piece-fulness

Some Changes Made

2012-02-08T23:30:00.000-08:00

OK, I knew the center square needed "something" so I set to work on it, adding more the the appliqued grapes and embroidering a stem. Then I wanted to embroider a berries motif on it as well, and couldn't find a pattern to use. So, I did freehand drawings of the berries with a non-permanent marking pencil and set to work embroidering them as well, which I enjoyed doing very much. Now, it's finished! But, I plan to add some of the same touches to some of the quilt squares to tie it all together.

Compare the center square as it looks now to this photo of it before I made the changes...

AND....I am very happy to announce that I received another mug coaster from Mary at Faith Fabric & Photos! I simply added a caption to two different photos she posted, and won these great prizes! The newest one is the aqua cup and saucer design. Thanks SO MUCH Mary! To visit her blog go here:
http://faithfabricandphotos.blogspot.com

A few More Shots of the Quilt Show

2012-02-05T13:26:00.000-08:00

Here is a great view of the Tucson Convention Center room that was used, from the hallway above...

These are a few of the vintage "estate sale" finds people had on display. Beautiful! I should be so lucky to find something like this! They'd all been bought very inexpensively too!

A view of the floor...

Then, when I was through enjoying the Tucson Quilt Show (for more pictures of quilts, scroll down to my two posts of that day!), I walked over to an adjoining room to the American Indian Art Show. They had some wonderful jewelry, baskets, rugs and sand paintings as well as many other items and was a wonderful treat!

But before I went in, I had lunch...ooh, there's frybread and Navajo Tacos!!!!

Here are the ladies making the frybread....

And here is my delicious Navajo taco!

Baby Quilt Request

2012-02-02T23:10:00.000-08:00

Please visit KaHolly's blog to see what I am writing about. She is requesting quilters to donate a blanket for these precious newborns at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Brooke Army Medical Center (BMAC) located in San Antonio, Texas.

There has been a special request made by KaHolly to help out these newborn babies of our service members with blankets and quilts. To find out more, please connect to the following link: kaholly.blogspot.com/2012/01/special-quilters-request.html

Cluster of Grapes

2012-01-26T23:53:00.000-08:00

I have been working on a centerpiece square for a quilt I want to put together. I have had the blocks made for some time. Here is the magazine page that helped me envision what to do with a center of appliqued grapes en pointe...

Here are some of the quilt squares I have worked on in the past that are ready to be stripped and made into a top. I didn't want to do just the squares and stripping though and decided this centerpiece will give it just the flair it needs...The colors in the squares seemed to call out for the grapes motif! Plus, some of the fabric has tiny grape clusters in in and also different berries as well.

So, this is the centerpiece....However, I do want to make a few minor changes that I will photograph when they are completed. I want to add a stem and also another leaf and possibly another grape to the more bare side of the cluster. I am considering also adding some embroidered embellishments in the four corners.

For some reason the computer tilted the picture...but you get the idea.

More of the Tucson Show!

2012-01-22T20:09:00.000-08:00

This year, 2012, is the Centennial for the State of Arizona, and there was a Quilt Challenge. Here are some of the entries for that...

Below is a quilt that depicts famous Arizona women, including Lozen, the only female Apache warrior....I had just read about Lozen in the book I added to my sidebar on A Colorful World.

These next two were special display quilts from the challenge....

They were both unbelievable! Here is the closeup of the second one....

This explains about this amazing quilt...

More wonderful quilts from the show! These two are my favorites of several really whimsical entries....

Then on to another very sweet applique that uses the black blanket stitch...

a closeup of the one above...

another entry using the black background that is so stunning!

a reall interesting wall hanging...

one of my favorites for its wonderful use of color!

again, some awesome appliques...

a great pineapple quilt design...

closeup of above...

a wonderful geometric!

This was called Mexican Tiles, and I just love it!

Those are three-demisional flowers on the border of this beauty, and the squares are embroidered....

I couldn't resist this one, because my husband loves giraffes....

My favorite miniature....

Don't these just take your breath away!!!!

I MIGHT have photographed a tenth or fifteenth of the quilts in the show! And I haven't even posted all of those pictures here. I just can't tell you how wonderful it was to walk around that room and look at such works of art! I'll have a few final photos and comments in a future post....Wish you could have joined me!

Tucson Quilt Show!

2012-01-21T19:32:00.000-08:00

All I can say is WOW! There were so many amazing quilts on display! The show was hosted by the Tucson Quilt Guild and held in the Tucson Convention Center. This will likely take two full posts, to show you everything, but I couldn't stop taking pictures! :-)

closeup of above....

I liked this small quilted piece laying on a table for the colors and design...

closeup of above....

this wall hanging had glittery areas on the purple stamens....

closeup of above....(loving that blue & white!)

More to come tomorrow.....

Kay's Wonderful Quilts!

2011-11-13T22:14:00.000-08:00

As you may know, we went to visit our dear friend Kay Huston this weekend. I have lots to share on A Colorful World when I can post tomorrow. But, tonight I wanted to post these amazing quilts made by Kay many years ago. She never had a lesson, but was taught the "basics" of quilting by her husband, Jack's, aunt. For several years Kay worked feverishly on these creations, perfecting her technique totally on her own. She not only hand-pieced each of these, she also handquilted them and many more that are carefully folded on the shelf of a Victorian dresser. She doesn't own or know how to use a sewing machine! I have always been SO IMPRESSED by the quality of her wonderful work, and at her determination to do a good job. One day she just decided she was done, and moved onto other things, such as beading and sketching. But these quilts are a testament to her hard work and artistic abilities!

This last shows both the back and part of the front of a quilt she used an actual flag in as part of the backing. She won quite a number of blue ribbons at county fairs during the time she was quilting! I wish I had taken more pictures...she had over two dozen quilts folded on the dresser! Maybe next time...

Success!

2011-11-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

OK, it's READY! Look at the sewing room transformation! I still want to put up a design wall, curtains, that sort of thing....but I am ready to get busy! YAYY!!!

The desk will make a good-sized sewing table until one day when I can replace it with a real one. I also need a new sewing machine. I am using the one my Mom gave to my daughter, temporarily. This also doubles as the guest room, and our grandson sleeps among the quilting things when he comes to stay over...

I have a TV for watching while I work (and our grandson likes having it there for cartoon-watching too) and the basket is an old one that holds some special family scissors and thimbles that belonged to my Aunt Annie years ago, and are treasures.

Lots of quilting magazines, but also my Birds & Blooms, Southern Living, and a collection of books and magazines for our grandson.

Speaking of treasures, this was my Grandmother's handmade wooden spool holder. She had to work all her life, and this spool holder was at the dry cleaners she owned with my step grandfather when I was growing up. She would do alterations for customers, and was an amazing seamstress. She also of course quilted when she could, though her time was very limited. She (her name was Dovie, like that gentle bird) and Papa Curt would get up before the sun rose, cook their lunch and supper as well as breakfast, pack up the lunch and refrigerate the supper and drive many miles to their shop. After a long day of work, they would deliver dry cleaning to some people from their car, and return home at dark, or after, to reheat their supper, bathe and fall into bed. It was a hard life! She also got what would now be considered COPD from the dry cleaning fluid, suffering with asthma and chronic bronchitis for many years. She was one of the most wonderful, sweetest people I have ever seen or known, with a gentle, caring heart, and I have always wanted to be just like her. This spool holder is one of my most prized possessions!

This is a much newer treasure...a very special gift from my daughter and son-in-law last Christmas! It was exactly what I needed!

And, several years ago I was given this very treasured quilt! This was a gift from my Mom who made it especially for me, and I love it dearly! (It is just for show....comes off the bed when our grandson is here!) :) Well, now that the sewing room is ready for me to get in there and get busy, I guess I better do just that!

The Sewing Room!

2011-11-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

OK, I am sure that many of you have been wonderful WHERE I have been! The last five months have been interesting...two moving trips from Virginia to Arizona, plus all the unpacking that has ensued....and now our daughter and son-in-law just moved into a new rental as well (in Tucson still, though) and we helped a little plus they are opening a new restaurant in town, which is now up and running, but both of them are working every day and I am watching our grandson after school....OK all that was a huge mouthful! The bottom line is I just haven't been able to quilt YET!!!! Unfortunately, THIS is what the sewing room looked like a few days ago....

It has actually improved somewhat since then...I'm getting there slowly but surely! The big chest of drawers is full of fabric....

And this is a closet with a shelf piled high of MORE fabric. You can see part of my collection of feedsack fabrics here....

And I am absolutely DETERMINED to finish getting this room squared away and start quilting again within the week! I miss it!!! Here are a few of the projects I have waiting for me....

This is a quilt top and backing that needs to be sandwiched and quilted...

These are the squares I made the very first time I attempted to do a sampler quilt. I didn't know what I was doing and they are NOT very good....BUT I still want to get it made into a top and backed and quilted after, what, 40 years!!!!!

And these are some squares that I worked on in Texas when I lived there years ago, and the rest were made in NC for a Bee Friends challenge we were doing. They were purposefully made to "go together" but now I need to make about four more squares to finish it off, and get it made into a top as well...
And I won't even go into all the other projects that are partially done, or that I want to start. I have to GET BUSY!!!! Hopefully in a week you will have a really good progress report on the room. Wish me luck!

Sawtooth Stars

2011-05-18T17:16:00.000-07:00

I have never made a quilt with sawtooth stars, but my daughter chose a pattern using them when she was here in January, and I decided it was time to make her a quilt!

She likes 40's ande 50's designs (notice the Route 66 green fabric!) and I chose some of the fabrics from my stash plus a couple I sequestered from Mom's stash as well. More pieces will have to be purchased to finish this. There will be 70 of the six and a half inch blocks that make up this quilt, and then she wants an Autumn leaf border.

Here is the beginning...8 stars done, and 62 more to go! :-) I am going for greens and browns with cream and small touches of red. These are colors she really likes, also. I'll post more when I'm closer to getting this done. I have a small break coming up....a trip across country! Check out my main blog, A Colorful World to learn more.

Grandson's Dinosaur Quilt

2011-04-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

Made this over the winter months for our nine-year-old grandson! Machine pieced and machine quilted (a panel makes up the center rectangle) I used dino footprints, leaves and bones for the quilting patterns.

The label is an appliqued dino footprint.

Quilt Top Finish Last Fall

2011-04-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have been away from my blog for quite a while but I HAVE been busy quilting! Here is the War Between the States top I finally finished.

Close-ups of some of the squares....I hope to hand quilt this one!

The Challenge Continues....

2010-09-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

I now proceeded to piece my tablerunner...first though I needed to sign my artwork!

Here is the pattern I used for the runner, modified a little to suit my perameters, since this runner is 18X50 and that is too long. But I knew the design would work well with the idea I had....

I cut out the strips I needed in various colors. The Challenge is actually called the Color Box Challenge, and all these great colors from the inspiration fabric work well as strips!

Once the runner is all sewn together, I sandwiched it with batting and a backing of the turquoise fabric.

This is a closeup view of the runner top...there are red triangles on each end, also that you can't see. Just a corner of one is visible in the picture above....

Then I start shadow quilting the bird. This is a view from the back. I am using black thread, and it shows up great against the turquoise. More to come.....

Challenge!

2010-09-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

At Quilt Bee a couple of months ago we were all given a half a yard of this crazy, bright fabric and were challenged to make something no bigger than 18X30 using at least one piece of recognizable challenge fabric, and any other fabric we desire.

The gorgeous bright colors gave me the idea to make a table runner for my sister-in-law, who is a parrot and macaw lover, so I decided to place an appliqued parrot right in the center of the table runner on a black background, and then use fabrics of matching colors to make the rest of the runner. I found a photograph online that I copied, to use as a pattern for the bird. But, appliqueing something this complex on the machine was turning into a REAL challenge!

So, on to Plan B! Back in the early summer I had purchased some fabric inks online. I decided to cut the parrot out of white fabric and use Seam-a-Steam to attach it to my black center square. Then, since I have always loved to paint, using the fabric inks on the bird was a breeze!!! A LOT easier than trying to sew down all those individual sections of bird! You use clear Aloe Vera gel as the fixer for the ink, and after you apply ink to each section, you heat set it with an iron.

This is my black square with the parrot cut out and attached in the center on-point. I used red ink to color these areas of the bird and heat set them. Then I went onto another area, heat set again. At the end, details were added with a black ink marker with a fine point and used it as well for shading areas.... and again heat set.

This is the parrot when I finished! I will now hand-applique the bird around the outside edges using an embroidery stitch. There will be updates on this project as it takes shape! I also plan to make my sister and brother-in-law two placemats to match though they are not part of the challenge.

Been Away a While....

2010-09-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

My Dad was very ill. We almost lost him, but thankfully we did not..... Then I was completely wrapped up in a 125th Anniversary Celebration of the Train Station where I work, and didn't have even a moment of my own! Check it out at my blog A Colorful World! Mom & I missed Quilt Bee when Dad was sick, and really neither of us were in the mood to sew for a while after that. Plus, then I was just so exhausted because of the Event! :-) But, I am back in the swing of things now!

We had Quilt Bee yesterday and it was so much fun! Two of the ladies did a demo on hand quilting, which I badly needed! I have hand quilted in the past, but use a laborious in-and-out method. I think I can handle trying the rocking method now, and want to. Plus, I am so INSPIRED by all the talent in that room every time we go! Have a lot to work on, and want to GET BUSY!!!!!

Two More Baby Quilts

2010-07-10T17:30:00.000-07:00

I used these same fabrics in a previous log cabin baby quilt, but did a different arrangement. This one is for my niece's baby.

I loved the fabric colors, and I placed a fussy cut bird at the center of each log cabin square.

The bird fabric made a great backing.

This quilt is for a friend's baby. My friend chose the animal print fabric and I added the other choices. I am photographing this one inside my place of employment for an added interesting look....this is the antique roasted peanut cart. I work in the Suffolk Seaboard Station Railroad Museum.

Another view of this quilt on the peanut cart.

This shows the back of the quilt.

First Bee Anniversary

2010-06-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you have something very special to you that you treasure and feel like you could never give up. That's how I feel about Quilt Bee. If I analyzed why it means so much to me, I could come up with a lot of reasons. First of all, it means something special I share with my Mother. Back when we were still meeting at Ladybug Quilt Shop, I would drive up from Elizabeth City to Suffolk and meet her there, and after we would have lunch. But we moved from EC two years ago, and those who follow me on my main blog know that we have been bouncing around, and do not yet have a new home. That will be happening VERY soon now. But, my point is, Mom and I still share this special second Thursday.....Still, it's more than that.....

Last Thursday we all celebrated our First Anniversary of meeting outside Ladybug. It's been a year of meeting at the church in Suffolk, and if I were to count my blessings concerning Quilt Bee, I have to say that it's largely the leadership of Pat, who is amazing, and gives of herself so much to all of us; it's partly the group of ladies who are all so great and fun-loving and share so much on so many levels; it's partly the fact that Rule #1 is "There are no rules" so Bee isn't stuff and formal like a Guild would be, nor is there any pressure; and partly I would say it's the comraderrie of sharing a fun activity that we all LOVE and doing it in a way that often brings howls of laughter....it truly is an escape from all the pressures of that world out there. Yep, it means so much to me on SO MANY levels, and I'd never give it up! Thanks Pat! And thanks to all of you wonderful quilters who come every month.....

Pat sharing some information at a recent meeting.

One of our BOMs that we did when we were still meeting at Ladybug. We don't do the BOMs anymore, but do other things.

For the Anniversary meeting, we were all given a piece of an inspiration fabric and a paper piecing pattern. These are the squares that were collected to be given away by drawing. The inspiration fabric is shown best in the bottom middle of the picture, the blue with cranberry-colored flower.

This was the quilt top Mom showed for show-and-tell. It was quite a challenge to make, she said!

This is me, showing my latest.

One of many others....I love the twist border on this one! We had a donut "breakfast" that day and everyone brought a finger-foods lunch that was delicious. Normally we don't do food, but it was a special occasion. Plus we had some GREAT surprises. It was a very special day! For more on the Anniversary, go to Mom's blog http://lataneb.blogspot.com

Spring Greens

2010-06-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

This is my latest baby quilt, a gift for friends. I used a full-sized pattern from a magazine, and had trouble reducing it to fit my needs, so I ended up creating my own design.

I thought the colors were soft and cool. Here is a closer view of the center diamond.

The back has jungle animals, used in part in the piecing on the front as well.

2010-05-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

This is the quilt that became my Dad's 80th Birthday present. In a previous posting, I showed the Lone Star I attempted to make. I finally gave up, and decided to use the blue and brown strips in another design. This is the result! My Dad was a fox hunter, and this represents his favorite pastime. At 80, his foxhunting days are long past, but this commemorates a part of him that was important for so many years. I think I am much happier with the end result than I would have been even if the Lone Star had turned out! The blocks are called Roman Blocks, and I machine appliqued the figures in the center panel and then embroidered the borders of each. It is machine pieced and machine quilted.

Sweet Roses For Baby

2010-05-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

This little baby quilt was made with scraps and a rose-colored sheet!

Roped, Hog-Tied and Branded by a Texas Lone Star!

2010-01-26T15:17:00.001-08:00

I know that many of you have made beautiful Lone Star quilts, and you will likely laugh me to scorn over this. My plan was to make a lap throw for my Dad's 80th birthday. He made a Lone Star as a child with his mother. They probably did foundation piecing, and I know it was beautiful. My lap throw was to be an homage to his childhood achievement. But....don't EVER try to make something without detailed specific instructions! You may end up like I did, tied up in confusion and branded with frustration! It just isn't worth it. Here is my auspicious beginning.....

I started with a search online for directions. This yielded me a lot of vague references to what you do OR order forms for books or dvds on the subject. Nothing of any real HELP. OK, so how hard can it be!? I had my strips all cut out, and then sewed them meticulously together, ironing the seams open as suggested on one website.

I cut the strips on a 45 degree angle....

Carefully measuring so my diamonds would be the same size (might I add it didn't help that I was working with such narrow strips ie small diamonds!)

At first I didn't realize that I needed an equal amount of strips so what I had sewn together was definitely too long.

A paper pattern helped me envision the right size.

And viola! a perfectly shaped diamond star point! Only.....on careful inspection I suddenly realized that the colors are not placed correctly. They don't go ACROSS the width of the point! WHY???!!!!

This is what it is SUPPOSED to look like! Well, maybe if I remove the ones off either side. Only then I realize you can only remove the strips from ONE side and get a nice straight edge. The other side becomes jagged. Nope....this can't be anything like what I was supposed to do!

I GIVE UP! It bested me. Oh, well, I guess a good set of instructions would have been a HUGE help! I'm turning my strips into something else!!!!

Log Cabin for a friend's baby

2010-01-13T12:07:00.001-08:00

This quilt is for a young couple at our church who just had their third baby. It is my fourth machine-quilted quilt, and only my fifth completed quilt. It was partially hand-pieced. Click on each photo for a larger view.

Detail of one of the corners...I had found this wonderful bird fabric to use as my inspiration fabric and I built this great color combination for the quilt from the colors in it. But, I fussy cut four of the birds for the corners.

Here are two views of the back. I used a cute whimsical light blue to back it.

Quilt Gifts!

2010-01-12T10:56:00.000-08:00

Guess what I got for Christmas and my birthday (which is right after Christmas)--this awesome Debbie Mum bag came from my Mom, with fat quarters inside, and a giftcard to JoAnn's which was immediately used to buy the great fabrics leaning to the side of the lamp. And that brings me to the lamp--a wonderful magnifying glass lamp for close work for these failing eyes! I'm in good shape now!

Here are the fabrics I chose with my gift card, which incidently had more money left on it and I will share the second trip purchases I made on a later post! These are three light blues, three light beige, three darker blues and three browns to make my Dad a Lone Star lapthrow. I want to make it for his birthday in February. When he was a little boy he helped his mother make a full-sized Lone Star quilt, which was used and much-loved and finally fell apart. I am making the lapthrow in honor of his awesome achievement. He will be 80 on this birthday!!!!

This is where I have to do my cutting and measuring and dreaming at home, and though I have a sewing machine there that I can use....

You usually can find me at Mom's working away! (I mean, she has this great quilt room with design board and all that....do you blame me!? :-)

First Quilt for CPC

2009-12-28T07:53:00.000-08:00

I finally got the first one completed...I didn't like the way it looked without a border and had to go in (after the quilting was already done!) and add a border, and though it was a little "tricky" it worked fine, and I like the way it looks a lot better now!

These were 2 1/4" squares and I just loved the way the blues and yellows worked! I hand-pieced the entire quilt except for the border, and I machine quilted it, just because I am a slow hand-quilter. I'm excited that this will go to a little one whose Mommy was at first worried about keeping him or her. I send blessings with this baby quilt! I love being a part of this wonderful ministry!

Rose and Grey Baby Quilt

2009-11-19T12:40:00.000-08:00

It took me a while to finish this one but it is now an officially completed UFO! (unfinished object) I was given some of the fabrics and I loved the colors! I designed this quilt myself. Click on the pictures to see a close-up view.

I hand quilted around the birds and then machine quilted the cross-hatching on the little squares, and the "ribbon" designs in the borders.

Quilt Bee Today!

2009-11-19T12:20:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not singing opera, but it sure looks like it! :-) I was the one person who was brave enough to raise my hand and say I would share something about Log Cabin quilts! Not because I KNOW anything! No, just because I like them (especially the really unusual ones) and didn't mind sharing whatever I could come up with!

Mom and I had seen Mary Ellen Hopkins on Simply Quilts and she had some awesome ideas about thinking "outside the box," and I thought maybe I could share some of that. Well, I had in mind I would make enough squares that I could demonstrate them in a dozen different configurations, but hey I did good to have as much made as I did. Last week was our regular day, and we were "nor'eastered" out so the Bee Friends met a whole week late, and I still didn't make anywhere near what I had hoped to! Still, they all seemed to understand, and well, it was fun to share.

Thankfully our fearless leader Pat had some great books and other resources to share, and some great information she worked on as well, plus we had lots of show-and-tell items so the day was a huge success!

2009-11-16T09:45:00.000-08:00

A baby quilt completed last summer for my niece's baby!

For you quilters out there--this is the THIRD quilt I ever finished. (I have about six more in various stages of done-ness! :-))It is only the second one I ever machine quilted (my first attempt at machine quilting was pathetic!) and I was really proud of the machine quilting on this! My first hand-quilted and complete quilt was made for our grandson and can be seen by clicking here. I am a VERY SLOW hand-quilter, so I will be machine quilting most of the quilts I make from now on, but I am really proud of the hand-quilting I did on our grandson's quilt. So, now I have two--one hand-quilted, and one machine quilted--of which I am VERY proud!

Ocean Quilt

2009-11-16T09:23:00.000-08:00

When Grandson C was VERY small, he exhibited a real interest in fabric when I would take him shopping with me. He particularly loved the bolts of brightly colored character fabrics. I began to collect yards with his favorites....trains, pigs, cartoon characters, airplanes, and later lizards, ocean animals and dinosaurs. In the beginning I made him several sets of pajamas out of the cute pieces he loved, but many of the pieces I had purchased were saved for later use in making quilts. In fact, he called the yards of fabric "my quilts" and he loved to play with them.

Finally I endeavored to make him an ocean quilt. I designed the entire quilt, and it finished up as between single bed size and double bed size when I was finally done. I chose to make "waves" of the different bright ocean fabrics, and placed a strip of "sand" at either end. Then I hand appliqued various figures on the front. The back was mostly a dark blue so I decided to quilt ocean fish and mammal designs when I started the quilting phase. This can be best seen on the back or dark blue side.

Here is a snorkeler that I appliqued onto the quilt.

Here is a shark applique.

This shows the crab applique, and also the footprints I quilted onto the sand. I had the footprints "walk" across the sand, and here stop to show that the boy is looking at the crab he has found. The footprints are actual outlines of my grandson's footprints.

Here is a sand pail, and some of the other footprints.

The next two pictures show some of the quilting designs I did. I would draw a picture on a piece of paper, and pin the paper to the fabric, then quilt by hand using an "in-and-out" method. Once finished I ripped the paper away. Most people use a rocking motion with their hand quilting, and could not use this paper method with the rocking motion, but because I do the in-and-out, I could. However, it is a very SLOW method of quilting, and the quilt took a long time to complete because of that. I did figures of shells, various fish and whales and dolphins and electric eel, a treasure chest and shipwrecked boat, just to name some of the "pictures" you can find in the quilting. Below is a fish, and an octopus with a mean face.

When his birthday came up last year I sent the quilt to him in Arizona. He had known I was working on it for a long time. The quilt isn't the most finely crafted one that was ever created, but it was made with a LOT of love, and he has been enjoying it all this past year--and I hope will enjoy it for a LONG LONG time!

Quilting Joys!

2009-11-02T16:25:00.001-08:00

This is me working on my first full-sized quilt project, made from feedsack fabric that had belonged to my grandmother. The quilting frame was a gift from my Mom. She and I share a love for quilting. I alas, with so much moving around, have been unable to finish quilting the piece (it's King sized) because of the need to use the frame. I prefer using a frame because I use a pull-through method instead of the more common rocking motion, and I couldn't handle the large quilt in my lap. When it is DONE I will post a picture of the finished project!

I have made many smaller projects over the years--placemats, table runners, etc. and always enjoy the process! When we lived in Texas I belonged to a Quilt Guild and made my "block of the month" each time...usually I made three of the same block in different fabrics. Here are two I made of one square:

We also did Community projects, and it was there that I made this quilt for the Child Advocacy program. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of the piecing process! I am such a slow hand quilter, I had to machine quilt this even though I'd never machine quilted anything before. It made me happy that this quilt went to such a worthy cause.

Since I moved, I now attend a Quilt Bee that I really enjoy and we do the same thing. Here are a group of the ladies (and me--note I now have silver hair!) My Mom and I usually meet there, as it is about thirty minutes from her location, and forty from mine, and after the Bee we have lunch. It's been wonderful to get to share in this special time with her! And the ladies at the Bee are such fun. It's always a really enjoyable day!

The cycle continues with my daughter, shown here with her very first piecing effort--the start of a beautiful quilt square! We believe she is probably the fifth or sixth generation of quilters in our family! It's exciting!