Most people, when summer arrives, spend their weekends out of doors. I

If you’ve read my blog in the past, you might have seen comments from Cop Car, complaining that I have created a MONSTER!!!
It’s a quilter’s joy to addict someone to quilting. Can you envision us rubbing our hands in glee, plotting each step to drag you to the DARK SIDE??? Well, she’s well and truly addicted, and I’m proud to say that I had a hand in it.
Unfortunately, you have to be careful, or your student might turn on you. Cop Car found a quilt store just a mile from her home, and she discovered a quilting software program called “Electric Quilt 5.” She’s shared with me the ease of designing a quilt, and even importing pictures of the actual fabric you wish to use in your quilt. I stood in awe of her progress, but resisted getting the software, thinking I simply didn’t have the time to learn a new program.

Continue reading →

It’s just amazing what I learn from my friends! I’m fortunate to be a part of the Friday Night Bee. It meets in my home once a month, and the ladies who make up the rest of the bee are the most prodigious quilters I know. We begin each session with Show and Tell, and although there are only eight of us, it can take half an hour to show and discuss new creations, or antique quilt finds, or new books to be shared.

Continue reading →

This week I FINALLY finished the quilt I started last January! Correction….I finally finished the quilt TOP! I was sure that I would have the top done before garden season last year, and when I didn’t, a number of things conspired to keep me from getting back to it.

Continue reading →

I admit it. I’m addicted to quilting fabric….and thread, and rotary cutters and mats. I need to have a bumper sticker that reads “I Break for Quilt Shops.”
One of my favorite quilt shops had a sale today. You could get 20 fat quarters for $20. I know….”What the heck is a fat quarter?” A yard of fabric is usually 36 inches by roughly 42 inches wide. A traditional quarter of a yard is 9 ” x the width of the fabric. To create four fat quarters you take that same piece and cut it in half, and then cut those two pieces in half along the opposite axis. You end up with four pieces that are 18″ by 21″. Quilters feel that you have more options with a fat quarter because the piece is wider.
Quilting fabric has become pricey. This particular shop charges anywhere from $8.50 to more than $12 a yard. Four fat quarters equal a yard, so I paid $4.00 a yard for this fabric. Quilting shops carry fabric that is designed expressly for quilting, and is first run. The quality of fabric is different from what can be purchased in chain stores.
I thought….I’ll go and get 20 regular fat quarters, and twenty of the batik fabric. Most likely everyone else will be out Christmas shopping and I can sneak in and out in a flash. WRONG!!! I should have known better. If I was willing to go so far out of my way today, you had to know that half the women in my town would, too. And, they did!
When I had my collection of sale fabric, I made my second mistake. I asked if they still carried a certain fabric. The shop assistant told me she wasn’t sure, that I’d have to look around. Well….by the time I got to the check out I had 61 fat quarters, and at least ten yards of fabric I hadn’t planned to buy.
With the exception of fabric, I’m normally not an impulse buyer. I tend to buy most of my fabric in January, or at least, during the winter. All the quilters I know have what we call a “stash” of fabric. Mine is contained on shelves that are 10 feet wide by six feet high, and the ladies of my quilting bee give me a hard time about how little fabric I have. They are MORE addicted than I am, and would willingly admit it. One of them works at the shop that had the sale. I can’t afford to work at a quilting shop. All my salary would have to go to pay for in store purchases.
So, tomorrow I will be ironing fabric. LOTS of fabric. Fabric in country style Christmas colors, and fabric with striking batik designs, fabric with florals and fabric with geometrics. The only thing I didn’t get was solid colors. The next question will be…
“Where the heck do I PUT it all???”

My quilting bee met last night. There are nine ladies who meet once a month at my house. We take turns providing a sinfully delicious dessert or two. Normally we work on our own projects, but occasionally we will quilt together at a frame to help one of the members finish a project.
Last night we had an abundance of desserts: fudge frosted devil’s food torte, crumb topped apple pie, and pumpkin pecan dessert squares. Unfortunately, last night only five of us made it to bee. It was a bit quieter than usual, but we had an enjoyable evening.
One of our members is a certified quilt appraiser. There are only 65 certified appraisers in the United States. The National Quilters Association is the body responsible for certifying quilt appraisers, and those who wish to be certified have to pass an intense course of study, and a grueling final test.
Two weeks ago, when I visited the Antiques Market with my sister, I bought two quilts. I rarely purchase quilts, so it was odd that I bought two on one day. I found a S Trip Around the World quilt that was in fairly good condition. The link shows you the pattern for the quilt. My quilt is a bit gentler in appearance because it is made with Depression era fabrics.
The second quilt I bought is a S quilt that I plan to give to my Mother for her birthday. It’s in shades of white, pink and rose, and the design has been created in counted cross stitch. It’s a very feminine quilt, in excellent condition, and the hand work is beautiful.
I asked my friend, the quilt appraiser, if she would do her magic for me on these quilts, so she brought her kit and appraised them as we chatted. I was astonished at the outcome. In her opinion, to replace these quilts, I would have to spend four times what I actually paid for them. Dear Husband says that we have our quilts appraised to make us feel better about what we spend on them, and this surely made me feel better!
Like anyone else, I like a bargain. I probably wouldn’t have sprung for these quilts at their appraised value. But, I’d like to tell you that the art of making a quilt is generally undervalued. If I were to take the quilt on the back of my couch and add lines of machine embroidery to it to jazz it up, and then describe it as “Fiber Art,” the quilt would command twice what it is worth now, or more.
For some reason, quilts are seen as an everyday item of little value, when it takes considerable talent to make a beautiful quilt. Years of practicing stitching, learning endless techniques, and developing color sense are all disregarded because it is just a “quilt.” Some people are not even able to tell you what makes a quilt, and will call it a “comforter” or a “blanket.”
In case you are not sure…..a “quilt” has three layers, a top, a batting (in the center), and a backing, and it is stitched together through all three layers, either by hand or by machine. This is the most basic of definitions. It’s possible to have a quilt that doesn’t have batting, but the stitching that goes through all the layers is essential. A quilt top could be “whole cloth,” or a pieced design (like the Trip Around The World), or it could be embroidered, or it could have fabric appliqu

I’m trying to figure out just where the past year has gone! A friend recently asked if there comes a time as you age when time slows down again. I asked my mother how she felt about that question, and she felt that time continues to spiral away from us faster with each day we live. So far, I have to agree with her. Just yesterday, or so it seems, I was talking about four test blocks I had created.
I decided to depart from my usual quilting style and make a block that is a one of a kind creation. This is not a quilt based on a historical pattern, but on a pattern that a friend created for me, so that I could feature a piece of batik I had owned for years.
I posted about those test blocks on January 31, 2004! I went on to make the blocks, and they were finished, and waiting to be assembled into a quilt top, when spring hit. I think the last time I got to sit at my sewing table was back in MAY!
Last weekend, I laid the blocks out, and the sewed them into seven rows. As I looked at them, I decided that I really needed one more row to complete the design that recurred over the face of the quilt. So, last Sunday, I cut out the pieces for five more blocks.
Last night, I sewed those pieces into five blocks, and then laid them out in the last row. I changed a couple of them around until I was satisfied, and then I pined them together.
The cat kept me company as I watched a movie and pinned six of the rows together to be sewn today. I figure that the top will be assembled either tonight, or by tomorrow morning. YEA!!!!
I had hoped to have this project finished by April, so that I could send it off to be machine quilted. I am fully four months late…and it could be a little longer, if I decide to add borders to the quilt.
Where does the time go? Is it moving faster? Am I moving slower? Do I have more to do now than I did thirty years ago? I’m sure everyone ponders these questions. When you have the answers, come visit me. We’ll have to have a long chat.

One of my quilting magazines came in this week. That’s always a time of great celebration. You take the magazine, your favorite beverage, and a quilt, and find a place to hibernate while you flip through it and get a sense of the contents. If you have enough time, you can read it from cover to cover.
This particular magazine has an ongoing column of tips offered by readers. There was one tip that was so very clever, I had to laugh.
THis woman wrote in, talking about orphan projects….those projects that you started with such good intention, but partway through the process you have abandoned them, never to finish. We all have them. Some of us have more of them than we’d care to admit. I have one or two. Well….maybe three.
At any rate, this woman had one of the best tips I’d ever heard. She directed the reader to box the orphan project up in a lovely box, complete with attractive tissue paper and wrapping, and a bow around the box. Then you were to write a loving note to your daughter, and attach it to the box and put the entire thing on a shelf in your closet.
Your daughter would find the box when you were gone, and know that you were thinking of her.
I told my mother to be sure that my SISTERS names were on the boxes.

Actually, it should be a “piecing” update. This weekend I completed the construction of the blocks for the new quilt top. I’ve posted a picture of four of the blocks in an earlier entry.
The quilt top calls for 42 blocks which are 12 x 12 inches. There will be six blocks across and seven rows down when the blocks are sewn together. This week I have to put up a flannel design wall, and pin the blocks up in the order they will be assembled. I’ll sew the blocks into rows, and then assemble the rows. This quilt will have two borders in medium and darker blue, and I think the binding will match the outer border. I have to choose a backing fabric, and a batting, and then it can be sent off to the ladies who machine quilt for me.
I was sewing along at lightning speed this morning, only to find that I was one block short of my goal. I pieced together some of the scraps of batik and made two more blocks, so I have one to spare. If it isn’t used, I’ll make a pillow out of the block.
When the quilting is done, I’ll try to post a picture of the quilt.

It is SOoooo wonderful to have the chance to sit down and piece quilt blocks. A number of years ago I bought several yards of a batik that were talking to me. The fabric is a melange of color that is basically shades of a reddish orange and black, with tints of blue and gold. I needed a block that would allow me to show a huge chunk of the fabric in one block, rather than dispersing it in smaller pieces across the face of the quilt. I didn’t have a clue how I was going to use it. A friend knew what I was looking for and quickly sketched out several options, which I set aside. Over the years, I’ve collected fabrics that I thought would go with the quilt. Now, I’ve had the chance to make four test blocks to see if the design would work. This is the result:

Continue reading →