Ebb and Flow

For the past six months, this has been a secret, but the big reveal is coming up on the weekend. My cousin C. is getting married next Saturday, and when she announced her engagement in November, we decided to make a quilt. Actually, the "we" was me wondering if we could make a family quilt, and the two sisters below, my mother at the right, and my aunt beside her, who did most of the work. We were hoping to get other family members in on the hand quilting, since the wedding was planned for Nov. 2008, but when she changed the date to May, we revised our plans. Here's the huge quilt hanging at the Barnswallows show a week ago, where it got much attention. It's for a king-sized bed, so our quilters decided on big blocks of 10 inches. We've featured two purple-green-blue batiks in each block, with yellow unifying the quilt. There's at least a dozen different batiks in the quilt, with both of the women above digging into their stash, and yardage only purchased for the yellow and the back. It was beautifully machine quilted by Jacquie Pohl as you can see below.
In the end, my two quiltmaking partners were so quick I was more creative advisor than anything else, although I did work on the label and a few blocks. These two women (the famous quilting aunts, as C. says) are known for their fine hand quilting and applique skills, but as you can see, they've also got a great sense of colour. C. has asked for this to be part of the wedding display, and with the attendants wearing navy and the junior bridesmaids in lilac, it will be a wonderful addition.

More quilt show treats

Here's the other place where my quilt was hanging beside Joyce's work. Mine is the be and bee quilt on the bottom left, and hers is the larger one on the right. Scroll down two posts to see the other two that found themselves together at the Barnswallow's show last weekend. My son David posed with me beside his class string river quilt, lower right. This is made by 25 children in grades four, five and six, with my help. Notice David is a well-trained quilt show enthusiast, wearing his white glove. This show was the 20th annual by the Barnswallows, and David has been to almost half of them, and had his class quilts exhibited at three or four shows. He's an old pro at quilt shows at only age 11 (yes, he's tall for his age.)

Hand dyed Eye Candy

This is my mother's tile quilt which also hung at the Barnswallows show this weekend. She's a dyer, and showcased her fabrics and fine piecing skills with this quilt. Take a look at those quarter inch coloured squares at the intersections.
Here's the whole thing. The funny thing is this is the third show for this quilt, but the first time its been hung. The other two venues only showed it folded on a table, so she was determined to have it hung in all its glory this year, and I got great photos as a result.

Two Tonya fans side by side

I just got back from the Barnswallows Quilt Show in Morden, MB, and these two letter quilts were hanging side by side. It's a long way from Paris to Manitoba, but thanks to Tonya's blog, two Manitobans had the same inspiration for making letters. On the left is my genealogy quilt, and on the right is Joyce's Good Morning quilt. Another of my quilts was hanging beside hers in another part of the show.

This was a surprise, but not much. I knew Joyce lived near Morden, and I also knew we were likely to be the only ones with lettering in small quilts, and then there's just the pragmatic serendipity of how the space works out. Those of you who hang shows now how much of a puzzle it is. But it was fun, and I think both quilts got more attention because they were side by side. And as you can see from the comments, we did get to meet and chat for a bit.

Stars and nine patches

It's another finish from the two-inch square box! This time I used all the mediums, and went for a muted look in the four-patch nine-patches. I also used up lots of uglies from the 80s in the light print -- click for a closer look at the busy little calicos. No yardage was sacrificed for this project (OK, I did cut the borders from yardage) with most of it from the two-inch square box or other smallish pieces from the stash)and Mom's stash. It measures 45 by 63 without the narrow border, and I'm planning on adding words and names in a wider border to make it a nice throw size. This is intended for an amazing elementary school teacher we've had for the past five years, and I'm going to put her name and some of her favourite sayings around the edge. I'm going to back it with a nice flannelette and machine quilt it on the diagonal. Here's a closer look at some of the wonky stars and the background fabrics.

Silk Amish Strings

This little quilt is made from silk noile scraps and inspired by Gwen Marston's Liberated String Quilts. I pieced it on paper because the weave is quite loose, and bordered it with wide pieces of silk. It is handquilted and bound above. Below is the unfinished flimsy. What's fun about this quilt is that I made it from my huge bag of silk scraps. Fifteen years ago, I pieced a suit jacket from these same fabrics, minus the red, that I wore to my sister's wedding. I don't wear it anymore, but I'm enjoying the quilt.

My houses have a new home

That little house quilt in the post below just went home with my friend Laura, who oohed and ahhed over all my other letter quilts before finally spotting the house quilt hanging in the hallway. She's a calligrapher, so she loved the letters. Thought you might like to know that it is appreciated. It's always more fun for the quiltmaker when the quilts go to a good home.