Yup! There it is, my super red 13 year quilt, finally finished. This baby began in 2002 when I was in the
EYE program at the Peterborough Youth Emergency Shelter. We were encouraged to create some of our own programming, and I was looking to get some experience sewing, so one of the other members suggested that her mom might take me in at her sewing shop. I went in one afternoon a week and sewed together strips of fabric into squares for log cabin quilts to be donated later. In addition to this, I also was taught how to make a simple garment. Lessons I learned in the back room of that sewing shop have stayed with me for many of my sewing projects since. 
Following this experience, I decided that I’d like to make my own quilt. 
I’ve always loved the combination of red and black and chose this as my colour theme. I took my time collecting fabric, cutting strips and piecing the quilt. I did it in the same style as those I had been working on in the sewing shop. I can’t find many pictures from this time, but I’ll add more as I find them. Once the body of the quilt was assembled, with mom’s help, I strung it up on an old quilt frame that my grandpa had made (I believe this was based on the one in the upstairs of the Fitzpatrick home at Lang Pioneer Village, which connects to how the quilt is finally finished).
The quilt frame was bulky and hard to work with, which lead to less and less 
frequent bouts of quilting, and then the quilt eventually came off, with plans to find something my convenient. Fast forward to 2013, I’m working at Lang Pioneer Village. I snag one of the rug hookers’ hoops and put it on my quilt… presto! I’m a lap-quilter. I was allowed to bring my quilt to work (which I’m super-grateful for, it may have been another five years) when I was stationed in appropriate buildings and was able to press forward with my quilt. I worked on it one or two days my second summer at Lang and it was time for some outer edge-quilty-decision-making time. 
If anyone knows my family, they know that creative decisions can hold up a project for some time. I finally decided how to do the border and finished it up by January.
Mom and some kittens helped me with the final stages, then finally it was done, January17, 2015. The cats all approved. I”m pretty sure that my quilt holds on to all of the memories of the years it took to finish it, probably making it extra snugly and warm.
P.S. If anyone from the Peterborough Youth Emergency Shelter comes across this, I’m looking for a copy of the super-awesome CD that we made as a group. I need to hear it!! :)
