Phyllis's quilts

I lost my friend Phyllis to brain cancer December 2011. She made some beautiful quilts. Whenever a niece would graduate from high school, she would present them with a hand made quilt. Her last niece, Summer will graduate this May.  She too will be presented with an Aunt Phyllis quilt.

I hand quilted this for Phyllis's husband Tom and he will carry the tradition on. Tom found the completed top in the sewing room and asked if I would quilt it for him.

As a result of me quilting Summer's quilt, Tom gave me this Christmas quilt. Phyllis had started it. She did all her quilting in a lap hoop. The entire top was basted together. I wasn't sure if it would work out in my big free standing frame or not. Once I got in pinned in, it worked just fine. So now I too have a Phyllis quilt.

My friend Maggie, gifted me with yards and yards of fabric. In it, I found this preprinted panel. I added the borders and machine quilted it. I have it for sale for $60.

This embroidered quilt top was in a stash of quilts my mother made. I machine quilted it too. Mother will be gifting it to her new great grand daughter due in May.

I have more quilts that I am finishing up, so I will keep you posted.

Phyllis' quilt

If you go back to my January 1st post titled New Beginning's you will read about how I  became the quilter for Phyllis' quilt. 

This quilt was absolutely a joy to quilt.  I put way more quilting in it than necessary, as that is what Phyllis did to hers.

The only part that wasn't fun to quilt was the flame block! 


My hubby isn't only a talented blacksmith, he's a template design maker.   He made the template that I used in the solid yellow block.

The back is always fun to look at.  So much detail in this one!

I spent a lot of quiet time quilting.  Time I could reminisce and pray.  I felt Phyllis was looking down on me. 


In the end I know she was . . . look at how much thread I finished with.  Just enough!


Rest in peace Phyllis.

New beginnings

Welcome 2012. It's here. It came before we might have been ready, but like it or not, we can't change it.

My day started at 6:15 AM when I kicked gently rolled the husband out of bed. He had to meet Tom, a fellow blacksmith, for trip to a New Year's day "Headache Hammer-in".  They would end up in Washington, Missouri at Washington Forge. I stayed in bed for about another hour and then decided it was time to get busy. All the Christmas decorations had been put away the day before. It was time now to do some laundry, dusting, scrubbing, vacuuming, and some cooking. I did sneak some sewing time in after the pork loin was roasting, the blackberry crisp was made, and the hot rolls were rising. 

The one thing I really missed today was the New Year's day parade. So tomorrow when it's officially on TV, will it be called "the day after New year's day parade"?  I will be glued to the TV to watch it then!

The blacksmiths came rolling back in about 4:30.  Tom would be eating dinner with us. 

Tom is all alone now.  He lost his wife Phyllis, the love of his life, just two weeks ago today. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor in September, had surgery, and a few weeks later had surgery again for a second tumor. Three  weeks later a third tumor came back and surgery was not an option. 

Phyllis was the sweetest lady. She was a bee keeper, a hospice volunteer, and a quilter.

She also volunteered at our local Runge Conservation Center. Here you can see her on the right coming to see my grand kids. She was the volunteer assigned to help us on a cold, windy, April day when we had a show there. 

This is one of Phyllis' unfinished quilts. Tom bought it along to see if I would be willing to finish it for him. Of course I would.  I can't say no to a friend. I just hope I can do it justice and make the tiny stitches that she made. 


So as we start this new year of 2012, I pray we all have our health, our happiness, and our family. It will be a new start for Tom, not an easy one. A new start for us, as we lost a friend. 


Rest in peace Phyllis.