The following was e-mailed to me by my Aunt yesterday on my birthday. This was one of the best presents I received. We have all seen where we can find out what famous things happened in history the day we were born. How often do we hear first hand accounts of what was going on at the time of our birth in the lives of those closest to us. Thank you, Aunt Ardelle for taking the time to send this to me.

Hi Norma:

Just finished reading your most recent blogs.

I just had to write and say a little bit about the day you were born. I remember that day very well. I was attending Western Christian College at North Weyburn. Prior to you being born I was busy embroidering some ‘Sunbonnet Girls’ and then your Grandma put them all together and made a quilt out of them. That quilt likely isn’t around anymore.

I remember your Grandmother, my Mother phoning to tell me that your Mother & Dad had a baby girl. They came to Weyburn to visit your Mom and you in the hospital. They also came out to the College to pick me up so I could go visit.I remember going into the Weyburn Hospital and the nurse asked me if I was old enough to go visiting…you had to be 12 years old. I was then 17 years old. I wasn’t very impressed. At that time people like me couldn’t see your Mother but I got to see you. You were a real gem.

I started baby-sitting for your Mother on Saturdays while she went shopping,. She would come out to the College and get me for the day and then take me back before curfew at night. It helped your Mother and it sure was nice for me not having to stay at the College all day Saturday. We couldn’t only go home once a month but we could go out on day passes.

I remember one of the days when I was babysitting you, you cried and cried. The only time you didn’t cry was when I was holding you. I thought maybe you were a bit spoiled. It turned out that you had Colic.

As you got a little bit bigger and you would come to Carlyle to visit your grandparents (and at the time I was now living back at home). You loved to sit on my pillows and play with my clock radio in the book case at the head of the bed.

When Clark was born you came to Carlyle and I looked after you. You were talking then and I would feed you jelly which you really liked and I would tell you that it was jelly for your belly. I also tried to get you to say that your name was Norma Elizabeth and you would say to me I not lizabet.

Then there were the times at Grandpa and Grandma’s cottage at the lake…you and I would go and pick strawberries along the path to the outside biffy.These are just a few things I can remember about you when you were born and as you grew up. There are likely a lot more but these things come to my mind right now.

Have a great day.

This is a picture of me on one of those visits to my Grandparent’s house. If you look closely, you can see my Grandfather in the background.

These are two pictures of my aunt.

Seven of the Tuesday Night Quilters met at Dot’s house last Tuesday (November 7) and made their versions of the hexagon table topper.

By the end of the session, all seven of the participants had finished their table toppers to the flimsy stage. One participant even had her topper sandwiched and basted, ready for quilting. This is a picture of 4 of the toppers that were completed.

This is a picture of the Christmas version that I made. I finished quilting it yesterday and finished the binding tonight. This will be another Christmas gift for someone on my list.

Note: The fabrics have changed from Halloween themed fabrics in the first part of the tutorial in the previous post to Christmas themed fabrics in this part of the tutorial.

You should now have your two stratas — 6 strips of fabric sewn together and seams pressed in the same direction.

The following instructions are for making a hexagon-shaped (6-sided) table topper. The angle for a hexagon shaped quilt is 60 degrees. If you would rather make an octagon-shaped table topper (8-sided), use a 45 degree angle.

Lay one of your stratas on your cutting board and using a ruler with a 60 degree marking, lay the ruler on your strata so that the 60 degree line runs along one of the seams of your strata.

This photo shows the two ruler method. The shorter ruler is marking the 60 degree angle in the middle of the strata and the longer ruler is butted up against it so that a continuous cut can be made across the strata.

Alternatively, a special ruler made for cutting 60 degree angles can be used. I found this ruler to be more accurate than using the two straight rulers.

Once you are sure of where your 60 degree angle is, make your first cut–as close to the end of your strata strip as possible to maximize the use of your fabric.

Reposition your ruler so that you can make the second cut and complete the triangle.

Continue cutting triangles for the length of your strata. You should get three triangles out of one strata.

In the next step you will be sewing two triangles together. Because you have pressed all seams in the same direction, the seams should nest together effortlessly.

Pin at the seam intersections and sew from the large end of the triangle to the small end of the triangle.

Press your seams open.

Once you have sewn two triangles together, sew one more triangle to this pair. Three triangles sewn together are half the project.

Cut the second strata as you did the first strata. The most important thing to note here is that what ever fabric was at the top of your cutting board in the first strata should now be at the bottom when you cut the second strata. Fabric #1 in the first strata becomes fabric #6 in the second strata.

You want two sets of three triangles with the same fabric in the “point” position. If this seems a little confusing, study the photo of the finished table topper in the next post.