Fall is coming

Life has been a bit of a blur in the later part of August. My father is a wonderful gardener and on our last visit home I took this photo of his front flower garden. He has some beautiful verbena,phlox, snapdragons, portulaca and petunias growing in the front flower bed. This years flowers are particularly lovely. Recently I scanned some of my older quilts into my computer. In the coming weeks, I plan to share some of them. This golden leaves is one of my favorite quilts that I have made on my 15 year old quilting journey. The pattern was taken from an older issue of the Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I made it in 2002. It is made with template pieces and it can be found gracing our living room in the autumn.

It is a large quilt- queensized and has a maple leaf border that I added to the original design. The photograph below was taken in my grandmother's house- she has since passed away- It will be 8 years that she has been gone on the 10 of September. How she loved my quilts... and how I loved her...

The prairies are a beautiful place to live- One of the most striking characteristics is the huge big sky- On a clear day you can see for miles. The crops are starting to turn golden and they are a stunning contrast against the blue.Those large bales weigh about 1500lbs.

Over the summer, a friend's daughter gave birth to this beautiful baby boy, Sam. He sure looks cosy in this baby wrap.I loved the Golden Books fabric and thought it would be a great choice for the wrap.

One of the things every quilt should have is a label- Here is the one that is on the back of my father's nature quilt. I named it " Over the hills and through the woods". The fabric was the perfect backdrop for a label.

And finally this quilt graces a bed in my parent's house. I was very pleased the way the quilt quilted up. It is more densely quilted than some of my quilts. I tried to outline all the animals as well as adding clouds and waves in the background.

Just a bit closer look at the animals in the wild..

School has begun and this weekend I have been doing some school work and projects related to school. I sewed up 4 clothing bags for my students. A few years ago I made 25 cloth sacks for my students to store their belongings neatly on the coat hooks. I have more than 25 students right now( 27) so I needed some bags repaired as well as a few additional ones. I just have to add the cording around the top and we will have enough bags to start off the year.

This upcoming week my quilting group begins again. I would like to finish the top of the tesselation quilt tomorrow(see previous post for a look at the tesselation quilt). Monday is a holiday here in Canada called Labour Day. My current plan for the holiday is to do a little school work in the morning and then get quilting. The weather is pleasant and September will be full. One has to take the time to quilt when one can.

Wishing one and all some good quilting time,
Regards,
Anna

Some early quilts from the vaults....

Quilting is a bit of a cyclical thing for me- Sometimes I manage to get a fair amount of quilting done and other times I seem to get nothing done short of adding some beautiful fabric to my ever growing stash or drooling over magazine/ book quilts and new gadgets like the "Go"... I am not sure why I quilt like that- part of it is certainly because my work life takes over and there doesn't seem to be enough time or energy to go around. Yet,I know if I begin working on a quilt project, I feel better. Before I know it, I will have worked for a couple of hours and feel re- energized too. Sometimes, I stop to look at some photos of the quilts I have created over the last 15 years. Mars the cat can often be found testing out my quilts- She appears to think that I make them for her pleasure. She even has some favorite quilts- The leaf one on the left, is one that she is keen on- it matches her coat beautifully..


My quilt journey began quite a long time ago now - I have always loved quilts and my first experiences with quilting came when I met a friend whose grandmother showed her how to make the dresden plate pattern. We used cardboard templates and scissors ( yes I was one of those people that quilted in a time where there was no rotary cutter.. I completed one block and later turned it into a quillow quilt ( a quilt that folds up and forms a pillow.)

After that, my journey hit a few pot holes and I got side tracked by life- I married my husband and a few years later we had our son. He was born in the winter of 1987. The summer I was pregnant with him I quilted a " Quilt in a Day" Log cabin. It was a bit of challenge as I knew nothing about machine quilting. I thought that all quilts needed to be like downy duvets- I put a double layer of polyester batt in it, so it would be poofy.. It was a bit like wrestling a bear... I don't think I would want you to see the back of it either... The front doesn't look very good these days as it has suffered a few adventures with the pets that are an important part of our home and hearth. Life took over again - and it would be another 10 years before I would quilt again..
However, that is when my quilting journey changes- In the summer of 1996, I met a teacher, Linda and a small group of quilters with whom I connected, and we became quilting friends. I have quilted steadily ( sometimes slightly unsteadily) since that time. I have made over 50 large bed sized quilts for friends and family and numerous baby wraps in the intervening years.

This lone star was made in the fall of 1997-it still lives in our house- I made it larger to cover up my 6 foot husband and son. The colors are now dated but it remains in pretty good shape and still keeps us warm too...

What size quilts do you make? I like to make quilts that will be ones that fit a bed- I have made a few baby quilts and lots of baby wraps but, mostly I make big quilts that fit queen sized and occasionally king sized beds. I also like to make couch sized quilts.

My blog friend Rosa from New Brunswick ( a province in Eastern Canada) posted about the Magic Tiles pattern not long ago. It really is a pretty pattern. Here was my version of this beautiful design. I think I made it about 2002. It is made all out of batiks and I know that our friends loved it.


Sometimes I think it might be fun to make a few smaller projects just to get my juices going- but then I think of all the bed quilts I still want to make for one reason or another... I see the beautiful bags people create - I even have a couple of quilt books with bag patterns - still I make bed quilts ---- I guess I hope to make a dent in my stash and bed quilts is the way to do that LOL

Earlier I was mentioning about the Go -- Well Micki of The Irish Muse blog is hosting a Go giveaway... Now I have been admiring those fine machines- just think how much easier it is to cut things out.. What about all the different die- so many choices.. Maybe you will be the lucky winner or may be it will be my turn- do check it out...

There is a new Talk about Fabric button on the right side of my blog- for those of you who like giveaways or are interested in talking about fabric and fabric lines. You can add the button to your blog too if you wish..

This week is the big Houston Quilt Market- I am mind boggled thinking about all the choices one would find there- It is too large for me but it is fun to see what others have to say about the Houston Quilt festival...

The fall is flying by- this weekend is Halloween and my kindergarten students love to dress up in their costumes and go trick or treating. The first assessment part of my job is done so now the report writing begins... The first snowfall came on Monday and so did the snow pants and the snowmen.... Each day brings new things...

Wishing everyone some time to reflect and create...
Warmest regards,
Anna