Tea with Mother

Whether our relationship is strained or easy, hostile or amiable, we need our mother if only in memory …to conjugate our history, validate our femaleness and guide our way.
~ Victoria Secunda

The last few years of my mother’s life were difficult – not what you want to remember as a daughter.  I turned into the bad guy – making the hard decisions that she couldn’t make like moving out of her home, moving into a care facility, having a knee replacement and telling her that her youngest daughter had died.  I didn’t enjoy being the “bad guy”.  I was actually out shopping at a quilt shop the morning that she died.  I had purchased this applique pattern “Morning Glory: A celebration in Applique” by Lori Smith.  I’ve just completed it about 8 months after her death and just a couple of weeks before her committal service.  The applique square were not set in the same way as the pattern suggested.  I used a William Morris border print to create the square within the square.  Each square has a batik that complements the design.The squares are outlined with black and a light lavendar sashing.

The squares are hand appliqued.

The sashing is quilted with a light lavendar thread.

The size of a quilting is varied in the inside border and the outside border

The quilt is approximately 62×62.  It is hand appliqued and hand quilted.

May your relationship and memories of your mother be sweet!

Quilting during a long winter

There’s no better way to spend a long, cold winter than by hiding away in my quilt space.  Whether I’m daydreaming, creating designs or using a tried and true pattern, burying myself in color and pattern make the days fly away.  One of my big projects over the past few months is a pattern from Michele Hill’s book “More William Morris Applique”  http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?SKU=10878  published by C & T publishing in 2012. I’ve always been fascinated by the art created during the Arts and Crafts Movement and especially like some of the fabric designed by William Morris.

I used a fused raw edge technique and finished the edges with a double buttonhole stitch. I used a rayon thread to enhance the designs and set off the colors. I mixed batiks and more traditional cotton fabrics. I enhanced the edge with a bright yellow piping. I used a wool batt, which is a dream to hand quilt. It does however have a higher loft, but with the crosshatching quilting I think that it set off the designs.

Here are some close up details. . .

 

 

 

Size: 64×64
machine applique, hand quilting