Trunk Full of Quilts 2016

Soma of Whims and Fancies is hosting a virtual trunk show.  She has invited us to share our favourite quilts in a new post and to go get inspired by other quilters' trunk shows.  Sounds like a fun community activity to me!  I'm in!

Trunk Full of Quilts 2016

However, I ran into trouble.  They're all my favourites!  I don't think I can fit them all in one post.  I tried to think of themes to narrow things down, but that didn't help much.  In the end, I passed the buck.  I asked my family to choose.  Keep in mind that I only gave them 5 minutes each to think of two or three.  Still, I figured whatever popped into their minds first is probably what made the biggest impression.  I'll list them in chronological order.

M's House Quilt - 2003

My son picked this house quilt.  It's the second quilt I ever made, all flannel and hand quilted in the ditch of every seam. This one is pre-blog and pre-digital camera.  The colors are actually all bright primary colors.  What shows up as black here is actually a deep bright green.  There is also bright orange,  red and royal blue, but you wouldn't know it from this picture! You wouldn't know it from the state the quilt is in now, either, because it has been well used and faded quite a bit.  But it was well loved and apparently I'm not allowed to ever dispose of it.

Wandering Geese - 2012

My daughter chose Wandering Geese.  She claimed this quilt before it was even quilted.  This was my 17th quilt and the first pattern I wrote up to sell, and the pattern still sells quite well.  The sales might slow a wee bit soon because though my daughter agreed to let it hang in the local quilt shop, she feels that after being there a little more than a year the quilt needs to come home.  The pattern will of course still be available online and from my distributors, and any quilt shops that want to carry it.  It's just that patterns sell so much better in shops with a sample on the wall!

Autumn Moons - 2013

Autumn Moons was my husband's first pick, which surprised me, but I can run with it!  I like this one too.  It was my 24th quilt and came from my first experience sewing curves.  I just started sewing drunkard's path blocks for practice, then figured I needed to do something with them.  The quilting was all done on my domestic machine with my trusty walking foot.  I released the pattern last fall.  This one is also hanging in the local quilt shop right now.  If you're passing through Ames, you can see it in person at the Quilting Connection.

Quilter's Scrapbook - 2013

Both my husband and daughter chose Quilter's Scrapbook, my 25th quilt. What can I say, it really brightens up the living room on a dreary winter's day! This quilt was my first foray into creating my own paper piecing foundations, because that seemed like the easiest way to make the X blocks for the sashing and cornerstones.  As I type this, another possible way just popped into my head.  I'll have to explore that later...

Canada Quilt - 2014

The Canada Quilt  (Quilt #26) got votes from my son and husband. My mother sent me fabric for this one, and it sat for quite a while while I pondered what the best use of it would be.  The idea went from graph paper to fabric over the course of a few months, then I hand quilted it over more than a year. You can go here to see closeups of the quilting.  This one is still hanging on the wall at home where I pass by it many times a day.

M's Kaleidoscope - 2016

Though my 34th finished quilt is dated 2016, the top was finished in 2014.  It just took me another year and a half to hand quilt it in fits and starts.  My son picked the colors for this one, and got final approval on the design.  The quilt lives on his bed and was his first pick as a favourite.  I'm planning to write a pattern for this soon.  What do you think - queen, twin and throw sizes?

Lucky Bugger - 2016

Finally, I had to include Lucky Bugger, made for my dad.  I've shown this, my 40th quilt, twice already this year, but it has all those lovely blues in it!  I said I couldn't pick a favourite, but all those pretty blues make this one rank pretty high.  My blue stash bin is twice as large as any other color's bin, so that tells you how I feels about blue.  Besides, an Ocean Waves quilt had been on my quilt bucket list for years and now I've made one, so that's a happy dance quilt!

That concludes my Trunk Full of Quilts show for this year.  I'm linking up at Whims and Fancies and heading over to take a peek in other quilters' trunks.