My world was turned upside down in February when my eldest sister was diagnosed with a terminal illness. I was able to go visit her for a week, and nurse her after her surgery. Not knowing what else could be a comfort for Kaye, I prepared all the makings of a special quilt from my family, and took them with me. I was able to finish it while there and present it to her before I left.
Kaye deserves to have a prize-winning quilt because she is a prize-winning sister. I am no prize-winning quilt maker, so this will have to do. I hope it gives her the comfort she needs.
Each member of my family made a block that said something special about Aunt Kaye. I added a few blocks that highlighted some special events from her life. The red and blue blocks are horse print fabrics because she always enjoyed horses.
Here is the result.
The blocks with hand-written messages are done in crayon. By placing a sheet of sandpaper underneath the muslin, you can color and write whatever you like without the fabric wrinkling up. "Set" the color by placing a piece of brown paper sack on top of the design, and press with a hot iron for 10-15 seconds. It will never wash out now...any mother who has tried to remove color from laundered crayons left in a child's pocket knows what I mean!
The back is anti-pill fleece, just like I made
here. This one is machine stippled, and I am happy with the way it worked out, despite a lot of thread breakages this time (I was using a machine I wasn't accustomed to).
Found in Heather Mulder Peterson's book, Favorite Quilts From Anka's Treasures, "On a Whim" is a very basic and easy pattern. When I found this pattern, I was looking for a pattern I could use with this fabric (Kaye's Kitchen) by Kaye England. The quilt in the book was made with several different fat quarters of different fabrics and looks so pretty. (My picture is awful and doesn't do the pattern nor the fabric justice.)
I had wanted to make a quilt with black and white and lime greens and had been collecting the greens for a bit (I already had all of the black and white fabrics in my stash). So, when I found the tutorial for this quilt here, I just had to make it. Then, I got the name "Square Dance" from here. Since then, I have found that there are lots of different quilts named "Square Dance." The professor calls it "Geometry," so I may have to change the name of this quilt to that. Does anyone know what the "real" name of this quilt pattern actually is?
"Flower Power" was one of the many patterns found in the book 9-Patch Pizzazz. This is a great pattern for large print floral fabric that just doesn't lend itself well to being cut into small pieces. I like this quilt because (especially with the fabric used) it has an oriental flair to it. Even though it is only about 40" x 56", it is still a great quilt to curl up with. I backed it with black fabric and Cathy quilted it using black thread. The quilting design doesn't show up much in the front, but the back shows the quilting beautifully. I should have taken a picture of that too!
