The quilts before I was a quilter

Helen and I like Block Lotto.
This is were we get inspired to try a new pattern even if it is just one square. Sophie, the talented quilter who manages this blog, asks in the "Weekend update" section to share. Sometimes it is a theme. This weekend she asked: How did you start Quilting? Well, how did I?

That question is answered if you read one of my previous blogs: click here!

But I made two quilts before I was a quilter. I never wanted to become a quilter. I was a lacemaker and that was that. Don't know whether I really can call myself a quilter now but I am still a lacemaker.

I made one for my oldest daughter Helen when she was a teenager. It was a project we did together. She selected the pattern and helped arrange the squares. Don't know how I found the pattern. I had heard about 'nine-patch ' and I used the plastic heart container of German marzipan sweets to draw around for the cut-outs which I machine appliqued with a satin stitch. Very amateur!

 LOTS of the fabrics were left-overs from dresses my mother had made for the girls. Lots of memories in this. I hired out for the hand quilting to a friend from the church we attended at that time.










There are 5 1/2 years between our daughters. So there came the time when the younger Sarah should get her quilt too. She wanted a crazy quilt. I had written "directions" how to make those squares and asked family and friends to contribute a square. We got several but by far not enough. Quilts were really not a German or British thing at that time. So I had to finally get busy myself because she wanted it bigger. 

All the ones I made start with a photo in the middle. Sarah selected which should be part of it. One from every important section in her young life.

Well, not all have a photo. This heart was a leftover from Helen's quilt.

And this butterfly was stitched by Sarah as a girl scout project.

A photo of Sarah with one of her very special friends on the way to high-school prom. Her grandmother (my mother) sewed her silk dress. Underneath (the triangle) a piece of that fabric.

The third square on the left down has another leftover from Helen's quilt: part of a nine-patch.

And do you see the photo of the pickle in one of the squares on the right? Sarah has a reputation about those. Yes, lots of thoughts went into this one too.

I am sewing on the binding. No idea what I am doing, ha-ha. If I would take a close look at it these days I probably would cringe. I know a little bit more because these days we can google. It's more then 11 years ago.










Ha-ha, Sophie, probably much more then you wanted to know!