Flower Gardens

In my first post, I promised to tell about my grandmother's "Flower Garden" quilt. Well, here goes.

My grandmother (Mama) was always very creative and crafty. She painted (oil paintings, ceramic painting, silk painting and more). She sculpted. And she sewed. She embroidered. And she made one quilt.

She hand patched this beautiful quilt top with the tiniest little stitches. It took her about a year to finish it.

At the time I was about 8 years old. She showed me how to cut patches, sew them together. I remember making a rather small and design-less piece. I wish I knew where it ever got to.

After finishing the quilt top, she had it "professionally" quilted. It was a pretty ordinary end result, with a nasty green nylon backing. But it was always on her bed and she loved it.

When she died in 1999, she left her quilt to me, knowing I was the only one of her 18 grandchildren who would really appreciate it. I decided to have it requilted.

I didn't do anything about it until 2007 when I started an evening class with the lovely Judy Newman at my favourite place, Amitie in Bentleigh. I was very clear with Judy at the time. "I am a patchworker. I DON'T quilt".

Judy is a wise teacher and cleverly convinced me to have a go at hand-quilting it myself to honour my grandmother. Well, needless to say, Judy now has me hooked on hand quilting.

Here is a look at my efforts with Mama's quilt (with a gorgeous new vintage look backing).

My Uncle Brian says "it's the first rug I've ever seen that's more like a tombstone". Thanks Uncle Brian!

Well, more recently, I have been working on a gift for my daughter Ella's third birthday which is coming up in November. I have called it "Ella's Flower Garden" and it incorporates my latest favourite quilt style ....... memory quilting. I think that often memory quilts look really tacky but when you modify the images so they actually blend in with the other fabrics, the results can be lovely.

I think Mama would have approved. Ella certainly does.

Have a lovely Wednesday.

Andi :-)