Joyce Kropewnicki

Quilts I have Made

In the 1980s I attended a quilt class at Cloth World, the local fabric store. Eleanor Burns or one of her representatives was teaching the class on Quilt in a Day. This concept intrigued me as my Mom had been working on several quilts her whole life.  Finishing a quilt in a day would be amazing.

I only remember Mom finishing one and starting many. It was made of fabrics that were used in my sister Nancy and my dresses, scraps of calico and fabrics she bought or traded with friends. The hand sewn quilt was two four inch pieces hand sewn together leaving a small opening where she stuffed at least one nylon stocking, maybe two. This was in the 1960’s when women wore nylons with garter belts instead of panty hose with both legs contained in the same garment. Mom worked on these square units in the evening to relax in front of the TV. She had stacks of these squares in baskets or piles sorted according to the steps in the process. Once she had a good number of them completed she placed them side by side so no similar fabric was next to each other. Kind of like a crazy quilt with some planning.

She hand-sewed the sides together piece by piece, Then attached a button on each side in the middle of the square. This quilt fit a double bed for sure and maybe was big enough for a queen. I slept under it a time or two while visiting my parents. With all the buttons and nylons this quilt was heavy and warm as can be. It probably would warm you outside in an Alaskan winter.
One year in the 1990’s after Mom had moved from Greeley to a retirement community in Lakewood, I entered this quilt in the display of quilts at Denver’s capital building. Two or three hundred quilts are displayed once a year in the capital. They are hung from the ornate molding. I added the strip of fabric so Mom’s quilt could be hung there. After several attempts to hang it up, they called back to say this quilt was too heavy and they were afraid that suspending it from the molding might be too much weight and damage the molding. So the quilt was accepted, but not displayed. Mom and I enjoyed visiting the capital and looking at all the other quilts. I went again this year in July to see the annual quilt treasurers that people had created. It is an amazing sight to see all the colors and patterns people have worked up from fabric.

Quilt-in-a-day was the way I wanted to approach quilts. To actually finish one in a short period of time really fit my personality and available spare time while raising two children. After the class, I bought an instruction book, tools for cutting strips and the amount of fabric needed to make a king sized log cabin quilt. This was in the early 1980’s when country dusty blue was all the rage from the strong popular colors of oranges and lime greens as remnants of the 70’s. I think at the time we had just remodeled our kitchen with this same dusty blue-grey. I still have a counter top with that color. I liked it well enough to keep it all these years even though most folks had changed to granite counter tops.

At the time I started the first quilt project, the instructions were to wash the fabric to remove the sizing or keep the quilt from shrinking and then iron it so you could cut it up in 2 ½ inch strips. I have become lazier now as I seldom wash the fabric first. I just cut it up and use it. No one has complained. My quilting has become less perfect and more humble along the way, which relieves a lot of pressure to be perfect and increases the enjoyment.
By this time my kids were about age 7 and 13, they entertained themselves for hours at a time while I learned how to make this quilt. Eleanor Burns’ instruction booklets are amazing. She provides such straight forward directions and comes around the patterns from the back door to make finishing and assembling a breeze. She has a very creative, process.  This genius brings quality to what could be a disaster.

It was more like quilt in a week by the time the fabric was prepared, cut and assembly-line sewn into the “flags” of blocks as they are called. It was such a kick to see the pattern develop with each step of adding on another strip to the pattern.

In the mid 1990’s I decided to make a goal of finishing a thousand quilts. Quite a challenge indeed! Every time I made a quilt I noticed my stash of fabric only dwindled by a small amount. It seemed I have collected and my Mom had left me enough fabric to make that many quilts. We’ll see. It seems I am always adding a few 3 yard units of fabric when I see an attractive print on sale. My husband Stan likes to work with wood occasionally. He has little scraps and some larger pieces he saves for projects as he needs them. When he sees the fabric in a bag from the store he asks me if I picked some more “wood”.

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.

11) May Baskets – Light turquoise and Yellow – Sofa Throw – 1993
Made this for Mom for maybe her 80th birthday or so about 1993.

I wanted to change the quilt pattern from Log Cabin to May Baskets. I probably put aside quilting for several years while life goes on.

I started working at EG&G – Rocky Flats in 1991. By 1992 I moved to procurement and worked with a gal named Donna Murray who was teaching me my new job. She was having a baby probably about 1993 and I wanted to make her a quilt for a gift.

This became a two quilt project in one. The May Basket pattern was pretty and different with all the triangles. This was another Eleanor Burns book, but a little harder than the log cabin pattern. I wasn’t really very efficient at measuring the fabrics for filling in the corners and the sides with the patterned block set on-point so Mom’s was a bit of a mess. I finished it anyway, but part of the pattern was lost under the borders. She was so nice she really never mentioned that I botched this one up.

The fabric was that French foo-foo flowery print that looked great no matter what you did with it. I used a turquoise and yellow fabric for this two color May Basket pattern. The soft turquoise and pale yellow were about the same intensity of color so the pattern almost blended together. May basket is a lot of work for blending. More contrast in needed to really show off this pattern. I used a really dense filling that is thinner and very warm. This was a change from previous quilts made with the puffy 80’s fat comforter look.

Mom used this quilt or at least kept it folded on the end of a spare bed. I have it now and use it every day on the sofa on chilly evenings. That dense thin stuffing is warm. I don’t notice the pattern problem really.

12) May Baskets – Light turquoise and Yellow – 4 block Baby quilt – 1993
This one was made for Donna Murray’s new baby girl in about 1993.

This pattern worked better as I had learned from the errors in Mom’s quilt of the same fabric described above. Donna loved it a lot. It was a big hit at the shower.

13) May Baskets – Peach with a black background prints for the basket – queen size – 1998
This was the first wedding present quilt I made for my niece Tracy Holmes when she married Steve Libby in the late 1990’s.

I was finally getting better with the May Basket pattern. It seems odd to make a wedding quilt with black in it, but black and white weddings were all the rage. Peach was a popular color at the time as people moved from those drab dusty blues and mauves of the 1980’s to peach for a short time.

14) May Baskets – Peach with black background prints for the basket – sofa throw – 1998
Made in the late 1990’s. This one was from the extra blocks from Tracy Holmes quilt.

I added pretty strong darker turquoise for the filling blocks between the May Basket blocks that were on-point. That really set off the quilt and made it more interesting. I used this on the sofa to warm up on chilly days for years until it was worn to sheds. It is long gone now and I don’t know where.

15) May Basket – Bright Kelly green print with white fabric that had a white printed design – 1994.
For Robert and Rebecca Truitt wedding present about 1994.

Robert and Ryan Truitt were twins and were best friends with John through grammar school and most of high school until they changed interests. There are several young boys who gathered at out home after school to play together. It was always satisfying to know where there were and what they were up to. Sometimes they would take a walk to the ditches and play in the empty culverts. God knows what really went on there and why boys were so intrigued with spiders and bugs that might be living in the dark holes. Other times they sat giggling in their high pitched young boys voices playing strategy games such as battleship, wars games and of course onto dungeons and dragons when they got a little older and their voices started changing. We always had a fridge full of sugar pop. Dr. Pepper was one of their favorites. Other times the kids would play their our version of war games against each other outside by the ditch with their wrist held pea shooters. They used pinto beans for ammunition. Good thing know one put their eyes out.

Years pasted and the gang still got together. Mostly John, Ryan, Robert, Gordie and Jake played together. Sometimes Darren would join them but not often. At least until the hormones set in and girls and studies for college became more the focus.

Robert tumbled head over heels for Rebecca when they met at his part time job at McDonalds. He was hell-bent to marry her as soon as he graduated from high school and he did. Rebecca as dressed in the puffiest bright white dress I have ever seen. It was interesting to see all of his friends dressed up for their modest wedding. Robert moved to Limon where he worked for Rebecca’s dad in his garage. He learned to fix cars and had kids right away.
Ryan went off and joined the Marines and last time I saw him years ago he had married a fellow Marine. He was in the intelligence section of the Marines. He brought over his little baby to show us.

Geordie worked on his PHD in Polish studies for a really long time and finally became a professor in Chicago.

Jake studied chemistry or some type of bio-tech subject, married and lives in the northwest with his wife he met on the internet.

John went on to CU to graduate with an engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering. His first job was as a computer scientist. Now with a masters degree from Tuff’s in computer engineering he can put those early strategy skills to work.

Derrick never did seem to focus his intellect like some of the rest of the boys. One time he picked John up in his Mom’s red sports car to chase around looking for mostly trouble. Last I saw him he was bagging groceries at the local market.

16) May Basket – Bright Kelly Green prints with white on white patterned print – 1993
One lonely block made into a lap robe when Mom was at Allison Care Center.

When I first started making quilts I liked to make an extra block so I could remember the quilt fabrics and patterns. Then I would finish the blocks into kind of a wall hanging for table cover. Jamie has a couple of them. Now I try to take a picture of the top and maybe the finish quilt if I remember to snap the shot. Sometimes I use up all the fabric or there is just enough to finish the pattern for the quilt with no spare blocks or scarps.
There was one block left from Robert and Rebecca’s wedding quilt. I had several different patterns of the same green color hue that I had used in the wedding quilt so each basket was different. I used strips of that fabric to border around the one quilt May Basket block. It made a pretty large lap robe.

I had forgotten that I made this one until I looked one day in the old round topped trunk my mom had given me. There is was waiting to be used bright green as the day is long. By that time around 2000 Mom had broken her hip when she took a stroll out the front door of the care home she was staying and fell. I remembered they called me in the middle of the night as said Mom was being stubborn about getting up and back into the house. Stan and I rushed to the house to check things out. Sure enough Mom was lying on their sidewalk, yes too stubborn to get up with quiet tears running down her cheeks from the pain she had suffered from her broken hip. I had never seen my Mom cry before as she had the stiff upper lip to always suck it up. I turned to the caregiver and said, “911 – that’s who you call. Can’t you see that she has broken her hip and can’t get up?”

Well, that was the end of that care center. I would not pay for the remainder of her month’s stay there as to me their services ended when they left my Mom on the sidewalk to suffer. They needed to change their name from Quality Care to something more appropriate.

After Stan and I followed the ambulance to the hospital and waited while they x-rayed to confirm the damage and then waited hours or was it days for her turn in the operating room, we lined up an appropriate nursing center close to our home. If you have every experienced one of these needed situations, you catch on real quick that personal items are not to be really considered as personal. Also all washing done by the centers, is with the hottest water and strongest soap.

We settled Mom in to Allison Care Center as best you can in this type of situation that she disliked. She had Alzheimer’s which added to the confusion or maybe took away part of the stress. All her clothing and articles were clearly marked with a permanent sharply with her name; France Swanson. We even printed a dog tag and attached it to her watch in hopes she could keep it for a while.

I knew she liked quilts and hoped that the bright green lap robe would cheer her up. So I wrote her name in large letters on the back of the quilt with the black sharpie. I put it on the end of the bed to brighten up the room. Sure enough next morning when I visited it was gone. I was furious at first and then started to look for it in other rooms. I guess people wonder off with each other’s stuff from time to time. I found it at the end of one of the other resident’s beds. I talked to the people at the nurses station, who assured me that it belonged to the other lady. Give a break. Who on earth would have a quilt just like that one made of bright green fabric in the May Basket pattern. I escorted them to the other resident’s room and turned the quilt back. Right their in extra big letters was the name – Frances Swanson.

We moved the quilt back to Mom’s room, but that quilt didn’t have much staying power. It disappear to be lost forever at the next washing cycle. I hope whoever took it really needed it and enjoyed it.

17) May Basket – Yellow and white 5-20-2003
Frances Swanson’s 90th birthday 5-20-2003

I had been working at a full time job for about since 1991 and had put aside lots of my craft and pottery projects. I went to a team building seminar with my co-workers. Along with business information there was a section on goal setting. This really hit home when you view life from what is left not where you have been. I was 57 at the time and figured I had about 20 more years to get things accomplished before I slowed down toward retirement. I had lots of fabric of my own and bags of fabric pieces from my mom when she moved from her home into a retirement apartment. Every time I made a quilt I noticed for tops you really didn’t use up much of the fabric stash. I figured that I had enough fabric to make a thousand quilts. I made a commitment that day to give it try.

When I started I had the plan to use up the fabric I had collected. In working through some of the projects I noticed that when fabric was on sale a new piece here or there really perked things when making some patterns or adding borders to the edges or the pieces top.

I thought it would be important that the first quilt I made starting this 1,000 quilt project would be for my mom as she was instrumental in teaching me how to sew and she loved quilt projects so much during her live time.

18) May Basket – Yellow and white background 4-23-2003
Josh Arnold’s first baby girl born 4-23-2003

While working for Qwest, I met the most interesting people. Josh Arnold was one of those folks. He was young eager to learn, friendly and polite. His enthusiasm for his job and outlook for the cheery side of life was contagious. He and his wife were expecting their first baby about the time I met him. He was so excited. I was going to be a little girl, the first on his side of the family for a generation or so of boys.

While making Mom’s 90th birthday quilt, it saved out four blocks of the same May Basket pattern for a quilt for Josh’s new baby. The yellow print for so cute with cheery butterflies in the print. His wife Julian was an artist and wanted to know right away the name of the pattern when she saw this quilt. They are such a nice family. Josh went on to work other places, but was such a joy to my life at the time I knew him and met his wife and little girl.

His little girl was born the same day as my sister, Nancy’s birthday. I will always remember both of their special days.

) Double Irish Chain – Black background with rose floral print and white – Queen – 1999
Beth Henry and Adam Jones wedding quilt.

Beth Henry, Geordie Jones, Tricia Hicks and my son John hung around together after school when they were in high school. They kept track of each other on holidays and summer vacation when they all went off to college in different cities. Still to this day they keep tabs on each other now that they have families and/or jobs that have taken them out of our Lakewood community. Its is good to see bonds of friendship last through the decades.

When Beth went to college in Durango she met the love of her life, Adam Jones. They married and are living happily every after raising their three little kids; Caleb, Zoey and Harmony. At the time they married black weddings and decorating with black was all the rage. Wedding parties had elegant bridesmaids in black gown framing the bride in white. I thought it would be interesting to make Beth a quilt for her wedding out of May Basket triangles of black background with small rose colored prints. I used white eyelet for the background to dress it up. It is always pleasurable to make a quilt for someone’s wedding as a special day of remembrance.

Fifteen years later in 2013, Beth mentioned that her quilt needed some repair. I have seen these before. The seems are usually wore and almost impossible to fix. I found a bag of scraps from when I made her quilt in 1998. When I went to her house to check out the damage I found that only the back had shown wear. Beth had removed most it. I took it home and ripped out the seems on the edge the held the remainder of the backing, clipped the few remaining hand ties and tossed the old batting and edges. It was amazing that the quilt top was in such good shape. I washed it and put it back together with new batting and a new sheet for the back. Beth and Adam were happy to have it back in tack again. Wishing them 15 more years.

20) May Basket – Pink with green polka dot and muslin background 6-6-2009
Brittany Kihlthau Nielsen and Shellby Nielsen wedding 6-6-2009

In 2007, I found the most exciting fabric with polka dots. There was turquoise with brown and the compliment brown with turquoise. Another had black with white dots and their compliment. I bought a few yards of bright pink with lime green and the compliment green with pink polka dots. I made a few blocks of the May Basket pattern using muslin as the background. The idea was that I would have some blocks that were green with pink dots and some that were pink with green dots in the same quilt. When I laid out the blocks on the floor I discovered that using both colors was a little overly busy looking. I decided to make a pink polka dot quilt and a green one. I finished the tops a year or two ago and hung them in the closet just waiting for the right people or occasion to finish them up. It turns out that both tops were queen size and were given for wedding gifts in 2009.

My grand niece Brittany had fallen in love with Shelby while she was in college. She planned for over a year for her wedding June 6, 2009. I asked my sister what colors Brittany liked. When she said pink, I knew just the quilt that I would finish up for her. Stan and I took a trip to South Dakota and on the way through Nebraska dropped off the quilt for Brittany. It is really pink as I used pink plaid for the borders, so I’m sure she will enjoy it for a while at least. It was certainly fun to make.

21) May Basket – Green with pink polka dot with muslin background
Sarah Fischer Jones (Rachel’s Sister) for her wedding 7-2009

The rest of the May Basket patterned blocks that were green with bright pink polka dots were set aside for a while. I had several yards a taupe/grey subtle print that had been lying around in my stash of fabric. That fabric just didn’t seem to go with anything. One day I noticed that it would work with the bright green May Basket blocks as the filler when the patterned blocks were set on-point. I finished this up and used up every scrap of the taupe/grey and the green in the borders. That was my goal after all, to use of the fabrics. It came out very pretty.

It hung in my closet next to the pink May Baskets for the same time. In 2009 I made a point to try to finish up the tops that I had been making the past several years. I had 25 hanging neatly in the closet with no homes or plans. I do enjoy piecing them all together; however it wouldn’t do my family any service to find a closet full of unfinished tops when I pass on. Finishing quilts is not quite as fun as making the tops and watching the patterns and colors emerge from strips of fabrics. It’s September now and I have finished 12 tops. Two of them were the wedding May Basket quilts, one in pink and one in green.

Sarah is my daughter-in-law Rachel’s sister. Sarah is such a bubbly person who fills Rachel and John’s life with joy when they spend time together. She is our granddaughter, Anya’s Godmother. When I heard she was getting married, I made a point to finish up this quilt for her and her husband Chris. When Rachel and John were visiting in May, they took the quilt back to Boston with them for Sarah and Chris. I had doubled up the batting to make it nice and warm for the winter. We packed it in those nifty plastic bags that you suck all the air out to make it flat enough to fit in their luggage. Sarah and Chris liked it. This quilt was one of the prettiest I’ve made. Must be all the practice with the other May Basket patterned quilt I had made.

This would make the fifth wedding quilt I had made for a wedding gift;
1) Tracy Holmes Libby,
2) Robert and Rebecca Truitt,
3) Beth Henry and Adam Jones,
3) Brittany Kihlthau and Shellby Nielsen and
4) Sarah Fischer and Chris Jones.

22) May Basket – Chocolate with Turquoise polka dots
Top finished 2007 – Waiting to be stuffed and for backing.

Part of the stash of fabric that I bought during my polka dot phase included chocolate with deep turquoise polka dots. Browns were just making a come back in 2007 edging out blacks as the standard. Shirts, tops, pants and suits were showing up in department stores in chocolate brown along with sheets and pillows and other home decorating ideas. This fabric really sang out to me.

I found a pretty large scrap of fabric from Mom’s collection that was deep turquoise that I used for the background. There was only enough fabric to make a through to fold up on the bottom of the bed.

In Mom’s stash of fabrics I found a turquoise with small white printed design. It just blended with the other colors in the May Basket block. Mom must have made a dress with this fabric as the facing pattern for the sleeve was still pinned onto the fabric. I just had enough of this to fill between the blocks.

Some day I’ll finish that up the top with the stuffing and backing. It is really striking with these intense colors.

I sold this quilt for $135 at a garage sale Dec 2012. The lady who bought it just loved the colors.

Hanna Williamson’s Ohio Star Pink Barbie Doll 7th Birthday Quilt

Detail of Hanna Williamson’s Pink Barbie Doll 7th Birthday quilt – Sept 2003

Anya’s Bright Pink with Yellow Baby Quilt

Detail of Nancy’s Burgundy Ohio Star

Nancy’s Burgundy Ohio Star

Nancy’s Burgundy Ohio Star

Nancy Ohio Star made from scraps from our Mom – Frances Swanson

Aug 2003 – Joyce with blocks for Jamela’s Navy Ohio Star

Detail of Jamela’s Navy Ohio Star

Jamela’s Navy Ohio Star

John Kropewnicki Ohio Star variation – a gift when he moved to his new house in Somerville.
Making Apple’s for John’s Ohio Star

Making John’s Ohio Star

Detail of John’s Ohio Star

John’s Ohio Star

Detail of Bright Pink with Yellow Ohio Star

Bright Pink with Yellow Ohio Star

Ohio Star – Bright pinks and yellows – double bed
Top finished

Ohio Star Pink – Baby Quilt
Baby Quilt for Marilyn Dieckhoff’s granddaughter – Alexander

July 2003 Joyce with blocks for Wind Mills for Orange quilt and pink quilt. These were assembly line sewn at the same time.

Wind Mill – Orange with printed paisley and pepper mill fabric – Wall Hanging
Joyce’s in spare bedroom as window covering. Top 7-2003. Finished 1-2009

Wind Mill – Orange with white printed fabric of paisley and pepper mills

Detail of Wind Mill – Orange with printed fabric of paisley and pepper mills 7-12-2003

After restarting my quilt fest in 2003 and a couple of successes with triangles in the May Basket pattern, I decided to make the triangles bigger and use them as Wind Mill blocks. I pawed through the stack of fabrics that Mom had left. She had a lot of odd pieces in a variety of colors. I found a really interesting paisley print in orange hues and a white print with orange pepper mills. I remember that pepper mill print. It seems that when I was about twelve Mom made me a summer jumpsuit type outfit with this print that included shorts and a sleeveless top. It must have been pretty complicated to make and pretty odd looking judging from the look of the fabric. It is the thoughtfulness that counts. I think I wore it to one of the church picnics. Several people commented on the outfit, but probably thought it was a little odd looking with orange pepper mills. I probably never wore it again.

I had another odd halter top that I wore occasionally in the summer. The top was grey with dusty yellow big ole’ polka dots. I was and still am very modest and didn’t want anyone to see my breast. I’m sure it was cute and all, but I much preferred shirt. Now t-shirts fit my fancy just fine for after work and weekend wear.

Well I took the orange paisley and orange pepper mills and made as many wind mill block as I could, which was only five. I alternately placed them between a solid orange that I found in the same group of fabrics and then bordered it with the rest of the pepper mills fabric along with a plan white border.

I really liked this quilt which was only big enough for a wall hanging. I loaded it up with two lavers of fill to make is nice and cushy looking. I put an extra strip of fabric on the back to hold a dowel so it could be hung on the wall. It turns out I needed a covering for our basement window as I had guests stay there occasionally so I placed a yardstick in the fabric channel and hung it between two bookcases. It sure brightens up the room.

23) Wind Mill – Rose with solid polished cotton – Sofa Throw
Marilyn Dieckhoff – 2006????

Marilyn Dieckhoff’s Pink Wind Mills July 2003

Details of Marilyn Dieckhoff’s Pink Wind Mills July 2003

My good friend Marilyn from work and I shared a lot of artsy/crafty experiences. She was really good with tools, hammers, saws, pliers and the like when she repaired and dolled up antiques she found. I was better at the softer things like fabric and squishy clay. On our lunch we sometimes would shop at the local craft stores. She would be looking at flower pots she could paint and decorate, then fill with goodies to cheer up her friends. I honed into the fabric section of the store.

Right after I started my quilt sewing fest I looked diligently through the fabrics trying to match things up to use up the fabrics Mom and I had collected. It is sometimes a tedious task as amounts of fabric are limited and skills working with different patterns were also limited. I had a couple of quilt pattern books to refer to from 1976 when I first started to be interested in this hobby.

I was working with triangles as you could sew several together at a time and then just cut them apart. The patterns were easier and corners seemed to match up pretty accurately. I loved the log cabin eyelet fabric that I used for the Australian ladies. I was shiny and elegant looking. I shopped to find eyelet, but only found really poor quality that I didn’t want to even use – yet.

I found a dusty rose and mixed that with white eyelet for the triangles. I made them into windmills. I only had enough fabric for a few. I filled in between them with solid rose colored polished cotton that seemed to complement the shine of the eyelet in the windmills.

I just about had this quilt top finished when a tragedy struck my friend Marilyn’s family. We knew about each other’s children and some of their goings on. Her daughter, Leslie, was just settling down with a nice person who unfortunately decided to take his own life on one fateful day. I one moment hopes and dreams were dashed for Leslie. Marilyn was right there to comfort her in their grief.

I quickly finished the rose colored windmill quilt and gave it to Marilyn to cheer her up. I’m sure she enjoyed it and appreciated that it was one of the first ones I finished since starting this quilt fest.