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.

 

Baby boy quilt

 

Just got this one delivered tonight.  Baby boy isn't due for a couple more months, so this is definitely a first for me.

Super soft minky for the back.  A fun loopy free-motion quilting design.

I used a half of a Pure jelly roll and some neutral tan for background.

The inspiration for this pattern came from Jaybird quilts hexagon QAL.

It was really fun to make.

 

 

Rewind to 2012

2 years ago, my sweet husband (who is extremely supportive of my quilting) bought me a Gracie Start-Right frame and a Juki TL98Q.

I was so nervous to "play" with my new toy so I thought, I'll just use a quilt top that I don't really care that much for and then it won't matter if the quilting is bad, right?

I just THOUGHT I didn't care for this one.  It had been hidden in a closet for, oh I don't know, 2 years or so?

So I put it on the frame and gave it a go...turns out, quilting was all this baby needed to find new life!  I love it!  AND I love my Gracie and Juki...of course, I love hubby, too.

This was another top that I had tucked away, not because I didn't like it, but because I made it with nobody particular in mind.  Then a co-worker had a baby girl. I used this tutorial for the blocks and it was SUPER fun and SUPER easy to make.



In April 2012, a very close sweet friend turned the big 5-OH and I knew I just HAD to make her a quilt for her birthday.  Her favorite color is blue and I found this pretty blue and purple peacock fabric that was just perfect for her.  The pattern is called Winding Ways.  It was my first time to make, quilt, and bind scalloped edges and it was actually pretty fun.

In July, our Pastor and his wife celebrated 20 years of being at our church and my gift to them was this quilt.  Each block has the name of a Sunday School class machine-embroidered in the middle and then I went around to each class to have as many people as possible to sign the blocks.

There was more in 2012...

Another day...

A break from quilting...

My sweet mother-in-love is having a birthday on Monday. I made her this. It's the best thing EVER! It's a purse organizer :)

A must-have for any girl who changes purses often and likes to keep things extremely organized. I LOVE mine and I know she'll love it, too. 

It has a clear ID window and credit card slots, a zipper pocket for change and a slot for bills/checks, pen loops and lots of pockets for phone, keys...whatever we girls like to carry with us!

I got the pattern from Studio Kat Designs. They have some of the cutest purses and organizers of all sizes. I have bought several patterns and just love them all!

And the winner of the "Worst Blogger" award is...

So, yeah, um...it's only been about 2 1/2 years since my last post. Imagine my surprise when I typed in the address and found that I still HAVE a blog. I have no good excuse. I could say my life is just very busy. Or, you know, I DO work a regular day job. Well, I do. But the truth is, I simply lost my quilty mojo for awhile there. I mean, it was GONE. And I couldn't seem to find it anywhere!

It WAS an eventful year. We had a wedding and a grandchild born last year. Another grown child decided it was time to live on her own and, luckily, only moved about 2 blocks from us, but still...

My mother-in-love moved from Michigan to Ok and lived with us for a few months before getting a place of her own. My father lost his battle with cancer and passed away a week before his 64th birthday.

I DID do SOME sewing through all of that. As I have for the past 3 years, I made a quilt for our Missions Conference at church.

Also, one of my hair clients asked me to make a t-shirt quilt as a graduation gift for her grand-daughter.

And remember I said we had a wedding?

As I have been searching for these quilt pics, I found some 2012 quilts that I made but never posted about...you know, because I'm the worst blogger.

I'll try again tomorrow :)