Remembering at Easter…..

I have a set of quilts that I use for each month of the year….hearts for February, ocean scene for June, sunflowers for August….you get the idea!!

Most of these I have made over the years but there are a few that my mother made and the quilt that I use during the Easter month is one of hers…..

Interestingly, it is a quilt that she didn’t particularly like but I loved it, probably because of the amazing applique and quilting.

In particular, I love the “extra bits” that were worked into each of the blocks….

The ruched flower….

….the 3-D flower buds….

the “gathered” bells…..

….and the fabric that she used for the leaves…..

And then there was her quilting…..

Every stitch was even and perfect!!

It is coming up to the 6th anniversary of her passing and putting this quilt out at Easter is a wonderful reminder of her and her love of quilting!!

If you have thought about trying ruler quilting but didn’t where to start, check this out……

If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..

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It’s Time for Hearts!!

We all recognize that February is a time to display our hearts in quilt form and life!!

I love my February decorating because I get to look at all of these sweet photos of Michael and my parents…..

Between them, they were married for over 110 years!!!

Each month I make a display featuring one of my small quilts. In this case, it also includes a crocheted doily that my Grandmother made and a photo from our wedding….

Just look at those fresh-faced kids!!!

But the star of this display is a quilt that my mother made many years ago……

She made it as part of a class she took and, as usual, her hand quilting was amazing…..

I am so fortunate to own many of my Mother’s quilts and I LOVE having them be part of my everyday life!!

So….as we go into Valentine’s week…..

No machines allowed….

Today we are looking at the “Hand-Made” category at the International Quilt Festival….again…a category that I would NEVER be able to enter. But I can enjoy the quilts anyway!!

Zena Thorpe entered this fun quilt……

The applique is immaculate but LOOK at the hand stippling……

Zena said it gave her a spark of joy every time she picked it up to work on it!!

This quilt from Aiko Yokoyama is a feast of fascinating details……

Just look at these embroidery accents….

….and the roof on this house is perfect!!

The quilt “Clematis — Hope” from Taeka Kozuka……

….has wonderful applique, but to me, the star of the show is the quilting in the background…..

This quilt by Aiko Saito and a plethora of her quilting friends…..

She apparently worked with a group from a quilting class and, from the quality displayed, I assume that it was an “Advanced Class!!

Kyoko Someya made “Temptation of the Breeze”…..

….is another quilt that brought a smile, and the quilting made that smile even broader….

The Blue-ribbon winner was from Isako Wada…..

“In the Square Where the Refreshing Breeze Is Blowing”

The piecing is mind-boggling, but the border treatment adds so much to the quilt…..

And speaking of

…..come back tomorrow for “MICRO-piecing”. Some of these quilts are insane!!!

The Beautiful Boston Commons Quilt

As we get close to Christmas, our thoughts often turn to things of beauty and comfort and, naturally, my thoughts turn to quilts!!!

The quilt that I am sharing today is another one made by my Mom (Lois Swinson). I have shared a number of her quilts before and am happy to say that this one is a true favorite. It was the last of the “hope chest” quilts that she made for me and I have fond memories of her working on it.

The quilt design is called “Boston Commons” and, like most of the other hope-chest quilts, is made from fabrics in her scrap basket.

The design itself is fairly simple.. made entirely of squares. I like the fact that Mom added interest by using solid fabrics on all of the outside edges. It gives a bit of continuity to the piecing…..

If you look closely at the fabrics, you will see some that were included in last week’s post of the Balloon Girl quilt!!

But, the best thing about this quilt is the AMAZING hand quilting. Mom loved to quilt…..

…and spent many happy hours sitting at her frame!!!

She meticulously quilted feathers and 1 inch grids into all of the white areas of the quilt….

My favorite memory of this quilt was when she stood the frame up on end to store it during a quilting break. There was a large window behind it and the colors shone like stained-glass…..it was mesmerizing!!!

I always enjoyed when this quilt was on my bed and am sad that we have moved on to bigger mattresses and can’t use this full-size quilt to snuggle under at night.

I guess that I need to find a way to decorate with it….that shouldn’t be too hard to do!!!

Personal Quilt Show – Entry #2

This past week I showed my first quilt, so today I thought I would reveal my second quilt……

The year was 1985 (July to be exact) ……I had started taking quilting lessons when this one was made, so it is much better quality than the first quilt. It was made for another baby that was due right around my due date. As a matter of fact, I was working on it the day that my son was born.

For this quilt I used patterns that I had copied out of some now unknown magazine and used a proper hand applique technique.

I didn’t have access to a quilt frame, so this one was thread basted and then lap quilted without any sort of hoop. I did most of it while sitting at our table with the quilt spread out flat in front of me.

I remember being VERY proud of how it turned out, even though it has now been almost 24 years since I made it.