Nostalgia Quilt – The Story and the Reveal

Over the past several days I’ve been sharing pictures of some of the embroidery in my Mom’s Nostalgia Quilt. I think that this is the quilt she loves most because it has a story that is close to her heart. I asked her to share that story with my readers and this is what she had to say:

“My love of growing flowers started in northern Alberta in the early 1920s. I was about six years old when I was allowed to go visit with Miss Davis who lived on a farm 1½ miles away. She came to Canada after WWI and settled there but was homesick. Friends and family in England sent her seeds so she could make an English flower garden. I couldn’t stop looking at the beautiful plants so she offered me some seeds. Needless to say I ran all the way home so that Mom could help me make my own garden.

It was many years later and we moved several times and so have my flowers. I ended up in Scarborough, Ontario and I spread my lovely flowers throughout the neighbourhood. That was my passion for flowers.

 
While living in Alberta we had a one room school. The teacher lived in a cottage that we called "the teacher’s shack". She lived in the cottage through the week and went home to St. Paul on the weekend. Our winters then were long and cold. Mrs. Grace Labovcane, our teacher, found the nights long and lonely so she asked three of us senior girls (12 years old) if we would like to learn embroidery so with washed and bleached sugar and flour sacks we learned the basic stitches which to this day I am enjoying.

Mrs. Labovcane was an unusual teacher. One day she decided that the whole class should learn darning. If you had a torn mitten or sock that was fine. If not she would cut a hole and teach you how to mend it!

 

 

 

I shall never forget these two wonderful ladies. My Nostalgia quilt is a tribute to both of them.

 

Anne H”

Yellow Wallflowers

Queen Anne's Lace

Honeysuckle

Bluebells and buttercups

 

Here are some close-ups of the hand quilting in the corners of the quilt

 

Butterfly

Wild Rose

Yikes - a spider spins its web!

A heart

 

 

 

I hope you've enjoyed Mom's Nostalgia quilt and her inspiration. She is very excited that the world will see and enjoy this quilt. I would be so appreciative of any comments you leave and she will be thrilled to know that in sharing her quilt she has spread little seeds of pleasure! This is certainly a quilt to be treasured.

 

If have time to pop on over to Quilting Gallery's Show and Tell. I've entered Flora and Fauna. There are lots of beautiful applique quilts and you can vote here.

 

 

Well that’s it for today. I still have lots of reverse sewing to do, the Baskets and Nine Patches pattern and I might just baste a quilt for a friend of mine. So much to do so I had better get cracking!

Until I post again, happy sewing!

Flora and Fauna, Parts of the Garden - the reveal!

I hope you enjoyed the close-up shots of my quilt “Flora and Fauna, Parts of the Garden”. I did it this way because there is so much to see in the quilt and one picture of the whole just wouldn’t allow you to see the many details. Revealing the quilt in this way was also a journey of discovery for me ; I completely forgot that I embroidered one lonely snail in the garden! I’d been photographing the quilt for a week and only discovered the snail yesterday! All of the applique work was needle turn and many of the leaves were fussy cut from one of the six fabrics that I added to the three challenge fabrics. Did you figure out what the quilt might look like? Yes? No? Well here we go – but I can’t resist one more tease so I’ll start from the centre of the quilt and work my way out! Drum roll please…………
 

The centre.....

and a little further out....

 

and a little further out.......

 

Flora and Fauna, Parts of the Garden, 2008   28 ½” X 28 ½”

And there you have it – the finished quilt! I hope you enjoyed the picture I posted this week. I would love to hear what you thing so feel free to comment!

 

 

 

If you would like to try something similar here is my advice. Enjoy the creative process and the rhythm of handwork and focus on the thing you are doing at that moment. If you are appliqueing a leaf, focus on that, not the other 20 that have to be stitched. And it bears repeating, enjoy the process every stitch of the way! Oh, and it isn't a race so make it in your own time!

The Quilting Gallery Show and Tell quilts theme this weekend is squares and rectangles. Pop on over and vote for your favourite before Monday at 6:00pm (EDT)! I am a guest judge so I’ll be casting my votes as well. Next week’s Show and Tell theme is wall hangings and the following week is applique. I think will enter quilts in both. When I make my decision about which quilts to enter I’ll let you know and I’ll post some pictures! 

Tomorrow I will have a new tutorial for you so be sure to come back for a visit! Until I post again, happy sewing!