During the December 2020 Omicron surge, I did an online mystery quilt through Calico Hutch Quilt Shop in Hayward, MN. This was the Evergreen and Ivy Winter Sew Along that took 6 week. It’s the first mystery quilt I did and choosing fabrics was daunting. I went with a collection of Jan Mullens fabrics, with a few other fat quarters to fill in. I managed to only have to buy the light sashing, everything else was stash.
DK Quilt Guild: A place for quilters to gather, share ideas, projects, and to make the world a better place, one quilt at a time. Join us and share your thoughts, projects, questions, and tips. Quilters here are at many different levels of skill. Beginners and non-quilters are welcome, too.
A little bit of back story. My mom (who you will hear a lot about in my quilting stories) loved to combine her love of quilting and travel. She would go to Australia every other year to explore and visit friends. She searched for Australian fabrics, visited shops, met local quilters, and subscribed to Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine. In the mid 90s she ran across Jan Mullens, a AU fabric designer who used bright colors and whimsical designs. This is right up my alley… I can never seem to pass up color. We started collecting these fabrics and used them whenever we could; baby quilts, tshirt quilts and anything else we could fit them in.
This is the quilt we made for my son’s college graduation. It includes t-shirts from kindergarten through college. We ended up having to make a second Eagle Scout quilt with just his Boy Scout t-shirts.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I was fortunate to go with my Mom in 2005 for our own AU Quilt Tour. We started in Canberra with a weekend class with Liuxin Newman aka The Thimblelady for hand quilting and turn needle applique using her unique (at the time) thimble design. In Sydney we traveled by walking, ferry and bus to visit as many shops as we could. When we went to Brisbane, we took a bus trip to Toowoomba to visit Pauline’s Quilters World shop and meet Pauline Rogers. We ended up in Melbourne for the Australasian Quilt Convention. What an experience, what a trip!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyway… back to today. I meant to get finished with the binding before today, but I still have two sides to go. I had to have a little granddaughter time with my two next-door girls before they go back to school in a couple of weeks. (Yes, I definitely know how lucky I am to have them so close. And every time Coco comes over to visit me in the sewing room, she tells me how lucky she feels to have me nearby. You can never hear that too often.)
So, finally I will close with one final photo.
There is a bit of unintended wonkiness in the blocks. It’s mostly being in a rush to get done before the next week’s clue and the lack of using my seam ripper enough. My daughter says that the fabric lends itself to being a little “wavy”. I always love her forgiving critiques. The long arm quilter used yellow thread with flowers and butterflies which is just perfect.
Now I just have to figure out where this quilt will find a home. I’ll probably put out word to extended family.