Monday, October 12, 2009

Our Mother's Quilts : The Red Canoe and a 9-patch

At the Quilt Retreat (aka Quilt Camp) last weekend, the Saturday program was a Show-&-Share of "Our Mother's Quilts."

My mother, Holly (along with Aunt Rosita), got me into quilting along about 2004, though she and my Gramma Pickles got me into sewing when I was in 1st grade (I made a bright orange sun-dress with matching yellow jacket--I wonder where that piece of history is now?) My mother made this 9-patch quilt and gave it to me for Christmas in 2001 (or so).



9-patch is one of the simplest quilts to make. For many of us, this is the starter quilt to learn the basics of rotary cutting and strip piecing. When I took my first quilting class a few years later, she packed me off with the means to make a 9-patch for the relatives in Japan.


At Ma's house on the guest bed in The Glacier Room is my favorite quilt made by my mom :



It has a red canoe beached on a woodland shore as the large center block. She made it with her Quilting Connection Group as a block-of-the-month mystery quilt several years ago. Each block is different. She also had it professionally quilted (at great expense) by a talented professional quilter in Green Bay. [Sorry, I don't know her name.] It was so worth it for this quilt!


Detail of thread-painting by my mom, along with the professional quilting.


Detail of the wonderful and creative quilting the machine quilter did on this quilt.


A close-up of one of those flowers.


Here is one of the border blocks. Every one is different ...

I never get tired of looking at this quilt--and I always find something new that I hadn't seen before. It's a real treasure!

1 comment:

Carol said...

Your mom's quilt is gorgeous. I'm learning how to do landscape wall hangings.
Your ATC arrived today. Thank you. I like it a lot.