Weekend

Cade had a friend come home with him from school Friday. The kid spent the night and they stayed up til 3am. I went to bed at 930. Andy told me Saturday morning that they boys were up that late.

Saturday after watching some football, Go Dawgs!, I took Cade and his friend to a Birthday Sleep Over. We picked Cade up Sunday afternoon and the Mom said that the boys were up til 5:30am!!
So here is how Cade spent the rest of his Sunday!

Have you seen this??!! Amanda Jean has written a book! I can't wait!

Good Ole Quilt

Since I am still working on these , I decided to show you one of my favorite quilts. I think one of the reasons why I fell in love with quilting is because with every quilt that you make, you learn something! This is one of the first quilts that I made. I never made a label for it:( I didnt know much about an accurate 1/4 inch seam while making this quilt. I was done before I realized just how important that accurate seam allowance is!
I made the "Good Ole Summertime" quilt from this book. The quilt in the book is beautiful and I tried to make mine like that one.



The quilt blocks are a huge 19'. The quilt finishes at 57x76. I am sure this quilt was designed to be used with scrap strips. and it would be a good stashbuster quilt. Remember, I had just started quilting so I had to go out and buy around 30 different quarter yards! I was scared to death about my fabric choices! But, I think I did ok! I love this quilt soooo much. I really regret not making it big enough for my bed. I would love to make this pattern again one day.

It has alot of 30's fabrics in it. They were my favorite then and I still love them today.

It is all handquilted in the ditch...right into that seam allowance! Ouch! I would do that differently! The binding is totally scrappy..which I love!


Thanks for letting me show you this quilt. It hangs on a vintage ladder in my living room right now. One day I hope to have a room fixed up for my grandchildren to come visit and this quilt will be in it for sure!

Keeping It In The Family

Today I want to share a quilt that my Grandmother just gave me. This is my Dad's Mom whose farm land it is that we all live on. She is 85 and still lives by herself in her farmhouse. She is right up the road from all of us and has chickens that she loves and takes care of. She also grows many flowers and a little garden. She spends most of her time outside. I spent much of my childhood at her house with my cousins and brother and sister.

She had to have a little surgery last week and told me to come and get this quilt. She said that she was afraid she would drop dead and my Mother might throw this quilt in the dump before I could get it. (my mother has been known to throw antique quilts in a dumpster) Needless, to say I went and got the quilt!

Here is a little background. When my Grandmother was a little girl in the 1930's, her Great-Grandmother told her that if she would pick out a pattern, she would make her a quilt. My Grandmother remembers going through the patterns, saved from The Atlanta Journal newspaper, and picked out the Bear's Paw pattern.

These blocks were made totally from scraps of clothes. My Grandma can still pick out dress fabrics from this quilt. The blocks are hand-pieced and BEAUTIFUL!

Here are some of my favorite fabrics. I think this fabric is from a flour sack.

I love this floral fabric. The blocks are all scrappy.



My Grandmother's Great Grandmother never put the quilt together. In the 1980's my Great Aunt sent the blocks to a lady in Ohio. She did this to surprise my Grandma. The lady from Ohio sashed and bordered the quilt in the pretty peach fabric. She also hand quilted the quilt. Her hand quilting is AMAZING!! I wish that I could handquilt like that!!

When my Grandmother got the quilt back from Ohio, she folded it on to a quilt rack..and there it sat til she gave it to me. It has never been washed. There are very faint pencil markings on the border. It looks wonderful and doesnt stink (smells kinda dusty) but I kind of want to put it on my bed...but I'm scared to wash it. What do you think?

We love this quilt so much!

I'm in Love...

Have you seen all the Cross quilts on Flickr? Here, here and here are just a few. I love these! I think they are so pretty!

I'm not much into "wonky" quilts but something about these just soothe my soul! I could look at these all day long. Now, if I can figure out how to make one without wasting too much fabric. The one time I played around, trying to make a sample Cross block, I wasted So much of the background fabric. So I just need a great tutorial and about 8 extra hours in my day!!!

Look at this one!! This one is made by the awesome Elizabeth Hartman (Oh, Fransson!) Free Pattern for Robert Kaufman. Beautiful!!

My First Quilt

Since I am still handquilting my Halloween Quilt and that would make for a very boring post, I decide to blog about my first quilt. This quilt has been well loved and except for a loose spot on the binding it has held up well.

I made this quilt in 2004 for my daughter. I had never made a quilt before but I have always loved quilts. I had tried sewing garments for years and wasnt really good at it. I knew that many of my relatives had been quilters and I didnt want the craft to die out with my generation. After I started my first quilt I knew that quilting was in my blood!

This pattern is a snowball block. I got the pattern for the block from Marica's wonderful website "The Quilters Cache"The fabric I bought at Walmart. It has really cute VW Beetle cars on it. I bought the blenders at Walmart too. It is backed in flannel from Walmart. Say what you want but even with my begining quilting skills, this quilt has held up beautifully!! Today, I am kinda shocked to see how well I matched up all my points!! At the time I didnt know that was a big thing, I just wanted it to be pretty and neat! My daughter loves this quilt and that is all that mattered to me!

I handquilted it with varigated thread...from Walmart!

What was your first quilt?

Have a great day! I'm off to vote!

FNSI Results

It was a stormy night here in Georgia! What a great way to spend it! Sewing! I made up 2 pillowcases to send to my daughter Kelsey who is back at college. These are so quick and easy, but with the french seams they look like you really put some time into them! I don't really follow a pattern so much on these but this is the one that I go back to if I get stuck!

Here is the pink one in action! I had planned on taking these outside to get some bright shots of this gorgeous fabric but it is very dreary here this morning so I gave up!

Here is the quilt that I made this summer. Kelsey loved it and I was proud that she wanted to take it with her to school! I think the pillowcases will look so pretty with the quilt!

I love FNSI and always look forward to seeing what everyone else makes! Thanks Heidi and Bobbi for hosting!

Finally! A finish!!

I did take part in Friday Night Sew In. With Ruby's "help" I got the binding put on my latest quilt!! I am SO glad to be finished with it! It makes me so happy to take a new quilt out of the dryer for the first time!! All wrinkly and warm!

I found this quilt pattern on the blog Oh, Fransson! Elizabeth made this quilt and a wonderful tutorial. She made the quilt with fabric from a line of fabric called House by Annette Tatum. I shamelessly copied Elizabeth and used the beautiful House fabric which I already had. I also added a couple of star in a star blocks to my quilt. If you love looking at beautiful quilts you should definitely check out Elizabeth's blog!! I love it!

My quilt finished at 72x84. I didnt have any plans for this quilt. Just figured I would keep it. Well, my daughter Kelsey took one look at it and has BEGGED me to let her have it for her dorm. So, it looks like this quilt will be leaving for college in August.


These pictures dont show just how pretty this fabric is. I may just have to take some more pics of it. It is hand-quilted.

Thanks for looking!!

Libby

Friday Night Sew In or (I'm so lazy)

I thought about blowing off FNSI, I was at the library all week, and I was sooo tired! I guess I'm still recovering from my surgery (atleast that is what I kept whinning to my husband) My husband had already planned on taking the boys out so I had the house to myself. I thought about just laying on the couch and watching Deadliest Catch on tv. Then, I thought about all the times during the week when I was at the school and was wishing I was home sewing. I went into my sewing room and hoped I would be inspired! I have a quilt top ready to be basted but I just couldnt make myself do that! Not ready to be crawling on my hands and knees yet!

I dug around in some of my old fabric and found some blocks that I had from a block swap (a long time ago) I was a new, self-taught quilter, I found an online chat group that was all about quilting. I loved that group, I learned so much! They would host fabric and block swaps. I was always too intimidated to join. After watching for a couple of years I decide to join a swap. The block was from an online site (they had permission) they set up rules for color, fabric style and quality of blocks. Let me tell you, I drove myself (and family) crazy about those blocks!! I worked so hard to make them perfect! The rules were, if the blocks were not good quality, measured correctly, they would be sent back!! I was not going to let that happen!! I even had a nightmare that my blocks were sent back to me and I was kicked out of the group! I did my blocks over and over again, I made Andy measure them to make sure they were perfect!!!! So, what do you think happened?? Some (most) of the blocks I received were off by 1/4 to over 1/2 an inch!!! I was stunned!! I reread the instructions to make sure I had my sizes right....I did...I was floored! By then, I hated the blocks so I stuck them in a baggie and forgot about them!! and, I never joined another block swap!! Now, I know that a 1/4 seam allowance can be hard to get and if all the blocks had been off by the same amount they would have been fine. But, they were all different sizes. Not an uncommon thing when so many different people are making the blocks!

I got the blocks out last night, measured them again and started taking them apart. Before, I would have felt guilty taking someone else's work apart but now I don't. I still have 3 more blocks to put back together. I think this will make a cute little kids quilt. I think I will put flannel on the back and I might tie this quilt. I have always wanted to tie a quilt. I really love all the 30's fabrics in this quilt. This quilt makes me remember how much I loved quilting when I first started. I fell in love with 30's fabrics and quilts. I don't use them as much in my quilts anymore but they will always have a special place in my heart!

Have a great weekend!
Libby

MIL Quilt

I thought that I would show one of my favorite quilts. These beautiful Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam blocks were made by my precious mother-in-law. She is so talented at everything! How would you like to have her as a mother-in-law?? She really is sweet! She just happens to be a great cook, a great house-keeper, great seamstress, a wonderful Mom, the BEST Nanny, etc!!

She was nice enough to give me these blocks to make a quilt! I sashed them and hand-quilted it. The whole time that I was quilting this, I thought of what a special quilt that this would be. It just gives me thoughts of how it always has been for people who sew or have other talents that are passed down. Talents and sweet items passed down to other generations! I know that one day my daughter or maybe a grandchild will LOVE this quilt because of the LOVE that went into it!
You can click on the top photo to see more of her blocks! Have a great day! Thanks so much for stopping by! Libby