Wednesday, September 30, 2009

I think I'm in Love......

Possible future quilt......



In Queen Size......



From this library book:



Yes, I'm definitely in love ..... again.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

What a Great Quilting Tip!


Last night I started sewing some quilt blocks around 7:30. I was really tired and was dragging myself into the sewing room. Last week I posted a list of time saving quilting and sewing tips on my other blog, Homemaking Dreams. So, I decided to try one of the tips that I had not tried before.

I decided to try placing the iron on a wooden tv tray beside the sewing machine so I could press as I sewed without getting up and down to go to the ironing board.

The log cabin block that I am making requires that the blocks be pressed as you go, several times. I chain piece the blocks, but after adding two rectangles onto a square, I would need to iron them flat before adding more rectangles. This repeats two more times for each square. No wonder I would be so tired, getting up to press so many times!

It was wonderful! I really don't think I would have had the energy to make more than 2 blocks, but since I could just sit while sewing and ironing I made eight! And the eight blocks went together much more quickly. I normally would have only gotten 5 or 6 done in the same time period. With the iron sitting beside me, all I had to do was turn slightly, press and stick that block back under the needle of the sewing machine and keep going.

Just for experimental purposes I simply placed a home made folded dish towel on the tray and sat the iron on it connected to an extension cord. Now that I know this is the way to go, I plan to make a more permanent mini ironing board. I am going to put a thin piece of quilt batting under the dish towel, pull the edges of both underneath the table snugly and I will either staple or tape the edges down on the underside of the table.

For safety I made sure the iron was not left unattended. If I needed to get up, all I had to do was to move the hot iron to the ironing board, until I came back. If anyone came into the sewing room, I held onto the iron with one hand until they left.

This setup will be especially nice on my days off from work when I want to have a long marathon sewing session. It will help me to really turn out some quilt blocks.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Quilt Stories

There are so many stories associated with quilts. Each quilt has its own story and every quilt block pattern has a story or history. I'd like to write some posts about some of these stories.

By the time I finish making a quilt, it becomes a part of me. You spend hours and hours planning it, working with it, spending time with it and touching it. I even lay awake at night sometimes worrying about it. We give them special names and give them to special people. An awful lot of love goes into a quilt!

Baby Quilts made with love for my grandson, two years ago:



Here's one example of the history of quilting:

In the early days of quilting, many religious quilters felt that only God is perfect (I agree!), so they would deliberately make a mistake, which they called a "God Fear Patch" or "God Fear Square".

I can assure you that not all errors fall into this category! My quilts are always flawed in some way, but this gives the quilt character in my opinion. I strive for perfection, but I'm never going to make it. Only God is perfect! But, I hope that the love that I put into each quilt will overcome any imperfections.

If you make a mistake on a quilt or other craft, that can't be fixed, do you let it go or start all over?

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Angel Scraps Quilting

Welcome to my new quilting blog!

I thought it would be appropriate for my first post on this new blog to be about the quilt that I first referred to as containing angel scraps. I can't believe I first started collecting these angel scraps a year and a half ago! If you've been reading my other blog, Homemaking Dreams, then you are already familiar with my latest quilt, "Eliza Rose". It was made from angel scraps and it is the first quilt I quilted with my machine using free motion quilting or also known as stippling.





I started this blog in order to only post things quilt related. I will still post some "Quilty" posts on Homemaking Dreams, but on this blog I will give myself free reign to post about anything and everything that is quilt related!

Thanks for visiting. Please comment often!