My aunt’s are great cooks -

Moosemeat Roast with gravy and home-grown Potatoes mashed with lots of butter and canned milk

Saksatoon Berry Pie

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Raspberry Jam

Fried Pickerel

Wild Blueberry Pie with Ice Cream

Wild Rice Casserole

Bacon and Eggs with Toasted Home-made Bread and Wild Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam

Did I mention the Wild Blueberry Pie? A little taste of heaven!

I always seem to be hungry when it comes to mealtime here. I can’t believe the amount of food I’ve been consuming. Must be that wild northern Manitoba air.

The abandoned dock at Herb Lake Landing

As many of you know, I am in family country. I’ve come here to reunite with family, and to find out a little more a about my paternal grandmother, Ethel. Ethel was a quilt-maker too. I’ve learned since arriving that Ethel was also trained as a lacemaker, and I’ve seen many samples of her work. She was a feisty little woman who was a good cook (that’s where my aunts get it from!). Her cinnamon buns were known by many. She always had room for another person at the dinner table. She made do. She always had a smile.

As I sit here watching the sun rise over Wekusko Lake, not far from the spot where my grandmother lived, I look at the same lake and islands that she would have seen from her kitchen window, and wonder what her life was like. Though I’ve heard many stories in the days since I’ve arrived, I would love to have heard them directly from her. Especially her quilting stories.

Nana's house - so much smaller than I remember!

When my aunt told me she had some quilts – the quilts that were made by Ethel, I thought there would be two or three left after all these years. But when she opened the trunk and pulled out at least a dozen quilts, I nearly wept with joy. My cousin and I spent an afternoon going through all of them, and I listened as Cathy reminisced about the fabrics that Nana used. “This was Nana’s favourite ‘house dress’. I always loved that fabric with the blue flowers,” she remarked. Or, “Nana made a skirt for me out of that purple and white fabric,” she remembered.

I am sad I don’t have any of those memories, but thrilled that I have someone to tell me about their own memories of my grandmother. They are not pretty quilts, well at least not the pretty quilts we are used to seeing and making today. But they are each beautiful to me. My aunt tells me that the quilts were all made sometime between the 1940′s and 1970′s, and the fabrics Ethel used reflect the times. Sometimes the backings are pieced with scraps of fabric just to make a piece large enough to fit the front. Where there are holes and tears, I can see inside to what she’s used as batting – wool blankets, old curtains. Whatever was available. The quilts are not straight. They do not lie flat.

But they are stunningly beautiful to me.

~ H

Quilts at Tanglebank Gardens is an annual event in Vancouver, hosted by three local designers, and one BC guest. Susan Jensen of Quilted Escapes, Cheryl Wall of Country Quilts, and Dougal Anne Walker of The Freckles Collection were joined this year by Pippa Moore of Kitambaa Designs for a lovely show featuring many, many quilts of their designs. Here are just a few photos from the perfect, and very busy, day!

Many thanks to Susan Jensen for sharing these photos. I can’t believe I forgot my camera!

The skirt turned out beautifully, and I’ve had so many comments on it since I’ve been wearing it. I used Autumn colours, but you can do this with any fabrics – to match the skirt. You could use this to embellish jeans or a jean jacket – the sky is the limit!

I am not the professional photographer, but the photos do show the detail, so you will have a better idea.

Here’s the pattern I created. Enjoy!

Flower Applique Skirt

That’s me with my Nana. I was about seven years old. One of the last trips I made with my family to visit my grandparents in Manitoba. I blogged about my grandmother way back in January.

My Nana was a quilter. And my cousin Cathy, who lives in Manitoba, is a quilter.  And I am a quilter.

It does run in the blood.

If you read the post from January about my Nana, you will not be surprised when I say that on Tuesday, my husband and I are packing the car, picking up my parents, and heading to northern Manitoba for two weeks. I’m still in a bit of shock about the decision, as I never in a million years thought I’d get back there. It’s been too long since I’ve been with my family. I don’t know any of them. But it’s time to spark old (and new) relationships and friendships. Long overdue.

On the way home I will be stopping in Dauphin, Manitoba. The Parkland’s Crocus Quilters’ Guild is hosting a quilt show September 25 & 26, and Quilter’s Connection Magazine will be a merchant. More details on the show here, if you are in the area.

I’m quite looking forward to the trip. Looking forward to learning a bit more about me. I hope to blog a bit about the journey, but will be saving all the really, really good stories for an article for the Winter issue of the magazine.

Wish me luck.

So I got out the bleach and experimented with some sample fabrics. Here’s what happened -

Then I decided to try creating some blocks from the fabrics – you can see that the fabrics work together, but how do they look when cut up and sewn back together?

I wasn’t particularly impressed with the green fabric, but the purple fabric works quite nicely combined with the new colour!

Want to try this yourself? It’s quite easy. Here’s what you need:

BLEACH DISCHARGE FABRIC

Warning! Wear old clothes so if you splash bleach on yourself, you won’t be too upset

Put on the gloves so the bleach will not harm your skin. Mix hot water and bleach in bowl, then place fabric in mixture. Leave fabric in bleach mixture for 5-10 minutes, depending on the amount of bleaching you would like to occur. ‘Stir’ gently so  fabric bleaches evenly.

Remove fabric from bleach, rinse thoroughly and put through a regular washing machine cycle to completely remove bleach.

You may need to experiment yourself a little, as every fabric bleaches out at a different rate.

Smaller pieces of fabric are best for this project, as you want the fabric to move freely in the bleach so the liquid is distributed evenly. However, if you plan to do larger amounts of fabric, ensure you have a large enough bucket or bowl, and plenty of water. The ratio of bleach to hot water is 250ml to 1 litre.

Enjoy! ~ Heather

When I saw the Turnovers, and noticed that they were on sale, I just had to have them. And then the bright colours of the Jelly Roll caught my eye. And the new Fall shades of the Honey Bun. Jelly Roll, Honey Bun, and Turnover all insisted they couldn’t leave the store without the Charm Squares. So I bought them all.

The September issue of Loose Threads (Quilter’s Connection Magazine’s monthly e-newsletter) will feature a fun back-to-school project using strips from the Jelly Roll, and I plan to post some projects using the other packs on this blog in the future!

It took me a while, and it was only while I was showing Tricia Sherman from Great Canadian Shop Hop how to use WordPress (BTW – Tricia is setting up a blog – I’ll post more about that soon!)…

Anyway, back on topic here! So, I just realized I can add a widget to let people sign up to receive email notification when I add a new post! I didn’t know that was available! How excited am I?! Very excited! Yippee!

So, sign up!

Happy Quilting, and Blog reading! ~ Heather