Made with love

The love of a grandmother!

Every quilt needs a label and this one I found at the Embroidery Library.  I inserted into the design the special little girl's name that the quilt was created for, my granddaughter Rachel Emma.

I am enjoying trying out my new skills I learned in classes at the Red Deer Sewing Centre.

The software that is used on the computer is the Digi Jr by Janome.  You can insert a file that is downloaded from an on-line store or from purchased CD software.  It then allows you to customize the message or edit the file.
The file is then saved and transferred to the embroidery machine and stitched out.

I find the software to be similar  (but a little more complex) to Microsoft's Publisher.

I hope every time Rachel sees this label she'll remember how much she is loved!

Rachel's Quilt

Circles form part of the top stitching

We've been thrilled to become Grandparents for the first time in 2011!  We're enjoying this rich experience as much as possible.  Of course being a grandmother means making my little granddaughter her own quilt.  Susan was looking for an underwater theme for the bedroom, and now that Rachel is sleeping in her own crib, I thought I had better finish off this quilt.
Some of you have been watching the blocks take shape over the past year.

Rachel's quilt has turned out really well. For top stitching I stiched in the ditch for the vertical and horizontal seams, but it needed something else.  Since the theme has to do with water, I decided to create a sense of ripples ringing out from a small pebble being dropped on the water's surface.

The circles reminded me of a pebble being dropped in a still pond

I finally have the finished product.  This isn't a huge quilt - 16 - 6 1/2  inch blocks with sashings and a border.

As I continue to explore new skills on my machines, you will see in the next post, the quilt label for this special quilt.

So Rachel gets her first quilt from Grandma.  I say first because I'm certain there will be others over the coming years!

I love the colours

My embroidery machine did a great job

The final product of the quilt top

Finally - a post from Ontario

When we lived in Alberta I knew many quilt shops and frequented the ones I liked on a regular basis, sometimes just to look for inspiration and not necessarily to buy! I liked the layout of those shops, the people who worked there and of course the wonderful quilts that hung on their walls. Some shops mostly sold machines, others also sold fabric. There too it was wonderful to stop in, look to see what was new or if there were any attachments for my machines that I could use - there was learning in most visits.

Finding a quilting community here has been a struggle. It doesn't seem to be as obvious, and it sure isn't the same. Some days I long for my favourite shops!

Saturday we drove to Hamilton, to an area very familiar to me. This is the area that I knew well as a child, and went many times a week for church activities. Although the street (and area) along Ottawa Street has changed significantly it is still known for the numerous textile shops - something that has been well known for decades. On the beautiful Saturday with amazing weather for January, Fred and I wandered the street to see if they still had some of those shops. I wasn't disappointed, many of the shops have been updated and carried current textile lines. And, I did find several shops that carried cottons for future quilting projects.

concrete thread spools

I laughed when we discovered that one of the men at the Nova Sewing Centre...knew my shop keeper friends from Alberta - he named them all off. It turns out he once worked for Janome and travelled the country.

I have found a couple of shops now that deal with Janome machines - things are looking up!

So let me tell you with pictures what I found!

(Having a photographer husband makes him happy about these adventures)

above to the right is a newly developed concrete park along Ottawa Street - many features are notions for the sewer...

I was very happy exploring this store - lots of cotton fabrics