Quilts for Grown Ups

The first time I tried to quilt was when I mother gave me an old quilt top that my Grandmother Scott had made back in the 30's probably.  It had a white background with hand appliqued vines and flowers in pink and green.  My mother, Karen Johnson had told my daughter, Tiffany that she could have it when it was finished.  The top was stained, the fabric was not in great shape and in my ignorance, I just started working on it.  I hand washed it, I tried stain removers, I re-stitched the applique as best I could.  I went to a quilt store and found fabric that seemed to match, bought some batting and proceeded to stitch it together.  Then I labeled it with the history of the maker, the re-maker and the recipient.  Tiffany was pleased.  She keeps it in the hope chest she got from my mother who got it from my grandmother.  And so the story goes with quilts.  They bind us together with our past and our future. 

When I finished Grandma Scott's quilt, I thought, well that's that.  I will never quilt another one.  And then my grandchildren started to arrive and I made baby quilts.

 

In between all the baby quilts, I did some quilts for myself.  The one below was finished sometime in 2009.  I didn't keep track of dates when I was making them.  In fact, I don't think this one is signed either.

This quilt was the first one I did for myself.  The embroidery patters are from a book with Pennsylvania Dutch motifs.  It is a whole cloth lap size quilt, machine quilted.  I loved the colors which perfectly match the fabric that I used on the back. I bought that fabric first.

This fabric was purchased at the Quilting Connection on Main Street in Ames, IA

This quilt took me a really long time, years.  All hand embroidered, hand pieced, and hand quilted.  It is made for a queen sized bed.  My mother loved this one and made me bring it to Iowa to show her friends at water aerobics.  Close ups of the angels are in past posts on this blog.

This is the most recent quilt I finished.  It is lap sized, all hand embroidered, pieced and quilted and one that is my favorite.  I hated to give it to Karen!  This one started a long time ago when I made tea towels for all my friends for Christmas.  Karen got the owls and per my instructions, we used them!  So quite a few years down the road they had started to show some wear and tear.  One had been burned so half of it was missing, several had holes and some had stains.  It was time to retire them, but it was hard to let go.  Then I had the idea to cut out squares with the embroidery and make them into a quilt.  Now these cute little owls will have a second chance to give pleasure and be useful!

My son was feeling left out and asked me to make a quilt for him.  I am still working on that one.  It has a baseball theme and I used that fabric you can print pictures on.  I will be sure to post a picture when it is done.