The Cleverness of my Mother, Part 3.

Click, then scroll down.

As Amy (and probably others) guessed, the final installment of this series (for now, because I’m sure that Mum will come up with further evidence of her crafty brilliance in the future) is Sasquatch’s quilt. While we were looking at quilts to get an idea of what they would like, Boyo chose a style (log cabin), but Sasquatch fell madly in love with a specific quilt – a scrap quilt made from old green work pants and flannel shirts (see thumbnail at right*). He announced “I want that one.” I explained to him that he couldn’t have that particular quilt, because it belonged to someone else: “See there, where the owner’s name is embroidered on one of the green patches?” “Well, I want one just like it.” (he appears to be going through a laying-down-the-law phase at the moment). In the end, we agreed to send the pic to Grandma and let her use it as inspiration. Here’s what she made of it:

It’s bright and cheerful and he loves it, as I knew he would. And, as before, the back is a collaboration with Auntie Marie, this time with an over-riding chicken theme for some reason…

Sasquatch is a bit blurry here because nanoseconds after this pic was taken he fell over backwards and landed on his bum.

Hilarity ensued.

~~~

*I can’t for the life of me find the blog where I discovered the original quilt pic. At the time I wasn’t thinking about blogging, I just saved the pic to my hard drive, and emailed it to Mum. I spent a good two hours this morning looking for it, but evidently my Google-fu has deserted me. Should the owner of the quilt ever read this post, please leave a comment and I’ll be more than happy to give credit where it’s due.

~~~

ETA: Thanks to Amy for finding the website for the quilt. It’s the Peterson’s Greens quilt; scroll down for the story behind it. I think they’ve updated the site since I first saw it, because I’m sure I would have remembered this story.

The Cleverness of my Mother, part 2

During the same visit in which Mum and Dad brought down our wedding quilt, she announced she wanted to make quilts for the boys for Christmas. Obviously, I would have been crazy to say no, so the boys and I looked over some quilt books and searched the interwebs for inspiration, and decisions were made. Boyo announced he would like a log cabin quilt in blues and reds, and here is what Mum came up with:

One of the interesting things about these quilts is the back. The wedding quilt I showed you last week is backed in plain unbleached calico, but the back here is a collaboration between Mum and her sister. Auntie Marie dabbled in quilting some while ago, but lost interest before she finished anything, though not before amassing a fairly decent stash of fabric. When she heard that Mum was making these quilts, Auntie Marie took the opportunity to do a massive de-stash, and unloaded the lot on Mum, who cobbled together completed blocks, partially finished blocks, and various fat quarters and other lengths of fabric into the gorgeousness you see here:

Finally, Boyo insisted on being in the pics with his quilt. Here he is pointing out his favourite bit.

In amongst the beautifully crazy hodgepodge of shape and colour on the back are a couple of pieces of mustard-brown corduroy, and he zeroed straight in on that as his favourite fabric. It’s a texture thing.

The Cleverness of my Mother, part 1.

Back in the September school holidays, my parents came a-visiting. They live 800 kms away, so we only see them two or three times a year, which makes any visit from them something of a red-letter day. This particular visit, however, was especially special, because they brought with them a long-awaited article – our wedding quilt.

This quilt has been going in fits and starts since 1989, when Tech Support and I were newly engaged and Mum was a newish and very enthusiastic quilter. The original plan was that Mum would piece it, and I would quilt it. Over the years, life got in the way (as it does), and other projects and other crafts have taken precendence (as they will), and to be honest, I am amazed it survived the six years it spent in a wardrobe at the old (and very mouldy) house here in Blayney. Last year, Mum got excited about quilting all over again, and took it back to Grafton to finish it.

And here it is. It’s a “Storm at Sea” pattern, in which straight lines do an optical illusion thingy and appear to curve and swirl like water. It is so very beautiful that it makes me want to make the bed first thing every morning (something I am not known for), just so that I can pop in there during the day and admire it.

Thanks, Mum. I love you, too.