The collection- a retrospective

This post is dedicated to my inlaws who brought much love and joy to my life. With the passing of my mother in law, I have completed a set of quilts for them. I thought it would be fun to have a little retrospective of these family quilts. In December of 2003, my inlaws celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, so I decided that they might like a photo quilt. It was a challenge to find a pattern that I thought might be appropriate for photos. After some searching I found one that was an Evelyn Sloppy pattern. With help, we altered some of the design and I had the photos transferred to fabric. I have made one other photo quilt for my parents using a pattern design from the Australian Patchwork magazine but that is a story for another day. This quilt also has some machine embroidery. It hung in their condo and more recently in my mother in laws room at Luther Court. Its new home is as yet to be determined.

This was the last quilt I made for my inlaws before my father in law passed away in 2007. It is based on the Convergence pattern by Ricky Tims. It is a great pattern and I have used it to make a number of couch sized quilts. I love how sweet they look in this photo together. The fabrics include red cardinals which were my father in law's favorite birds as well as his favorite baseball team.

When I first began my quilting journey, I found it a challenge to give away my quilts- now I find it hard to keep them.LOL This double Irish chain has a mate- my parents own the other one. The colors are rich in this Irish chain- I remember having some difficulty getting the striped corners to work out- I love the fabrics in this quilt - they are quite rich looking and do not photograph well. it also has birds on it...

After it became apparent that my mother in law had some form of dementia, I searched for a way to appeal to her sensory system. I ran across a design for a texture quilt. It was suggested that it was something that might appeal to people who lived with Alzheimers. I began to gather fabrics of different textures. I am not sure how washable this quilt is, but all the fabrics are fused on to a foundation fabric to stabilize the materials. There are some very rough knubbly fabrics as well as some very soft cuddly ones. I used shiny ones and flat fabrics... It would be a good design for babies as well.

My mother in law loved babies. This doll quilt has some fun prairie points. The pattern came from a Fons and Porter summer magazine. I love star quilts don't you?

This is the adult sized quilt that was on her bed. My mother in law loved soft colors and I am sure she would love the butter yellow border fabric in this quilt. It was a Fons and Porter pattern from their Love of quilting magazine. I made it in the fall of 2007. Lone star is one of my favorite patterns and while this is not a lone star, it was a fun quilt to make.

And the last quilt in the collection- given recently to celebrate Mum's 90th birthday. This quilt is made with batiks and one of Sandy Gervais's Piece of the heart tone on tone fabric designs. It is the Sidelines pattern and there is much written on my blog about these Maple Island quilt patterns.

Thus ends the collection of quilts that I created for my beloved inlaws. Today was the celebration of my mother in law's life. She was a grand lady who brought much to those who were fortunate enough to cross paths with her in life. These quilts will go on to have different journeys now- someone else will be the keeper of the quilts -At present, I am not sure where they will all go, but I hope where ever they reside, they will bring love and warmth to their new owners.

As for me, my quilt journey continues- some new quilts need to be created... but not for the next while..
 I am writing report cards just now.. I hope you got to check out the Blogger Festival. Lots of terrific quilts to be admired and voted on..
Here in Alberta we have had a large snowstorm- Lots of shoveling going on...
Thanks for stopping by ,
Warmest regards,
Anna