Meet June's Desire to Inspire Challenger - Sandra Walker with Better at the Lake projects

We got really excited about choosing Sandra Walker because she was so excited about being chosen! She lives on Lake Erie, which she told us in CAPITAL letters when she entered the challenge. We could practically see her jumping up and down. The other really cute thing about Sandra that made us laugh was her blog name: which is mmmquilts.com  - simple enough, right? But the name in the heading is Musings of a Menopausal Melon! So her effervescent personality showed through.

We sent Sandra some fabric from the Better at the Lake collection by Janet Rae Nesbitt of One Sister Designs at the first of June. She has had a very prolific month of sewing!

Here is a shot of all the work Sandra has done this month on the shores of Lake Erie. 

Here are a few photos that she has let trickle in via email this month:

The day her fabric arrived! 

Quilt in the works...Her own design, called Blue Skies and Sunny Days, now for sale! 

Playing with design

A little landscape pillow in the works

Meet our June Challenger: Sandra Walker.

I live in Kingsville Ontario; sitting way down on the 42nd parallel, we are Canada’s southernmost town.  The town is right on the north shore of Lake Erie, about a half hour south of Windsor, Canada’s southernmost city.  Windsor is the only city where you have to go north to get to the US!  It is on the south side of the Detroit River, with our big sister, Detroit, on the north side.  Living on a Great Lake means we have a fairly temperate climate; as a result, Essex county is home to 18 wineries, a lavender farm, orchards, multiple greenhouses as well as produce farms, and the best (IMHO) tomatoes and corn in North America.  I am fortunate enough to be able see Lake Erie, between some trees and other houses, from my patio.

Picture perfect day on Lake Erie, with the Better at the Lake quilt in view

Close-up of quilting...back and forth to represent the lake motion

The entire quilt - Sandra will be donating this to the Windsor Sexual Assault Centre 

I was born in Alberta, and spent the majority of my life there.  My husband is from Essex County, and we spent five years in the 80's living here and both our daughters were born here.  We moved back to Alberta to be by family, but a few years ago made a huge life-changing decision to quit our jobs pre-retirement age and move back here and slow our lives down.  Our youngest daughter, Dayna, moved here a couple of years before we did, to go back to school.  She now works and lives in Michigan.  Our eldest daughter, Brianne, and  her son, Brady, our almost-8-year-old grandson, live in Alberta.  He is the light of our lives, an amazing child.  September has become the traditional trip for the two of them to come visit us, and my husband and I take turns going back west to visit them and the rest of our friends and family.  I now teach yoga part time, quilt as much as I can, read and walk my beloved ‘pibble’ Rocco.

Sandra's own paper pieced block design for the lighthouse pillow.  A nod to a few of the different lighthouses in the Lake Erie area. Her own little corner is represented just to the right of the lighthouse.

Better at the Lake, on the back side of the pillow too!

  Lake Coasters: Front and Back

Mariner's Compass and Migrating Geese Table Centerpiece

 Although my nana, my mum’s mum, was a talented seamstress and knitter, she didn’t quilt, and so I don’t have a history of quilters in my family.  My grandma, my dad’s mum, was a talented crocheter, and she did make a heavy black and red squares wool quilt I remember, that sat on the couch, used for afternoon naps during long harvest or calving time days.  I made my first quilt around age 10, for my Barbies. I hand sewed scraps from my mum’s scrap bag (she sewed clothes for us kids) into small squares, stuffed them, and stitched all the little pillows together to make a quilt.  It was in 1995, when I went into the local quilt/sewing shop, Lori’s Country Cottage, to buy some fancy lace for dresses I was making for my girls, that Brianne spied a quilt BOM for $1, and made me buy it, “You bring your block back here, and you could win all the blocks, Mum!”  Well, wouldn’t you know it, I did.  So I had to learn how to put them together, and from there make the quilt, which went to Brianne of course… I, uh, didn’t do much dressmaking after that! 

Lake Rules Sign
(which is also the backside of the Mariner's Compass piece shown above)

I like all quilts, all sizes, from mini-minis to bed size, both traditional as well as modern design.  As for techniques, I enjoy pretty much everything but if I had to pick one for a quilt top, it would be piecing.  I LOVE playing with colors and shapes.  I’m happiest when I’m rummaging through my stash, which is pretty plentiful I’ll admit, after 20 years of quilting(!), pulling multiple fabrics to work into a quilt design.  I mainly have sewed from patterns, at times altering them to suit my needs, at times combining a couple of designs.  Occasionally I have made my own designs, which I’ve been doing a lot more of over the past year, which is very exciting for me!  I also just love the quilting part of making a quilt.  Seeing Kathy Sandbach on “Simply Quilts” was a huge game-changer for me, showing me I could ‘draw’ with my sewing machine!  I saved for a few years prior to leaving teaching, and purchased a barely-used Avanté in 2013.  It is so much better than wrestling a bed-size quilt through my Bernina!  However, I do still love to quilt from time to time on my Bernina; the projects I’ve made for this challenge show both methods of quilting a quilt.

Cute Better at the Lake drawstring backpack with Panel Block as the pocket.
Free Craftsy pattern by Caroline of www.sewcanshe.com 

I started my blog in the Fall of 2013.  I must say the online community of quilters, something Helen of Midget Gem Quilts and I dubbed QBL, 'Quilting BlogLand', has enriched my life more than I ever could have foreseen.  I have friends around the planet, something that binds us (pun intended) together and gives me a sense of global community like nothing else ever has.  As well as doing yoga, I think politicians should learn to quilt; we’d have a much more peaceful planet!

The final project that is using all the last little bits...

Finally, about the perfect guy in my life... I’ve been happily married to my husband for 36 years this August.  He goes by MacGyver on my blog because he can make anything, from metal to meals, and fix pretty much everything broken, from cars to hearts.

Pieced Coffee Cozies

Thank you SO MUCH to Henry Glass Fabrics for the gorgeous fabrics and for trusting me with the challenge of creating something inspiring for other quilters.  It has been a truly amazing experience; creating a variety of items within the 3-week time limit has made me grow as a quilter/designer!

Better at the Lake Giveaway from Sandra Walker