Category Archives: Quilts – Their Stories

The Girlfriend Quilt – Part Two

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On January 11 I wrote a post called  The Girlfriend Quilt, which describes a project that I undertook with my two oldest, longest-running gal pals.  Today’s post is about another long-term friend and I’m writing it today in honour of her recent achievement – the successful defense of her Masters’ thesis and the completion of her MA at UBC.

Spring and I met in the fall of 1975, in a first year French Language class at UVic.  We hit it off immediately and a wonderful friendship was born.  We swam and lifeguarded together.  We shared all kinds of adventures, some serious but most were pretty goofy.  Our lives took different directions for several years; fortunately we reconnected in Vancouver in 1997.

Spring’s list of accomplishments is long; take a moment to get to know her by clicking on this link: about Spring. I’ve added Spring’s blog, Compost Diaries, to my list of ‘Great Reads’ on the right side of the blog.

I wanted to make something special for Spring, to recognize both her achievement and our friendship.  What better way than to bring out the Girlfriend Quilt pattern, it’s such fun!  I chose cream for the background as I felt it was pretty safe and it seems to set off the many colours in the squares.  Then I went in search of fabric that had significance – things that Spring likes, or things that we’ve done together.  I found coffee, chocolate, cheese, French words, shoes, whales and bicycles. My favourite was one that I ordered from Spoonflower Fabrics.  It’s a woman in a bathing cap and goggles, doing breaststroke in a pool.  Perfect for all of our swimming memories. The quilt backing is white, with flecks of teal, tan, green and dark brown.  The binding is dark brown and the quilting is simple diagonal lines, about 2″ apart.

It was a pleasure to make this quilt and surprise Spring with it in November, 2014.  She seemed to love it, and I hope you do too!

Girlfriend Quilt – Spring

 

 

 

Inspiration and Ideas are Everywhere

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This project, which is called ‘Pixel’ was completed in the summer of 2015.  I’d had the idea for a while, after thinking that the Kleenex box would translate nicely into a fabric wall hanging.  The squares were cut at 4 1/2″, allowing for 1/4″ seam allowance, and the finished hanging is approximately 36″ x 41″.  I sewed the horizontal rows first and then joined them from top to bottom.

I had originally thought about adding a version of the Kleenex logo and polled my friends for their thoughts.  The nays won, hands down, so I kept the black bar plain.  There is a hanging sleeve on the back and the metal rod runs through it, keeping it nice and straight.

Had I not seen the Kleenex box, I would never have considered throwing all those colours together, even though I like them all individually.  This was an eye opener for me and I now usually have my camera or iPhone with me to snap other ideas.  Here are a few shots that might inspire a project one day.  If you hover over the bottom of each picture you’ll bring up a description.

Bathroom tile at YVR
Britannia Mine
Tile wall in San Diego
Hillside in India
Graffiti in Barcelona
Socks in a mens’ wear store
Tiled storefront
Bathroom at YVR

Thanks for reading!

Pink Floyd Three Ways

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When I had made a few quilts, and decided that it was something that I’d like to carry on with, I mentioned to my two children that I’d love to make them each a quilt.  It had to be something that they chose and, ideally, I hoped that they would participate in the making.  That’s my practical side coming through – a quilt is a lot of work and I wanted to know that it would be loved and appreciated.

My son came up with an idea but was hesitant to share it with me, as he felt it was a tad complex.  “Tell me,”  I said, “how hard can it be?”  Braden gave in and told me that he wanted a quilt that looked like the cover of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album.  This one:

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Not one to shy away from a challenge, I thought it would be fun to take this on.  Together we drew, shopped, measured, cut and pieced.  The black background is strips sewn together.  They’re either 4″ or 6″ wide, (I can’t remember and the quilt isn’t here). We cut the background and inserted the white band and the rainbow.  The centre triangle is black in the middle with graduated greys on the perimeter.  It was made separately and then sewn on.  We were super happy with the result.

Little did I know that the complex part of the quilt was yet to come.  This had all been just a warm up exercise!  Check out the photo of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here album cover.  This one:

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Yup, Braden wanted this on the flip side of his quilt.  How did  we do it?  Slowly, thoughtfully and with a great deal of patience.  Braden made a full size 6′ x 6′ drawing, which we divided into 4″ horizontal strips.  Each strip was traced onto freezer paper, then numbered and colour-coded, so we’d know what pieces to join together.  Here’s what one strip looks like:

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We added 1/4″ for seam allowances and then stitched each horizontal row together.  We pressed each seam as we went along and there were several instances of ‘unsewing/resewing’, especially with the small, curvy pieces.  As each horizontal row was completed we added it to the one above, to make sure we were on track.  Here’s a photo of the first few assembled rows:

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It was very fun to watch as it all came together.  Braden added the jagged side edges and I think it makes a unique statement.  Once the top was assembled we made appliqués of the two men and fused them to it.  The appliqués were then stitched on using a satin stitch.

We cleaned up the loose threads, straightened the edges, layered it into a quilt sandwich and  decided to carry on with the Pink Floyd theme and quilt it  like the cover of The Wall, this one:

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Braden had helped with all aspects of the design and construction of this project.  But, by the time we got ready to quilt it, he had to move away for work.  I got the quilting done and finished it off with a narrow black binding and a label.

What a sense of satisfaction!  Sure, there are lots of things that I’d do differently, so as a learning experience it was invaluable.  Best of all, it was a way to spend time with Braden; problem solving, sharing my craft with him and creating memories.

Click on any of the photos below to get enlarged views of the finished quilt.

 

 

 

The Girlfriend Quilt

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I met Cheryl and Laura when our family moved to Victoria in 1969.  We immediately became friends and have stayed best pals since then.  Even though they live in Victoria and I’m in Vancouver we see each other often.  Our husbands are close friends as well and we all get together for a couple of weekends each year.

Each summer the six of us gather at our home on Denman Island for a weekend. We often do a craft on those weekends.   In 2014 I wanted to do a special project with the girls – a Girlfriend Quilt.  The instructions were for each of us to purchase six fat quarters, (18″ x 22″ pre-cut fabric pieces).  They could be anything that we liked, even if they didn’t go together, and could include one solid colour.  No shopping together, and no sharing; this was to be a surprise.

I pre-cut the background strips, based on what the girls told me they’d like.  When we were together we revealed our fabrics, cut them into 4 1/2″ squares and began to place them according to a pattern that I’d drawn up.  This was the fun part because the ‘rules’ stipulated that we had to use at least one of all of the fabrics.  Our tastes are very different.  Cheryl loves muted tones. Laura loves bright and bold colours and I tend toward the unusual novelty pieces. It was hard to imagine how this variety of choices would look together.

Fast forward another month or so and the three quilts had been pieced, quilted and bound.  I have to say that they surpassed my expectation.  They look great and the girls love them.  I have a vision of the three of us, in 30 years, sitting with our Girlfriend Quilts wrapped around our legs and laughing like we have for the past 46 years.

 

 

First Finish of 2016

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IMG_5050

I’ve just thought about my title and realize it sounds as if I view quilting as a type of competition or race.   Not true at all, or is it?  My aim isn’t to become a prolific quilter and turn out dozens of quilts in a year.  This hobby is teaching me to be patient and to enjoy all aspects of each project – planning, cutting, piecing, quilting and binding.  However, no matter how patient I become, I will always be goal-driven and finishing a project will always have a wonderful feeling, which, for me, is so similar to the feeling of crossing the finish line in a running race or a triathlon.  So, I guess it’s kind of the same, but in a different way.

This quilt, as yet unnamed, started as a pre-cut kit that I bought at the National Quilting Association show in Little Rock, Arkansas last spring.  The 50+ squares were cut at 10″ and the pattern was Japanese Jigsaw.  When I got it home and started reading the instructions I discovered two things.  One, I didn’t really like the finished quilt and two, there would be tons of scraps/waste if I followed the pattern.  So I decided to use 42 of the squares and placed them in such a way that I liked.  I pieced them and then added a very narrow red trim line between the blocks and the border.  This brightened it up and tied the front to the red batik backing.

This was my first go at Free Motion Quilting a large project and it was so much fun.  I’ve practiced on lots of little scraps and bits, but felt a need to ‘just do it’.  Each different block pattern is quilted differently. Patterns include pebbles, meandering, spirals, clamshells, cross-hatch and flame stitch.  The fabric is busy and unstructured and very forgiving – a great piece to learn on.  I bound it in a grey fabric that picked up the greys, black and white in the body.

Here’s the finished quilt, hanging on the fence.  Good timing, as the next day there was 3 inches of snow!

SWIM

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Swim

Happy New Year!  I think I’ve got the blog organized to the point where I can start making regular posts.  There will be lots of tweaking as time goes on, but let’s get started.

I began sewing in junior high school.  My Mom and Grandmother were both accomplished sewers, knitters and needle-pointers, so it was no surprise that I carried on with fabric-type crafts.  I took home ec in high school and remember being called to the office to explain why my flannelette had hockey players on it, instead of fairies, princesses or other more feminine designs.  Dare to be different, think outside the box – both describe my persona.

This seems to have carried over to my new love of quilting.  I want to use my imagination to create and don’t want to be restricted to a pattern.  The quilt in the photos above was the sixth that I’ve made.  I swim a lot in a pool.  One day, while doing laps, I realized that the tiles on the bottom of the pool were laid out just like a quilt.  I began collecting blue fabrics with a watery look.  Armed with a large sheet of graph paper, a metre stick and some coloured pencils I drew up a scale version of three lanes of a swimming pool, complete with lane dividers.

The fabric was cut into 2 1/2″ squares, sewn together into rows and then the rows were joined together.  It didn’t look like much for a long time, but gradually it began to look like what I’d envisioned.  I added a white border, used a mixed blue backing and a black binding.  It’s machine quilted with a horizontal wavy pattern.

I think this is my favourite quilt so far because it is an own-design that reflects my love of sewing and swimming.  It’s very different and definitely outside the box!

 

Deadlines

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Pressure is good, correct?  I know that I’m at my best when I have goals to reach for.  Sometimes it’s training for a running or triathlon race.  Sometimes it’s getting a gift finished with enough time to get it wrapped and to the recipient in time. Sometimes it’s as simple as getting a list of chores done before heading out the door.  Recently I’ve cut it close, almost too close, on two goals and it’s reminded me that procrastination is not a good thing.

This past summer I registered, through The Modern Quilt Guild, to participate in a quilt challenge.  If selected I would receive a bundle of fabric in the mail and I would have to sew it into a quilt and submit it by November 30.  Well, I was chosen, the fabric arrived, and then it sat.  The colours didn’t move me, inspiration was lacking.  Eventually I came up with a plan and got to work.  It started to take shape and looked promising.  Then we went away for two weeks and arrived home three days before the deadline.  It was completed and submitted, online, with only hours to spare.  Here’s the piece – it’s 25″ x 26″ and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Getting this Blog started was my second project with a deadline.  I’ve blogged before, while on a trip through India.  It was fairly basic, mostly a way to send pictures and updates to family and friends.  threadonthread is meant to be a way to communicate with others with common interests.  I wanted it to be perfect before publishing my first post.

However, I’m participating in the Denman Island Christmas Craft Faire this weekend and have printed cards with my name and the blog address, so I will have to settle for getting two posts published, inserting some photos and hoping that you will come back often and follow along as threadonthread blossoms into the blog that I’ve envisioned.

Next deadline – Christmas – and shopping starts on Monday!