The Quilting Grandma Chronicles

It has been a long time.....

2011-07-07T21:34:00.004-04:00

I have been thinking about this blog on and off for a while now, and since school is out, I thought I would finally set aside some time to update it and also to locate the photos that have disappeared while it lay dormant.

I am still a Grandma, and our wee guy is now ready to start school in the fall. We have plans to go camping with him in a few weeks and he is quite excited. Our daughter will be taking a course, so we will have him all to ourselves each day until her classes are over.

It has been quite a while since I have been a "quilting Grandma", but there are several very overdue projects all ready to begin working on in the next few days. I can hardly wait!

My goal is to post more frequently in the coming weeks.

Beautiful Flowers

2008-06-04T21:42:00.004-04:00

Mom carried red roses and white calla lilies at her wedding, so that is what we chose for the party. The cake had a centrepiece of red roses and a white calla. The tables had bud vases with red roses. The focal point for church, and later for the reception, was a large bouquet of roses and callas.

60th Anniversary Plans

2008-05-17T07:53:00.005-04:00

Mom and Dad's 60th wedding anniversary will be on May 29th. There will be a celebration at Dad's residence on Sunday June 1, and our niece,Chef Lyndsey, will cater the refreshments.

I have been browsing through stacks of photo albums and selecting photos of significant events in their lives, and today I will be scanning them and sending them off to our daughter to use in a powerpoint slideshow. Copies on DVD will be lovely mementos for the children and grandchildren.

We are looking into copying Mom's wedding bouquet of red roses and calla lilies for the front of the church that day, and then for the party later on.

Hitty Charm Quilt

2008-05-16T00:16:00.005-04:00

At long last I have completed the tiny Hitty charm quilt. I chose the tumbler as my template, and used all of the provided squares, as well as new pieces from my fabric collection. Hitty Stella and Hitty Olivia are very pleased with it. Tomorrow we will try it on the bed, but for tonight they are just admiring it.

More tiny quilts

2008-04-02T22:14:00.002-04:00

After signing up for the Hitty Charm Quilt challenge, I got thinking about the original Hitty's summer quilt, and decided to give that one a try. It is reminiscent of a single spiral log cabin block, and it requires partial seams for each log. The logs are added round and round instead of being added in opposing pairs. I found a block diagram for it once, but at the moment I can't locate it! I was hoping to get started tonight, but I think now I will just plan it now and start it tomorrow after school.

I also printed out all the Pat Sloan Farmer's Market blocks to date from her blog, and I'll pack them to take to the Dear Jane Retreat in Shipshewana with me. Hand applique will be very relaxing to do in the van and while visiting.

Itty Bitty Charm Quilt

2008-04-01T08:08:00.003-04:00

Yesterday a challenge was issued on Hittygirls. I will receive a kit of 16 pre-cut charm squares in the mail to create a Charm Quilt that measures 5.5 X 6.5 inches. They will be prints and solids and I can add my own fabrics too. That sounds like fun. I think I'll cut a few 1.5 inch squares later today and make a practice quilt for my Hitty.

Have you seen the new webcam at Pat Sloan's Blog? She has it aimed at her design wall so we can watch her work in progress. There is a block swap on the wall now, but she will be changing it out later today.

http://patsloan.typepad.com/quiltershome/pats-design-wall.html

Happy April Fool's Day!

Wedding quilt

2008-03-27T17:20:00.006-04:00

Our nephew and his new bride are delighted with their wedding quilt. It was great fun to make, using the ideas presented in Judy Sisneros' creative book, "9-Patch Pizzazz: Fast, Fun & Finished in a Day". It was fast (relatively speaking), and it was fun, but it was definitely NOT finished in a day. I have fabrics selected to make a second one, as soon as two more quilts in progress are completed. The heart feather border quilting was enjoyable to stitch, and I would definitely use that motif again.

The groom's cousin was so inspired when she saw this quilt top, that she set out to make her own version. I haven't seen it yet, but look forward to her photos.

Fish Quilt ready to present

2008-03-27T16:54:00.009-04:00

Easter Sunday came and went. Dad's quilt was completed, but we were not able to present it, as he was ill, and so was Mom. My extended family enjoyed seeing it, and commented about the cuddly flannel backing. Mom was planning to take the quilt to Dad this week when she was feeling better. Hopefully he has it by now and is able to enjoy it on his bed.

Our Oliver kitty tried to claim the fish quilt many times during the making. It is a toss-up whether he was more interested in the quilt or the fish, but it is a wonder he didn't end up with a needle through his paw several times. He is very inquisitive and seemingly fearless.

A bit of knitting

2008-03-18T23:16:00.003-04:00

The fish quilt is all finished and ready to present to Dad on Sunday. Hopefully I'll remember to take a photo and post it.

The 9 Patch Pizzazz wedding quilt will be presented to our nephew and his new bride. It needs a photo too.

Last night I started to knit a baby touque, using a tweedy blue yarn, but so far it is looking pretty big. Maybe he will have to grow into it. I can always make another one with fewer stitches. I had forgotten how soothing it is to knit. I think I can finish a couple more rows before my tea is all gone and I have to go to bed.

The fish have eyes now

2008-03-17T14:43:00.002-04:00

Today I solved the dilemma of the leafy panels. There are now waterlilies and lily pads quilted in them, surrounded by echo quilting.

I raided the button jars to find little black buttons for the fish eyes and they are now stitched in place.

The bullrushes are much happier with the little tops added on.

Now the quilt will take a dip in the washing machine to develop its texture while I make a label for the back.

Almost Completed!

2008-03-16T18:50:00.003-04:00

Dad's Fish Quilt

2008-03-16T18:36:00.005-04:00

I showed the quilt to Dad this morning after finishing the scrappy binding. He really likes it and it will look great on his bed. It still needs two more panels to be quilted, eyes on the fish, tips on the bullrushes, and a label on the back. Then it can be washed and blocked and we can present it on Easter Sunday.

I have included a detail showing the dragonfly quilting, a corner turned back to show the plaid flannel backing, and the almost completed top.

Our Joeydog

2008-03-16T14:53:00.003-04:00

Our Joey dog was a very beautiful and loving family member. In our eyes he deserved to be featured in this magazine cover layout. A scrapbook is being planned to preserve and share some of our favourite photos and memories.

Sew Along Weekend

2008-03-15T12:16:00.003-04:00

Well, it's day 2 of the Sew Along, and I have been making great progress. I hope to complete the machine quilting on the fish quilt and add a scrappy binding before the day is over. Ideas for the label are percolating through my mind at the moment.... maybe a latte and a warm cinnamon roll would help the creative process along?

If you are interesting in checking out the fun we are having, just click on the Pat Sloan Button and it will take you to her blog for the latest posts and comments.

Guild Night

2008-03-14T00:03:00.003-04:00

The fish quilt is over half quilted now. The outside border and the cornerstones have dragonflies quilted into them. They were fun to do. I took the "quilt in progress" for show and tell at guild tonight, as it will be gone by the next meeting if all goes well. Tomorrow is Hole in the Closet Club at our local quilt shop, so I should be able to get most of the quilting completed.

One of the quilters showed her wholecloth garden quilt tonight. It is so beautiful! That reminded me that I have the same quilt in the closet, only partly hand quilted. I think I started it in 2002.

I brought home a charity quilt kit for children's aid, to be stitched on during the Pat Sloan Sew Along retreat this weekend. I chose one that was not precut because the colours called out to me.

My friend Joan completed a wonderful tapestry tote bag for me, and it was delivered by our friend Christine at guild. It is huge and roomy, with 2 zippered pockets in the interior and two big outside pockets. It is stiff enough to stand up, but soft enough to be comfortable to carry.
I carried the fish quilt and some library books home in it from tonight's meeting. There are enough scraps left to make some accessories to hold my sewing tools.

Dad's Fish Quilt

2008-03-12T11:02:00.003-04:00

I am getting ready to sandwich and pin-baste Dad's quilt today. When he first moved into long term care, one of the few things he asked for was a quilt from me to hang on the wall. Most of my own quilts were away at a quilt show at that time, so I took him one that has wool applique flowers on it, in front of a big old house on a hill, just like the one I grew up in, and a caption that says Home is Where the Heart Is. It is a place holder for his own quilt.

Then I decided that since the aides at the facility always use his log cabin heart lap quilt to cover his bed, he really needed a bed quilt that fits, so his lap quilt can stay in his recliner for day use. Thus began the fish quilt.... I spotted a wonderful fish pillow at my local quilt shop, and purchased the pattern which included a wall hanging that would be perfect for Dad's room. My mind kept playing with the fish theme, and I ended up designing a quilt in EQ6 based on the same pattern. Back to the quilt shop I went and found most of the fabrics I had liked so well in the original pillow that had caught my eye, and added a few from my stash as well. I found a wonderful flannel plaid for a cozy back and it was even on sale.

There were a few problems with machine buttonhole applique as I created the blocks but that quest for help led to other tips that greatly improved my stitching skills. The next problem was a math one, as the borders in my plan didn't seem to match the size of the blocks. Finally I gave in and just sewed. The original bullrush appliques I had prepped now seemed out of scale so I made new ones in a larger scale and set the first ones aside for the wall hanging. Finally the top was completed and pressed.

Now I will pin-baste and start the machine quilting. Soon it will be ready to keep Dad warm at night. I can hardly wait to show it to him! The dryer buzzer just went, so the batting is relaxed and ready to use.

At Grandma's Knee

2008-03-10T13:33:00.005-04:00

A wonderful surprise arrived in today's mail. I think have written earlier that I did not learn to quilt at the knees of either of my quilting grandmas, although my Aunt Stella and my mother certainly had an influence over my needle art and creative interests. The surprise is a slim vintage paperback volume titled "At Grandma's Knee: A Collection of Doll Quilts" by Joan Vibert & Joyce Whittier, 1985. There is a pink photo of a loving grandma with a smiling toddler on the cover (Joan and her Grandma), pink photos of designers Kathleen Brassfield, Linda Brannock, Joyce Whittier and Jane Braverman as small children on the back cover, first person biographies and stories about each of their grandmothers, and a delightful doll quilt design by each designer. As I had already made projects designed by Linda Brannock and Terry Thompson, it is particularly appealing to me to read their quilting Grandma stories, and also to discover that Linda's grandma's name was Stella!

Another interesting tidbit in this publication is a collection of quotations from kindergarten aged children relating the best thing about their grandmas. There are even pages for me to write the best thing about my own grandma and the things I want to remember, or for a grandchild to write the best things about me!

It would be lovely to see photos of these sweet little quilts, but the diagrams, templates, instructions, and quilting motifs are excellent, and I look forward to making my own special doll quilts from this gem of a book.

March Break Stitching

2008-03-09T23:32:00.008-04:00

It has been a while since I have posted, as I have been busy being a grandma and quilting! We are very fortunate to have our daughter and our grandson staying with us for a couple of days. I have been working on a fish quilt for my Dad's bed, and my daughter has been hand quilting motifs on the Winnie the Pooh quilt. Our grandson is quite attracted to it, so she thinks she will have to hurry up and finish it, so he can use it.

I hope to do many quilty things on my week off school, and finish up by participating in Pat Sloan's Sew Along Retreat next weekend. We will be making a tote bag designed by Cindy Taylor Oates, with an applique designed by Pat, a needlebook designed by Pat, and some charity quilts. It sounds like lots of fun. I will have a great recipe to share! I am looking forward to next weekend, but planning to enjoy every minute of the days between now and then. If you want to see what we are up to, or join us at the Sew Along Retreat, please visit Pat's blog: http://patsloan.typepad.com/ The plans for the retreat were posted on March 8th.

Quilts by Unknown Grandmas

2008-01-09T20:41:00.000-05:00

I am surrounded in this photo by 3 wonderful quilts and a quilt top lovingly stitched by unknown quilters from the past.

The blue and white Sawtooth Diamond in a Square is from Holmes County Ohio, probably from the last quarter of the 19th century. It has tiny hearts concealed in the hand quilting. The quilting also includes feathers, overlapping circles, double diagonals, and one inch grid. The blue fabric has groups of 3 tiny stars in a triad formation. The backing is plain muslin.

The poison green dot and double pink dot Feathered Star in the bottom right hand corner is from Gettysburg PA from the civil war era. It is hand pieced and hand quilted in diagonal lines and grid. The backing is a double pink print that resembles popcorn scattered on an abstract background.

The hand embroidered redwork baby quilt in the top left corner is dated 1910. There is hand quilting in the corners of the blocks to form a diamond in a diamond.

The Grandmother's flower garden top on the chair is probably from the 1930's.

The Folkart Heart wall hanging in the bottom left corner is a wall hanging I made using fabrics purchased in New Orleans when we travelled there to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. It is machine pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted.

Not quilty but lots of fun

2008-01-08T22:57:00.000-05:00

Our daughter made a beautiful red shirt with a collar and buttons down the front for our grandson to wear for Christmas. Unfortunately, the newborn size from that pattern turned out to be too large, so I quickly made this cross-over style using the same fabric print. I made the black frog closures as well. They seemed to add the right touch with the Chinese characters in the print. With no collar, the shirt needed a red onesie under it, so I made one from a soft cotton knit, and also a little pair of black flannel pants. Red socks completed the ensemble. He looked very sweet wearing his Christmas outfit.

Cradle Liner

2008-01-06T22:12:00.001-05:00

This photo shows the quilted liner in place in the cradle. It is densely machine quilted using bubble quilting in a variety of shades of blue thread. The smaller photo shows a detail of the quilting. Click on it for a better look.

2nd Generation Pine Cradle

2008-01-06T21:59:00.001-05:00

Dad built this wonderful pine cradle for his first grandchild, our daughter. It was used by the babies of that generation and now it is being handed down to our grandson. To freshen it up, I machine quilted a Winnie the Pooh cradle liner using Pat Sloan's bubble technique. I will post a detail of the quilting in the next post. The pastel quilt in the cradle is new, but has that lovely vintage puckery look and feel. It is machine quilted in a diamond grid.

A Pooh Quilt for Our Grandson

2008-01-06T19:03:00.000-05:00

My daughter and I are collaborating on a crib quilt for the nursery. The theme is vintage Winnie the Pooh and she found this lovely alphabet panel with a Pooh and Friends vignette on it. I added borders, backing and batting, and did some machine quilting on it. After binding, I turned it over to my daughter to do some hand quilting in the alphabet blocks and in the outside border. The nursery has pale gold walls with a vintage Pooh border around the top.

Treasured Memories

2008-01-05T20:08:00.000-05:00

One of my favourite quilts is Treasured Memories. I started it for my husband in 1999 and completed it in 2003. It is a derivative quilt of the Jane Stickle Quilt in the Bennington Museum in Vermont. It has 169 different block designs, 52 triangles, and 4 corner kites. Jane made it during the American Civil War and she signed it and counted the number of pieces of fabric she used to make it. I used Brenda Papadakis' book to make this quilt, and found that it was an excellent teaching quilt, as a great variety of techniques can be used and combined when making these tiny 4 1/2 inch blocks. I learned to reverse applique and to foundation paper piece while working on these blocks, and made many friends around the world as shared tips online. The tiny blocks are very portable, and I carried them with me to work on while travelling, canoe camping, waiting for appointments, and visiting. My blocks are constructed using machine piecing, foundation paper piecing, hand applique, hand reverse applique, and hand piecing. I quilted it by hand. It is very heavily quilted, and the plain triangles feature a feathered quilting motif of my own design.

Turkey Red and Cheddar Mariner's Compass

2008-01-04T20:05:00.000-05:00

This turkey red and cheddar mariner's compass is one of my mother's favourite quilts. Her mother machine pieced it on a treadle sewing machine. She hand quilted a daisy with 2 posies in the background corners surrounding the compass, using white quilting thread. The red border has the egg and dart motif quilted in it. The outside border has an undulating "U" shaped vine. This quilt has a very thin cotton batt with tiny brown seed flecks. The off-white cotton background fabric and backing is quite coarse in texture. In place of binding, the back is brought to the front and hand-stitched in place.
The right side of the quilt was in shadows at the quilt show, so the border looks very dark, but it is not dark in real life.

The Family Baby Quilt

2008-01-03T20:15:00.000-05:00

This appliqued and pieced indigo and cheddar crib quilt lay safely tucked away in Mom's hope chest for decades. She does not recall the quilt ever being used at home when she was growing up, and neither did her older sisters. I have spoken to appraisers and quilt collectors about it, and they believe it was made in the last quarter of the 19th century. That would mean it could have been made by my great-grandmother Susannah. I feel very honoured to be the custodian of this lovely quilt, preserving it for future generations.

Some of my Quilting Grandmas

2008-01-02T11:38:00.000-05:00

Today I am sharing a treasured 1910 portrait of some of my quilting grandmas. I know that my Grandma Esther ( second from the right) was a quilter and Mom has some of her quilts. A favourite one is a pieced turkey red and cheddar mariner's compass on muslin.

We think that Great-Grandma (second from the left) may have made a wonderful indigo and cheddar appliqued and pieced baby quilt, which has been entrusted to me for safekeeping. It is made from hand-dyed fabrics, using Scherenschnitte, a German papercutting technique, and hand quilted with linen thread. Some crocking has occurred over the years, but it is still very beautiful in its simplicity. I hope to make a modern version of it for our grandson to use.

I will share photos of these two quilts in my next post.

A fresh page......

2008-01-01T12:26:00.000-05:00

Many wonderful and creative blogs and their authors have inspired me to take a first tentative step into a world that seems at once slightly intimidating, and yet enticing and mysterious. As January 1st presents the opportunity for new beginnings, I embrace this challenge, in celebration of becoming a quilting grandma.

My love of quilting was inherited from quilting grandmas on both sides of my family. I did not have the good fortune of meeting many of them, but at a recent quilt show, I was able to share examples made by five generations of stitchers in my mother's family.

My mother does not consider herself to be a quilter, but in keeping with Waterloo County tradition, she made tops for my three sisters and I, and had them hand quilted as wedding gifts. Mine was actually begun in the 1940's, prior to her own wedding, and patterned after a favourite quilt made by her mother. She set it aside carefully in her hope chest while becoming a farm wife, raising children, sewing clothing, gardening, canning, church and community service, and other interests and commitments occupied her time. When I became engaged in 1970, the project was retrieved and completed, and my husband and I were the fortunate recipients of a very beautiful and special quilt. Recently, Mom gave me the original tissue paper templates she had traced from Grandma's quilt and some fabric scraps she had saved.

One of my current ongoing projects is recreating a redwork quilt made by my paternal grandmother, and although not conclusively documented, we believe it to be her first quilt, begun as a young girl learning to stitch penny squares. This quilt currently resides in my cousin's home in Lancaster County, PA, but I have many memories of it gracing a guest bed in my grandfather's home. A few years ago, I traced all the blocks from the original quilt, and now I take squares along with me in my busy bag, to stitch on in odd moments. While growing up, a lovely 1940's Little Dutch Girl quilt, made by Grandma Olive's hands, kept me warm and cosy. In later years I have often taken it with me as a comfort from home when I had to be away from my family for a period of time. Dad often tells about playing under the quilting frame when the ladies came to help Grandma quilt. He takes an interest in my latest projects, and when he recently moved to a long term care residence, one of his first requests was for a wall hanging for his room. He also has a log cabin lap quilt which he uses in his recliner and on his bed.

In coming days and weeks, I hope to share photos and stories of heritage quilts, my completed quilts, new quilts and other projects in progress, and of course, grandma anecdotes.