There are 3063 pieces in the quilt top. I started hand-piecing it as therapy after I lost my mum to bowel cancer in early December 1992. The last quilting stitch was put in place 18 months later, when my sweet Sarah-Jean, the precious baby that my mum told me I was going to have in her last lucid moments, turned 9 months old. The fabrics are memory scraps... leftovers from all the dresses I had made for my daughter, Katie, since she was born. When I ran out of those I collected "donations" from all my quilting friends. I look at the different fabrics and I can conjure up mental pictures of places, faces and specific times. As you can imagine, it is very special to me.

Made for my friend's baby. Machine pieced and hand embellished. It was truly a labour of love and after attempting this I have a lot of admiration and respect for the pioneer ladies (and the modern ones)who hand embroidered double bed sized quilts.

Something small to satisfy my first desire to try English paper piecing (where the fabric is tacked to paper templates and the resulting shapes are whip stitched together before the paper is removed). This was the method I used to piece the DWR quilt shown above. Yeah... I know. I'm a glutton for punishment.

This is my first quilt. Machine and hand pieced and hand quilted. It maps out my journey into the world of P and Q. I started as a raw beginner and ended up with a beautiful quilt and a life long addiction. (BIG smile)