric used. In the quilting, I used small rickrack which framed each square beautifully. On the border, I made an ant stencil and using black paint and fabric medium, I stenciled ants all around the border. It is a whimsical quilt that every one loves.