Quilting

I learned to sew when I was younger at home. I probably drove my Mom nuts because I remember thinking that sewing on paper was dumb. Then when I took sewing in high school (it was still offered then), we started out sewing on paper AGAIN (my boys are lucky because we skipped the paper part and went straight to the material!). In middle and high school, I made shirts. Lots of them out of jersey material. Some of you may remember the McCalls pattern with the little ruffle on top of the between the sleeve and the body - those were the ones. I also made camp shirts - ok it was the 80's.

I've been quilting since my mom taught me while I was in college. It was my go to gift for graduations and weddings for friends. I felt that a home made gift was the way to go. The first quilt I made by myself was after I graduated, moved home, and didn't have a job yet. My Mom took me out to Walmart and I picked fabric for a very scrappy log cabin. It's still around. It's very scrappy.

This lone star quilt was around long before the kids. I took a class with a friend and decided that when it was completed that I would hand quilt it. It took about 4 years to finish the quilting. Remember I am afflicted with crafting ADD, so sometimes things take a while - like the double wedding ring quilt that is in the to do pile. It was for my parents 30th wedding anniversary. They will be married 42 years this year.

I took a break from sewing when Ian was born. I just couldn't get down to my crafting room and sew (that's when I learned to knit - more on that later).

There are many other quilts that I have made. I'm glad to say that my color choice is getting better. I try to mix easy with challenging quilts, but easy seems to be winning out these days.
This is my stacked coin quilt. The coins are all stacked. Now I have to go buy material to go between them.

Many of my projects start out as motivational projects....especially when I was working on school stuff....finish the paper - work on project....clean the house - work on project. When I finished a big paper, I put together the pieces of the 4th of July quilt and quilted it.
I got a new sewing machine from my parents when finished my master's last year. I LOVE it!! I've graduated to machine quilting. I tried to machine quilt with my old machine, but it wasn't enjoyable. My arms hurt from pulling the quilt through the machine. NOT with the new machine...s m o o t h. I'm working on my tension and trying new free motion patterns.

I wish I had more pictures of quilts like pineapple quilt. I took a class at Nancy's Notions and sliced through the naughty finger nail with a rotary cutter. I remember saying, "oh no" right before I did it. Lucky for me, my mom looked up as I was holding my hand, squeezing the finger. We went directly to the bathroom. Didn't get any blood on the quilt pieces though. Or of the boyfriend quilt - which is on the bed right now. The boyfriend sweater is not a knitting phenomena, it goes for quilting too. I made Kal a bear claw quilt (in badger colors) for his birthday while we were dating. We did break up, but that didn't last. Tomorrow is our anniversary.