Quilt Show 2012

Joan loves purple and she loves the rich colours of this funky “grapes” quilt.

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These are two “I Spy” quilts that I made for my two oldest children (ages 6 and 8). The green/purple one was the very first “real” quilt that I ever made. I started it when I found out that my husband and I were expecting, but I didn't finish it until a few weeks before our child was born as I was too superstitious to put the final stitches in place until our baby almost arrived. I dislike hand sewing, so a kind friend hand stitched the binding for me. I had great fun collecting the fabric during my pregnancy, using bits and pieces of material that I found in quilting stores or that were given to me by other people.

The blue polka-dot quilt was made for our second child. Two years later, I had gained more experience (and more fabric). I tried to incorporate fabric I had used in previous baby quilts. As well, I was lucky enough to locate fabric that represented family backgrounds and hobbies (Scottie dogs = Scottish roots, Taj Mahal = Indian roots, camping, travel, gardening, etc.). The backing fabric is a cheerful farming scene and was chosen to link my baby to ancestors on both sides.

In 2009, when we found out that we were expecting twins to complete our family, several members of the Big Rain Quilt Guild here in Prince Rupert offered some fabric to help me finish two more “I Spy” quilts. Our twins are now two years old and still snuggle with their quilts every night, so I couldn't include their quilts in this year's show. Perhaps their quilts will be displayed in the years to come!

This quilt was made for Morgan Green by Kristin in her cabin in Salt Lakes. This quilt is very typical of Kristin's style at the time, and of the quilts she featured in her book The Careless Quilter, Decide-As-You-Sew, Design-As-You Go Quiltmaking (1994).

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This lovely table runner features three- dimensional flower forms and an unusual serrated edge.

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...and on the back side we have:

I've been harbouring the idea of a quilt based on the ancient game of Parcheesi for some months now. I love the colours and designs of the antique game boards. What tipped me to action was seeing a funky needlepoint version of a Parcheesi board somewhere on the web. Piecing the blocks on my old Pfaff and hand appliquing the owls was no problem.

While I'm clearly more of a knitter than a quilter, I have had a long time goal to learn free motion quilting. I recall asking Pam Mahoney, after a particularly stressful afternoon of creating rats nests on the back of my quilts, to run through the steps of free motion quilting. Pam made it sound sooo simple! It took me years after that brief lesson to figure out that I didn't have my presser foot in the right position.

In the last few years I've been periodically practicing on my little quilt sandwiches as I worked up the courage to quilt something bigger than a placemat. For some currently unfathomable reason I decided last weekend while suffering from an ear infection resulting in vertigo that it was time to free motion quilt my first quilt. I will spare you the details of my fall from reason into a frothing, deranged, somewhat foul-mouthed woman and just say it was a struggle. I ended up using so much thread I'm fairly certain Parcheesi can be used as a room divider rather than a quilt. Nonetheless, it is colourful and I am happy with my owls (besides, as my husband pointed out, it would take weeks and weeks to pick out all the machine quilting and start again).

This elegant table runner features mirror-image Japanese print fabrics with “stained glass” framing.

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This quilt was inspired by a project in the book Quilters Newsletter Best Weekend Quilts. That project used light colours and sassafras leaves. I decided to try it using warm colours and maple leaves.

Quilted by Betty Doering.

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This quilt was made by my grandmother, Mrs. Victoria Robertson, who was born in the 1890's. As a child when visiting her at her farm in Oklahoma she showed me how she made her quilts. She and other farm wife friends would save scraps from other sewing projects and old clothes which she would cut into shapes and save. She and her friends would trade these shapes to get more colours for their designs.

There were a number of quilt patterns that she made and unfortunately I have forgotten the names. She did show me how she assembled the patterns and once a front was ready she would mount it on a frame and hand stitch each piece onto a solid backing with a cotton bat in the middle. On a few occasions when I was there she and her quilting group would show me how to hand stitch properly and let me join in. They told me had I been a girl I might have a future in quilting. Farm life in the 50's still seemed gender biased.

This was an exercise in moving out of the colour box. Not at all my usual colour scheme. It took my usual long time to gather the fabrics and then 18 months to complete. Long arm quilting was done by Betty Doering – doesn't she do an amazing job?

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This quilt was made with pieces left over from other projects, as well as pieces originally saved for this project.

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