Family

 

I very rarely make the same quilt more than once. To me, that would be boring. I like new challenges and different techniques. and I always sort of scratch my head when someone says that they've made X number of this particular quilt pattern. But this quilt has a very special purpose. And so I made 5 of them. 
My siblings and I have lost both our parents, Mom in 1998 and Dad in 2000. In 2009, we lost our only brother. And in October 2023, we lost our second oldest sister, Judy. She was the one who stepped into the matriarchal role once our mother passed away, and I can honestly say that she was everyone's favourite sister. It's been very hard. And most of us live quite far apart. My youngest sister is in Nova Scotia, two sisters in Ontario, one in Michigan and me in Alberta. In spite of the distances, we are still close. And we miss each other. So, when I saw this fabric during a sale in my LQS,

I figured it needed to be in a very special quilt. Mulling it over, I decided to make each of us remaining sisters a quilt, a snuggle-sized quilt with a minky backing, something we can cuddle up in when we're missing each other. 
I wanted to use everyone's favourite colour to represent them in the quilts. But first I had to find out what those favourite colours were. A few of us were easy: Dad's favourite had always been red, Judy's had always been green and mine has always been purple. When we were younger, my youngest sister Cindy's favourite had been blue, and my next older sister Janet's favourite had been pink. But some people change over time, and when I had asked for favourites for a different project, Cindy had said jewel tones and fire engine red, and for Janet, it was coral and aqua, while Therese (oldest) and Nancy (middle) had said something similar like red, blue and yellow. Or something like that. But I had had to have them narrow it down to one specific colour each. Cindy surprised me by picking dark purple. Janet went with aqua. Therese said sunshine yellow (had to be a very specific yellow) and Nancy said muted grey. Opinions varied on what colour should represent our mother. Pink, purple, fuchsia were suggested, and I settled on something that appeared to be a combination of those. 

But no one in the family could recall my brother, Bill, having a favourite colour. 

These are the colours I had come up with. I gave Cindy the option of which purple she wanted to represent her in the quilt: the medium dark second from the right or the ultra dark on the far right. She chose the medium dark. 
Nancy contacted our sister-in-law and I contacted my brother's son and daughter to see if any of them recalled Bill having a favourite colour. No one was aware of any. Since he was a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan, I suggested Maple Leaf blue and my sisters agreed. But I couldn't find exactly what I wanted in my LQS: nothing that was exactly the right colour and preferably in a tonal fabric. I didn't want really distinct patterns. Then I recalled the blue maple leaf print I had used in On Guard for Thee and I ended up having just enough for all of the blocks required. 
But before I got to that point, I had to actually decide how I was going to use all of these different fabrics. Initially, I considered using them all in the same block, or maybe just all in different places in the quilt top. Finally, I chose to use the Sister's Choice quilt block, a good choice, I think, since we're all sisters. 

For the background fabric in the blocks, I chose this fabric which features two hands being held in the shape of a heart. 

And I made a Sister's Choice quilt block out of each colour,

and since I had chosen a layout requiring 12 blocks, I used all 9 colours in the remaining three blocks. 

Once I had settled on a layout, I had to decide what fabric to use to fill in the squares between the blocks. I went back to the quilt shop to buy more of the word fabric, but there was a sale going on and they had already sold out. In hindsight, I think it's all for the best. I would have had lots of "fun" cutting all of those squares on the diagonal to keep the words going left to right. As it is, I thank God that I was able to get the words in the setting triangles all going in the right direction. However, that still left me with the quandary of what fabric to use for those alternate squares. I took home a metre each of two different fabrics that I felt pulled in most of the colours in the blocks to see if either of them would work. 

I didn't want anything to compete with the blocks, 

and wasn't really sure about either of these. So, I went back to the quilt shop and purchased a rose print that was from the same line as the word fabric. 

But it was very boring, and my family is anything but boring. So, I texted my youngest sister with the pictures of the other two fabrics. She chose the maple leaf fabric, and I agreed. The watercolour (or whatever you want to call the other print) is awesome, but it draws too much attention away from the quilt blocks, which are supposed to be the focus of the quilt. Besides, we're Canadian, so the maple leaf fabric is appropriate. 
While the quilt tops are identical, I chose to personalize each quilt, by using the fabric that represented the recipient in the quilt top as the binding fabric as well. Then I used that same colour for the minky backing, and the quilting thread. 

I did forewarn my sisters that I probably wouldn't get these quilts done quickly. I did, however, complete one relatively quickly just to see the overall effect. That one went to my youngest sister in time for her milestone birthday in March. That's hers at the top of the post. 

We nearly lost my oldest sister this summer to undiagnosed heart disease. She ended up having open heart surgery and is doing well now, thank the Lord. So her quilt was the next to go out in August, together with a Through My Window wallhanging as a get well gift. 

My middle sister also had a milestone birthday this year, in November. So I finished her quilt in time to send it with her birthday gift, my second Through My Window wallhanging. 

In late October, I finished the last one for my sisters, this one for the next oldest sister, that is closest to me in age, and got it shipped off. All that was left was mine.

But Christmas quilts, baking and cooking intervened and I didn't get mine finished until now - March of 2025. 

I chose the Hearts in Bloom pantograph for the quilting on each quilt.

Because Cindy and I both chose purple to represent us in the quilts, I used a minky dot for the backing on mine, so that there would be a difference in the backing.
And I don't ever want to make 5 of the same quilt again. By the time I got to mine, I felt like doing something goofy with the blocks, something to switch it up. But I restrained myself, because I did want us all to have the same quilt. It's just not likely to ever happen again. It's taken me about a year to get all 5 made.