This kind of quilt is more than a blanket or wall hanging or even a work of art. It is life itself captured on cloth for the person to hug and hold and love. My dear cousins were already asking to be on a list to receive it next. ;-) I have no doubt this piece will stay in our family for generations to come.
I made this with some fabric from my stash: some white eyelet with a tiny floral and heart design; some rose/orange cotton for backing to the eyelet and to the back of the quilt, as well. I added photos of flowers on cloth from her garden and mine around the border, leaves cut from deep green batik became the family tree scattered between photos of family members. I made it in a pillowcase format so no extra binding was necessary. I was in a hurry as I had the idea to do it two weeks before her birthday!
And got it done just in time.
On the back I sewed a story of her life on cloth and a second page with numbered rows associated with the rows of photos and every ones names in the photos in each row. These I bound in green and hand sewed to the back, along with a photo of myself, bound similarly.
I top sewed free motion the names of everyone in our family as they entered the family starting with her parents (my grand parents), herself as baby, siblings, husband, children, etc.under the photos in each row.
At the very bottom I top sewed free motion a Happy Birthday greeting to my aunt.
6 comments:
What a wonderful and precious gift. How nice of you to make this for your aunt. The best present ever for her, I think. It must be the only thing you could give her, that she didn't alreade have too ;-).
About Art Quilt Magazine: I have a membership, so I get it in my mailbox. These were some I did not have yet. I got a member this year. I love this magazine too. The other one, Paper and Siccors, is one I have never seen her in the stores. Maybe I will buy one at Ebay, so I can see if it is something for me too. Must be... A friend of mine lives in Houston and I may send things to her. Twice a year, or more, she travels to the Netherlands and than she brings along what I bought. So sweet. It is very expensive to ship magazines abroad. It costs 11 dollar, if I'm right. So it saves a lot of money that my friend is so nice to me.
The African boy I painted is not someone I met. Although I have been to South Africa for four months. I love South Africa and I think the love of this country made me draw an African boy/young man.
Thank you for all your comments on my blog.
Corryna
Hi Lynn, Corryna told me you would perhaps like to join our new online art quilt group. That would be great! Please send me an email (lindarobertus at hotmail dot com) and I will give you all the information you need. Hope to hear from you soon! Best wishes, Linda
PS Your quilts are gorgeous; it's incredible that you only started quilting a year ago!
Hello Lynn, If you use metallic thread you should have a low thread tension. And it will help to put the thread in a cup that you situate behind your sewing machine. Than you attach a paper-clip above (back) of your sewing machine and you lead the thread through the paper-clip to the frond and then how you always lead it. This way the distance between the thread and the needle is longer and that helps a lot. But mostly a lower thread tension would work too. And there are special needles for metallic thread as well. Hope I make myself clear. It is difficult explaining things in an other language.
About the fabrics on my blog: Yes, I dyed them myself. Thank you for your comments.
Good luck with the metallic threads.
Corryna
Lynn I found a site for you: http://creativityjourney.blogspot.com/2008/02/all-about-bobbins-and-threads.html
Hope it helps :-)
Corryna
What a wonderful gift. Full of memories. Your quilts are beautiful.
Thank you all for your kudos for my art quilts, and for introducing me to the art quilt people, I have joined the group...
Thanks too, corryna for the site to check out re threads etc.
Much appreciated.
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