Quilter's Meet & Greet

                             

I want to thank Benita Skinner at Victoriana Quilt Design for the invitation to join her Quilter's Meet & Greet. Visit her page to see a list of all the wonderful quilters you can visit HERE.

I am a mother of two adults sons and one 8 month grand daughter plus three step-daughters and one 8 year old full time grand child. I work full time out side of the home yet enjoy spending as much time as I can with the interests that I love. Being outside, working my vegetable and flowers and Making and Doing are some of my favorites. I am an avid gardener and canner. I enjoy the adventure of learning quilting techniques and sharing them. Television and movies are a rarity in my life as I feel there is just so much to do otherwise. 

Still considering myself a novice, I find myself following quilters all over the world for ideas, inspiration and encouragement. My special offering to the quilting world right now are the small quilts I'm able to complete and share with others.

I occasionally visit our local Quilting Bees Group and perform charity quilting with them. We share our personal quilting with each other as well.

The Charity Dresden is a favorite because I found the dresdens in our quilting group's sorting box. I pieced them together and another member put the border on. Yet another member quilted it. We donated it to sweet woman at elderly home. Blessings abound :)

Please hop around with all the other quilters in the blog hop. Have a Blessed Day! 

And be Sure to Visit Benita at Victoriana Quilt Designs for a chance to win some fabulous prizes!

Crunch Time ~ 2018 Family Reunion Quilt

Last year I submitted a quilt into our Family Reunion Auction which was made with donated shirts (mostly flannel). It was some what of a hit. Of course my dad bought it - won it in the auction.

This year, to mix it up... I chose not to be the only "sewist" and requested some blocks made by other family members. I asked ALL year! And one month before the auction I received blocks from only two persons. Sigh _ _ _ _

So I quickly stitch up five rows of filler rows to mimic a cabin-style quilt with some of my grandmother's favorite colors with Hopes that I could incorporate the other blocks being mailed.

Here is what I've come up with so far. Two rows of filler rows, one row of 'family made' blocks with 2" square blocks as sashing, and another filler row.

I have one more row of 'family made' blocks and then two more of the filler rows. If I get any late comers, they may have to be part of the back..... 

Hoping another successful year and a good auction price to go back into the family funds!

Linking up with Jennifer at Inquiring Quilter's Wednesday Wait Loss
and Susan of Quilt Fabrication and her Midweek Makers
and Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Lets Be Social
and Works in Progress at Silly Mama Quilts

Learning to Quilt

That Sunbonnet Sue quilt I was working on???

I want to learn to quilt using my domestic machine, so I desperately need lots of practice as you can see. I chose to start out with some straigth-ish lines as the smaller machine I wanted to try it on wouldn't let me drop the feed dogs to do a free motion motif. Well, the quilting lines are not so straight. There are even some peaked/jagged lines.....

I am thinking I should start taking some extra time to lay these out and mark them as I will need to wash when completed anyway. And a second tip to my self is that I need a larger, flat work space instead of the small table I was working at. Does anyone have any further suggestions to make these look a lot less like an 8 year old stitched it?

Looking for some tips! Thanks in advanced!

Linking up with Jennifer at Inquiring Quilter's Wednesday Wait Loss
and Susan of Quilt Fabrication and her Midweek Makers
and Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Lets Be Social
and Fresh Inspiration at Silly Mama Quilts

Caravan Roundup By Moda

                                                 What have you been sewing up lately?

                                                                   Here's mine!

The pattern is called "Caravan Roundup" by MaryJane and can be found at Moda Fabrics Fun & Free Patterns. Hey!!! It is free! Moda is wonderful in that way! They love to share!

I chose this to celebrate that my husband and I will be going on our first true vacation in over five years! I want to take this along :) 

We are headed West, staying in a cabin at a ranch. I am so excited for it, but I will have to wait until next year. (not that I am rushing time......... I am just getting prepared!)

That's What I'm working on this week!  I've yet to put an outer border full of stars on it! 

Linking up with Jennifer Fulton @ The Inquiring Quilter's Wednesday Wait Loss

Thrift Store Junkie

I must confess, I'm one of those "I brake for yard sale" kind of people. But I also Have To visit a new thrift store when I come upon one!

I travel with my work and usually stay in that location for a month or more. I browse the neighborhoods while driving to and from work or just picking up supplies during the day.

I discovered a local "outlet" thrift store and it was SO Much Fun! Let me tell you! I walked in and there were all of these people lined up against the wall. I was much confused????

There were several rows of enormous tubs of stuff placed on castors. A store employee had made an announcement that all needed to clear out rows 6 & 7. So that was why everyone was lined up against a section of the store. They wheeled out more tubs to place in that row. Then all those people ran over when released and started rummaging.

Well, not knowing what to do, I just browsed the other aisles until I caught onto the whole idea.

During my looking spree, I did come up with some interesting finds.

I found a quilted bag that appears to be hand-made. The handles are ribbon so made for light weight items. No heavy books allowed in this one!

This Pittsburgh inspired bag: which is famously known as "Steel City" or the "City of Bridges" featured the museum and zoo, sky-scrapers of the city, bridges, and sight-seeing cruises, to name a few.

What do you see on the bag that you may recognize?

If anyone recognizes the pattern and designer of the bag, can you share that information with me? I may attempt to recreate this same bag in Christmas prints.

American Quilter's Society

                      You can Join!

By becoming a member you will have access to inspirational projects and patterns, quality quilting products and multitudes of information!

Other benefits include a subscription to  American Quilter Magazine and membership discounts for online classes and merchandise! Who doesn't enjoy a quilting discount?

As a member, I was invited to one of their fabulous sales at the American Quilter Store.
I must say, I was pleased with the ease of shopping, timely delivery and a fantastic packaging!

The box was covered in cute, encouraging words~

I ordered a huge stack of quilting books at a wonderful price and they were wrapped and securely packaged inside the container.

And you can see those adorable fairy scissors I ordered as well. More on those to follow!

I will be ordering from their store again! I love that my books came to me crisp and wonderfully New!

Thank you American Quilter Society!

                             Join here!

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Another Sneak Peak! Welcome to My House Blog Hop

Our houses will be OPEN! Come join Carol of Just Let Me Quilt and myself in a fun blog hop showing off our houses! There will be tutorials, patterns and maybe even give-aways!

                        Here is a sneak peak of one of the Favorite Items in my house.

It is chock full of quilts I've made. There are dowels to support the quilts and  it even has a lock and key! Fabulous! (I've even stuffed a few folded quilts in the back bottom that you cannot see!) - Found at a local home-town furniture store in Spencer, WV.