Mom's Quilt

. Mom taught me sewing along with my grandmother, starting when I was 8 or 9. My grandmother began teaching me how to piece for quilt blocks and always said I made tiny stitches hand sewing.  Mom was more interested in teaching me how to do clothing and how to read patterns and how to use the sewing machine. I was more than happy to do it, since it was one way to get new clothes. As the third girl, I had my share of hand-me-downs. I remember helping my grandmother make six dresses for me in grade 6, all from cloth left over from the dresses my grandmother made for herself. Girls were not allowed to wear slacks to school until I was in grade 9. From then on I made lots of my pants and tops  and never wore a dress unless it was absolutely expected. Throughout high school and college and even my first years of teaching in Yuma, I made clothes. Then when my daughter was born, I had fun sewing for a little girl. Now it has evolved - I do quilts and other "house" projects and far fewer clothes.
     I had never made anything significant for my mother. I helped her sew anything she asked me to do, but Mom was very good at her own making and mending. Mom nursed Dad for several years before he died and she didn't have much time to sew, let alone enjoy it.So I finally decided  for my mother's birthday in 2013, I was going to make Mom a quilt. Dad was very ill and I wanted to make it cheerful.

 

My father was always partial to blue and Mom didn't want everything blue, but the right shade was what would offset the pieced blocks. I thought pale blue would be more feminine and I put a lot of bright pink in it with flowers. Mom is partial to flowers.

First Snow

It was bound to happen sometime. I do remember years when the first snow came on Halloween, so we did better than that by two days this year. So, here we are.

I have been working on learning the software that I bought  shortly after I bought a new Designer Diamond DeLuxe sewing machine. It is fairly complicated for anyone who is new to digitizing, so I signed up for classes. I attend once a month and do homework in between. I am almost done, but there are still tons of things to learn. I will be working closely with the reference and guide books for 6D software from VSM. I have had fun doing all kinds of little projects and learn something new with each. Here are a few things I have made.

I didn't take photos of several items I have given away, but there are two bigger items for this year that I think turned out fairly well and I did really want photos so I could remember them. The first was a quilt for a special nephew's wedding gift. I embroidered center squares and used colors around that square that I found out were colors they wanted in their home. (Gift registries are handy for that kind of thing- what colors do they like? ) 

The second item is a throw I made for the brother of a friend. He had collected a number of Crown Royal bags and wanted this made for his brother's birthday. I checked online many made by crafters and decided  on a diamond pattern. I used the gold to highlight the Crown Royal name and used black to frame it and for the back.

I was happy with how it turned out and hope the recipient has it for many years.