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Monday, February 21, 2011

Dad's Logs

When my mother passed away, Dad asked me to put all of the quilts away that she had made. He wanted to save them for “us kids” whenever he was gone, too.  Even though I did it, it made me sad to see my dad not sleeping with quilts.  As long as I could remember there were quilts on our beds so the lack of quilts on his bed just didn’t seem right. 

When Dad’s 90th birthday was approaching, I decided he needed to have a quilt of his own.  His favorite color was red and as he had been a farmer most of his life, I decided that a log cabin quilt in a straight furrow setting would be appropriate Though Mom used red in quilts, it was usually with other colors, so I decided to do a very graphic just reds and white/off white quilt.  There are many red fabrics and many different white and off white prints and solids to give a little more visual texture to the quilt.  The blocks are 10" and there are 9 blocks across and 10 rows of blocks making a 90 block quilt in honor of my dad's 90 years.  He passed away at age 93.  I'm so glad I did this quilt for him so he could enjoy sleeping under it for those 3 years.  The teddy bear on the table was made for me by my dear friend Diane when my mother passed away which was 10 years before dad.  I cherish that bear!


Since this was made as a bed quilt, I decided it would be appropriate for the picture you see to be of his quilt on a bed.


Here is a close up of the quilting in the light logs. 


The red logs were quilted in the ditch to offset the curvy, feathery design quilted in the light logs..  I don't know why I took this picture on the edge of the bed.  The block really isn't curved, it's the edge of the mattress!

As you can see, this was a quilt that was used up until my dad died.  It is on the bed pictured 11 months of the year.  In December a Christmas quilt is on that bed and the log cabin quilt is draped on the back of our family room sofa or on a chair in the family room. 

Since I can't count, I had extra blocks that with just a few more made a twin sized quilt top.  On that top I put a piano key border in just the white/off white fabrics and machine appliqued farm animals around the border.  So far it is still a top.  I should quilt it.  I should quilt all of the quilt tops sitting in the quilt top basket.  This weekend I started putting another quilt on the design board and cut parts for another since I was cutting.  Oh, yes, I really should stop making tops and quilt the ones I already have and I will after I get these two tops finished.

Do any of you make tops and let them sit for maybe even years unquilted?  Do I hear a "guilty".  Thought so! 

4 comments:

JoQuilter said...

Oh yes, even I have maybe 2/3 or even 4/5 quilt tops not yet quilted but the number will soon be reduced by one as I plan to make the backing for one of those quilts next week and send it to a longarm quilter to be machine basted so I can then have the fun of "big stitch hand quilting" it.

Because my quilts are machine basted every 2/3 inches I can have the pleasure of wadding them up in my lap and quilting them anywhere, although my favorite place is sitting in my platform rocker.

Lois Arnold said...

Jo, I think the only people who get all their tops quilted are the ones who send their quilts to the longarmers to quilt. Even then it sometimes takes several months as the longarmers do get backed up.

I might consider having my quilts basted by a longarmer, then I might get to them faster. Of course, I have to make the backs first.

Lorinda said...

Do we have to count the quilt tops laying around? I can count at least 6 without thinking too hard. One I will probably get out and baste sometime in the next few months and send to the kids for a baby quilt. It is a little large but it is a design Hank always like -- wool mittens. Then I'll have to get busy and make a whole new quilt in cotton for the baby too. See, something always happens that requires something new!

Lois Arnold said...

Lorinda, No, don't count them, it might be intimidating to know how many await your attention! I found a couple I had forgotten about while looking for a specific fabric this weekend. I need to make some backs and get busy, but I have this new quilt on the design board with almost all the pieces in pkace, Sewing it together is a lot more appealing right now. And then there is the one on the cutting table that I've been cutting to use as a leader & ender quilt and on and on it goes. More tops, not so many finished quilts.