Quite a few months ago, the Program Chair for my local quilt guild (Camano Island Quilters) asked me if I would be willing to do a trunk show of my quilts. I had never done anything like that before so I said “Yes, of course!” I was nervous about doing it for the first time, but quilter’s are my people!
As the day drew nearer, I thought I’d better start looking for all the quilts I still had in my possession after beginning quilt making in the late 1980’s and started piling them up on my studio floor. I was quite surprised to see how many traditional quilts were added to the pile. I had totally forgotten I had made some of them.
I had to figure out how I wanted to give my little “talk” and decided that I would look at my quilting as a journey and start with my traditional quilts and end with my art quilts.
I first began quilting because I was attracted to Amish quilts. I found 3 small Amish wall hangings that I had finished and hand quilted. When I began quilting, there was still a lot of controversy over hand versus machine quilting. Thankfully, machine quilting is widely accepted today!
Over the next few years, I took many classes from a wide variety of teachers mostly at quilt shops near my home. I learned that I wasn’t very good at fabric color choices and that sewing ¼” seams and matching points correctly was challenging for me. I have great respect for traditional quilters and their skills!
At one point I got into making foundation paper pieced miniature quilts, thinking that would be a faster, more efficient way to complete a quilt. This piece was probably made in the late 1990’s. The foundation paper was still in it and when I went to remove it, sadly many of the seams started coming apart. I did finish quilting it and put a facing on it (versus a binding) and it hangs on my wall. It is flawed but still precious to me.
12” x 12” (late 1990’s maybe?)
One lament I have after going through my pile of quilts was that I had no information about them. There was no label on them about when they were made, no notes about what class or book or pattern they referred to, no name of who quilted them. It was hard to do a timeline without that information.
(Another lament is that I didn’t take a photo of each one before I packed them away after the trunk show).
As I went through my quilt pile, I found several tops that had been pieced but not quilted. I even found a couple of pieced backs already made for them. I decided I had to get them finished so I could hang them around the house. I even found one that had been machine quilted but just needed a binding sewn onto it.
I texted my long arm quilter and prewarned her that I’d have at least 4 quilts that I wanted her to quilt after the trunk show was over. I spent several days piecing quilt backs and finally dropped them off to her. It’s amazing how much fabric is needed for the backs. You can buy fabric that is 108” wide but I try to use up what fabric I have on hand which results in lots of seams and math calculations to make sure the back is big enough.
She finished quilting them in less than 2 weeks’ time! She’s FAST!
Then I needed to get busy and focus on getting the labels, bindings and hanging sleeves sewn on.
Two of the 4 quilts have been entered into my upcoming local quilt guilds’ first quilt show since the 2020 Pandemic – the Black and White Sampler and the Hunter’s Moon. It’ll be fun to see them hanging in a show.
62” x 62” Black and White Sampler (early 2000’s maybe)
68” X 68” Stars (late 90’s maybe)
44” x 60” Wonky log cabin (made within the last 10 years)
92” x 92” Hunter’s Star (finished 2024 but took about 4 years to get there)
Back in Sept of 2023, I wrote about this Hunter’s Star quilt on my blog post asking what color other people preferred and most people preferred the mid-range blue for the border. I finally went with the light blue border. It was my favorite but I will have to make a new bed skirt to go with it.
I also entered my latest Full Moon art quilt into the show.
32” x 37” Snow Moon (2022)
It was fun to do the trunk show for my guild and to have the opportunity to revisit my quilt journey. Now all my traditional quilts are stored together in one location and my art quilts are in another. I can hopefully continue being organized going forward so I can find them easily when I look for them.
And lesson learned about labeling finished projects and putting crucial information in with the unfinished projects!
Tesi Vaara