I bought this kit at the Saskatoon Quilt Guild’s quilt show several years ago. I had seen the poppy fabric when someone from our Guild was using it; when I saw the fabric used in a kit I had to have it.

I’m not sure why it took so long to quilt; it had sat finished and sandwiched for a long time. It became one of my first quilting projects after treatment and it went very well. I used the same pattern for some placemats so I already know the quilting pattern I will use.

In my mind I had put some Christmas fabric on the back so it could be reversible but the fabric I picked wasn’t the best. With black binding it doesn’t look as Christmassy as I would have like so it probably will only be used for the month of November.

As I didn’t get this finished before Remembrance Day this year it now hangs in my sewing room hiding some bins of scraps.

At a Guild meeting several years ago a bag of hand-pieced blocks were offered to the members. No one stepped forward so I said I’d take them home and do something with them. It took a long time before I put the top together.

The fabric was very fragile and there were age marks and stains on several of the pieces. I asked for suggestions for cleaning it but they all involved scrubbing the spots with various solutions and I felt the fabric wouldn’t stand up to that sort of treatment.

When I was almost finished the quilting I went back to the woman who had offered the blocks and asked if she would be able to track down the woman who donated them to her. It was a friend of her daughter and they were able to contact her to see if she was interested. She was!

It was her grandmother who pieced the blocks so the quilt will be going back to the family. It was an honour for me to be part of the journey.

At least once a year the Guild holds a Community Quilts weekend. Most years there are a crew of members who sandwich the tops that have been completed and a larger crew of members work at making tops.

In preparation for the weekend I had a bin of tops that I had always intended to donate and I was sorry that they weren’t doing any sandwiching. On the second day I decided the Guild could store those tops just as easily as I could so I added them to their pile.

I don’t know if I’ll get them back again for quilting but I will keep my eye out for them to come back.

UPDATE: It wasn’t until I posted the photo that I noticed I had one of the blocks turned the wrong way (bottom right corner). So I pulled the top back from the Guild, turned the block around and I’ll keep it to do the quilting on before I give it back.

UPDATE: This was shown at the December, 2024 Guild meeting’s Show and Share.

This pattern called for piecing an American flag as the centre portion but I knew from the start I wasn’t going to do it that way. Since my Christmas fabric was already scattered about I decided to go with a Christmas theme. Sadly it used very little of my Christmas fabric.

Had I been thinking I could have made it slightly larger with a couple of solid borders and it would have been a good size for a placemat. Since I didn’t think of that until it was too late I have found a place for it on the wall up the stairs. I guess it is the start of my Christmas decorating.