Gotta Love Handmade Quilts

Back in 2006 I wrote a post for my Linda's Blog entitled "We've Got Sewing In Our Bones!" which was about attending the Sewing & Quilt Show/Exhibition show with my Mother and sister-in-law. It's a sewing and quilt exhibition that is held every year and one which I try to go to.

At one point in time I was making quilts for my own house and quilts to give as gifts. I even tried designing some of my own - which is far more difficult than you would think. Given that I tend to like intricate patterns I quickly abandoned that idea as it was just too much work.

When I was making quilts I also quickly found out that sewing large quilts can really do a real number on your sewing machine's tension. Each and every time I'd end up having to adjust the tension and/or have my sewing machine cleaned.

Also, given that I tend to like smaller creations as they take less time I quickly found out that quilted pillows were much easier to design and took a lot less time. Plus, they didn't do a number on your sewing machine's tension.

My Mother, on the other hand, absolutely loved to quilt. Once she found out about the "foldy" stuff pleated quilt patterns by Donna Poster during a shopping trip to Sturbridge she was in 7th heaven. Donna wrote The Quilter's Guide to Rotary Cutting.

My Mother decided to make a "foldy" stuff pleated wall quilt. Then she moved on to "foldy" pillows and "foldy" table runners and placemats. She even made two miniature "foldy" pillows for our little cairn terrier "Bud" to place his head on.

The quilt shown in the picture below is one of the "foldy" quilts my Mother made. It was with her at her memorial service and now adorns our living room sofa.  It's a perfect match for the blue's in our living room.

A few weeks ago I was cleaning out a closet and one of our bedrooms and came across some of the quilts other family members had made and given to us over the years - including the Christmas quilt from my sister that I mentioned in my "Christmas Decorations In Our Sunroom" post.

A couple of the quilts were crocheted by another one of my sister's-in-law many, many years ago and were hanging on a wonderful handmade wooden quilt stand, which is shown in the picture below, that another one of my sister's-in-law had made several years ago for all of us.

The quilt that is shown in the picture below is a granny square throw that my sister-in-law crocheted for me close to 35 years ago. It's still in fabulous shape and still has the most vivid colors. I was always amazed at how my sister-in-law could crochet the smallest doilies and create granny square throws. I couldn't crochet back then and still can't.

So, in thinking about quilts and throws I thought you might like to see some of the other quilts that family members have made for me or that I made several decades ago.

The throw shown in the picture below was crocheted by the same sister-in-law that crocheted the granny square throw mentioned above.

The large throw shown in the picture below adorns our family room sofa and was knit by my Mother close to 20 years ago.

Here's the Christmas quilt alluded to above and made by my sister.

And, here's one of my own log cabin quilts that put a monkey wrench into my sewing machine's tension. Bad quilt! Bad quilt!

When I get a chance I'll try to take pictures of the "foldy" runners, placemats, large pillows, and miniature "doggie" pillows that my Mother made.

And, if I ever get any spare time (like that's ever going to happen) I may just try some of the "foldy" quilts myself.

Maybe they won't do a number on my sewing machine's tension.

We'll see.