And all while Part 2: Surface Design was happening during the first half of March, this was also happening – creating and designing this puppy!

A big thanks to my husbands helping hand. He did inspire this quilt but also picked the most opportune time to ask if I needed the roller before this shot. He’s always there to keep me on my toes!

After spending so much time on the computer lately it was really nice to get back to my sewing machine.

BUT then this happened…

A power outage. They’re always so convenient, especially when you have a design and a quilt due all at the same time. We were 36 hours with out power. Let’s just say I LOVE POWER! I thought I was grateful for it before, now I really, really appreciate it!

Luckily I was able to hit all my deadlines before rushing off to our annual San Francisco trip. I found this stowaway in my pocket, I have no idea how he got there but I decided to show him the sites!

And of course what would  a trip to San Francisco be with out a trip to Britex Fabrics.

The day after we got home from San Francisco I was off to the Creative Stitches show to work my shift at our FVMQG booth. I didn’t get as much time there as I liked but I was happy to be greeted by these lovely ladies, Darlene (left), Brenda (top), Vera (right) and Peg (seated).

Phew, it feels like it’s been quite a whirlwind! Mix in Spring Break and ooft! I’m happy life is starting to get back to normal. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming!

I’m a super hero? Nope.

I’m a super fast bow and arrow shooting spy? Well… no.

They just stared up again after their mid season hiatus? Yup, nailed it! And on all those shows after their hiatus they have a recap. You know the part where they say “Previously on…”. Here’s mine (It’s quite long so I’ve broken it into three posts. This is Part I):

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

Previously on Lysa Flower… I had just won a portfolio review with Elizabeth Olwen from her Skillshare class, “How to create a Fabric Collection in Two Weeks.” If surface design is something you have a burning desire to do, I highly recommend any of her classes.

QUILTCON! It happened, it was amazing. We ran around the show acting like it was Halloween and ALL the people were giving out full-sized chocolate bars!

Here’s a quick recap of the highlights:

TOP Left: We met Janine Vangool from Uppercase Magazine (OMG! You know how much I love that magazine right?!), Kimbery Knight from Cotton + Steel! (Pinch me did that really happen?) Oh and the cute little red head was our fearless Sherri!

TOP Middle: Note to self, next time take pictures of the quilts AND the LABELS! D’oh! Hand smack to forehead! Luckily Instagram came to the rescue to identify most of the quilts, although I don’t know the name of the quilter from this middle picture. If anyone knows please let me know.

TOP Right: This mini hexi quilt ( 1/4″ hexi’s I might add!) was done by a 14 year old named Sophia Locke.

MIDDLE top: This bridge quilt was a guild challenge. Which Guild you ask? Don’t know. What was it called? Don’t know? I know, so helpful hey?! Labels woman, labels!!

MIDDLE Middle: We found my QUILT!!! Yay! (Check out Sherri’s awesome bag!)

MIDDLE Right: I adore this quilt! It was from Windham Fabrics booth. It was a stunner and they also had the booth covered with paper origami dresses made with all their designer’s prints. Did I mention we met Lotta Jansdotter!!!! Holy Moly!

BOTTOM Left: Hillary Goodwin’s quilt from Entropy Always Wins

BOTTOM Middle: Anna Marie Horners block of the month from Creative Bug

BOTTOM Right: The whole catalyst behind going to Quiltcon was to meet up with my Auntie Caryl (who knew more people there than I did! I guess owning a quilting shop for 22 years will do that). It was wonderful to reconnect with her and I adored our time together!

I made up a little name tag zippy pouch for the occasion (shh… don’t tell anyone but a tutorial is in the works!).

I also made up some #sewinglikeamothertrucker buttons for trade-zees!

This quilt by Alison Chambers summed up up the trip. At 3 am we left my house for Quiltcon. We closed the trip by getting home at 1 am.

My partners in crime Judy and Sherri, Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild peeps!

I was offered one piece of advice going to Quiltcon, never take more than two classes. Which is what I did. Now if I were to add onto that advice I’d say take them early in the weekend when you’re fresh. I loved my two classes but I was so worn out by then. Still super duper fun! I would have liked to have been a bit perkier.

The first class I took was from Lizzy House. Did you know she’s engaged? Anyways, it was really fun to meet her and take a block printing workshop.

The second class I took was a Valori Wells all day block printing workshop. I had come prepared with images from my Snail Mail collection. I had also wanted to take her silk-screening workshop but since I decided in July 2015 to go to Quiltcon they were all full. I was fine with that, feeling lucky just to get into this workshop, until we started playing. Now, it’s firmly on my to- do list!

Lysa Flower trivia, that’s what I studied in art school, printmaking. It was pretty nifty getting back to it.

It could have been the sleep deprivation but it felt somewhat like a dream!

And before I new it, “Wham Bam thank you Ma’am” it was over! I was back home and received this lovely swap package from Amanda. A pretty snazy welcome home if you ask me!

It was true! There was my Cassette Tape Quilt! It had been selected by the Modern Quilt Guild to be in the LA Times!

We double checked the  LA Times  Website. There sits my quilt beside Carolyn Friedlander‘s. The fabric designer who’s fabric we were given, along with a handful of Robert Kaufman Kona solids last March from our guild, for a mini quilt challenge.

Violet Craft, Jacquie Gering, Amy Friend, we’re all included in the article! C’mon!! ( I’ve since discovered Lindsey Neil’s Instagram feed @penandpaperpatterns-WOW!) AND, did you see “On-Off-Standby, Pink” by Janice Smyth? Gaw all the quilts, A-maz-ING! Talk about good company! How the heck did this happen?!… Well, I know I need to thank the Modern Quilt Guild. So thank you Modern Quilt Guild AND thank you for creating this community… AND for being awesome!

My head’s still having a hard time wrapping it’s self around it. Talk about the little stinking quilt that could. Posting about it on Instagram while I was making it last March, my feed lit up like a Christmas tree. Requests for a pattern poured in, so I did it, I made a pattern . I recently released it on Etsy. Then feeling like, what the hell, mixed  in with a pep talk from Sherri, I submitted it to the Quiltcon show. It got in-YAY! (I’m going this year, which makes it extra exciting!) THEN this happened… And really, my only plan was to make a pillow for my bed with cassettes on it. Huh.

 Yeah, yeah, yeah, but who’s the guy? One little tidbit that always stuck out in my mind while I was researching was a story about a man and his son who went out to Gee’s Bend looking for these quilts. I believe I read this on Wikipedia, which changes and morphs, so I can’t find the exact link anymore. (Note to self: reference guides in the future may be handy). It niggled at my brain, why would a guy and his son go looking for quilts? I can see a father and son bonding over lots of stuff but looking for quilts? Shrug, okay?

So there I sit Monday night (October 20th) in the middle of the Net Loft on Granville Island, ready to hear the Maiwa sponsored talk from two Gee’s Bend Quilters; Louisiana Bendolph (shown below with Sherri on the left) and her mother Rita Mae Pettway (shown Below with Vera on the right). Hmm, who’s the guy? He starts, Hi I’m Matt Arnett and back in 1998 my Dad and I… wait? What? He’s the GUY? He’s, the GUY! CLICK, CLICK, CLICK. Now it all makes sense.

He’s the guy who drove all over the south looking for a quilt his dad has seen in a picture.

He’s the guy who was looking for a bathroom in Mary Lee Bendolph’s home and by chance noticed a quilt peeking out in a closet.

He’s the guy that in 2002 with his father organized a show of 70 quilts at the Museum of Fine Arts, in Houston. Thus making all our Modern Quilter heads explode.

He’s the guy whose family saw the beauty in these quilts. Then they made sure the world saw them too, by publishing Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt in 2006.

He’s the guy that helped facilitate these women to be proud and understand the greatness of their work. Work that they were going to do, even if no one in the world noticed. And we are so very grateful.

He’s the guy who helped the world see Gee’s Bend’s brilliance… tremendously simplified down, yes, but you get the idea.

He’s THE guy.

Okay, everyone with me. 1, 2, 3… Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Cyyyyynthia, Happy Birthday to you!… Aaand many mooooore! Yay! Yup, it’s her Birthday and to celebrate I thought I would post this! If you’ve ever chatted with Cynthia online, you’ll know how lovely and bubbly she is, which I think comes across like crazy in this interview. (But, um… I’m kind of biased.)

In the summer of 2010 I saw a tweet from Lesley Stenning talking about a call out for a new group called the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. Hmm, seemed interesting. I attended that “keener” meeting as it was nicknamed. Holly the founder the Vancouver group asked us to put a dot on a map where we all lived. Everyone’s dots clustered in Vancouver. My dot, well… it was about 5 inches to the right of all those dots. It took me over an hour to drive out to the meeting but I was willing to do that since I hadn’t met anyone out in my area that was interested in fabric and quilting let alone modern quilting.

The “official” VMQG meeting was scheduled a few weeks later. Holly generously offered to put me in touch with a few people out my way. Perhaps we could carpool? One of those people Holly email introduced me to was Cynthia. We instantly hit it off emailing back and forth. We made arrangements to go to the next VMQG meeting. Luckily we hit it off in person too and enjoyed the meeting and our drive. However, we did realize that our drive was as long as the meeting. As we drove home we chatted and figured we couldn’t be the only two people in the Fraser Valley that were interested in modern quilting . It was decided. We would start our own guild. Cynthia set up our online presence and I secured our meeting space, Quilt Essentials, a local fabric in Abbotsford at the time. The rest you could say was Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild history. In hindsight, we really didn’t know each other at the time but what fun we’ve had ever since! Plus, I’ve had the pleasure of learning from and watching Cynthia accomplish such awesome things. Like designing fabric for Robert Kaufman!

1. Of all the people I’ve interviewed, you’re kind of the trickiest because I know you so well. What are three things about your stash that would surprise me? Hehe my kindred sista from another mista! I don’t think you’ve seen a lot of my stash lately, it’s always changing. Three things that might be surprising, hmmm…

 3. Kind of an add on question to number 2. Picasso had his blue period and thinking about your go to colours, did you have a particular colour scheme say, in the 80s, 90s and the early 2000s? Black, black, and black for all three. No colour. The “Moody Broody Artist Chic” decades! Decades I tell ya!

I didn’t do quilting until most recently, so it was mostly garment sewing I did up ’til modern fabrics started appearing on the scene. Then I started being brave and accepting and using colour, purple was first. Now it’s all colour all the time and I rarely use black!

4. You collect vintage fabric… where is the oddest place you ever found treasure? Oh man! I found some pieces of vintage (1977) Marimekko shoved in a plastic bag in a shoe bin at one of the local thrifts. I saw the brilliant turquoise peeking out & was like hey. That looks like something. And it sure was!

That I actually am saving and have’t used yet. It needs the perfect project to showcase the large-scale print.

You always can find stuff at the bottom of bins where nobody dares stick their hands. That’s where the good stuff is!

5. You walk into the room where your stash is stored, Starr and Charlie have been having a grand time playing tug of war with your fabric. What 3 pieces of fabric doyou scramble to make sure they haven’t touched? Is there a particular reason they are your three favourite pieces? Honestly nothing is truly sacred other than my super duper old vintage pieces like one I have from my great gran, a hand beaded and embellished floral strip on net/tulle, with silk ribbons, silver beads, and truly vintage touches. It’s very fragile so I keep it stored way up high in a latched suitcase where my furry friends can’t get it. I love it because it’s truly handmade, likely from a beautiful 1800’s dress, and I like to imagine the story behind it, where it came from, and why my great gran so carefully kept it tucked away, and having it pass down to me is really cool.

I might also get pissed if they touched “my” stash- the sample yardage pieces of fabrics that I designed for Robert Kaufman, they are like my babies!

“Hello Cynthiaf, nice to meet you!”

Drawn November 2012

14″tall, 11″ wide, 2″deep

SOLD

Otherwise I think I would get a giggle them playing with my stuff, they always like to come and see what I’m doing and help me! As long as they don’t actually eat it, it’s all good.

We have our sit on the quilt for a photo thing too, as soon as I lay out a quilt on the floor to baste or take a photo, they go sit on it and wait for me to take a photo. It’s very hilarious!

Growing up I liked pink because I thought that’s what girls do. They like pink. By eight I had a strong aversion to it. Yellow was my colour of choice. It reminded me of sunshiny days, butter, flower centres and wheat fields.

I carried this aversion to pink with me for a long time. Although, over time, I started to notice I was attracted to yellowy pinks. Blue fuchsia still made me cringe a little but I happily made my piece with pink… it was acceptable. Or so I thought. A task during my first module with Art of Business and Surface Pattern Design was to look at colours around me, things I wear, things I collect, paper, cards, designs I liked. I was dumbstruck.

Apparently I don’t just like pink, I LOVE pink! So many things I own are pink. I guess I was too close and didn’t know it happened until I was asked to take a step back. It seems silly now, if we’ve met in person this last year, you’ve probably seen me with light pink hair-d’uh! How could I not see it every morning?

One of those things I pulled out for the Art of Business and Design was a business card I collected back in December 2013 at Maker Faire.

I decided to study the design and make it back in January of 2014. Well, I finally finished it for the Creative Stitches show. It hung as a mini quilt but I’ll finish it as an over sized pillow for our home.

While making this quilt, I also fell in love Cage the Elephant but especially this song, which inspired the quilt’s title, “Daydreams”.

And yes, yes I do daydream about pink now… it’s true!

This! This quilt right here. It embodies all those things smashed in together! (Hang on, the explanation about the marriage proposal comes later)

I knew going into this project I only had three days to finish it. It absolutely had to be finished and submitted by the end of day 3! Which meant, I was going to be #sewinglikeamothertrucker.

Someone once said to me, “So let me get this straight? You buy fabric, cut it up, and sew it into new fabric?” YUP! That’s about right, a totally sane thing to do, if you ask me. (…and I have a sneaking suspicion you’ll agree)

Back in November 2014, our guild the FVMQG were given a mini quilt challenge for March’s Creative Stitches Show (March 27-28, 2015). We were given six Robert Kaufman solids and three Carolyn Friedlander fabrics. We were allowed to add RK solids and more prints from the same designer. (Thank god for Spool of Thread who carries all of RK solids!)

When I accepted this challenge I had no idea that mid January I would be in design school studying the Art and Business of Surface Pattern design. No idea, at all, that just kind of fell into my lap. (Note to self, I still need to blog about that)

Then Christmas happened. By then I knew the whole studying surface design was going to happen. I did have a working list of stuff that NEEDED to happen before my course started! This quilt was on that list. Needless to say, it didn’t get finished but I figured I still had time after the first module was completed to finish it.

Actually, at the February FVMQG meeting I was quite relieved to see so many RK challenge quilts completed since two of the quilts were directions I was going to take. That would have been like showing up at a party wearing the same dress. How embarrassing would that have been!

We were told at the guild, ONLY if we had a freak accident, like both of our arms were broken, would we have a good enough reason not to have our challenge quilts done. Fair enough, doing a challenge for Mr. RK is a big deal. There was no way I was about to let anyone down.

My husband was a superstar and took the reins at home while I hunkered down in the studio cutting, sewing, (cringe) seam ripping, plotting my way through twists and turns, and inevitably killing my playlist as I listened to it over and over.

From the beginning of this project I posted about it on Instagram. Which is where #sewinglikeamothertrucker came from. People started following my progress, likes and comments started to roll in. All of them encouraging, some downright hilarious.

They gave me huge gusts of wind (… not that kind of wind, wait for the rest of the sentence…) under my sails. (I know what you were thinking!)

Did I mention that this quilt needed to be completed by March 1st… and that I had to submit a second quilt AND submit a graduation piece for Design School too… Oh, and that we were leaving for San Francisco March 2nd? Sounds pretty crazy when I type it out like this.

In the end EVERYTHING got submitted (both quilts and my graduation project). We were packed and prepared to leave for the airport the next day. Phew!

What I wasn’t prepared for was, after submitting everything, at 8:35pm, I took my last picture posted it on Instagram, by the time we were ready for bed the quilt had receive over 50 likes! 50 likes c’mon! My mind was blown. For having 300ish followers, that was unreal.

Comments were coming in left right and center…

By the time we woke up, it was up to 100! Whaaa? And oddly enough we discovered the quilt had um… some marriage proposals. Yup, people wanted to marry it!

I love fabric-y people!

By the time we had gotten to San Francisco the likes were up to 200 likes with more comments, many requesting a pattern. Plus more requests for patterns of other stuff I had posted on my feed. Which I’m totally excited to do! Ka-Boom! That’s my brain and the gratitude I feel.

So there you go, that’s what #sewinglikeamothertrucker has to do with mixed cassette tapes, Robert Kaufman, Carolyn Frielander, a FVMQG mini quilt challenge and… a marriage proposal.

In celebration of Krista’s book coming out in a few days! I’d like to share this interview with you. First let me set it up…

I first heard Krista talk at a Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild meeting in 2011. She gave an impromptu chat about do’s and don’ts in swaps. It was pretty pertinent information at the time, since I had just signed up for my first online quilting bee. I quickly realized Krista really knew her stuff and that she’s one smart cookie! It doesn’t take long to figure that out from reading her blog “PoppyPrint” As it happens at that same meeting I had shown a drawing of my own stash at show and tell. Krista was very keen about the drawing. In the spring of 2012 I started my Drawing project with Berene Campbell’s stash, who happens to be one of Krista’s BFF’s. After I finished Berene’s drawings I remembered Krista’s enthusiasm and asked her next. After seeing Krista skip wildly to the front to collect her door prize I figured she’d probably say yes to my adventurous invite. Which she did!

Krista has just released a new book called “Make It, Take It: 16 Cute and Clever Project to Sew with Friends” (due out February 10 of 2015!). We’re all just thrilled for Krista and can’t wait to get our hands on it! However, luckily for me Krista took time out of her busy schedule to answer these questions while she was in the midst of editing her book this past summer. She’s pretty awesome that way. 

1. You moved your stash since I last drew it. Where is it now? Did you do anything different when you set it up this last time? My daughter and I switched rooms, so now she sleeps with the spiders in the basement and I get a lovely view of Vancouver to Metrotown while I sew. I completely culled all of my out-of-date, out-of-my-style fabric and chopped it up into 2 1/2″ squares with an Accuquilt Go cutter over the Christmas holidays last year. I’ve already made 2 “scrap vomit” quilts out of the squares and I think I could make 3 more! I rolled all my yardage onto acid-free boards and arranged my stash in colour order on shelves. Everything is so much easier to see, find and use now.

2. I noticed you’re a big fan of wrapping your stash around comic book boards. How and when did that come about? See above! I noticed several bloggers I read were doing this and having worked at an LQS, I already had an affinity for vertically-displayed fabric. Now, instead of looking at a disaster of crooked piles, I have a pretty display. My non-quilting friends routinely react in shock at the sheer magnitude of my stash. Result!

3.What are your top three go to online or brick and mortar stores to buy fabric from? Do you have a preference to online or in person shopping? And is there a reason behind your choice, for example I enjoy buying online but I still love and prefer to feel the fabric before I buy it. I freely admit to buying most of my yardage from U.S. online shops as the selection is always much better than what is available locally (plus, I am fairly in tune with upcoming lines and they are typically available sooner in the U.S.). I started doing this when our dollar was at par, however now that it has dropped again, my buying is much more selective and I’m trying to use what I’ve got first. I shop at Sew-Sisters, Mad About Patchwork (both Canadian Stores), Marmalade Fabric and Fabric.com. Locally, I look to Spool of Thread for modern prints and Kona solids.

4. Do you have a method to your madness, do you buy per project, when you find a good price or just when you see something you like? Price has a lot to do with it – I’m definitely a sale shopper. I am trying to avoid hype-buying (hello, Cotton & Steel?) because when I look at my stash I do see quite a bit of ‘trendy’ fabric that remains untouched. I have a large enough stash now that I don’t need to buy to fulfill most of the projects I have in mind.

5. If you were on a deserted Island and all your fabric was floating off into the water, what three pieces couldn’t you live without? Keeping in mind, these are shark infested waters and some of those pieces may have floated off into the distance. Is there a story to these three pieces or are they simply your favourites? I love my Liberty tana lawns and Echino linen blends the most. I’d fend off sharks for them, I swear.

These were the first words I saw.

and

There was a “Super Secret Surprise” in the agenda of our 4th year anniversary FVMQG party this September meeting. I’ve recently stepped down from the exec so I just assumed there was a workshop being announced or something.  Then Cathy the president of the guild asked Cynthia and I to come up to the front. Um, okay. I think I sat there a bit stunned. Cathy explained to the group how 4 years ago Cynthia and I started the Fraser Valley Modern Quild Guild. Then out came two big bags with quilts in them. Cynthia’s quilt is on the left and mine is on the right.

I think I started to shake. It was very emotional and overwhelming. You see, I’m an introvert. Usually after our meetings or any gathering with more than two people I’m beat. The next day I do what I call turtling. I’m more than happy to spend a day or two by myself . I usually need and require this to recuperate, then I’m good to go. Which might be a bit weird since I’ve pretty much led every meeting since we started our guild 4 years ago and, I must add, it has always been my favourite job. I know, I’m a conundrum! Anyways I guess what I’m trying to say or explain is this is why I haven’t blogged about this yet. This was BIG! Capital B, capital I, capital G. This really meant a lot to me and it’s taken me a while to process it and honestly I’ve been savouring it. I’ve been looking at it everyday, looking at each star, reading the messages it’s a lot to take in. Needless to say, it’s very significant!

Prior to this I’ve only been given two quilts that have been handmade. Both were made by my Auntie Caryl. The first one she gave me was when I was 12. Needless to say I didn’t comprehend it’s significance. Later in my 20’s I sure did though but not at the moment it was given. The second quilt was given to us, again by my Auntie Caryl, after my first son was born, so I saw it as more his than mine (and being a baby he didn’t really comprehend it’s significance at the time either!). This same Auntie made my boys both their own quilts when they were a bit older and I think I did a good job of letting them know how special they were and what went into making them.

I was shocked at the wave of emotion I felt receiving this quilt. I have never, never felt the power of a whole group making a quilt before. Especially one that contained such sweet and loving messages. Isn’t that what we all really want, to be seen, to feel like what we’ve done has made a difference at least in some small way.

They put such thought into the fabric they selected, from the colours, to the fabric designs and they considered our preferences (in my case, there were a lot of polka dots). Isn’t that the other thing we all want? For someone to hear us to pay attention… and pay attention they did!  I love my quilt and I love my guild!  I’m so thankful for meeting Cynthia, I’m so glad we decided to start a guild, even though we hardly new each other at the time. I’ve learned so much from her I can’t even begin to tell you. I heart her!!! AND I’ve learned so much from the women in our guild too. Geeze Louise they know stuff!!! (BTW-we still have a position open for a token dude!)

This guild has given me so much, even beyond this quilt. I’m so grateful and honoured for knowing them and for the work they do so joyously! I heart them too!

Because this quilt was so large, it’s 90″x 96″, I decided to take it to a longarm quilter. I was surprised by the wonderful sense of relief I felt dropping it off . Unfortunately, I was also surprised by the dreadful feeling I felt  picking it up. I ended up reworking a lot of the quilt. Perhaps I should have gone back and said, I’m really not happy with this. However, when I saw the quilt all I wanted to do was get out of the shop as fast as possible and fix it myself. Which is what I did. I spent the better part of a day quilting and adding a heavier thread in random spots. I love it now. In hindsight if I were to ever have someone longarm one of my quilts I’d do up a sample to show them what I wanted instead of explaining it. I think what it came down to, the longarm quilter and I weren’t on the same wave length. Lesson learned.

My son hasn’t been one of those teenagers who’s been dying to shed all of his boyhood stuff. I’ve offered a couple of times to make him a quilt to replace the one I made him when he was 8 but he would always say, “why, I’ve got one.” Even when I told him, “you know you’re getting to a point where your friends might ask, “Dude what’s with the baby quilt?”, he ‘d just shrugged his shoulders like, oh well. So I made this one just in case he changed his mind. Okay, confession time, I totally didn’t tell him I was making him a new quilt. He caught me ironing it on his bed . “Um, what are you doing?”  I think he was slightly terrified that ironing beds was a thing, especially after I had just insisted he learned how to clean a toilet.  It wasn’t the Monster Hunter quilt with the teeny tiny pieces he’d been hoping for but it wasn’t rejected either. And good news, ironing beds is not a thing, unless you’re taking pretty pictures to show on your blog, or you work for House and Home taking interior shots.

Before:

After:

Now,why trees, you ask?  I’m a huge fan of Gig posters. One of my all time favourite posters is by Strawberry Luna  for the band Spoon . When November 2012 rolled around it was my turn  to be the queen bee. I sent out a picture of the poster for inspiration, instructions (a fill in the blank letter, for when I do other bees) and, of course, fabric. Each person was asked to make a brown or teal tree. Basically they made long strips, which made for an efficient way to piece a quilt top.  Then lastly,  I sewed up a sample block, posted photos,  sat back and waited for my sewn up trees to come back to me in the mail.

Skip ahead to March 2013, before this quilt landed on my sons bed it was displayed at the Creative Stitches show in Abbotsford. Oh, did I mention, when doing the extra quilting, Mr Aurfill himself liked  my photo of it on Instragram!

When I made my son’s first quilt  I was thinking of the little boy he was at the time. This time around I wanted to think of who he will be and make a quilt that will grow with him… and one that won’t embarrass him when chicks come around. What, wait? Did I just say that?