After the enjoyment and challenges of a workshop or other guild event, it’s fun—and inspiring—to see people bring their completed projects for Show and Tell.

If you have a story to go with your Show & Tell quilt, please let me know.

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Everyone who attended really enjoyed the workshop, and several said they were sooo happy we had gone ahead with it. The fabrics were gorgeous and the finished quilts will be too.

The sold-out March 28th Mola workshop with instructor Shirley Prakke was a delightful introduction to the unique combination of reverse and regular appliqué that originated with the Kuna people of Panama. Shirley—and a number of the class participants—brought many samples of Mola work purchased during visits to Panama. Showing a mix of traditional and contemporary designs, all the works were made with brightly coloured fabrics usually set off with black. Of particular interest was the variation in technique and skill level that the works displayed.

The start of the process with two layers of fabric basted together, the top layer cut and the edges folded under and sewn down

A completed variation with embroidery in the centre of each feather

Photos by Anne Pelton

During the February 2015 trunk show, many of the antique and vintage quilts brought by the speaker, Rita Solkin, were passed around, and we had the rare opportunity to handle them.

Rita Solkin also invited members to bring antique and vintage quilts of their own to share. Here are two.

Suzanne Patchell
This quilt was made by a distant relative, by marriage. I believe that she was born in the late 1800’s and lived well into her 90’s. When I met her she was probably in her 70’s but no one in the family knew for sure since she would never divulge her actual birth date. My recollection of her was of a woman ahead of her time—tall, snow white pageboy hairstyle, stylish, brightly coloured clothes and great chunky, costume jewelry. I think the quilt was probably made in the 1940’s from fabric from her dresses and other clothing—no doubt a measure of frugality but also a way to continue to enjoy the bright colours she loved. Even though there is some deterioration in some of the fabric, I am hoping that it will not just be discarded and can find a good home with a grandchild or great grandchild who will value the family significance.

Katherine Morgan
This antique red and white quilt is made with the traditional “Jacob’s Ladder” block. It was made by Ada MacKenzie, who was my children’s great aunt on their father’s side. Ada was the older sister of my children’s grandmother, and had died before their father and I married, so I never met her. The family lived in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. I do not know the exact date this quilt was made, but an appraiser has judged it to be between 1890 and 1920. Some of the piecing is done by hand and some by machine, and it is hand quilted. We have very little from this side of the family, so this quilt is truly a family treasure.

Our February speaker, Rita Solkin, invited members to bring antique and vintage quilts of their own to share. If you brought a quilt and have a photo, please share your quilt’s story with us.

This quilt was made by a distant relative, by marriage. I believe that she was born in the late 1800’s and lived well into her 90’s. When I met her she was probably in her 70’s but no one in the family knew for sure since she would never divulge her actual birth date. My recollection of her was of a woman ahead of her time—tall, snow white pageboy hairstyle, stylish, brightly coloured clothes and great chunky, costume jewelry. I think the quilt was probably made in the 1940’s from fabric from her dresses and other clothing—no doubt a measure of frugality but also a way to continue to enjoy the bright colours she loved. Even though there is some deterioration in some of the fabric, I am hoping that it will not just be discarded and can find a good home with a grandchild or great grandchild who will value the family significance.

Our February speaker, Rita Solkin, invited members to bring antique and vintage quilts of their own to share. If you brought a quilt and have a photo, please share your quilt’s story with us.

This antique red and white quilt is made with the traditional “Jacob’s Ladder” block. It was made by Ada MacKenzie, who was my children’s great aunt on their father’s side. Ada was the older sister of my children’s grandmother, and had died before their father and I married, so I never met her. The family lived in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. I do not know the exact date this quilt was made, but an appraiser has judged it to be between 1890 and 1920. Some of the piecing is done by hand and some by machine, and it is hand quilted. We have very little from this side of the family, so this quilt is truly a family treasure.

Just some of the wonderful quilts-in-progress from the Layer Cake Fun Day. These are done following the mystery quilt instructions – others worked on other Layer Cake patterns, some on their own projects. Everyone had fun and there were many, many tempting pot luck treats.

Photos by Sherry  John

Made for my three and five year old grandsons with lots of pockets to hide their cars in, and snuggle under the flannel side when they go camping or just to watch a movie at home. I started by cutting 10 1/2 inch blocks out of large adult jeans and then realized the boys’ old jeans were too small to get blocks that big so I cut out their pockets and appliquéd them on to larger blocks made from the legs of their jeans. The nice thing about this quilt is, it doesn’t need a binding and I can add to it as the boys grow. I found a couple of patterns online and improvised from there. The seams are 1/2 inch. I did break a couple of denim jean needles on my machine only because I tried to sew around some metal buttons. One cotton block is from my old teaching days painting shirt that says, “School is Cool”, another is from a cotton shirt from “Alaska”. Everything else is pure denim.

On October 16th I received an email from Brenda Acosta, an Outreach Worker with Burnaby Family Life’s Pre & Postnatal Services. This is some of what she wrote: “We have a program for Babies (under 6 months) & Mothers who are struggling with multiple barriers. We also have our Pregnancy Outreach Program for pregnant women. We are a support group for residence of Burnaby and New Westminster. We offer a nutritious lunch and educational talks each week for our clients and most importantly it is a way for our clients to form new supports with one another. Most of our clients are low-income, single parenting, isolated, in an abusive relationships and often our clients have multiple barriers. We have approximately 80 wonderful clients per week.”

I talked to Brenda the next morning. In her email she had asked if our guild could donate some quilts to the women she worked with. She had been to our quilt show in June and she was very impressed with what she saw. She told me that when she gave birth to her son 18 years ago a friend had given her a baby quilt, which she says her son still has on his bed. She was very touched, and she wanted her clients to have that same kind of experience. I said I would see what I could do. At our October Guild meeting I was given 3 baby quilts. I want to emphasize that this project was NOT to take away from our own Community Quilts Program but to add to it.

I contacted the other two quilt guilds on the North Shore and I talked it up with a couple of small quilting groups I meet with during the month. I mentioned it to a friend in Port Moody who is not a quilter but did have a friend who was a quilter, and that friend donated 3 baby quilts. I started to get emails about quilt donations from all over the lower mainland and a couple of quilts came from Nanaimo. There were quilts from Port Moody, Maple Ridge, Vancouver and of course the North Shore. They came from everywhere. It was raining quilts!!

Forty-one days later on Sunday December 7th, Brenda came to my house and collected 49 quilts which I had piled up on a table. It didn’t look like 49 quilts but they weighed what 49 quilts would weigh. The following Friday, December 12th, I met Brenda in Burnaby and gave her another 9 quilts, making it a grand total of 58 quilts. She had asked for 40.

Thank you everyone who participated in this off the North Shore Baby Quilts Project. I have a very strong feeling that I will be doing this again. Brenda wants to have coffee soon.

Betty Clarke