Emily Patricia's Baby Quilt

This is another quilt using the Crazy 8's pattern. It is the same pattern as Abigail's quilt, except this is a true Crazy 8's. I used 8 FQ's to make this one :-). It's a great way to use FQ's in two or three colour families. I've had the green striped fabric for a long time and it just never matched anything else. Finally, it worked for this quilt. I got it from a pen pal from Australia once. Here is the finished quilt:

I quilted it with a variegated thread with leaves, flowers and bees...fun to quilt these quilts because you have squares to aim for and don't have to plan out the quilting for the whole quilt :-).


Here you can see the quilting on the back. It is quilted on my trusty Singer 15-88 treadle sewing machine made in Canada in 1951.


It even had a label!


Jenn gave me a picture of Baby Emily on her new quilt yesterday, so I thought I'd add it to the blog as well :-). Thanks Jenn!

CanSew Maple Leaf Exchange Blocks Quilt

This is the quilt I made using the maple leaf blocks that we exchanged with our Canadian Sewing Machine Collector's group in 2002. I grouped the blocks this way so I could get the proper size to use the teddy bear maple leaf fabric that I bought for backing. I handquilted it while on a trip to visit my daughter in the Philippines. Whenever I see this quilt, it reminds me of the heat we experienced there! Certainly would not have a use for this quilt there :-).


Three of us went shopping in a fabric shop after we exchanged the blocks and found this adorable fabric which I used for backing.


Close up of the center blocks of the quilt.

Close up of one of the groupings of four blocks. We signed these blocks with our name, where we are from and which antique/vintage machine we used to sew the blocks. Members were encouraged to use a Canadian made machine if they had one.

The label for the back of the quilt.

Birthday Quilt

My friends Amy and Lynn made this little wallhanging for me for my 50th birthday last year. They chose a panel of sayings about mid life and paper pieced the blocks for the quilt and added a few Red Hat ladies to the mix. The border is also red hat fabric. For those who are unfamiliar with "Red Hat ladies", you are eligible for membership in the Red Hat Society when you turn 50. You can then go on trips and wear purple clothing with red hats! Thank you Amy and Lynn for the wonderful gift for my 'special' birthday :-).

Joash's Baby Quilt

My daughter sent me a picture of the baby quilt I made for her son Joash Alexander (Joey) when he was born. It is made mostly with Robyn Pandolph fabrics and is handquilted with a grid across the four patches. He was born Nov. 4, 2005. Since my oldest grandson named his quilt his 'lotsa squares blanket', it has become the tradition to make the first quilt for each of my grandkids with squares. I need to think of a new one since Joey is going to have a brother or sister in October :-). I handquilt the first quilt for the grandkids, so I'd better get working on it soon!

A Quilt for my Dad

My Mom asked me to make a quilt for my Dad for his birthday. A few years ago, I made a quilt for my Mom using a batch of brown and tan calicos that I purchased at an auction for $4.00. There were four boxes of fabrics which I hadn't really looked at closely, but the auctioneer couldn't get a bid, so I impulsively bid $2.00. Of course someone then bid against me and then I had to have it :-). I found all kinds of treasures in those boxes including a set of hand embroidered quilt blocks and a complete quilt top and matching dresser scarf which was embroidered as well. This is the quilt I made for my Mom (my Dad is holding it up for me):



Here is the quilt I made for my Dad:


The light parts of the log cabin blocks are meandered (is that a word?) and the borders done with a free motion leaf design. I didn't have enough dark fabric left for the borders so put a 'lippy' (flat piping) around between the border and the binding and between the border and the quilt to frame it. Again, the whole quilt was done on my trusty Singer 15-88 treadle sewing machine made in 1951 in Canada.

Ruth and Jason's Wedding Quilt

On August 6, 2005, our dear friends, Ruth and Jason got married. Of course, she had to have a quilt :-). I had just taken a class at the Quilt Rack in Ancaster, ON, where I worked at that time, on the Friendship Braid Quilt from the book, "Open a Can of Worms" by Debbie Caffrey. I did my quilt in black and yellow and just fell in love with it! It's at the Quilt Rack waiting to be quilted by Lucy. This quilt pattern is addictive and I helped a few friends make one in blues for an auction for the Christian school in Hamilton. It turned out very nicely as well. Then it was on to the next one...it's a great way of using up leftover 2 1/2" strips! I found this wonderful leafy fall print in the exact colours that Ruth was planning for her new home and I raided my stash for colours that blended with the borders. I didn't have quite enough length for the outside borders, so I added corner squares.

This was the first quilt that I got brave with and used my trusty 15-88 Singer treadle to free motion quilt loops in the braid sections. I quilted straight lines in the green background for some variation and stippled around the borders.

Here you can see the quilting on the back:

A quilt is not complete without a label!

I have since done another one for my niece Melanie's wedding. I will post that soon when I find the pictures :-).

Mel's Baby Quilt

Melanie just sent me a picture of the baby quilt I made for her oldest daughter...this is the third daughter in the family and the quilt is still being used :-). This is another one of the rag quilts. I did this one with three layers and used a white or yellow (can't remember :-) layer of flannel in between, but that is very difficult to cut. It does give a nice secondary colour to the quilt. The next rag quilts I used two layers and it's much easier on the arms when cutting all those little snips into the seams!