What a lovely quilt Renata. Bet your mom was pleased with that. What method did you use to make the flying geese? I have Eleanor Burns Flying Geese Rulers and I also have a sample of the Ricky Tims method courtesy of Lorchen.

Renata, your mum's quilt is gorgeous (and the cat is very cute)! I'm quite jealous. I grew up as an only child and would have loved to have a sibling or two. You are very lucky to have brothers and sisters.

I've been pretty absent from the Forum for the past month. It started with a visit to Ohio to celebrate my mom's 81st birthday and then it's been traveling up and down the coast for various reasons. Just got back from Lancaster, PA (Lois, I would have contacted you but we were there for only a few hours for brother and sisters and their families to meet at the halfway point for most of us). Stopped perchance at a small quilt shop run by a woman whose husband was recovering from second-degree burns and she was alone trying to sell fabric, notions and finished quilts made by members of the local Amish community. She handed me the keys to her garage and said all the fat quarters and half-yards she had were there--to please help myself, lock up and bring back the key to her. Then, as she was helping a customer looking to purchase a quilt, she turned to me and asked if I minded cutting my own yardage. What trust! Had my sister and I not been there for only a few hours, we would have asked her if we could run her shop for her for a week while she tended to her DH. What an experience!

This year, instead of doing a round robin with mom and sisters as we did during last year's birthday visit, my sisters and I decided to make Mom a quilt. So, we each made a few rows of flying geese, met in NJ where sister Daniela assembled it while I was driving back down the coast to go home and then she quilted it on her mid-arm. Sister Pola, who came back from Ohio with us and who had never touched a mid-arm before, but is a talented multi-media artist with lots of control in her hands, did part of the quilting (and now is designing all sorts of line-drawings for Daniela's panto adventures. By the time I drove back up to NJ the following week, it was my turn to help finish stitching the binding (I love hand work). Finally, we all drove out to Lancaster, met one of my brothers from Ohio with his wife, hung out together for a few hours, had dinner and said goodbye to Pola, who returned to Ohio with our brother.

In any event, the quilt was a surprise for my mom. She always cherishes things we make for her and does not want to use them for fear they get ruined... So, we labeled this bed quilt, "Put it on the bed and sleep under it, Ma!" From start to end, it took us a week to make; Daniela carried most of the water with the quilting, but we had a blast planning the suprise and executing our part for the final surprise. It had to be simple so that it could get done, and here it is--two pictures. As you can see, the cat made herself at home on it right away! We are all in our fifties, but kids will always be kids when we get together to conspire a surprise for Mom... Renata{!-- ia0 -->Mom's Flyin Geese.JPG{!-- ia0 -->