Our Quilted Home

I began quilting during the bicentennial year of 1976. After I completed my first class - making a sampler quilt - at one of the few quilt shops in our area, I decided to take another class from the same teacher. She had us bring a photo of our home, and helped us scale it up and use it to cut templates for a wall hanging.

It was one more of those times in my life when I was really into something that was way over my talents, but became one of those things that made me proud and spurred me on to try other adventurous things in quilting.

The choice of fabrics was quite small in those days, but I did finish the applique and then began to hand quilt through all those many layers upon layers of fabric! It was one of those projects that you put away for months and years, yet are compelled to finish.

At one point in the process, my husband said, "It needs something to bring it to life. Put Heidi in the front yard."

That led me to find a dingy old terry cloth towel to cut into the shape of a West Highland Terrier. Not being an artist, I can recall searching through books at our local library to find a dog shape that would work.

I'm not sure why I decided to frame it, but I don't think I realized there was such a thing as wall hangings in those days. It was my first experience at finding out how expensive it is to have something custom framed, but I am so happy that I did.

We lived in that home over 25 years, and I am reminded of many fond memories each time I look at that landscape applique today.

Round Robin

Our quilt guild is doing a Round Robin. Members who are interested in participating provide the center block, a collection of fabrics they would like to be used, and place it in a brown paper bag. The bags are exchanged with participating members every other month, and they must comply with the assignment. That gives you two months to figure out what you want to do to add on to the Round Robin.


The first months assignment was to add some kind of border using triangles. The second month, which you see here, was to add applique.

The third month involved rectangles or squares, and the final month is a border of our choosing.

I can't wait until September when our Round Robin projects are returned and we get to see what others have done to them! The center block that I turned in was a cross-stitched block of Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois. I found it at the garage sale room at our quilt guild's show a few years ago, and didn't quite know what to do with it --- until the Round Robin opportunity came up.