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. 

 

 

A new quilter in the family...

So, last week the guild had our annual Christmas party. I invited my daughter to come with me...she didn't really want to come until I told her there would be food :) We played a game called Fat Quarter Frenzy. Each person brought 3 FQ's to play with. One by one, FQ's were thrown into the center of the table (the pot). At the end of the game, whoever still had a FQ in their hands got to keep the whole pot. So guess who won the whole pot? That's right.
She won 21 fat quarters. Of course, my friends were all asking her what she might make with all this new treasure. As of 2 hours earlier, she had no intention of ever going to a guild meeting and now she was the proud owner of a whole lot of fabric.

So on the way home...with no prompting from me...she announces that it might be cool to make a quilt. I know, RIGHT?!

When we searched for quilt patterns (I'm thinking beginner friendly), she really fell in love with the dresden plate. She wasn't totally convinced until I told her that it might be kind of advanced and that I haven't even tried to make one yet. Well, that did it. Determined to make a dresden quilt, I told her we really need to practice one first...

We used this tutorial

I wanted her to practice quilting too. Color me impressed. She free-motion stippled over the whole design. And did an amazing job!  I coached, but she made every stitch by herself.

On her practice piece, I gave her the challenge of quilting her name over and over.  On her finished pillow cover, she signed her name in the corner.

I think I might be the proudest mom in the whole world right now.

I'm still quilting...

I know I've been quiet for awhile (can't say I didn't warn ya'll)

but I HAVE been busy.

We went with a group from our church on a missions trip to San Luis Potosi, Mexico...amazing, exhausting, humbling...more pics here. But before we left, I made this... Yep. It's another Circle Around quilt. But this time, I made it the size of the original pattern (twin) AND I used a full-sized flat sheet for the backing, and a pillowcase (cut on bias) for the binding. The pillowcases came as a set of 2, so the other one will be used as a cover for the quilt when not in use...and a pillowcase when it IS being used ;)

Straight line quilting (which I didn't think I would like) makes this quilt the current favorite in this house. My daughter seems to think it belongs at college with HER. But it currently sits on the couch (or in my lap).

When we got home from Mexico, I guess the stress and exhaustion (totally worth it) caught up with me and I caught a cold. So no sewing for the 10 days in Mexico and then again for the weekend after...

But this past weekend, I knew it was time to get back to work. While we were away, a friend from work had a baby boy. I can't wait to meet him, but in the meantime, I'm working on this...
Found the pattern in the Moda Bake Shop, of course.

Ok, back to work...oh, who am I kidding?!

;)

Have a blessed day!

Look around you...

Go ahead. Do it. Look around for just a minute. What do you see? I'm sitting on my couch, in my living room. From here, I can see the big picture of my beautiful family sitting over the mantle.

I can see from my front window, the tree in my front yard, with birds coming and going from their own "homes". I can see my dog (Mojo) sitting in the sunroom (aka my sewing room, aka my creative sunny haven)

patiently waiting for me to come in there and work on a sewing project. It's not very sunny today, but the weather man says we have severe thunderstorms headed our way later tonight. I actually LOVE thunderstorms and I LOVE living in Oklahoma where we have a lot of them in the spring time.

So, do you kinda see what I'm getting at here? There is beauty all around us. Wherever you look, if you know what you're looking for, you can see the beauty in everything God has created. And He created it all...just for US.

So do it. Look around. Do you see it, too? I hope so.

Darlene