The Ugly Quilt

This was a fun way to challenge myself, I purposely collected the ugliest fabrics I could find and put them all into one quilt. There were a few raised eyebrows when I asked sales ladies in fabric stores to show me the ugliest fabric in the shop.
Since I ended up with so much variety, I made the quilt two sided.
It was originally called "The Ugliest Quilt in the World" but the name was shortened to "the Ugly Quilt" after my daughter Lindsay claimed it and has been using it on her bed ever since. It now needs repair, back in those days I used invisible thread, not such a good choice. I don't use that thread anymore because after awhile it cuts the cotton thread that was used on the bobbin, comes undone and leave giant loops all over the place. It also wears away at the fabric. I'll borrow the quilt back one of these days and repair it. BOOO! to invisible thread!
The photos are kind of funny because there are people sitting on the couch and chair, all you can see are their legs. On the back of the quilt is my cat, Casper, who is getting close to 13 years old now.

Wheel of Mystery

In 1992, our guild had a quilt show. I received the CQA ribbon for viewer's choice.
My double bed size Wheel of Mystery quilt was hand pieced and hand quilted. Large print fabrics were in style at the time, I used a lot of them in the quilt.
Back in those days, we only had 12 members in our guild, but we managed to put on a pretty good show!

Rainbow Cats Baby Quilt

Several years ago, I ordered a package of fat quarters called the "Rainbow Collection" from Quilter's Newsletter magazine. I made this quilt for my friend, Cathy when her son was born. The hearts are hand appliqued and the quilt is hand quilted. The pattern came from the Debbie Mumm book, "Quick Country Quilting".

Churn Dash With a Nine Patch

I made this quilt for a Christmas present for some friends many years ago. It was hand quilted, I didn't know much about machine quilting in those days. Please don't use bleach on quilts, folks! I saw this quilt a few years later and it looked like it had been washed over and over with strong bleach, the colour was just about completely stripped from it. Bleach not only takes out the colour, it weakens the fibres and the quilt will be ruined in no time flat. I know we're not supposed to
check up on the things we make after we give them away, a gift is meant to be given with no strings attached. I probably should have included washing instructions.
It's kind of a dilemma.

Around the Twist

Here is another quilt with the dramatic background of horrible red carpet and tacky blue flowered couch.
My sister sent the fabric for the quilt, then I made it for her. The centre of the Round the Twist blocks have fussy cut cats. It was on her bed for years and now is retired. Quilts do wear out, but they serve a great purpose for their lifetime.

Quilt With Wool Batting

Many years ago I bought a wool quilt batt from a person who raised sheep. She took the wool to a place in Alberta that cards the wool into batts. I was able to make two quilts out of it, one double bed size, the other single.
I used the quilt on my bed for so many years that it wore to a frazzle. It kept
getting patched over and over again. It has a final use as a bed for my dog.
I'm happy that I took a picture of the quilt after it was first made because it sure doesn't look like that now! If I could get a fluffy wool batting like that again, it would be great, it was so nice and toasty to sleep under. The wool batts that are made commercially are nice, but are thin and compacted down.
There are a lot of pictures of my quilts that have the horrible red carpet and a blue flowered couch in the background. I lived with that for many years before finally getting laminate floor installed and a different second hand couch. My redecorating budget has always been $0.00. When I win the lottery I'll have a professionally decorated background for my pictures :D

A Blast From The Past

A journey back to 1987, when I was expecting my first and only child. This was a week long summer class I took at the Red Deer College. The instructor was Judy Vilette, the class was on Seminole patchwork and other techniques. It seems like a couple of lifetimes ago!