Moiya's Quilts

If my sisters and I are lucky enough to get on a three way phone call, we sometimes talk about our hobbies.  And if we Zoom, then Wyona can show her new paintings to me and Moiya takes us down to her sewing room.  I asked Moiya to send some pictures of what she has been doing, for in these cases, a pictures is worth a thousand words.

... Monkey Quilt ...
... some of the little patchwork pieces also have monkeys on them ... 

... at work at the sewing machine ...

... king sized quilt on Moiya's bed ...

Salsa Nights

... strips laid out on the basement floor ...

There you have it: the quilts a metaphor for Moiya's beautiful soul. 

Arta

Quilting as a Hobby

Tools of the trade - scissors, pliers, needles and thread

Hello,

I tried everything I knew to disuade Miranda from learning how to quilt.

I told her that it is the old-fashioned way, no one does it like that anymore, it is cheaper to buy a quilt than to make one home-made, that she should just wait for hand-me downs from other babies and do something else with her time, that I am no good at patchwork and couldn't help her, that it would take time and trouble to borrow the stands, buy the frames, and that she would have to buy new needles, a set of pliers, quilter's thread, and use a staple gun to attach the quilt to the frames.

... a few more stitches and we will be done

None of this was enough to prevent her from going ahead and putting on her baby quilt.

When we were quilting this morning, I was thinking of how beautiful the quilts are that Moiya and Wyona have been doing by machine, and I said to her, "I think you are going to be the only one who is making a quilt the old-fashioned way."

She just smiled.

I am leaving for 10 days, and Miranda is going to finish it on her own.  When I try to take picture of other women, they duck out on me.  I understand since there is a part of all of us that likes a finished photo presentation.  She was willing for a candid tonight.  This photo is not posed.  She is really quilting.

Look!  Even a thimble on her finger, and blood on the tip of her thumb if one could see it.

Stitch and pull.  Stitch and pull. 

Snip.

Arta

Quilting, the old fashioned way

Last night Miranda and I put a baby quilt on frames at her house. When the quilt was up on its frames, I said to her, “Now that was fast.” Then I remembered our two weeks of preparations. We had borrowed the stands from Moiya some months ago, we had shopped for the fabric last week, she had gone to buy the two by twos for the frames at Home Depot on another day, and we slipped over to Wal-mart on one of the trips to pick up crotchet cotton and needles.

But last night, Richard had gone to his garage to find bring in a box of assorted sizes of C-clamps, which seemed like the last of the equipment we needed. So what seemed to be a seamless hour when we knelt down on the floor to put the quilt on the frames had taken a lot of preparation. We laid the boards out and stapled the back fabric, the batting and printed material of the front to the frames.

We might have done two hours of quilting if we had been able to thread one of the needles. Not only did the needle threader break, but I couldn’t get the crotchet cotton through any of the needles in the assorted package we had purchased. I tried a few stitches with the largest needle in the package (sans thread) only to find that what was true in the past is still true now. When a person quilts, the distance between her thumb and her middle finger on which the thimble sits, cannot be so large that there is no room to manoeuvre the needle through the layers of fabric and batting.

That is when I remembered that my mother used to use a very short stubby needle, the eye of which was large enough for her to thread some crotchet cotton through. As well, Wyora did not prefer the ones called quilters but I do not remember what the package was called.

When I left her house, Miranda was Googling all of the quilting shops in Calgary, to see which was closest to us and what time they opened, so that we can get that precious right size of needle we need.

Quilting Frames

Quilting frames are a relic of the past.

At least that is what I thought.

Then Miranda told me that she is going to learn to quilt. The old fashioned way. You could have bowled me over with a feather. I thought my quilting days were over.

Moiya brought her quilting stands for us to use, transporting them in from Annis Bay.

Miranda has some yardage -- cotton that Joan, her mother, gave her to use up. So all we need is some batting, some frames and some quilters.

Frames? Where ever am I going to find frames. Both of my sets burned in the garage fire and I haven't missed them until now.
Already many people have turned us down as to helping us quilt.

What kind of excuse is "I have too much arthritis in my hands."

Do give us a phone call if you are "in" for a weekend of quilting. Or even a few hours will do.

Miranda is not the only one into the fabric arts.

Moiya showed me a picture of a beautiful bag on Michelle Wood's arm, one Michelle had made herself.

Wyona has a new sewing machine ... as of the fall.

Playing with fabric?

Not a bad hobby.

Anyone else joining us?

Arta