A quilt (plan) for Nanna

My grandmother (whom I call Nanna) cracks me up.

I had dinner with her Sunday night and brought a copy of the book, Modern Blocks, in which I have a pattern published. (I finally got my printed copies right before Thanksgiving. Yay!)

I showed her my pattern first, which (of course) she liked (she has to, right?). Then, as she began to flip through the rest of the book, at practically every page turn, I heard her exclaim:

"Eww! Yuck!"

or

"Why do they have to use so many prints? It doesn't look good all together!"

and

"These are boring. Doesn't anyone do more abstract quilting?"

Now, you might be thinking, what does this woman know about quilting? It's true—Nanna doesn't quilt, but she does sew, upholster, paint, and for many years, she also had a stained glass workshop set up in her home. Needless to say, she has an artist's eye. In my home alone, I have something in practically every room that she has made. I went through my house this morning and photographed the things that she has made for me so that I can share them with you.

Nanna is also 80, still beautiful, wears black eyeliner that she sweeps up at the corners into an elegant cat eye, goes to the gym 3 times a week, mows her own lawn, cleans and keeps up her own house, and is an active member of weekly a painting group and book club. That's kind of beside the point, but I am just putting that out there because it makes me proud to be her granddaughter.

Above: This stained glass mirror hangs in my entryway next to the front door. I love the color scheme. As a side note, this photo was surprisingly hard to take. It took about 20 shots and subsequent camera setting adjustments to get the light metered properly and have the mirror IN focus and me OUT of focus.

Above: This stained glass mirror hangs in my bedroom. It's purple—Nanna's signature color, and one of mine, too.

Above: Nanna gave me a monogrammed jewelry box when I was a teenager. I think it may have been my 13th birthday present. I wish I remember which year it actually was :(

Above: Nanna just gave me these stained glass Christmas trees on Sunday. I love their simplicity. Let the Christmas decorating begin!

Above: View of one of the Christmas trees from the top. Nanna made them by fusing three pieces of glass together.

Above: Two wilderness paintings hang in my upstairs sitting room. Every time I reference these paintings, Nanna says, "Oh, those old things!" She thinks they are far from her best effort, but I love them all the same. And the subject matter is perfect for me—mountains.

Above: Close-up shot with Nanna's signature: A. Baker.
"A" stands for Arlene. 

Yes, I am named after her.

Above: Another close-up shot with my half reflection peaking through.

Back to quilting, though—I showed Nanna some pictures of various quilts I thought she might like on Flickr to try to get a sense of what she does like other than mine (because, as we already established...she has to like her own granddaughter's work!), and the one that she responded most strongly to was this one:

Above: Mod Mood Quilt by Sherri Lynn Wood (daintytime) on Flickr.

This is a mood quilt. Sherri Lynn Wood of DaintyTime started a quilt-along for this type of quilt last summer. I think that she also came up with the technique involved in this style of quilting, but I am not completely sure. I have saved pictures of these types of quilts with the intention of maybe starting one "someday," but now I have the motivation to actually make one.

Luckily (in this case anyway), Nanna doesn't have a computer, so she will never know that I am planning to make her one for Christmas :)

...That reminds me. For all you family members out there that can't keep secrets—Ahem! You know who you are. Don't make me call you out by name.—don't tell her!