Tag Archives: girlfriend

Seeing Spots!

Laura’s name has come up in a previous post – The Girlfriend Quilt . You’ll also find her, and her husband Greg, in the blog that I kept while we travelled through India in 2013 –https://samosasojourn.wordpress.com We met at Willows Elementary School in Victoria in September, 1969, and have been great friends since then.

Last year I offered to make a quilt as a housewarming gift for Greg and Laura’s new home on Shawnigan Lake. We looked at many different quilts on Pinterest, in books and in magazines. Finally, we found a photo of a quilt, by Zen Chic, on Pinterest – lots of bright coloured dots on a white background.

The background is a solid white cotton that I purchased at Fabricana. I pieced it to make it queen-sized. The dots were a multi-step process. First, we chose fabric in colours that reminded us of our trip to India. Many of these fabrics were remnants from “Delhi Dreams” Start To Finish #6 – Done! Then, I cut the dots in three different sizes, using plates and bowls as my templates! The dots were sewn, right sides together, to fusible interfacing. I cut a small slit in the interfacing and turned the dots so that they were right sides out and fused them to the white background. Each dot was then edge stitched to ensure that they would stay attached. Then, to cut down on bulk, I cut away any excess fabric from behind each dot.

The back of the quilt is the same white fabric as the front, with just a few dots. The batting is bamboo. I quilted this on my Husqvarna domestic machine using Superior King Tut thread in ‘Temple’. It’s a meandering pattern that was fun to do and looks great with the dots.

We originally wanted to use white for the binding, but decided that it needed some contrast, so I chose an orange/yellow/gold fabric that sets the quilt off well. The binding is attached by machine to the quilt front then pressed and folded over towards the back. Normally, I would hand stitch the binding, but the 400″ perimeter seemed daunting, so I finished it by machine.

The final step was to choose a name and make/attach a label. I enlisted Laura’s help and we came up with all kinds of silly possibilities. In the end, and as a joke, Laura suggested “Laura’s Quilt”. Seemed perfect to me!

“Laura’s Quilt” was made with love and with countless memories of 46+ years of friendship. Curl up, snuggle and enjoy!

Thanks for reading. Happy Saturday!

Here I Am!

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Somewhere there’s a balance between writing too often and not writing often enough. Have I really had nothing to say since November? Actually, lots has gone on since then and I’ve finished a few projects, which I’ll get to shortly.

The fall was busy with mini trips and workshops. Then, on a wild impulse Blake and I decided to take a week in December and go to London to see the Christmas lights. We lived in London for a year when we were first married and it holds a special place in our hearts. And, they really know how to decorate for Christmas. Here are a few of my favourite dressed up places.

We went to see the musical Kinky Boots, which was great fun. I think it’s coming to Vancouver this winter. We also located several filming locations from the movies Love Actually, Notting Hill and the series Luther. We lucked into a cancellation spot and were able to go to the top of the building on the right, in the photo at the top of this post. This building is referred to as the “Walkie Talkie”. The shorter one in the middle is “The Gherkin” and the black, slanted one is “The Cheese Grater”. How fun!

As for sewing and quilting, it’s a been a productive and educational few months. In October I took a two-day workshop, taught by Krista Hennebury, called Structural Improv.(You can access Krista’s blog if you click on ‘Poppyprint’ over on the right side of my blog.) This piece, called Fire and Ice, is the result.

Two weeks later saw me at another of Krista’s workshops. This one was Speed Date with Improv. We learned seven different techniques in the one-day workshop. It took a while for me to get back to it, but here it is, finished.

Right now I’m just about to pin together a queen-sized quilt that I’ve been working on for my good friend, Laura. I haven’t quilted anything this large before and I’m quite excited about it. Pictures will follow once I’m done.

Now it’s time to make a cup of tea and enlist Blake’s help to get this quilt sandwiched and pinned.

Thanks for reading and I wish you all a happy and healthy 2017.

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

The Girlfriend Quilt

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: Circa 1975

: 2015

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.