Antique Blazing Star

This quilt was purchased at a Miami quilt show March 12, 1985, the day we brought our son home to be adopted. He was 6 weeks old and he is now almost 25. I bought the quilt and then we got the phone call that he was available. Exciting. I am not sure of the age of the quilt. I am sure that I love yellow and red and stars, and I love my son!!

More Patriotic Quilts

Be sure to click on these pictures to see the variety of scraps I used. I just love scrap quilts!

Patriotic string quilt/straight furrows

Patriotic Coin strip quilt

These quilts were made by free stripping fabric without rulers and sewing the strips together. Patterns were then cut from the "new" fabric made from the sewn strips.

Happy Fourth of July

Now I am not that far gone that I do not realize that today is Thanksgiving and not the Fourth of July...but I like to get with the program early...or maybe late. So I am going to show you the patriotic quilts I made. This one is a quilt top that I donated to Quilts of Valor for the injured soldiers. www.qovf.org/

Those handy dandy pincushions

When Ruth brought me cat fabric from Japan, I just had to put it to good use. This pin cushion fits perfectly on my Janome 6600. It is velcroed on for best fit! I took two kinds of Velcro. I took the bottom part of the stick on Velcro and stuck that on the machine. Then I sewed the top part of the sew on Velcro and sewed it to the pin cushion. Perfect! The turquoise pin cushion is used on the cutting table and for taking on trips. The straps for the thread bag are sewn into the pin chushion when it is being made. They are attached to the thread bag with sewn on Velcro. Both are very very very useful and were fun to make. They are filled with plastic pellets, batting and with sand. All of these items are available at Walmart or Michaels.

Evan and Milo

Milo never ever wants to be left out of a nice quilt and a wonderful grandchild!!!

Milo and Cookie

How did they know that I had just washed this quilt to get rid of the cat hair? How did they know??? RIP our Cookie (white one) who died a few days ago suddenly at the age of almost 14 from heart disease. Guess he knew it would be ok to be on my clean quilt!

Antique Chips and Whetstones.

So my husband and I have been married coming up on 30 years. We spent some nice years collecting antique quilts until children. All of a sudden the antique quilt money went to daycare, preschool, braces, piano lessons, tutors, soccor, oboe lessons, horse back riding lessons, etc, etc....I know you understand. This quilt was bought in Phoenix, Arizona from a dealer. This dealer had purchased it from an estate sale in Sun City, Arizona from an estate of a lady from "back East". It was Christmas time and my mother and grandmother had given me money for Christmas to pick out my own present. This quilt was calling my name and it has said Christmas ever since. The quilt was purchased in 1981. It is hand pieced and hand quilted. I had it appraised at that time when I got back to Miami, and the appraiser said it was sloppy work...hello... I do not think so..

Vintage Blue and yellow Star of Bethleham

In the High Pines section of Miami where we lived for years, I was checking out estate sales when I happened on this quilt. There were two others as well, but I was trying not to overspend and I left them behind. This quilt was from the estate sale of Susanna Swain (83 years old). Her daughter said that it was made by Susanna's mother, Arminta Neptune in Ohio before she moved to Miami in 1937. I really love this quilt and at the time was sad for Arminta that it was leaving the family. Not sad enough not to buy it myself. It has hung over my bed for years. I made the purchase in 1990. It is hand pieced and hand quilted.

My orange collection

The story....I had planned to go to Mardelle's quilting party at the beach one year..all paid for and ready to go. Then the day before departure, I injured my back lifting my mother's wheelchair. In bed I was and the show went on without me. Well, in preparation for this workshop, I had made about 100 scrap four patch blocks. I had planned to take Patti Cline's class called "Take Two Aspirin". I like to get things ready ahead of time and had made so many blocks so I would have variety to choose from. Instead, I was taking more than two aspirin, in bed in pain and was left with 100 scrap blocks. Once well, I decided to challenge myself with orange....hence, my orange collection called Orange quilt I, Orange quilt II, etc. The four quilts I made are below.

The rabbits

The rabbits was my first free motion quilting quilt.

Moonlit Path

This quilt was started in a class at Mardelle Smith's Beach Party one year. I was working on snowballs and loving using the blues and peaches from my stash. Patti Cline saw the star potential!!

Potholder Tutorial

These are the pictures for the potholder tutorial. The instructions are at the end. I am still learning how to coordinate pictures with words on the blog so please hang in here with me. I hope you enjoy my potholders.

I have just finished making 20 potholders for holiday presents. I have been making them for years. I remember sitting in my daughter's and actually, also in my son's kindergarten classes with each child on my lap sewing potholders for Mother's Day. I would bring in the fabric markers and the cut muslin and help the children draw a picture and put their name on the block. Then they would sit on my lap and help me sew the border on my sewing machine. Then through the years, my children would make a similar potholder for their various favorite teachers. A few years back, I met one of my son's former teachers from years ago. She told me that she still had the potholder in her kitchen and how much it had meant to her. So although I know that everyone makes potholders differently. I thought I would show my way on this blog. I love to choose the fabric to suit the recipient.

First step it to cut the muslin foundation and insulation pieces for the potholder 8 inches. The muslin goes down first with the batting on top. Nothing is measured here but the 8 inch blocks, so the strips are loosely cut with the rotary cutter. Take a squarish scrap ,put it in the center on top of the batting. Take a strip and sew it right sides together on the block, press, and continue with this till the batting is covered with scraps. Turn the block over and trim with ruler and rotary cutter until it is squared up. Cut a backing from quilting fabric about an inch larger than the block. Put down the backing wrong side up, then either two pieces of denim or one piece of the Insul-Bright, then the quilt sandwich. Bring the backing fabric around to the top of the potholder and pin two opposite sides and sew with walking foot. Pin the two other sides and sew with walking foot. Hand sew the white ring for the hanger. This is found at places like Walmart or Michaels or you can make a fabric hanger. I hope this is easy to follow and that you enjoy my examples.

Around the World in the Pink

Another product of fun quilting weekends with Ruth and Emily. I thought this would make a nice wedding quilt, but I was told that wedding quilts are not pink.....too bad...

Brown Bear for my grandchildren

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin and Eric Carle, is the wonderful book. From the fabric based on this book, came my version of the quilt for my grandchildren.

Antique Carpenter's Wheel c.1890-1910

Bought in Miami, Florida, this quilt has been used as our wall Christmas Quilt for 20 some years. It is well loved.

Sonora Spring

The colors of this quilt reminded me of the spring in the desert where I grew up in Arizona. The turquoise of the Indian jewelry and the sand of the desert. I took a class from Cathy Bogan at Mardell Smith's Beach Party several years back. This quilt design is a take from Strips and Curves, by Louisa L.Smith.

A-mazing Cats

Took a class from the wonderful Priscilla Hair at Mardelle Smith's Beach Party a few years back. The pattern is Fair Play, templates from Mr. Hair. I had alot of fun mixing batiks with African fabrics, etc. This quilt won a second place ribbon last year at the show.

Our bedroom, full of quilts

The story. First of all our bed. When we lived in Miami, we bought a new house with a rotten bathroom. The seller gave us money back to fix it, and we commissioned a friend to design and make this bed for us from solid Mahogany instead of fixing the bathroom..As usual, priorities are right in our household! Then, the wall quilt. When I was travelling to NYC, I was enthralled by a store called American Hurrah. On the wall there was a red and white house quilt which I photographed. My husband used graph paper and charted out this house quilt which I copied onto cardboard using carbon paper. I cut out the templates and drew around them on the fabric of the times and made the houses. I decided that the quilt needed stars, so I added them in the border. (no rotary cutters then) That was in 1982. Several years ago at the Charlotte Guild, there was a challenge to each of us to finish a UFO...so then, out came the house block top. I basted it and machine quilted it and won the oldest UFO challenge of 25 some years undone!!! So never say never. Then there is the bed quilt. I just love the green and pink reproduction fabric so I made a log cabin top to replace the one I made when my husband and I got married in 1980. It faded in the Florida sun. This quilt turned out sooooo big that I certainly did not feel like quilting it. And then came Terri!!!! She was so nice to use it to practice on her new and awesome longarm machine. Thank you Terri...it is perfect!!!

Dorothy's Quilt

The Charlotte Irish quilters loved Dorothy alot...we made this quilt with shamrocks and things to send hugs to her when she was sick.

Apron-a-thon at my house/ Ruth and Emily

And when I finally decided that scraps would never ever be finished and took them to Ruth in Asheville!!

Homemade aprons

Thirties baby quilt from one inch squares

Bought from original owner at Metrolina in Charlotte, NC. I jotted the information down somewhere...will post when I find it...LOL