QUILT MAKING

A bear face t-shirt is seen after it has been quilted into a memory quilt.
Gorgeous memory quilt featuring a pieced bear made from baby clothes and a sky made from a receiving blanket.
Image of a patchwork quilt with one piece in focus that reads 'I stole your heart.'

When I first began making memory quilts, my business was called KOKOBARU; it sprang into existence in the summer of 2011. It was a nickname I had for my dog Quinn, who was my soul dog for a beautiful chapter of my life. To me the name means love and I used it as the name for my business when I first started out making toys and quilts in Ottawa.


KOKOBARU, has been absorbed into THIS SPLENDID CHAOS, which encompasses all my work and is a wonderful way for me to enrich my creative passions while providing a service to others and helping to sustain my family. 


I've been enamoured with creating all types of things since I was a little girl. My first sewing experience was at the age of 4 or 5. I was introduced to a push pedal sewing machine by my great Aunt Mary. I remember the light shining through the window up on the third floor in the double brick home she shared with my other great aunt and uncle, and the thrill of pumping that pedal up and down and making something out of plain pieces of fabric. I made my first quilt when I was in high school from scrap pieces of fabric and have continued to learn and grow my skills since then.


I am self taught quilter and currently use a vintage Bernina machine for my piecework. I also have a vintage Janome, but haven't used it since switching to my 'back up' Bernina when the Janome needed some repair work awhile back. The Bernina is a very straight forward and simple machine and I typically only user the straight stitch, although when working on appliqués I also use a zig zag.


I made my first memory quilt a number of years ago and find them to be a beautiful vehicle for memories and meaningful creation. I've been learning to use design software to work on my quilts, but typically draw my quilts out on grid paper and piece things together organically as I look at and feel the fabrics as I work.


I invested a small fortune in a Q'nique 15" long arm to give me more freedom with my free-motion quilting a few years ago, and upgraded to a 21" after a number of issues with it losing it's timing.

I don't use a computerized system for my quilting; instead I offer free motion quilting on all my quilts. I've come to realize over the years that my long arm may not be best suited to memory quilts, which are difficult to quilt due to the different types of fabric found in clothing. If there's a delay in me completing a quilt, it's almost certain it's because the timing has gone off on my machine. I would have to say learning to adjust the timing has been and continues to be my least favourite aspect of quilting. It's quite a precise procedure and I am far from an expert, but you do what you've got to do right?