Aunty Lola’s Quilt and Mum’s Patchwork Cushion
I have Quilting on my list of things to do this year… it’s a long list!
Inspired (of course) by many of you crafty bloggers, Denyse Schmidt and blogger’s pics from Machine Made Patchwork, a Japanese crafting book that should be arriving in the mail very soon.
I am not interested in doing a huge quilt for the bed, but I do like the little projects like cushions, bags and things - usable things that can easily be shown off. 
My mum is a very accomplished seamstress and I like to say she taught me everything I know! She certainly set me on the path to creating with a sewing machine and it is thanks to her that I have such a great hobby and business today. She helped me make my very first project - a floral wrap around skirt at the age of 8 and I remember us choosing patterns and fabric together in Ganters at Kingston and the old Home Yardage in Civic.
Anyway, just before Christmas my mum had been making noises about wanting to learn patchwork/quilting. She has fond childhood memories of seeing her Auntie Lola handquilting millions of little hexagons and creating wonderful quilts - from scraps and old clothes! So I bought my mum a few quilting books from eBay and a cutting mat and a few other things for Christmas.
She had a frustrating start - where she learnt some important quilting lessons such as: choose cm OR inches if they are both given and be VERY precise in your cutting and measuring - but after a little sanity break she started over, armed with her new knowledge, some determination and new templates. Second time around, it all went together very smoothly and we are both so pleased with how it turned out. So here is my Mum’s very first patchworking project:
As it happens, Mum and Dad and I were in Sydney on the weekend to attend a cousin’s wedding - my second cousin actually. My cousin Katy (who had a lovely wedding) is the granddaughter of Aunty Lola so we spoke to her mum Carol about the quilting memories.
So then Carol (my mum’s cousin and Aunty Lola’s daughter and Katy’s mum - are you still with me?!?) dragged out an old quilt to show us. This quilt had been sewn up by a family friend after Aunty Lola’s death, using all the cut hexagons that had been found stored away. Of course I took quite a few photos to show you all, as the fabrics used are gorgeous!
More images of the quilt here.
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tags: cushion, denyse schmidt, fabric, flickr, gift, japanese crafting books, Machine Made Patchworks, paper piecing, patchwork, piecing, quilt, quilting, vintage
Wow that quilt is incredible!!! What a treasure!
thank you for your sweet comment on my blog. I’d never visited yours before but will now because I am so taken with this post- what an AMAZING quilt this is! I especially love the hand-stitched label. What a treasure this must be to you.
ps isn’t Lola such a great name?
Wow, that’s a fantastic quilt - the fabrics are amazing. I really do love it! Your moms cushion is very good too, it looks like she’s off to a (2nd) flying start!
Thanks for your comments on my blog - I really appreciate them!
That quilt is beautiful, so full of color. You will love “Machine Made Patchworks”, it turned around my idea of wanting to quilt.
Muito bonito o seu trabalho.
Parabéns
Júnia Izabel
(Brasil)
This is my first time looking at any blog site. Some of these fabrics must have been really awful in a full piece but in this quilt FANTASTIC. I’m a fan of ugly fabric quilts myself.
What a lovely quilt - makes me want to do hexagons just to keep and one day sew! I quite enjoyed doing them in class - might give me some winter hand sewing in front of the tv. Did she just hand sew it to the black fabric?