1) Log Cabin – dusty country blues and beige – King size First quilt finished June 1989. I found a few photos of this quilt including a very blurry one of my daughter and I holding up the flags. I kept the photo as we have both changed so much over the years.
Used on Joyce and Stan’s bed until it was frayed from years of wear and thus put in the rag bag. This one was hand tied with embroidery thread. The Backing was off white fabric pulled around to make a 2 ½ inch border. The border was machine sewn with a serpentine stitch. I still finish most of my quilts this way today but often use sheets as they are big and one piece of fabric.
2) Log Cabin – Navy blues and darker beige – Double size. About 1989.
Made for my Mom probably in the late 1980’s after my Dad had passed on in 1988. She used it on her spare bed for years. I finished this one a little differently. Somehow I jammed the three layers of fabric under the arm of the machine to sew in the ditch (right in the seam) to adhere all three layers; finished log cabin top, batting and backing together. The backing was units of navy fabric sewn together wide enough so it could be brought around the front to make a 2 ½ inch border.
My Mom must have liked the quilt or liked that I made her one as she took it to the county fair and entered it into the judging. It won a red ribbon. This second quilt project was not really blue ribbon quality, but good for the second try as finishing one.
I still have this quilt. It is on my spare queen sized bed in the basement. It is warm and just about fits the bed if you have a dust ruffle. I made it long enough so you can tuck the pillow under the quilt as Mom always made her beds that way. Interesting that for years I had it folded with the log cabin decorative pattern to that outside in a bag in the garage. The side that was folded out facing the light faded considerable. Not that I was saving it, but fading happens. The quilt was made to be used not saved.
3) Log Cabin – Rusts and white with small rust patterns of flowers – Sofa Throw. The backing was rust colored corduroy. About 1989.
Made this quilt for my favorite Uncle Vern. He was quite the character. He lived to be in his 80’s. It seems he was born 8-8-1908. He was a gay man born in an era when that live style was totally unacceptable. Mom used to say Uncle Vern was different. Really he was charming, artsy and had a flare for reading and learning about the arts. He lived by himself for years that I knew him. When we would visit him he showed an interest in me as a young person and my children when as they grew up. He would send us birthday cards with pen and ink line drawings on the outside of envelopes. I wish I would have kept them. In later years he cut out magazine photos of art and pasted them on the envelopes and then drew ornate borders around the photos. They were delightful. I wanted him to have one of my quilt projects. My daughter Jamie has this quilt in the trunk of her car as an emergency quilt and maybe to just keep it to remember Uncle Vern.
4) Log Cabin – Mauve with white contrast – Queen size – about 1989.
This quilt was made for my sister Nancy for her water bed. Do people still buy water beds now a days? She liked those colors that were popular in the 1980’s. I must have taken a trip up to her home, maybe with my Mom, to deliver the quilt to her in Scottsbluff, Nebraska as I remember seeing her put the quilt on her water bed. Stan wasn’t with on this trip. When we visited again in 2009 on our way to South Dakota, he remarked that he had not been to Nancy’s house before. The quilt should be long worn out by now as should the water bed. Nancy informed me that she does still have this quilt in her guest room.
5) Log Cabin – Mauve with dusty blue contrast – Sofa Throw – about 1989.
Made this quilt for a thank you gift for my brother Alan and his wife Janine in about 1985. I don’t remember this quilt much except that the color combination was a bit strange. Janine likes quilts and had one her mom made for her. The one I made wasn’t a very complicated pattern. As Janine’s home is clutter free I doubt that she kept this quilt all these years.
Once you start making quilts the left over scraps fill up bags and boxes. Either you bought too much fabric and have some decent sized chunks of fabric left or you cut to many strips and you have strips left. Then there are smaller pieces that are usable trimmed off the end of the strips.
We went to my brother Alan’s in Roseville, California one 4th of July when John was about 10 making it 1985. We must have driven to out as it seemed we had a car. I remember that Janine, my sister-in-law’s father was still living with them at the time.
Back in Colorado where we lived, we belonged to a swim/tennis club in Lakewood. It was one of those gathering places where you paid a fee, chipped in to keep the place tidy and hung out while kids jumped with glee all summer splashing in the pool. The kids were busy learning tennis at the time. I was the worse player in the family. When I served the ball inbounds I was so happy. A volley or two and then back to serving again. Stan had good ball savvy and John picked it up pretty easily too. Jamie and I were about the same skill.
Anyway, we took our rackets to California so we could play along the road at city parks close to our overnight motels stays. We stayed with my brother at his home. We found a near-by court close to Alan’s house. It was 107 degrees that day with baking dry heat. Stan and John played while Jamie and I waited under a shade tree for the end of the match. We quickly went back to their air conditioned house to retreat. We did go to a fireworks display in a park on 4th of July. It was still hot as blazes.
6) Log Cabin – Carmel beige and off white – Not quite finished yet.
This quilt was started in about the late 1980’s and not finished yet on 09-09-09. While the children were young I made arts and crafts during the week and participated in local fairs on the weekend. Some were in the parks such as the People’s Fair that started in the park by East high and some were in malls. In Lakewood the Villa Italia Mall was really popular. It had since seen its demise, was leveled and built back up in the 2000’s as Belmar, the heart of Lakewood. Lakewood really doesn’t have an old town or center. I guess if you call something the heart of Lakewood, over time it will be a gathering place for the community.
I was eager to learn quilting, but impatient with the tedium of sewing running stitches through the three thickness of pieced fabric, batting and backing. I heard about a technique where you make one block at a time machine sewing the backing, stuffing and piecing all at once. Log cabin pattern works for this type of approach. I have finished eight of these blocks, not enough to make a lap robe. I need to add one more. It’s only been thirty years since I worked on this project.
I remember taking my sewing machine to the Greeley Mall where I set up my work and finished craft projects to sell for a weekend. My mom lived in Greeley so I had a place to stay. I’m not sure if I brought the kids and mom watched them while I was at the mall working or if I left them with Stan.
Mom visited the fair several times that weekend. One time she brought Aunt Shirley Wayman. Shirley and mom were avid quilters. It was such a treat to have them both visit me at the mall. Shirley was enamored with the idea that I would sew all these pieces together with not much concern for really aligning the pieces or the perfection of the finished work. We all have a different approach to what makes us happy with out work.
Mom and Shirley talked about quilt patterns, shopped for fabric and both had some quilt projects started. Shirley work as a secretary in an attorney’s office. Today she probably would have been the attorney, but when she grew up secretary was about the top position women could achieve. She was smart as a whip. Shirley spent her lunch hour hand sewing triangles together for the lone star pattern. She started this in the 1970’s when harvest gold and avocado green were all the rage. She had bought some sheets of those colors in solid gold, green and multi-colored variation of those colors. Each day she would sew a few triangles together toward the goal of finishing the project. Unfortunately, she died an early death at about the age 63 of lung cancer for years of heavy smoking. She didn’t finish her quilt. Uncle Don gave mom a box of the half finished quilt. Mom worked diligently to finish the pattern and sew the top together. She paid about $300 for the ladies at the church to hand quilt it all together. She had that quilt on her spare bed for several years. When Mom passed on, the quilt was given back to Don Wayman.
Soon I’ll finish this log cabin quilt once I complete one more block and figure out how to sew the blocks together.
7) Log Cabin – Mauve with Dusty Blue – Sofa Throw 1994.
Neal Macintosh from New Zealand got this quilt in 1994.
Stan and I took our first international trip, not counting jaunts to Mexico and Canada, in about 1993. Our kids were old enough (John age 19, Jamie age 25) to take care of themselves so off we went to New Zealand. We joined the Friendship Force club that had exchanges to countries all over the world. People would stay at your home for a few days and you would stay at another family’s home for a few days. It was not a direct exchange between the same families, but different people each time.
In 1990, we had hosted a couple of young boys about age 18 from the then Soviet Georgia at the time John was taking Russian in high school. We tentatively planned a trip with Friendship Force to Russia or Egypt to see the pyramids. The USSR – Soviet Union was falling apart with the collapse of communism and the change of leadership. In Egypt tourists were being killed as they traveled in buses.
So our first Friendship Force trip was to New Zealand planned to bring in the New Year in 1995 in the first time zone of our globe. We stayed in northern New Zealand in Whangerei with a charming lady named Lexie Smythe. She lived on a dairy farm. We visited with her family and grandchildren who called hard candy – lollies. I talked to the little grandchild about our dogs we have as pets. She told me their dogs are working dogs that stay outdoors and heard the cows in when it’s time for milking.
On New Year’s Day, Lexie took us on an outing with her son on his day off. We went out in the ocean through the bay of islands in her son’s boat which he usually used on his work days to escort tourists through this beautiful area. How lucky we were to have met this particular family. We went out to one of the islands to meet Lexis’ daughter and their family who were camping on the beach at the edge of the woods.
After touring through New Zealand with a bus load of other Friendship Forcers, we stopped for another home visit with Neal Macintosh in Wanganui, which is close to the middle of the north island of New Zealand. He was a farmer who lived in the most charming new home with views from all windows overlooking rolling hillsides of lush green grass where his sheep grazed. He took his working dog up to gather the sheep and herd them around the fields.
Neal took us to watch shearing of some sheep. It is such an intoxicating, charming country. I bought a lush, creamy colored, hand knit, wool sweater in the nearby town. I still have the sweater and wear it on really chilly days.
Neal had a girl friend that could play the piano like nobody’s business. She was professional and also taught music lessons. We all went out to Neal’s orchards to pick a few kiwis hanging from the vines to make sure his crop was round kiwis not oval or flat. Flat ones were culled out. He showed us the forest of hard wood trees he was growing, knowing that he wouldn’t be around to see them when they matured in 50 years but wanted them there for future generations to come.
They said they liked the quilt and seemed happy about it. I don’t remember it except that maybe it was similar to the one I made for Alan with mauves and blues in the log cabin pattern.
8) Log Cabin variation – Black background with pansies and white eyelet – Sofa Throw – 1996.
Made for Gwenda and Glenn Shoobridge from the village of Chillingham, Australia.
Our next trip overseas was to Australia in about 1996. The first stop off was in tweed valley in Chillingham on the eastern coast line about mid-continent of Australia. This place was beautiful, about a 20 minute drive to the beach and nestled right at the edge of the rain forest. Glenn owned a trucking company that hauled fruits and vegetables throughout the region. Gwenda had just turned 50 and had a big party with her friends. I was turning 50 and this was the trip to celebrate.
One day Gwenda took us across the meadow in her pickup with the big flat bed. Lloyd, their white English bulldog with his odd looking nose, rode in the back of the pick-up. Through the grassy area over the dry river bed we went through the pathless field to visit the oldies, Glenn’s parents. They lived in a hundred year old house. Their parents were almost a hundred themselves. The house was small, just a couple of rooms. You could see the exposed rafters in the living room. We crowded around the kitchen table for some tea and a little cake. I’m sure Gwenda had planned the cake for her Mom to serve. The dad had just come from the hillside after gathering bananas.
Gwenda and Glenn lived on the other hillside across the meadow in a new home which coincidently had grey carpet. The black background with colorful pansies in the print seemed to fit right in with her style. I didn’t know much about these people when I made the quilt. It was a guess what would be an appropriate color for them.
9) Log Cabin – Blue background with Pansies and while eyelet – Sofa Throw – 1996.
Trisha and John Danielle-Web from Gosford, Australia (near Sydney) received the next quilt as a gift for staying with them on a Friendship Force trip.
The day we met Trisha and John, our hosts, both Friendship Force clubs went to breakfast overlooking the lovely gold coast beach. The sand is really gold colored and when you walk on it your feet sink down like a cushy sponge. We had bacon that was thick as a pork chop dripping with flavor.
Trisha and John lived on a hill overlooking a lagoon. They were a blended family from previous marriages and blended their names together. John was really into scouts and knew all the technical names of every plant in the region. Trish liked crafts and showed me some decoupage that she had started.
They took us to their near-by ocean beaches. I remember Trish mentioning that the ocean was a bit boisterous in certain areas, meaning the crash of the waves could pull you under. She found us a cove that was prefect to enjoy the wave action and the ocean. I remember there were small sponges washed up on the beaches. At the time I was just learning to make pottery and we used these types of sponges to work with the clay. I picked up a few on the beach and probably still have them.
Trish really liked the teal blue background in the quilt fabric and especially the pansies. The decoupage box she was making had pansies on it too. What a nice match up.
10) Log Cabin – Bright purple and turquoise Twin – 1995
Given to Subash and Sobana when we traveled to Hyderabad India in 1995.
Stan and I decided to go to India. We had heard it was such an exotic place. So when a trip to India was announced at our local Denver Friendship Force club, we joined the trip. This trip included a week’s home stay in Hyderabad, India with a family who had two boys age 18 and 20, about the same age as our children. Subash and Shobana Meta were interesting people. I remember Shobana telling me that she thought all American families were like what she saw on TV from the Jerry Springer show. She believed women should stay at home and care for the children and not work outside the home.
Life in India was different. The family we stayed with was middle class. They lived in a two-story three bedroom home. We stayed in the basement. We kept our belongings in a locked wall closet. The bathroom was tiled from floor to ceiling in blue. Water was at a premium so a trickle came out of the shower head. Their maid washed some of our clothes one day in the tiled bathroom by hand-scrubbing as if she were in a river. Our well-beaten clothes were hung out to dry on a line strung across the roof. A four foot porch surrounded the home. The five foot solid wall separating the rest of the neighborhood had glass shards on the top of the wall ledge to keep out intruders. When Shobana went out in the very early morning to pray with some friends, she locked the rest of the sleeping family members and us in the home from the outside. Good thing there was no fire.
The maid cleaned up the home each day, swept the dirt smooth in the front yard, then sprinkled rice flour in an interesting design in the drive way to welcome the neighborhood.
Most women wore bright colorful saris. It was not uncommon to see a sari blowing in the wind as a women rode through the dense traffic on their scooters.
The twin quilt that I made was in the brightest and strongest purples and deep turquoise that I have every used. It was prefect for India.
Around 2005, years later, Subash called from Houston and wanted to stop by for a visit. As I was busy working and Stan was just recovering from a heart attack, I really didn’t have the opportunity to take care of guests at the time. I talked with Subash for a while. He and Shobana had gone through a great tragedy when one their sons died at such a young age of unknown causes. He mentioned that they still remember the blanket that we gave them and have fond memories of our visit, as do we.