Mama's quilts...

My mom taught me to sew when I was just a kid.  I don't think she even realized she was teaching me anything, you see, I learned quite a lot by just watching her.  She is a master seamstress.  She worked at a children's clothing factory and made a lot of my clothes.  When I got older, she would make me Halloween costumes and a few dresses for choir performances.  She would be lost in these patterns, just sewing away, while I would (probably annoyingly) ask question after question.  What do these marks mean?  What about these arrows?  The grain goes which way?  Wait.  What's the "grain" again?

She was SO patient with me and very sweetly answered every single one of my questions, no matter how annoying I must have been or how busy she was with whatever project she was working on. 

I learned so much from watching and asking questions, by the time I was a senior in high school and taking a home economics class, I was the one the boys all came to offering to pay ME to finish their sewing projects for a good grade.  I didn't do it because I was too busy doing extra projects for extra credit. I was my favorite part of that class.

When I got married and had babies, I made curtains and pillows, clothes...I was never much into the "quilting" thing.  Not just because it looked hard (it did), but well, you know...

that was for "grandmas".

When I caught the bug 5 years ago, I just KNEW she would love it, too.  She hadn't sewn in a very long time and when we talked about it, she would say, "That seems hard." or "I wish I had time, but I don't."

Well, this past December, she announced that she was ready to make her first quilt and asked me if I could teach her a few basics.  I can't begin to describe how excited I was!  I couldn't WAIT to go fabric shopping and get her started!  The photo above was her first "practice" block. She didn't just wanna do straight seams, squares, triangles...she wanted to do something fun.  So she made a Dresden Plate.  She started her first quilt on Dec. 18, one week before Christmas.  She finished it about 2 weeks later.

Her 2nd quilt was finished about another week later.

 

 

She has already finished several more...6 or 7?  I don't know, I'm losing count now. She is quilting them herself on my machine and seems to love every step of the quilting process. 

She is HOOKED.  I'm so proud of her, I can hardly stand it. 

 

 

Snow days...

 

Remember I mentioned 3 snow days?  Yeah.  I got this top done, too.

I thought I might keep this one for myself, but I think I've decided this one needs to be a birthday present for a close friend...shhhhhh! Don't tell her!  Her birthday isn't until July, so I have some time to get it quilted and bound.  I think I'll put it aside for now and work on my first king-sized quilt for my guest bedroom.  We will have missionary guests coming at the end of March so wish me luck!

I've got my mojo back...

Got the binding on this today...between haircuts. We've had snow and ice the last 3 days and I had enough cancellations today to do some sewing.

I made this quilt top...well, I don't even remember how long ago. 2 years? 3? 

I finished it for an auction that our Missions team is having at church on Sunday.

I THINK I used "Happy" by Me and My Sister designs.  I do remember that I made it from part of a layer cake.  It measures approx. 48x56 and was made with HSTs.

I used this one to practice some new free-motion designs.

And then while I was putting on the binding, my pretty brand new iron (I hadn't even had time to get adhesive on it yet!) DIED.

So, I improvised...

 

with my flat iron. Luckily, it worked.