by Deborah Grant
Myra Tallman of Mindemoya made her first quilt when she was almost 10, while stuck at home sick for a week. She handstitched squares of fabric her mom cut for her into a 9-patch quilt.
Myra joined the Island Quilters Guild 26 years ago, a year after it formed, and has since created award winning quilts at the local, regional, provincial and national levels.
She served as the guild president three times, and has held every position but librarian. She prefers to do handwork rather than use a machine for quilting, and loves using applique on her quilts.
Myra’s tip for new quilters is to use a wooden skewer as a stiletto when piecing blocks together to guide fabrics through the sewing machine, to save your fingers from being sewn into the quilt.
Her favourite memory is of the quilt she made of the old brick house her brother-in-law and sister lived in. On a trip he secretly had it hung in a quilt shop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and took her sister to look at quilts there. When she saw it she exclaimed to him that someone else had a house just like theirs!
The quilt she is sharing here is titled “Consider the Lilies” and is 85”x85”, done by hand applique and hand quilted as well.
