Val's Art

When Joey Green went to Japan to pick up his lovely Mayumi to bring her back to Canada, I had already told them I would make them a quilt. I suggested that perhaps some Japanese fabric that was speciai to Mayumi, her family and friends, might form the basis of the quilt. I imagined little bits of quilting cotton with a special Japanese flower arrangement, or a tree that had significance in their lives. However, that idea died on the vine because I didn't make myself clear, and instead they hrought back a piece of quilted cotton which I knew would be unsuitable for a quilt. However, I kept the piece and used it as the centre of a quilted tablecloth. I bought a few Japanese style fabrics (all lovely!) and tried to make a somewhat unsymmetrical piece, which is characteristic of Japanese quilt designs. The tablecloth goes on a low coffee table and drapes on the floor. Guests wrap the drape around their knees and feet, as they sit on the floor at meal time.

October 2006

This picture shows three projects - a small quilt for Hannah to use in the car, a cushion for Diane Hall Jones to have in her bedroom, and a pink bag for Sheila and Graham's grandduughter Katie (described as a "girlie-girl")

I also made a special pillowcase for her big brother Michael, made of red and black soccer balls, but I didn't remember to photograph it

All gifts were suitably admired.

November 2006

This quilt was the most difficult to make - a Memory Quilt of my Don. I used a lot of photographs - from infancy, with his family in Cobalt to his family in Toronto; to Africa, and our trip to Asia, to the August before he died in October as well as images of things he loved - beavers, eagles, and a few African animals - giraffes, elephants and so on. The sashing is made from his shirts and shirts of various men friends - Ken Crooke, John Otter, Jack Grant and others. It took me a very long time because working on it was sometimes difficult. It is not well made - I started it the February after he died, before I had had a single quilting lesson. However. I got better as I went along, and I suppose it reflects not only his life but also my progress as a quilter! 

The backing is an African print, which I know he would have loved. I haven't yet found a place for it, but I love having it around. I don't need reminders of him - I think about him daily - but it's still good to have.

February 2007

My dear friend Jill Grant's youngest daughter, Rebecca, married her lovely Simon, and sadly I missed the wedding. But how I enjoyed making this quilt! Because Simon is heading for an academic career, and Rebecca is a journalist, something to do with words was the order of the day.

I couldn't resist this "book quilt" - suitably enough from a book I got from Jill's sister Maura.

It was great fun, and Jill used an indelible pen to write the titles of several of ther favourite books onto some of the books. With Mary Ellen's help, even the label was in the shape of a book.

March 2007

My sister bought a pair of new beige sofas for her living room, and I asked her if she would like a lap quilt. She said yes please, in beiges and creams. Those colours are a long way from my wines, navy, oranges and purples, but I agreed. Ann Sutherland gave me about fifty squares of perhaps 15 different creams and I bought another fifteen or so. I couldn't help myself - I added colours! Small squares, which took me forever to put into a pattern, but I think they give a bit of life to all the creams.

I'm not particularly happy with this one, but it looks OK, and I think it's what she wanted, which is the main thing.

April 2007

On my trips to the UK, I always try to see my old friends Doreen (Walden) and Joan (Waterson). I usually go down to Joan's place in Herne Bay, Kent, and Doreen joins us there.

This year, I took them both a set of place mats - red and gold for Doreen, pink and green for Joan.

April 2007

It's Not Really Christmas - all those greens and reds would make you wonder. But that's what Jill wanted.

Jill Lowery is an old and dear friend - dating back to 1975, when she worked at the NDP caucus with me.

It is machine pieced, hand appliqued, and hand quilted.

April 2007

My dear Uncle Dick has good friends in Ray and Celia Johnson, who live not too far from him in Torquay, Devon. They brought Uncle Dick and Aunty Mary here about twelve years ago. Neither would have come without the Johnsons, and it was very kind of them to make all the reservations, and look after luggage and so on.

Now, they are looking after Uncle in many other ways - doing his weekly shopping and generally keeping their eye on him. They invited Marya, Jonathan and I to dinner at their place when we were visiting Uncle Dick in April 2007. Marya, clever girl that she is, suggested I make them a quilt, so we tried to determine what colours should be used by looking at what they had in a couple of rooms. The maroon/ grey quilt was the result. They said they liked it, and I believe them.

November 2007

Madhu Dhawan is now a proud grandmother - with the help of second daughter Minnie, who moved back to Delhi from Nigeria. Madhu gave me some fabrics from India, so I used some of them to make a quilt for the little guy, and used a nursery/zoo cheater panel for the back, which he enjoys.

November 2007

My niece Hannah had a good friend at Lord Mayor Trelore school named Hannah Lou. They have stayed in touch, and when visiting Hannah, Hannah Lou expressed delight in Hannah's quilt. My sister Marya asked what colours Hannah Lou liked, and when she said purples and golds and oranges, Marya said, "My sister will not let you down!" Such colours would never cross Marya's door, but I think Hannah Lou will like it!

January 2008

I offered to make Chris Otter a wall hanging, and asked him to suggest two basic colours. He said purple and gold. Out came my colour wheel and also a new book called "Strips and Curves" which my good friend Helen Crooke had used to make her sister a fabulous quilt in peach and turquoise.

I think this is my favourite quilt to date, and I'm happy to say Chris liked it too.

February 2008

Now this was one I really enjoyed making - and am pleased with the results.

For years, Jowi said he didn't want a quilt (except for the window blind I did) but Sarah, lovely Sarah, said she would like one. Jowi said he'd like it in blue and red, but I didn't fancy that, so I asked Sarah to pick another pair of colours. She opted for blue and green - much nicer.

However, you'll note I did put in the odd splash of red.

Its design is from "Strips and Curves" which Jowi and Sarah gave me the templates for. I actually quilted this one in six sections (thanks to yet another book's advice) and found it much easier than lugging a queen sized quilt around

I gave it to them at a very nice little Breton restaurant on Queen Street, where we went for a birthday lunch for all of us.

June 2009

I loved collecting the fabrics for this quilt! All those choices of black and white prints - some had to be heavy on the black and others on the white.

Trevor and Chris Gillett, Sarah's parents, have a lovely family room, which is artfully decorated in black and white, so of course it seemed easy to choose what to do their quilt in. The addition of floral print was an idea I got from a quilt at a show somewhere on a Betweens tour in southern Ontario.

I hear that Trevor and Chris keep the quilt in a different room! Guess I'II have to make them another one. They are such wonderful people I'd be happy to do so.

Spring 2010

When I was at the Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph, with my Betweens friends, I saw this panel on the kiddy department.

Dear friend Gerry Griffin lives in Guelph, and he has the sweetest little grandson, Simon, who loves cars and vehicles, and sometimes pretends to drive Gerry's van. So I bought this airplane dashboard, added some sky on top and ocean below, and made this quickie quilt for him. Mum Amanda tells me he likes it, which pleases me greatly!

May 2010

My friend Jill Grant does volunteer work at a hospice, and one of her clients expressed interest in a having a quilt.

Jill asked me to make something for Tricia, and I happily obliged. Her favourite colour is green - and this is surely green!

November 2011

Oh dear! What could I do with all those rather lovely scraps of fabric used in other quilts?

Well, Valori Wells' book Radiant New York Beauties offered a few suggestions. This one is called "Vintage Beauty".

It was great fun to make, and I hope Luke and Kim enjoy it. I think they're crazy enough to!

It is primarily paper-pieced, and is hand quilted.

Winter 2012

This quilt was fun - I made it for my grandson Callum. He wanted bold colours with a lot of green. I found this pattern and loved it! It was an enormous amount of work, but I was very happy with it - and so was Callum. It's Queen sized, even though he has only a twin sized bed. The green border was quilted by Janet Chisolm a friend of Jill Leslie's who has a long-arm quilting machine. She did a fabulous job. The rest was hand quilted by me. (Not so fabulous)

Spring 2012

This is the mosaic on the floor of St Mark's – the main square in Venice. Ann Sutherland loaned me her book of Italian-style patterns.

I made it for the parents of Marzia Leone, the elderly couple who were old and dear friends of Chris and Marya (and their kids and who were very kind to Don and I when we visited them on our own in Marradi when we went to Italy with Patricia, and later when we went to Marradi again with Chris and Marya. C & M said the Leone's had moved into a sort of flat in a sort of castle (!!!) which was cold, and asked if I could make a quilt. It was great fun doing it - and very complicated. It is a design of brothers (Cosmati?) who designed in the Renaissance. They were very big on squares and triangles in circles. I got really badly screwed up and Jill Leslie got me out of my muddle.

The fabrics are all Stonehenge, which I got from Sew Sisters.

Spring 2012, I think

This quilt was a wedding gift for Kerry Gennings and Jackie Clayton, Guelph friends of Gerry Griffin. They bought the book and a few bits of fabric from The Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph, and chose the design.

It was unconscionably difficult because it is a 'modern' design where all the curvy bits were drawn freehand. It led to a lot of wasted fabric!

And none pf the corners were supposed to meet. Where they were off an inch, it was OK, because it was clear the corners weren't supposed to meet. But I didn't like the ones where they were out by a quarter of an inch - that just looked like bad sewing!

But they loved it. Not my favourite, but the picture's growing on me!

Spring/summer 2013

This is a cheater panel of geckos, which I made for Ken Waldie and wife # 2, Stephanie Reid. They were living in Kingston at the time, and geckos had become a bit of a motif in their home.

They split not long afterwards - I don't think the wall-hanging had anything to do with it!

I think this is the table topper I made for Pari's parents when she went to Iran for a short holiday - it was the twins' first visit to Iran. The grandmother had met the boys when they were released from hospital as tiny babies, but grandfather and all the aunts and uncles were new to them. Sadly, the boys speak no Farsi or the local language (Azari?)