1998 Quilts can be found here
I began quilting in November 1996, thanks to the encouragement of Lucy Anne, the manager at Quilter's Garden -- a quiltshop in Toronto. Once I found my sewing machine, I was ready to begin.
"Hearts on the Mend", 5x7", February 1997
The first quilt I completed was a tiny little thing. Following a pattern bought at another Toronto-area quiltshop, I completed this one just in time for Valentine's Day 1997. I named it "Hearts on the Mend" because I had a devil of a time with the prairie points and they needed a bit of handwork to get them to stay put. Machine pieced, machine quilted.
"Mashpee Night", 18x18", March1997
This is the first project I began, but the second I finished.
During the same vacation on Cape Cod where I found my sewing
machine, I had also visited two quiltshops and began collecting
fabric. This project was inspired by the backing fabric I bought
at Scissor and Spool -- an Alexander Henry print by Nicole deLeon
(I love her work!) in creams, earth tones, blues and greens of
wonderful cool weather things -- mittens, sweaters, moose, cabins,
pine cones, apple pies, etc. (You can see a snippet of the fabric
running vertically on the outer right strip of the centre block.)
So I decided to do a fall themed pillow. My enthusiasm was so
great for this project that I wasn't watching where I was going on
the way downstairs to iron the blocks and I broke my foot on the
stairs. Despite the pain, I hobbled over to the ironing board and
finished my ironing. Yup, quilting makes you crazy. Mashpee is
town we stayed in on Cape Cod...and the blocks were designed to
evoke the feeling of the Cape at night (hence the center square of
deep, dark blue sky and golden stars), surrounded by the colours
of fall. Machine pieced and quilted.
"Amy's Folly; or 'Seam Allowance? What Seam Allowance?' ", 54x72", April1997
My first full-sized quilt. I was scared to try a real block, so I thought a simple patchwork would be easier. I was wrong. This was a really hard project for a beginner -- 540 squares and all those corners to match up! I began piecing it in rows and after a seminar given by a student of Mary Ellen Hopkins, I was told it would be better to assemble the top in 2s and 4s. So I ripped out the rows I'd sewn together (nearly half the quilt) and started again. My 1/4" seam allowance was less than consistent, so some of the patches are more rectangular than square. But it's MINE, and I finished it! The border is stipple quilted (rather closely) and I signed my name and my husband's in the quilting. The corner blocks are simple half-square triangles. I love half square triangles. This quilt was made to specifcations: it had to go from under my husband's chin and be able to tuck under his toes while cuddled on the couch. And it does! Machine pieced and quilted. (While quilting this piece, I realized the limitations of a generic walking foot.) P.S. Yes, the rocking chair is HUGE.
