BIG SIGH

The configuration of the preceding post changed when posted. Mine is the small one on the bottom. That's enough for me tonight.

Jane

MINE!

It is now obvious to me that my medium fabrics were not medium enough. They aren't strong enough to bring out the pattern and motion of the design. What appears to be white in the picture is white with pretty wisps of pink and green. I lost most of the points in the process and I have to figure out a way to get much more consistent seam allowances on my Juki. I like the pattern which the designer calls spinning friendship stars or some such thing. The interior of the stars is a snail trail.

I'll try to add the completed bed sized top here. Well, here it is. I'm the one on the right with my face covered.

Jane in NC

MYSTERIES & RECEIVING BLANKETS

Receiving blankets are so simple and get peed on etc and require so much washing and possibly bleaching I'd be inclined just to get on the Penney site and buy the darned things if they have square one. The ones I used were rectangular but I can see the virtue in square ones for wrapping newborns. The make great doll blankets and capes as the kids get a bit older.

At the guild meeting last Monday those of us who'd at least gotten close to finishing the top got to show them off. The facility is a meeting room in a large church that actually has a stage which is great for showing off. Herewith is mine and I'll include a few others. You will notice than mine was the smallest and one gal had a complete bed sized one done, darn her hide. Don'tcha just hate the high achievers. Makes all the rest of us look like slugs.

Neither of these quilt tops is mine. I'm having a tough time posting the pictures. I'll try on another post. When I hit the add and image icon nothing happens. GRRRR and Drat if you get my drift. I need to be in bed!!!!

Jane in NC

Jane in NC

Receiving Blankets

I went to the JC Penney website, and checked out the various sizes of their baby blankets. The "newborn" blankets come as small as 12" x 12". There were a number of other blankets at 27" x 34"; and the christening /stroller blankets were about 40" x 40" (and more quilt-oriented).

Before my godson was born, I made up a number of quick-and-easy quilts, averaging 40" x 40", put them together with Hobbs Heirloom Cotton batting and machine-quilted them (so that they could be washed, and washed, and washed). Godson turns 8 on Monday - and he still has most of those blankets. Mom loved 'em - they were very versitile and completely washable (always useful with babys!).

Best regards,

Terry in Los Angeles

You Know You're a Quilter When...

... your husband says that it's time to take that long-hoped-for trip to Hawaii... and the first thing you do is google all the quilt shops on the island.

... you finish your latest quilt top, head over to the local Jo-Ann's fabric store for muslin to back the thing - and get stopped at the door by another quilter, who recognizes you by the threads and fabric bits adorning your jeans.

Judy in Ohio, you rock!

Sisters Quilt Show

Lucky you going to the Sister's quilt show! It has to be a wonderful thrill seeing all those quilts hanging throughout the town and the beautiful mountains besides. For all of us who have to live without this quilt show, I am hoping that again someone will take a LOT of pictures and share them someplace on the web. I enjoy and appreciate the pictures that are posted each year.

Take care and thank you in advance if you are able to share your photos, Phyllis in Minnesota

Receiving blankets for babies

Wondering if anyone can give me a square dimension for a receiving blanket. My neighbour is expecting her 12th child and apparently now the hospitals require you to bring in all your own things...she's short on receiving blankets and likes the ones that are square for wrapping the baby in...
Thanks,
Rosey

Sisters

Just wanted to let you all know that Mary, Lonna & I will meet to say
Hi tomorrow at The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. We will be behind the ice cream Parlor at 1 PM . If anyone else is going please come & say Hi!
Jill

JudyPete

Hey, is that a Singer model 28? I've never seen one with the Ottoman Carnation decals before. Do the decals on the hand crank match the ones on the machine? Drat, now I have to be on the lookout for another machine, LOL.

Pat in Rockport, TX

You know you are

You travel with an empty suitcase neatly folded in your baggage...allegedly for dirty laundry; however you know you are a quilter when you toss the dirty laundry and fill the suitcase with fabric. Or when the Delta Queen stops in Paducah you skip breakfast and walk to the bus station at 7:30 am to get a cab to Hancocks, arrive before the store opens and stand there looking pitiful until they let you in to shop until the store opens...never mind how you explain that heavy bag to the DH when you leave the ship. However, I'm now downsizing and need to find an addiciton needing less storage. A fabric lending library where I can return the unused portion????

Didn't I read an article giving the approximate useful yardage contained in a man's dress shirt?
Betty in Oregon

See! I told you it was a good idea!

Some of you must have snorted when I said I was going to put a pair of scissors in my purse in anticipation of that next lovely shirt on some handsome man's back. Phyllis in MN commented to my previous entry and said this....

"I think a scissors is a great idea because a rotary cutter could get you into REAL trouble!"

So, you see, a pair of scissors is not a bad idea at all.

Even little boys sometimes wear woven cotton shirts in nice plaids or stripes. So the next time you decide to clear the outgrown shirts from your son's closet, save those 100 percent cotton shirts and make him a memory "nap quilt". Nap quilts are of whatever size is needed to snuggle on the couch. Little guys would need a small quilt. Bigger guys need a longer quilt. But either way, they would love the manly plaids, stripes, prints, etc, that are used to make men's and boys' clothing. I've never gone into the flannels, but those could be used as well. Or perhaps the memory nap quilt would be for YOU to use when your "little boy" grows up and moves off to college...you can snuggle under the quilt and remember his little boy days.

On my bed is a lightweight spread made of shirt fabs and a very thin cotton batt. The fabs are pale neutrals and the design is a simple one of squares. This quilt went together quickly and I love it's light weight. I detest today's 6-inch thick comforters at the local department store for they always look as if they are going to slide off the bed at any moment. LOL.

JudyPete

ooops...lets try again..

You know you're a quilter when you admire someones dress at church , and ask if they made it ...then cleverly get the conversation around to saying that it's just the sort of fabric that you are looking for for yoyur quilting project..... (would you believe that it was "tiger " fabric ?!) and did they have any fabric over....

Shamefaced
Marion .

You know yuou're a quilter when

DGGS, the new quilter, the old machine

A week or so ago I shared a photo of DGGS with his first sewing lesson on my treadle "Elizabeth Redeye". This morning he learned to use a handcrank. He and I decided we should oil it before using it again as it took a little muscle to turn and it kept sliding on the tabletop. Last week's pillow was a nine-patch. This morning he stitched together sixteen squares to make a larger pillow. AND he had a successful lesson in using a very, very hot iron. No burns. LOL.

The first pillow, the nine-patch, is currently at the county fair where we hope he will win a blue ribbon for his sewing endeavors. That may be very possible for this was an open-class entry and our fair is soooo small he may have no competition. LOL.

Today's 16-patch used red, white, blue patriotic fabrics.

And for you ladies worried about my stealing shirts off handsome men's backs, your suggestion (as I call it) has induced me to tuck a pair of scissors in my purse...if someone will divert the next guy's attention I may be able to snip a 6-inch charm square while he's not looking. LOL

JudyPete

Poor Mr. Pete

Just imagine this scene .... JudyPete and Mr. Pete are sitting at a restaurant table (say at an ordinary place like Starbuck's) and a group of five or six business guys walk in and sit down for a brief coffee break - lunch kind of thing. JudyPete stares at them as they walk by her table (much to the embarrassment of Mr. Pete) for she is staring far too long ......... at their shirts! LOL Would she be that interested when she walked into an ordinary quilt shop? Probably not.

I suspect that for JudyPete the search for these gently used fabrics is part of the fun of using them. She has incredible luck at finding vintage Singers at garage sales (her radar for old sewing machines is awesome!!) and this talent extends to shirting fabrics as well. I once briefly tried to imitate this kind of searching in Ohio and all I found were cotton/poly blends. I guess the 100% cottons stopped at her side of the Mississippi. :-)

Judy (who is an impatient searcher)

You Know You're a Quilter

I mention my shirt quilts so often I really do have to say that I also use REAL quilt fabric and have quite a substantial stash. Having said that, and knowing that I make quilts out of quality men's cotton shirts, you won't be surprised when I confess that I covet (as in COVET) good-looking men's shirts....Oops, no, that's not right,....I mean good-looking shirts on men. LOL. Several years ago when I was still working we had a very nice looking young man (by young, I mean five years younger than myself) who wore the nicest shirts. He had one that he was afraid to wear to the office for I commented so often that if he ever threw it away, I wanted it. LOL. I worked in an all-male office and the guys knew I was a serious quilter for that was about the time I made my Y2K quilt. Even though I never before took a quilt to the office for show-n-tell, I did take the Y2K quilt to the office. I must tell you, men are not very good at ooohing and aaahing.

I have to confess that I often check the men's section in the large department stores to see the current styles in terms of colors, stripes vs. plaids, etc., to determine what I will be picking up next year at yard sales and Goodwill. They have some yummy colors and the stripes are finely woven, not printed. Oh, Yummy.

Silk shirts. That's another story...and I haven't begun collecting them, but silk is such a lovely fabric.

And you all must think I'm loonier than a bat to focus in on shirt fabs and ignore all the gorgeous fabs in the Q store. LOL.

You know you're a quilter when. . . .

Somebody already mentioned noticing the tile pattern in women's restrooms. I had heard this years before I really got hooked and all of a sudden found myself also noticing. LOL My dh is not supportive of anything quilty, so I have none of those humorous stories. But my contribution is when you wish you could have the fabric somebody is wearing in a shirt or dress.

I will attempt to post my disappearing 9 patch "happy quilt" as Nancy so aptly named it as soon as I get the borders put on. It may not be till next week. The top is done and border fabrics picked, but I don't know when I'll have time. DH will be gone next week which means I can live my own schedule. YIPPEEE But I have to take youngest DS to college later this week and pick him up again Sunday, so those 2 days are already gone. Next weekend I'm taking him to Dallas for 2 drum corps shows. I've tried looking on line for quilt shops to visit, but I have no idea where they are in proximity to where we will be.

Oh yes--that's another you know when --every trip you take requires looking up quilt shops and you prefer fabric souveniers over anything else.

You know you're a quilter when....your husband has the habit of telling EVERYONE you know exactly how many pins he has stepped on in support of your creative process in making a quilt! This gets old very quickly and the only people who understand the joke is the spouses of other quilters--not our usual crowd (after all I married an engineer!) at parties.

Now if the weather in Wisconsin would just cool off so I felt like quilting....But on the brighter side all this moist heat has the corn ahead off schedule so soon I will be up to my elbows in yummy buttery corn on the cob. No knee high by the 4th of July in corn in SE Wisconsin--in some areas it was at my shoulder (I'm 5'5") so I am looking forward to lots of early good eats from the Farmer's Markets.

Thanks for the topic idea!

Shelli

You Know You're a Quilter When .....

The About.com forum has recently had a string of postings based on completing a sentence which starts "You know you're a quilter when ..... ". One thing that hasn't been mentioned over there that I thought I'd mention here (and start a string of postings) is based on my real-life experience.

You know you're a quilter when your DH has to pick small bits of thread clippings off your clothing when you leave the house to go out to dinner.

Also, you know you're a quilter when you notice the pattern of the tiles in the flooring in the ladies' public restroom.

Judy

On to the second one!

Thanks to everyone who admired my quilt top. I'm already mulling over the possibilities for a baby size such as were shown in the tutorial that was posted. I'm warning you ladies--this idea snags you like popcorn! Be prepared to keep stitchin' if you make just one!!!

Milli and Beth

That noise you hear as you open this webpage is my applause for your lovely quilts. Milli's wall hanging is wonderful and Beth's Disappearing 9-Patch is certain to inspire some of the BB lurkers to try this technique. Very, Very nice.
JudyPete (just home from a five-hour drive...whew!!)

Milli's Marvelous "An Explosion of Colour"

Milli, that is indeed a wonderful wallhanging you have created on the theme of the British challenge for their contest!!! But are you telling us that it is too large to be an entry? Their rules said 24" x 24" and you hint that it is larger than that.

It is indeed such a glorious creation (in my favorite oranges!) that you must take very, very good care of it and wait for the perfect contest to come along if it won't suit the rules for the Brits. There surely will be some contest or challenge out there asking for "flowers" or "hot summer days" or something where your creation will fit the theme.

Good job, Milli!!! I lift my glass of iced tea to you.

Judy in Ohio where it is 94 degrees as I type.

ATT: Judy in Ohio

It seemed to take forever but I finally finished the small version of the zinnia quilt. It was harder the second time around for some reason. The picture doesn't show the "shoddy" work with the raw edges and sloppy stitching but it felt good to have it all come together. There were times I almost gave up. It's a wall hanging that was supposed to be 24" but it grew a little bigger.

Now I can get back to doing the relaxing kind of thing I prefer. Spent hours today cutting up material for a split nine patch quilt that is next on the list.

Milli in MA

Not a Quilting Question

I read that many of you garden along with quilting. Can you give me a good resource book on beginning gardening? My mother died this past Spring, and there are some very pretty gardens I've been weeding. I need to learn when to thin, what to thin, what blooms when. This year, the garden looks great with the maintenance, but I'm worried about next year. If anyone can help, that would be wonderful.