The First Christmas

Quilt No. 158

June 2026

I generally do not do commissions, but a request - now that's something entirely different. How could a request ever be denied, especially one that you realize you've been waiting for all your life? Well, maybe not that long...but close.

A Facebook friend contacted me from the other side of the country to enquire if I would be interested in contributing some postcard sized quilts to their annual nativity themed tea, a fund raiser for Crossfield United Church. My drawer of picture fabrics rattled in the next room when I read that request. Did I have any nativity themed fabric?  I did indeed have some very special nativity fabric. "Pick me, pick me!" yelled the anxious fabric.

I'd purchased a nativity panel to make a cloth book several years ago. The fabric designer had created such appealing characters! It made a very delightful little book.

I still had a bit of that fabric remaining.  Another piece of nativity fabric came to me when I requested friends and relatives to send me a scrap of fabric for my Tree of Life quilt. One family had given me a panel of nativity-themed fabric. It was a wonderful reflection on our shared childhood memories of attending Mountjoy United Church in Timmins. While we remembered the same things about that time, we did not meet until years later. I had used a small part of their fabric to add leaves bearing their names to my tree. The rest was added to my nativity fabric collection. I had occasionally plundered this fabric to make a couple of 4x6" postcard quilts, but scraps of it still lived on. 

That wasn't the end of sources of nativity fabric. During my many years working as a hospital librarian, I was lucky to get to know a great many wonderful staff members. One of them was our hospital pastor, Deirdre. She and I had numerous wonderful conversations, and she would frequently give me things she knew I would like - tiny stuffed snowmen, ceramic Christmas decorations, a grammar-themed sweatshirt, mini Muskoka chairs, fascinating newspaper clippings. Deirdre had enjoyed a long career as a teacher and school librarian, but answered a different calling after she retired. She completed a Masters Degree in Divinity. I followed her progress as she went through the steps to become ordained in the Anglican Church, a journey I had never before witnessed.  While not a quilter, Deirdre did enjoy sewing and we often talked "fabric". Sadly, my friend Deirdre was passed away in 2023. 

One night I was uncharacteristically organized and I arrived at our quilt guild meeting earlier than usual, almost the first one to arrive. A large box had been donated to the guild, a box of beautiful fabric. Most astonishing of all, it was a box of Deirdre's fabric that her family had thoughtfully given to the guild, a group she was not involved with. For me, it was like reconnecting with my friend, and I unabashedly went through the box, setting aside more than a few fabrics while choking back my emotions. I knew that Deirdre would have wanted me to have some pieces in particular.  These included several fabrics that matched or duplicated fabric I'd purchased myself. And...it included another nativity panel!  Deirdre was still showering me with gifts more than a year after her passing.  Of course.

So, when the enquiry was made about the possibility of doing nativity themed postcard quilts, it linked all those many-sourced pieces of fabric and memories. I could easily dig into an enjoyable challenge. I am very fond of making these miniature quilts, and at last count I had made well over 300. These were used as various greeting cards, gifts, and occasionally were sold. 

I offered to make six for the Nativity Tea.. As I communed with the fabric I found that I had enough fabric to make ten, no wait, twelve could be made! This left behind an endearing fabric piece depicting Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. The larger scale made it unsuitable for postcard sized quilts. It was way too adorable to ignore! I decided that if I cut the scene out of the background fabric and added a new background with a stable, the little family would never again have to be stuffed into a drawer with a bunch of cranky fabric. And so, yet another version of The First Christmas was created. 

As the small wall quilt and accompanying postcard quilts make their way across the country, I will be remembering my friend Deirdre, her intellect, her generosity, and her ability to still do good in the world she no longer inhabits. 

Another Bad Hair Day

 

If my life had a theme it would be chronic and unremitting hair dissatisfaction. But sometimes you get to see yourself in another light. In some cases the fabric of life becomes real fabric. 

Where would I be without my quilt guild? Probably babbling in a corner making my 157th log cabin quilt. My first quilt was a log cabin, something I later learned to turn out in a whole different way in my Cabin Fever quilt. But that took many years. 

This year we have a guild quilt show coming up at our local museum in Timmins. We each get to display one quilt. In conjunction with the show we usually do a small special project. This time the challenge was to do a fantasy face, 12 x 12 inch finished format. Some members were apprehensive, but I wanted to dive in without even bothering to check the depth. It was suggested that the face should reflect our personalities or maybe things we liked. It did not have to look like the maker. Whew. Mine could have stellar hair for once! My next thought was that it would have to include a frog or perhaps many frogs in it - I'm known for my fondness of fabric frogs.

I have an entire dresser drawer of what is best described as picture fabric.

Animal fabrics reside here

This where my frog collection resides. It keeps company with a host of other animal fabrics, a collection I despair of ever being able to use up unless I'm granted at least three consecutive lifetimes. Looking for my ultimate frog in there seemed miserly - there were so many other animals waiting for their turn. And...what spectacular hair I could have with all these options! The animals would reflect my biology studies of previous days. Another piece of fabric caught my eye - the one with the writing on it, the one I'd been hoarding for five years. A perfect background for a would-be writer!

And so my fantasy face came to life, giving lots of fabrics a chance to strut their stuff. Even the Tweety Bird fabric I had bought on a whim finally found a use - it was the perfect homage to the idle and perfect hours I'd spent with my sister watching the Bugs Bunny Show, spawning an ever-growing love of cartoon characters from which I have blessedly never freed myself. 

Winnie the Pooh Spool Quilt

Spools are well known to be symbiotic with thread, but a spool paired with a quilt? Intriguing! I saw this idea in a magazine and ripped out the article (forgive me) and put it in my "Someday" pile. The pile is pretty big and needs the help of a sturdy shovel when it must be relocated. It's best to leave it untouched and let a blanket of dust gently render it discreetly invisible.

But...the spool idea kept resurfacing, and eventually, like most temptations, it would not be denied. I began to hunt for that motivational literature I had stashed in Someday.  While the pile was easily located, the article was not. Nor was it scanned in as a computer file, nor stuck in any of the myriad binders that follow me from room to room. It wasn't in the night table, nor could I recall seeing it as a liner in the bird cage. 

I decided to bide my time until it resurfaced by looking for a suitable spool. That would be easy since I had a few hundred spools to choose from. I like thread. A lot. A closer investigation of these revealed that not one spool was suitable. They were not tall enough, most were utilitarian plastic, and if you were to wrap a quilted piece around them they would be filled by a single wrap of quilting. As usual, I moaned about this terrible unjust state of affairs to my husband. If anyone knew how to resolve the spool enigma, he would. And, of course, he did.

Just like quilters who are always looking for new ways to use up their fabric, a man with a lathe is always on the hunt for a new project that will give the lathe a suitable workout. Yes, of course he could make a spool. Child's play! What size would I like? How luxurious - he would make it any height and diameter that I wanted! We decided on a six inch tall spool, which ultimately lent itself nicely to a series of four inch squares, sewn together in a chain.  

The spool he made was perfect, but the next step? I just could not come up with an idea that satisfied my desire to do "not too much work" since this would only be a prototype.  The spool sat on my quilt table for (forgive me yet again) two years. In all that time the magazine article never turned up, nor did any suitably easy ideas. 

At a guild meeting one night, we were clearing out fabric that had not been used during a group project several members had completed. Passed up and looking forlorn was a fabric panel with Winnie the Pooh characters in small scenes. It was meant to be made into a cloth book. The scale was just right for the 4x6 inch postcard quilts I am fond of making, so Winnie and Co. came home with me. It too sat around unused for a while as all fabrics must wait their turn. It's a game of patience. But I do leave newer ones in plain sight so they can churn up some ideas. This causes a lot of bothersome clutter, but sometimes they inspire me with something other than a grinding feeling of guilt for my neglect. Such was the case with Winnie as I realized the scale was exactly what I needed for my test quilt for the spool.  

The article was still stubbornly astray, but I prefer to figure things out myself anyway, so I forged ahead. I soon had a chain of four inch tall squares with a little bit of sashing sewn between them. I laid them out on a strip of batting and painstakingly machine quilted around each item on every block. So much for a fast test piece, I was devoting way too much time to leave it at that. I'd committed myself now! 

It needed a backing, but I did not want to do another set of squares that would be difficult to line up with the top layer of squares. I've made enough foolish choices in life to recognize at least a few of them. But only a few...  I found some cloud fabric and after consulting the internet for pretty much every quote that Winne the Pooh ever made I added his words to the clouds, "Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart".  Guess I could have gone with a really small spool after all.

And the magazine article? Yep, it turned up about three weeks after my spool quilt was done. Typical!