Hopeful Homemaker

If I had to choose just one quilt that captures my life’s work, my goals and hopes, it would probably be this quilt.  My Refuge quilt, made with my HOME quilt block , is a quilt about home and family .  And now it’s finished!

I used the largest Home block for this quilt, in a grid of 5×5 blocks, but within the blocks I made the houses themselves two different sizes.  These also alternate across the rows.  I chose bright colors and fabrics that read largely as solids to convey the many personalities, cultures, and stories of different families.

The background is a different story.  Life is hard.  The world we live in gets crazier all the time.  And people are facing storms.  Not just real storms, though there are plenty of those.  I was sewing about metaphorical storms, equally threatening and debilitating.  For these I chose more than a dozen different gray fabrics.  Blue-gray, green-gray, light gray, dark, and black.  I wanted to suggest storm clouds, wind, overcast skies, dark days.

Melissa quilted it for me, and I requested this pattern because the movement in it reminded me of strong winds.  And I named it my Refuge Quilt because I believe that families are the fundamental units, the basic building blocks of society.  It’s where we learn fundamental values about how to treat others.  And I believe that families are worth working hard for.  To preserve them, strengthen them, keep them together.  They are, or can and should be, the bright spot in the storm.  Home should be a refuge from the world.

We all know that the heart of every home and family should be love.  I used the traditional red as the center square for each house, as well as in the corners.  It represents love, tradition, and urgency.  Everything we can do to strengthen families and individuals matters.

This time of year is exciting, with a new school year signaling the start of a fresh chapter for many of us.  But it’s also a time of transition and stress, and can feel tumultuous or daunting.  I’ve had this quilt hanging to remind myself that we will get through all the changes, everyone will adjust.  And I can try to be the calm in the storm, working to make home a refuge for the people I love most.

God bless you in all your efforts to create a refuge, too.

Jennifer

I’ve said before that my Color Stack pattern is my favorite for quilts that are gifts (such as this one ), so I guess today I’m here with more proof.  It’s a quick project and has a great modern style for boys and girls both.  Plus, it’s just plain fun to make.  This sweet little quilt is a very special one.  It’s Harrison’s color stack quilt, made for a treasured baby boy.

Several years ago my daughter spent 18 months serving a full-time mission in Paraguay.  One of the (many) lasting blessings from that experience is her friendship with Abby.  They’ve been dear friends ever since, and Emmeline even introduced Abby to her future husband.  They were married in 2020, and just had a baby boy.  And the sweetest thing of all?  They named him Harrison, which is our last name.  To say that we’ve been ooh-ing and aah-ing over him, and pictures of him, since his birth, is an understatement.

I made Harrison’s color stack quilt before we left on vacation, knowing we would get to see his parents and meet him for the first time while there.  And Emmeline doesn’t know it, but I’m sneaking in a picture of her holding the quilt, because she is the reason we know this darling little family.  It amazes me, this joy of knowing good people.

Most of the fabrics in this quilt were designed by Carolyn Friedlander.  The backing, however, is a Conservatory crafts print, designed by Monkia Forsberg.  I love the vines and movement in it, as well as the animals.  But that vibrant blue sold me first.  It’s one of my favorite colors.  The finishing touch is a dark blue binding.

And a personal victory for me was finishing it in the car!  I get so carsick, but was able to stitch a little on our road trip.  Counting my blessings!

This little mini quilt was a delight to make.  When Treehouse Textiles offered a free pattern, I jumped in, so here is my Treehouse stitching sampler!  The pattern is a great mix of improv and pattern, giving the maker lots of opportunity to make an original piece.

First off, I chose low volume scraps, a few pre-made half square triangles, and one favorite square of Liberty tana lawn to create the background.  Next I selected a few Liberty prints for the flowers and started on the bouquet.  I particularly liked making those cute flowers, using some favorite green scraps for stems.  Every piece in this project holds memories of other projects I’ve worked on.  That’s the joy of sewing with scraps.  You get all these happy memories in a new project!

This Treehouse stitching sampler also represents some firsts for me.  I had never embroidered on a piece of fabric for English paper piecing before, but those hexagons were begging for flowers on them.  The tiny beehive is a remnant of my Beehive mini quilt from years ago.

I also added some patches to this mini quilt.  “You are enough” was a gift from my sister.  The skinny strip above is a scrap from a lone star block.  I also used a pattern from my favorite embroidery artist, Yumiko Higuchi, along the side of the quilt.  I loved the motif of a teardrop made of flowers.  (It reminded me of my Through Tears She Saw More Clearly quilt.)  For the quilting, I chose big stitch style hand quilting with Perle cotton, size 8.

Finally, I finished the little beauty with a pre-made bias tape with a crochet edge to it.  I bought it years ago in a quilt shop but never used it.  I’m happy it’s found its home.  This turned into a wonderful little mixed media kind of project for me, and I loved every minute of making it.

Of course I couldn’t resist adding fresh peonies to a few photos of this sweet little quilt.  I think I need to do more sewing like this.  Just looking at it makes my fingers itch to go dig through scraps and come up with a plan!  

I hope you’re sewing something fun today!