Another Quilt for Al

Kevin's been on my mind all weekend -- ever since he called to tell me that he and Shannon will be getting married November 27. So when I was wondering if I had anything to put on my quilty blog, these photos came to mind.

After Al was born, Kevin decided he should make him a quilt. I don't remember having much input -- I did offer him some jeans squares, but he decided himself on the layout and with a little bit of instruction he stitched it together.



He wasn't able to finish it before we took a trip downstate, but he got busy while we were at Sharyn & Greg's and finished it up in time to give it to Al before we left.




I think he was hoping Al would be a little more excited about it.

Sisters' Choice

When Traditions was still operating, Barb and I were persuaded to teach a quilt class. We came up with this simple pattern appropriately named Sisters' Choice. It was a bit stressful preparing for the class, but once we got going it was lots of fun working with an enthusiastic bunch of students.

(I should have edited the neighbor's refrigerator out of this shot -- I guess I've gotten so used to it I forget it's there. The camo paint job has almost completely faded away so it is more noticeable now.)

The students all did a great job on their quilts -- I'd be curious to know if any of them continued their quilting adventure.

I won't even try to list the names in the correct order because I'd mess up for sure, but my records list our students as Martha, Wendy, Lianne, Danita, Sarah, Maria, Kathryn, Sally, Cathy, Myra, Marcy, and Jennifer. Looks like Sarah didn't make it to the photo shoot.

Anniversary Quilt

I skipped over to ma’s last night and dug this quilt out of her closet. What fun it’s been to rediscover all the memories we stitched into this quilt.
The quilt was made for Mom and Dad’s 40th anniversary – June 7, 1981. Back when they had only 25 grandchildren. Thinking about that as I took pictures of the quilt made me realize how many of the grandchildren probably don’t remember ever seeing it.
The brown squares in the quilt were made by Judy, the green by Ann, the white by Barb, and I made the blue squares. We were all new to quiltmaking at that time and really had no idea what we were doing, just an idea of what we wanted to do.

If you happen to stop by Park Avenue for a visit, ask to see the quilt – it’s fun to look at each square and if it doesn’t bring any memories to mind, ask grandma to share hers.

Auntie Mary's Quilt

This Cathedral Window quilt was made by Aunt Mary and is dated January 9, 1986, which is the date she turned 82 years old. I’m not able to find a date that she started the quilt, but I’m sure it was many years in the making. It’s likely that many of the fabrics came from her own “stash,” however I do recognize a few that came from Barb and from me, so chances are she collected scraps from others also. The quilt measures 98” x 88”.








Auntie Mary was born on January 9, 1904, in Pudasjarvi, Finland, and emigrated to the United States on June 23, 1905. She died at the age of 96, on April 2, 2000. She filled many of our lives with wonderful memories. I love the memories I have of visiting her home in Big Traverse and being served fresh blueberries with real cream – yummy! It didn’t matter to her that I was probably only 5 or 6 years old – she served it up in china bowls. That must have been the start of my love of blueberries and pretty china dishes.

Calendar Quilts

In 1984, Barb and I had a plan to make "calendar quilts". Before the year began, we each picked out fabrics we would like for our quilts. She sent me her fabrics and I sent her my fabrics, saving enough to later add sashing and borders.

Every month, we would make a quilt block for each other and send it out. At the time, I was living in Walled Lake and she was in Boston Location, so it was a fun way to keep in touch. One rule we had was that the blocks all had to be pieced by hand.

For each month, we separately picked out a pattern that we felt represented that month. These are the blocks that Barb sent to me. I added the sashings and borders and assembled the quilt. Let's see if I can remember the block names and what they represented -- beginning at upper left and going to lower right.

January: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul (something many of us do in January)!
February:Amethyst (birthstone for February)
March: Weathervane
April: Double Wedding Ring
May is the logo for a quilt show we attended together at the mall in Troy -- good memories
June: Lover's Knot (Ma and Dad's anniversary)
July: Liberty Star
August: Lazy Days
September: Indian Summer
October: Devil's Claws (Halloween)
November: Turkey Tracks
December: Snowball Wreath



This next quilt is composed of the blocks I stitched and sent to Barb -- She did a beautiful job of putting them all together -- love her quilting stitches!




The blocks in this quilt are:
January - Snow Crystals
February - Arrowheads (I guess that must have made me think of cupid's arrows for Valentines)
March - Wedding Ring (for Barb & Bill's anniversary)
April - Lilies (for Easter)
May - American Tulip (memories of the Tulip Festival in Holland)
June - Memory (can't remember why;)
July - Strawberry Basket
August - County Fair
September - Best of All (for my favorite sis's birthday)
October - Love Ring (for Sweetest Day)
November - Storm at Sea (for Edmund Fitzgerald)
December - Bethlehem Star

It was always a treat to open up the mail and see what block had been made each month. We were both surprised that we never both came up with the same idea for a monthly block.

Home Alone

I enjoyed my trip home, travelling alone, and seeing a part of the state that I hadn't seen before.
After heading up I-75, I headed East just North of Bay City and drove up 13 (which changed to 23 further north). My goal was to visit the quilt shops located in that part of the state. The further north I got, the more beautiful the drive.

I stopped at quilt shops in East Tawas, Oscoda, and this charming one in Harrisville.

I headed west at Alpena hoping to visit a quilt shop in Gaylord that Sharyn's neighbor told me about, but the detour around the Gaylord business district changed my mind.

Of course, I added to my fabric stash along the way. Many of the green fabrics had already been purchased in Howell and Pinckney.

Now I patiently wait for repairs to be done on my sewing machine so I can get back to stitching.

More Grandkid Quilts

Photo's courtesy of Sharyn . I forgot my camera so she was happy to take these photos for me. She knows how to capture their personalities!

Sesame Street Diet

I'd really like to lose some weight.

I'm hoping this will help.

Cozy Comfort

I had a great time vacationing downstate and got to deliver Andrew's quilt and spent lots of snuggle time with him.


I didn't get a picture of him with his quilt, but did decide to photograph the quilts I've made for his siblings. This little cutie wouldn't pose with her quilt but she did let me take her picture.

Aubrey's quilt

Kaarina

Rebecca

Elizabeth

Peter

And I even got to see a wedding while I was there -

ON THE ROAD WITH AL

Al and I left Calumet about 2pm today. We had to make stops at the motel, Tech, and Sew Crazy on our way out of town. As we were heading toward Baraga, Al says "this trip is going a lot faster than the trip up here". He makes me smile -- what a great travel companion he's been.

After a quick stop at Younkers and a bite to eat at Culvers, we headed to Munising and arrived about 6:30. We checked into the Munising Motel and then headed out towards Pictured Rocks.



After a stop for a little walk on the beach at Sand Point, we drove out to Castle Rock and hiked there a bit. Al was very patient with his grandma.




I've wanted to see this area for a long time -- it was great to have a partner today!

A Quilting Challenge

Barb and I attended a quilt show in Marquette and purchased a stack of fat quarters from a vendor there. The fabric was definitely a bit out of our comfort zone, but we thought it would be fun to split the stack and each make something out of the same fabric. I ended up having to snitch a bit of Barb's portion to finish this quilt, and I added the background fabric. I really don't remember what she did with her fabrics or if I took all of them. Send me a photo Barb and I'll add it to this post!



The quilt looks a little distorted -- in real life it's actually square. Just hanging in a bad spot for picture taking.
Quilting done by Ann Made Quilts in Chassell, original quilt design by Joan Kent Braga.

Completed March 2000.

More Scrappy Fun

I really had fun making this quilt -- completely from my scrap bin. Why didn't it make a dent?
I even had some flannel in my stash for the backing, making it a wonderful quilt to cuddle up under in the winter when the house is feeling a bit chilly. The machine quilting was done by my sister-in-law Ann.

From Stash and Scraps

Last spring I joined The Old Red Barn Quilt-along on the internet and put together this quilt. It's turned out to be one of my favorites -- great for afternoon napping! I found most of the fabric in my closet but I think I did buy a few half yard pieces, and I did have to buy backing fabric.

This photo of the back looks a little weird -- for some reason it was taken before I put the binding on.

When the quilt was complete, I was left with lots of scraps. I added some white and put together a coin quilt. It's still waiting to be quilted, along with several others in my closet.

This post reminds me that I bought enough fabric to make another quilt using the same pattern as the first one. I need to do something about that.

Simply Squares

Another baby quilt -- just for the fun of it. Made from a small stack of coordinating Robert Kaufman fat quarters.

And here's my napping quilt -- a larger, scrappier version. These fabrics were all from my scrap pile -- some of them must be more than 15 years old. It's a good feeling to put together a cozy quilt just from what you have at hand.

Quilting motivates me to get out of bed in the morning when the alarm goes off. I always have a project or two in the works and many more unfinished projects waiting for attention. And even if it's only for ten or fifteen minutes, on most days I spend a little time at my machine in the morning before I have to head out the door. It's a great way to start the day. Often my days end the same way.

This is the project that's currently in my machine. Some mornings I only stitch on one more strip, some mornings I finish two strips. I've machine quilted all of my recent quilts -- this one is tempting me to try hand quilting again.

Square in a Square

For every Christmas our family exchanges names for Christmas and you have one gift to make. This is from 2008 -- a gift for Dennis.



I used the Fit to be Square ruler from Open Gate Quilts for this one -- it helped me loads with all the points.

Memories of a Road Trip

Several years ago, Barb and I were on a road trip that took us through Spring Green, Wisconsin, where we visited a neat quilt shop. This was my attempt to recreate a quilt I saw there.





It will always bring back wonderful memories of that road trip. We stopped at numerous quilt shops along the way and I collected a few fat quarters for this quilt at almost every one of them.
Completed January 2010

Turtle Quilts

About January 2009, I was asked to make a quilt with turtles for a co-worker who was waiting for a grandbaby in July. I started working on the quilt shown above. I had gotten to the point of machine quilting it when I decided I wasn't real happy with the way it was going. So........ I went fabric shopping and came up with some fabric that had turtles on it and quickly put together the second quilt:



Early this year I decided to finish the original quilt and ended up being quite pleased with the way it turned out. Should've stuck with it the first time! Anyway, it ended up being my first finish of 2010.