What do you do with one little paper pieced house?  It stayed in the Gaa-Barge bin for a long while before I decided to put it on a hill and use scraps for the landscape.  It made up quickly and counted for the gaa-barge of the week

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Red flowers are in the yard.  The light is on in the window and the path leads to the front door.  The border strips were left uneven.  This tiny house is a fixer-upper.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

After I had pieced my first two quilts, I wanted to know how to actually quilt them.  I saw an ad for a quilting class.  I signed up, hoping to learn how to quilt, only to find out that it was a piecing class, not a quilting class.

I did learn a lot.  One of the handouts was a quilting dictionary.  I had no idea that there was a quilting language.

We made a sampler wall hanging.  I still didn’t know how to “quilt”, but just sewed the top, batting and backing together.

 

 

 

I started to quilt using the Quilters Newsletter magazine.  In one of the issues, I found a pretty wall hanging.  At the time, it was so hard to make.  It took a long time.  Of course, at that time, I made templates, drew around them and cut out each piece separately.  Now, as I look at it, it is just nine patches and strip pieces.  Using a rotary cutter and ruler would make this wall hanging very easy to make.

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great day and happy quilting.

Shortly after I became a quilt maker, I thought that I could add to my income by making consignment quilts.  I was led to a lady who wanted me to make a quilt from eight blocks that her mother made.  We agreed on a price and I bought fabric for the sashing, borders and backing.  I put the blocks together and hand quilted the piece.  When I delivered it, the lady was very angry that I didn’t make a king size quilt out of eight 12″ blocks.  That almost stopped my career in consignment quilting.

My next consignment quilt was one that I made for my daughter. She wanted one to give to her sister in law for a wedding present.  We agreed on a pattern and the fabric.  I cut out all the pieces and started to piece the quilt.  This was before rotary cutters and rulers.  The process was to copy the pattern, paste it on sandpaper, cut it out and trace around the template on the back of the fabric.  After cutting out all the pieces, the blocks weren’t going together easily.  They didn’t fit together at all.  I checked the book where I found the pattern and found that the seam allowances were not included in the pattern.  I had to go back to the quilt shop, buy more fabric and start again.  The quilt did come out very nice.  I learned a lesson to read all of the instructions before cutting.  I also was a wreck when it was finished.  My daughter loved the quilt so all was well at the end.

My third and last consignment quilt was made from cut out pieces cut by a co-worker’s grandmother.  I knew enough at this point to tell her that it would be a wall hanging, not a big quilt.  She was fine with that because she wanted to hang it in her kitchen.  Luckily, I found some fabric to add that complimented the blocks.  At that time, I hadn’t made any drunkard path blocks, but by the time it was finished, I could do curved piecing.  The colors were not my usual colors.  I agonized all the time that I was making it.  My co-worker loved it and was very pleased.  After making that wall hanging, I decided that quilt should be my joy and pleasure and there was no joy or pleasure in making consignment quilts.

I had read “Knitting Without Tears” by Elizabeth Zimmerman.  She said in the beginning of the book, “If you don’t like knitting, don’t do it.  Do something else that gives you joy.”  I agree with her.  I didn’t like to make consignment quilts, so I’m not going to make any more.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I’m in Maine for a few days.  It is cool here, but I keep warm by weeding the flower beds.  The daffodils are in blossom.  Usually I don’t come up here this early in the season and miss their beauty.

 

 

 

 

When my children were  married, they received a wedding quilt.  In the past, I used to take a picture of each quilt that I gave away and put it into one album.  I’m so glad that I found the album and can share some of the pictures with you,  When I make a quilt for a specific person, I have no problem giving it away.  When I just make a quilt, I  tend to keep it until the pile gets too large.  Then I can easily give them away before the shelves collapse under the weight again.

One of my daughters received the unicorn wall hanging.  It was fun to make.  I like to applique, although at time, I hadn’t had lessons.  I also thread painted the pine needles on this piece.  I didn’t even know the term “thread painting”, but I found that I enjoyed doing it.

 

 

A son received the next quilt.  It is made in my favorite colors and was a joy to piece.

 

 

 

 

Another son received this quilt. The pattern  is called “Lover’s Lane”.  I like the center on point square.  This quilt was hand quilted.

There are many more wedding quilts in the album.  They will show up on a later blog.

When I placed the pictures into the album, I wrote the  name of the recipient on the back of the pictures.  Frankly, I forgot that I made many of the pieces, especially the wall hangings,  and who has them.  It’s a good thing that my family likes my quilts.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

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