A Local Quilt Show

Quilt shows are a wonderful source of inspiration. Between the gorgeous quilts on display and the vendors selling everything a quilter needs, you come away from a quilt show excited and ready to start a new project. 

Today I attended a local quilt show put on by a small guild. The quilts were wonderful-made by very talented ladies. I am in totally in love with applique right now and so I was drawn to the many applique quilts there. I snapped pictures of a few of them to share here.

I love the bright colors of this quilt.

This black background is stunning.

This is the exact same quilt pattern as the 

picture above. I love the completely different 

look because of color choice and border design. 

This simple checkerboard border 

ties the whole quilt together.

A great combination of pieced and appliqued.

This quilt, done predominately in black,

and the next two, done in other colorways,

again show how different a quilt can look

depending on fabric choice.

This one has different flowers in the

baskets and no applique in the border.

Though also done in darker tones, 

this quilt has a soft look.

The show was small, with only a handful of vendors but the great quilts made the trip worthwhile. I am ready to get back to my own applique project now. 

Summer's Last Bloom-the golds

I mentioned in a previous post that I was doing a block swap with friends.  We are having such a great time with it. 

I have my gold blocks sewn together from months three and four.  When I get the last pair from months five and six I will post them too. 

A Grammy's Gotta Brag

I love my granddaughters. Each one of them is so special to me and each one owns a little piece of my heart. I love that their personalities and interests are all their own. So, now and then, like all grandmothers, I have to brag about my little girls.

Katelyn, my oldest, is 8 and so energetic and enthusiastic about everything in life. Last Spring she played soccer for the first time ever. She was a little hesitant at first, maybe even a little afraid that she might get kicked or take a ball to the face. But, as the season progressed, so did her confidence and her skills. She played again in the Fall and was an awesome scorer for her team-many times scoring the only goals and bringing her team to a victory. 

It is Spring again and once more it is soccer time. This season Katie is being joined on the team by her sister, Emily, age 6. This is Emily's first time to play and she has brought her excitement with her. Yesterday was their first game. Katelyn scored the first goal and Emily the second one! The tradition continues! Next Saturday we will all be there to watch as our girls take the field. 

I love being Grammy!

Emily, Katelyn and their sister, Madison

ready for their first game of the season

Sewing and Quit Expo

Yesterday my youngest daughter (along with her three girls) and I went to the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo in Atlanta. I love quilt shows and though this one does not have a lot of quilts to look at, there are some really nice vendors.  This show is geared more for sewing-in October there is another show in Atlanta where the focus is more on quilting. 

Hands down, my favorite vendor at this show (or ANY show where they are) is Primitive Gatherings!!! Lisa Bongean is sheer primitive genius! I love her fabric, her wool, her books-everything!! When I visit her booth at a show I WANT IT ALL :) Yesterday was no exception. And Lisa is such a sweetheart. She always has time to chat with you and talk about her latest project. This time we talked about my granddaughter, Sofie, and her recent discovery of sewing. Lisa was kind enough to look at pictures of Sofie sewing and even gave her a 2" charm pack of her very own for her next project! If Lisa wasn't already my fave, she would be now. What better way to win a Grammy's heart than to show such kindness to her grandchild?

Since we got home Sofie has been anxious to sew. We will be starting on a new project today with her charm pack. It is so fun to pass along my love of quilting!

Lisa Bongean and Sofie

Quilting with Friends

I love a good block swap.  Quilting with friends is the best! Right now I am trading blocks every month with 4 friends.  None of these friends lives nearby.  One is in South Carolina, one is in Michigan, the third is in Illinois (and moving to Washington) and the fourth one lives in England! Every month I get 2 blocks from each of them in the mail. The beginning of every month I start stalking my mailbox.  I love getting quilting mail.  :)

We are making this quilt from the cover of the Fall 2011 Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine.  It's called Summer's Last Bloom and was designed by Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles Quilters. 

If you've never done a block swap with friends, you don't know what you're missing.  Before we started we decided on our "swap rules" and monthly mailing dates.  We are now into our 7th month and have 5 more to go.  We will finish our last blocks in August and swap them when we all get together in September. We are doing needleturn applique and everyone is doing a great job!

Summer's Last Bloom 

This is the picture of the full quilt from the inside of the magazine.

The first 2 months we swapped blocks with red blooms.  Here is what they looked like  on my design wall when I sewed each of them together.  I am "auditioning" buttons, so these  are just pinned on.  

I will show more of this quilt as it progresses.  In the meantime, I am hanging out at the mailbox these days. :)

Paying It Forward

Sewing is a way of life in my family. My mom's mom sewed. A lot! She had a guest bedroom that she turned into a sewing room and it reached the point that you could no longer tell there was a bed in there under all that fabric.  She was a woman after my own heart.  

My mom sewed too.  She made drapes for the house and clothes for me.  I remember going to sleep at night to the hum of her sewing machine and waking up in the morning to find a new dress hanging on my closet door to wear to school that day. Those were the wonderful days of innocent childhood where I had no idea how many hours my mom had put into that dress!

When I was 14 I took home ec in junior high school.  We cooked, learned how to be better baby sitters, and we sewed.  I was in heaven.  My mom had already started teaching me to sew at home, so I was thrilled to have even more time to create at school.  By the time I was in high school I was proficient enough to make most of my own clothes.  I was even teaching some of my friends to sew. I was hooked!

When my children were small I continued to sew.  I made dresses for my daughters, curtains for our homes, and lots of craft items.  Once my children were grown my sewing interests changed and quilting became my focus.  

Both of my daughters sew.  I taught them some basics when they were living at home, but they have taken that and run with it.  Both of them dream up new ideas, create their own patterns and dive right in to make whatever strikes their fancy.  And then they blog about it!  You can see my daughters' projects here and here. Such talented ladies!

Fast forward many years and now I have granddaughters.  I decided that since I live nearby it would be fun to pass my love of quilting on to them.  Katelyn is the oldest and so she was the first to sew.  I even bought a "Hello Kitty" sewing machine for the girls to learn on.  

Here is Katelyn, age 4, in 2007

Recently Sofia (granddaughter #4) has taken an interest in sewing. So, after sitting her in my lap for a bit of sewing on my machine, we decided it was time for Hello Kitty to make an appearance again.  

My daughter even blogged about Sofia making this little quilt. Here is the link to Sofia, age 3 1/2 making a quilt for her Curious George.

I know that my granddaughters will continue to sew as they grow. They are surround by their mothers' creativity at home and they love to be in my quilt room when they visit our home, too.  Someday I bet they have sewing machines of their own and will be teaching their own daughters to sew.  

A Little Mini

I have granddaughters.  Six of them, to be exact! You would think that by this stage of the game I would be well versed in doll quilts. But, truth be told, I have only made a few.  The girls have always loved a Barbie doll more than a baby doll and I am NOT making doll quilts tiny enough for Barbie! Recently, American Girl dolls have made an appearance in our family and this is where the doll quilts have come in. My oldest granddaughter, Katelyn, has Lanie and wanted a canopy bed with curtains, so I made this bedding and quilt for her.  She was thrilled.  

These quilt blocks were so easy because they were made from corner triangles that I cut off of a larger quilt I was making.

Emily picked out a different bed for her doll, Josephina, and liked the horse-themed bedding that came with it, so no doll quilt was required for her.
Madison's birthday was next and she picked Julie, a 1970's girl, for her American Girl doll. She wanted the same bed as her sister, Katelyn, but with a twist. I strung the beads and made the simple patchwork quilt in fabrics that just cried out 70's.

This little doll quilt, 16X22" fits the bed perfectly

I decided the other day that I am ready to try my hand at some mini quilts. I have purchased patterns for some of Lori Smith's small quilts and can't wait to make them. I also recently purchased a very small kit and decided to take a break from what I was working on and make it. This went together very quickly and I am tickled with the results. I think I see a lot more minis in my future.

This little mini is a kit I bought at Sweet Home Quilt Company.  

They call it Scrappy Patches.