MY Prized Possession

This is MY most prized possession. My maternal grandmother made this quilt for me before I got married. I think she thought I needed something to keep me warm at night, since I was almost 25 before I got married.

It has been well loved and used. It has frayed almost all the way around. There are stitches that have popped and is in a great state of disrepair. It drives my husband nuts that we drag it around the house and snuggle under it still. He thinks it should be put away and admired from afar.

Granny made quilts for utility. They were meant to be used. And it is in her honor that I continue to USE this quilt. One day I will spread it out on the kitchen table and do what I can to repair the loose patches and holes in it, but until that day, it will continue to be used. It provides not only warmth, but comfort when it is needed most.

I remember my grandmother beginning to teach me to embroider when I was about 6 years old. Pillowcases, if I remember correctly. I remember her cutting out cardboard templates and patiently cutting out quilts, one piece at a time. The only pair of scissors I ever remember her using looked to be a pair of barber-style scissors. The only sewing machine she ever had was an old Singer treadle machine, that had a motor added to it. Nancy is in possession of that sewing machine.

Granny was my favorite grandparent. She was simple, country folk. She lived in a TINY 3 bedroom Jim Walter house that she and her children chopped cotton to buy. She was SO proud of that house. Now this house had ONE heater in it, and that was in the living room. So winter nights were spent under PILES of quilts on the bed. I grew so used to the weight of the quilts on the bed, that to this day I sleep under a blanket or quilt year round (I'm also the cold natured one in the family).

Granny, like my mother, was one of the most generous and non-judgemental people I have ever known. She, like Mama, accepted people as they were without reservation. Although, my mother and I became great friends as adults, we had a very tempetuous relationship during my teen years. I would threaten to go live with Granny weekly, it seemed. When we really needed a break from each other, I would go stay with her for a few days. We would just sit and talk, and soon I was back home where I really belonged. She was a very special lady and raised my mother to be the same. I miss the ability to walk in that back door at home and say, "I'm tired and discouraged. Please, mother me."

You know they say what goes around, comes around. My teenage daughter and I at times have the same type relationship that Mama and I did. I draw strength from the memories of my adult relationship with Mama, and pray, that Ashley and I will have the same strong tie when she grows up. 

What a Heritage We Share

Since little progress is being made on the sewing front around here, thought I would share some of my and Nancy's rich quilting heritage with you. This quilt is one of 4 that was passed down from my paternal grandmother family that dates to the Civil War. When our mother died, my daughter brought this home with her as one of Memaw's treasures.
This quilt has been a favorite of mine for years. It has never been completed. Again this quilt was passed down from my fathers side of the family. Nancy is the real historian and could tell you which great-aunt made it. Mama was going to finish it - she got as far as sewing the blocks to a sheet and basting it together. ONE day, I am going to hand quilt this one.



Nancy has referred to the only quilt Mama ever finished. This is the quilt she made my son, Scott for his first birthday. This is his my valued possession. She literally finished it right before his party. It is also responsible for Scott's first independent steps. See, he picked up an empty spool of thread, and thinking he was holding on to something, walked across the room!

There is one more quilt I have to share. Somehow Picassa did not import it, so I will go back and get it and post it.... 

Officially OLD Now

Guess you all know by now, I am officially half a century old! I have nothing really quilty to report. I have been busy for the last week splitting my time between work and playing pageant mom. She brought home Miss Congeniality and 4th runner up. Not bad for her 2nd "Miss" Pageant.

I did find time to load my birthday present from Nancy, but really haven't had time to play. Hopefully, I will get to this weekend. A friend at work gave me the Better Home and Gardens 501 Quilt Blocks for my birthday. Now I really have lots to look at before I go to sleep. Think I'll have to do a sampler soon. May even tackle some hand applique after I finish my blocks for the Fons and Porter Challenge. I hope to work on it this week. Not off to a great start - I haven't gotten home early enough to do much more than eat and go to sleep. School started yesterday, so I am back to getting up at 5:30 am to get the princess off to school (although the last 2 days she has beat me and been up at 5:00 - I refuse to get up any earlier - maybe she's finally growing up????)

Hopefully, I will have some quilty pictures to post in a day or so. I'm going to try to make the rounds of the ring now. I really haven't had time to do more that visit a couple and haven't even left comments. Please forgive me, I know how much I appreciate and look forward to comments. I will do better.

Back to the Beginning

Most of you know by now that the resurgence of my interest in quilting stems from my sister, Nancy's, masterpieces. I thought I would take you back in time to my first "quilty" project. At this time (circa 1997ish), I could not find any value in making quilts. If you needed to keep warm, go to the store and buy a blanket. While I treasured the quilt my grandmother made me, I could not see myself sitting to make a quilt.

Now you see, at that point in my life, I was VERY career driven. My job was my life, even above my family. I however LOVE fabric and colors and challenges. I was staying with my mom and dad (can I tell you how much I treasure that adult time with them before their health began to fail and I became the caregiver...) and traveling home to be with DH and DS and DD about every 4 to 6 weeks. As I said that was a different place and time in my life. Mom and dad had gone out of town for Labor Day weekend. Nancy and her husband still lived by mom and dad in the home we grew up in. Nancy and I had a long weekend off together and decided to play.

Now like I said I like a challenge. No easy beginner projects for me. And the project had to have meaning (explanation later). We got up in the sewing room, and started going through fabrics, some of hers, some of mom's. I don't remember if we actually bought any fabrics for this project.
We spent hours picking fabrics, and cutting out 1" squares of fabric (see, I was crazy even back then). This is the result of our marathon sewing weekend.....


Like I said earlier, the project had to have meaning. At this time in my life, I travelled constantly. Did not know what city I would be in next, and some weeks had to figure out what city I was in when I woke up in the morning. So, the Trip Around the World represented my travels at that time.

Now, even as driven as I was, I still cherished time at home, so...........




Here is home, my first paper pieced object. and we manufactured the fabric surrounding it from different fabrics that caught my eye. So you can see, there WAS a time in my life that brights spoke to me as loudly as Civil War repros and 30's repros do to me now.

Now Laurie Ann asked in my last post where we found the patterns for the 3" blocks and if they had to be hand pieced. The Fons and Porter website has some patterns drafted to 3" in the information about the contest. The rest I drafted from 12" down to 3" from the lastest issue of Sampler Quilts (ps I sent Nancy a copy of the magazine with her fabrics so she would not have to break her no quilt purchases this month). They do not have to be hand pieced, that was my choice. Nancy may do her's on the machine or by hand, that is her choice. We're just having fun and poking fun at each others choices. DH needs me to burn some pictures to CD for him, so guess I'll go do my good wife imitation...

Questions Answered

Thanks for the comments to my last 2 posts. I think this is going to be a blast. Nancy may never speak to me again, but I think, eventually, she will forgive me.

I will post pictures of the progress on my set of blocks. It is Nancy's choice if she wants to share or keep me in suspense.

The quilt will be 5 rows of 5 blocks, so if we decide no sashing or borders, it will be 15"x15".

I have spent my quiet time this morning (translation: everyone else in the house is still sleeping) cutting out blocks. I have 5 more cut out in snack sized baggies with the name of the block written on the outside for reference, so I have 1/2 of my set of blocks cut out ready to assemble. I will get Nancy's share of the fabrics in the mail Monday and eagerly await the arrival of her fabric choices so I can start cutting miniscule pieces again.

The biggest problem I had with hand piecing last night is that the eye on small needles is SO small I can barely tread it anymore. Does anyone know of a brand of needles that is fine enough for hand piecing ( I'm piecing with neutral silk thread) with an eye large enough for MATURE women to see it? I had stopped sewing a couple of years ago when I could no longer thread the machine without frustration. Thank God, my new machine has a built-in threader, or I may not have decided to begin quilting.

Well, the biggest native (DH) is up, so I guess it is time to begin the weekly chores. Will try to cut more blocks between loads of laundry and playing helpmate - he is cooking again today, which means I play fetch all day. But beef tips in gravy for the freezer is needed. The grocery had them on sale, B1G1 last weekend so I bought a couple of large packs to cook for the freezer. Oh well, other than fetching for his, I will give him something to do to feel he is making a contribution to the family. It has been hard on him having only one function hand. It is getting better, but he is a long way from well. He tried to shoulder his shotgun this morning and realized he will not be ready for opening day of dove season on September 2. We will hope for the best, and be glad for what we have.

First Block Completed

Here's 3" block #1 - A Friendship Star. Not bad for never having hand pieced anything, much less 1 1/2" blocks and HSTs.

Got all my fabrics split and ready to put in the mail Monday to Nancy. Will work on cutting out several blocks tomorrow for take-alongs this week to do while at pageant practice. 

Mostly for Nancy

My sister, Nancy and I are going to participate in the Fons and Porter Quilt Together contest. We thought it would be fun to do something "quilty" together, even though we live far apart. Okay, I confess, it was my idea, and she is going along to amuse me. See, the quilt is made up of 25 different 3" blocks. Then, I decided I wanted to use 30's prints to get them out of my system. So, she upped the ante and said she'd do 30's, but we were going to do 2 quilts, one in my choice of 12 30's prints with a light background, and one in HER choice of 12 brights with a black background. We will each select 12 blocks and make one of each - 30's and brights. Then we each will select 1 other block for the last one. We will be left with 2 quilts that we each had a part in making. This picture is the 12 fabrics and background fabric that made the cut for my quilt. There are also 8 solids that coordinat that I may or may not send. That would break the rule of 12 fabrics with one background.

These are the orphans that I purchased that did not make the cut. They were SOOOOOOOOOO upset about being left out, that the first picture was blurry and I had to retake it. It was almost as if they were crying. Some of them I really like, but I was limited to 12. And I wanted 12 DIFFERENT prints and ones that had other fabrics that blended well.

Nancy, I'm ready to start selecting patterns whenever you are. I can cut out some blocks to hand piece to take with me the next couple of weekends. Otherwise I will not get much quilting done for the next 2 weekends.

We have pageant practices Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights. We will spend Friday getting nails, feet and brows tamed. Then Saturday the pageant activities begin at 9:30 am with interviews. Then on to hair and makeup. The pageant begins at 7:30 pm and the queen and court are honored at a gala at one of the local Country Clubs afterwards. So the day is going to be long for me with much "hurry up and wait" time that I can hand piece blocks.

The following weekend, I will be out of town doing the in-law thing to celebrate my MIL and my birthdays. I would like to be able to take some blocks to hand piece to calm my nerves for both events.

I will get the fabrics cut and in the mail the first of next week. Please don't forget to put my box of "stuff" in the mail. I will need it to begin resizing complex blocks to 3".