Kitchen Quilts

I visited with my Mom last night. If I never pieced another quilt, I could work on these until I died. She loves to piece but not quilt. My travel projects in the future are going to be quilting all these tops she has made.

She calls these "kitchen quilts" because she works at her kitchen table when she makes them. All of these are scrappy in their nature. Some more so than others.

We had a great time visiting - much laughter - stories - it was a good night. We have not had the best relationship in the world. Past hurts are healing. Last night you could really feel the change in the relationship - it was open and fun - requiring no effort at all.

Anyway - I took these pictures while we were talking - more about these....


I get my inner fabric whore personality from her. She has sewn all my life. Used to make my clothes when I was small. She saves even the smallest scraps. The top above is 95 squares. Not one repeat in fabric and not one purchase of fabric. Very colorful. Very fun.


The starburst has been a challenge for her in the past. All of the diamonds were hard to piece. Look carefully at the picture - this one is all right triangles and squares. Much easier. This one is wall sized or table top sized.


The "scottie" quilt. Fun and the little sweaters on the dogs are made from a fabric that my sister had a shirt of. This will fit a single bed easily and will be a great car quilt.

This one took me a while to figure out. It is a pieced sunbonnet girl - holding a stepping around the mountain quilt. The contrast on her pale green bonnet could have been greater. She used what she had so we will make this work. If you study it - you can see it. I will quilt that area in a varigated dark green overdyed floss - I will stipple the bonnet squares to make it look like a small sprigged print. This should bring out the detail needed to show off the girl. The background is various squares of muslins. This is adapted from a pattern in Postage Stamp Quilts.

Really wanted to brag a little on mom. The stroke she suffered in January has had some lasting effects. She refuses to give into those. It takes her longer to accomplish everything. Figuring out how to piece these patterns is difficult for her, she keeps a quad ruled pad close by and colored pencils. As she selects fabrics, she colors in the pattern in a pencil close to that tone, then cuts the pieces she needs and numbers the fabric stacks to coordinate with the colored in pattern. Then she can remember what goes where . Sounds like a lot of trouble, but her short term memory is not as it should be and this is how she offsets the effects. We all could learn so much about tenacity from this kind of response to a challenge. She has had to adapt many ways of doing things in order to thrive. Sure she could just get by, lean on others and let them take care of things. But she has chosen to thrive. She is my hero because of that.

She is an ordinary woman, with a challenging situation, refusing to let that challenge overcome who she is inside. That makes her extraordinary.

Have a wonderful day.