Liberated Baskets

This is a quilt I'm piecing together for one of my daughter's good friends.  It might be a little too liberated but I'm letting myself go with this one.  P.S.  Those are my new kitchen tiles in the background.

The quilt on the floor is a liberated nine patchy sampler that I've finished for my daughter.  Unfortunately my daughter whisked the bound quilt away before I could photograph it.  Here are a couple of details. 

I love making the liberated stars from the books by Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran.  The entire quilt was tied with  yellow Euroflax sport weight linen.

I'm still quilting my "Butterfly Garden" quilt for my daughter's other close friend. 

I gave up quilting a number of years ago because it bored me.  I only discovered "liberated quilting" about a year ago.  I always secretly preferred what I called naive quilts or utility quilts but kept this passion a secret.  I thought people would laugh at me  or think that I didn't have pride in my work if I made quilts in such a free way.   I recently found an old book published in the eighties called "Masterpiece Quilts"  which has many "utility quilts" pictured along with more traditional quilts.  I admire perfectly executed traditional quilts but they don't speak to me the same way as quilts in which the maker has had to make design choices based on what was available to her at the time. 

Anywho, I'm having fun which is what it's all about.

Quilt it Freehand - Threads

Quilt it Freehand - Threads  This link (also at side bar) is a great tutorial on freehand quilting and shows how to make a great quilt frame that you don't have to baste your layers together for. 

MIA

I've done a fair amount in the last year but haven't been blogging very much.  Summer was all about my daughter being home from boarding school.  We had a great time the three of us (husband, daughter and I) at the family cottage in Ontario.   She decided to go back to boarding school despite my diabolical plan to show her how wonderful life could be at home :  friends, mom doing her laundry, mom baking for her, Sunday dinner, mom helping her clean her room,  mom basically being her slave etc..  All to no avail;  we took her back in September.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm really proud of her independant spirit, and her brains.  A big part of me, most of me is happy if she's happy, wherever that is.  I just miss her so damn much.  Empty nest syndrome is happening to me about 4 years earlier than I expected and it's the pits.

If that weren't enough my doctor informed me that menopause was upon me.  She is not my usual doctor.  Just a young thing with the world by the tail.  Thanks for informing me that my ovaries are "frying up".  Just wait till yours fry dearie.

Sorry about the whining.  Hope to have some pictures as soon as I find either my cell phone or my digital camera which have been lost in our home renovations.  Kitchen is almost done.  It is the one thing making me giddy with delight.  Life could be worse.  That's something I have to remember.  I'm a lucky women "frying ovaries and all.  PS  vitaming D and Calcium and Magnesium supplements have stopped wild menopausal mood swings.  The nurse told me to take them when the doctor was out of the room for a minute.  Thank God for nurses with experience.