. Wednesday, June 30, 2010 .
Way back in the fall of 2003, Cassie cam for a visit...one of few all the way to WI...and she said that she wanted a quilt. So off to our favorite quilt shop in the world we drove. I needed to find something with these colors and something that I could piece together really quick. She found this one and the rest is history.

I remember piecing this while Ms Yvonne pressed the seams. We got this all accomplished in record time. ..one day. I took it back to the quilt shop to be quilted and wa-la, Cassie's quilt was made.

Bar None

. Wednesday, June 16, 2010 .

Sarah decided that she wanted a quilt too. So we took her to the quilt store, you know my favorite in Racine, and she had her mind set on a purple one...her favorite color. But when she went upstairs and found this pink one she fell in love. She uses it daily. I had to sneak in her room and get it while she was at work to photograph it. I am sure that I probably still have the scraps from this one too. This is a fairly easy pattern just a lot of pressing of seams. Funny how it matches her room in WI and the one here in Ohio.

Framed Squares

. Monday, June 14, 2010 .

This is the largest quilt I think I have ever made...well, from 2003-2004. It was for Emmy, when she lived with Katie on Halpin. The original size was 67 1/2 x 82 1/2 but we added and extra 5 inch border to make it big enough to fit her bed...it ended up being 80x100. She had come to WI for a visit and she and Mark choose all the colors...at Calico, my favorite quilt shop. I started it in Feb and didn't finish this monster until June. It really wasn't too challenging but just big and bulky. I splurged and came out of my ordinary box and had it quilted with variegated thread...it matched the colors in the quilt perfectly. I thought it all matched Em's personality too.

Nine Patch Parade

. Saturday, June 12, 2010 .

Most every quilt I make use dark bold colors. Pastels just aren't my thing. But Mark's Mom loves mauve, she's a real girlie girl. I love the log cabin quilt block. It has always been my favorite. Little did we know that we would be fostering a set of twin boys that were 3 months old back in 2003...about wthe same time we found this kit. So this quilt took a little longer than most quilts I do. I am possessed. Once I start something I want to finish it, do a good job and have the finished product in front of me is the shortest amount of time possible. I startedthis one in the beginning of September and didn't finish it until late, very late October.

A few months ago, Katherine decided that she was going to fix up the guest room AKA the cold room. Her color scheme now reflects my favorites, cranberry, green and gold. If you were to ask her the colors they would be way more descriptive than what I could ever come up with. So I get the quilt back. Fine by me...but does that mean that she wants me to make her a new one for the new color scheme? HMMMM...have to think on that. But I know just a few people that might say, get in the back of the line little lady, she owes a quilt before she can even think of one for your room. I hear ya all!

Log Cabin Garden

. Thursday, June 10, 2010 .

Oh, how I remember making this quilt. We were living in WI and I had a little sewing/laundry room in the basement. Every night after the boys went to bed I would hurry to the sewing machine. I would sew until Mark would come home from working late. Or if he was out of town , it was not uncommon for me to sew until 2-3AM...losing track of time. I remember reading the directions to this pattern a million times. I have a fear of cutting the fabric wrong and then not having enough to finish the quilt. You had to cut in all these different angles and then move certain pieces certain new places. Mumbled controlled chaos. And you think sewing all those different angles was a picnic? No way! And then pressing all the seams. I started this quilt the end of October and it wasn't totally finished until March of the next year. But I would do it all again in a heartbeat. It is one of my favorite quilts, no doubt. It seems to impress people the most.

Buggy Barn Crazies

. .

I can not allow myself to throw anything away once I finish a quilt. I have tubs of batting, tubs of pieces of fabric, drawers of thread....sooooo...once when Cassie was visiting us in WI there was s display of quilts made by the women of Gee's Bend at the Milwaukee Art Museum. First the Museum is awesome and second the quilts were just beautiful. Go to Quilts of Gee's Bend and read the stories. Once I saw these quilts I knew just what I would do with all my scraps. I made this little baby size quilt and I gave it to Katherine to wrap her great grand babies (Ellis at the time I think)in when they came to visit her. And like her Log Cabin Garden quilt...I got it back. All the grand babies have used it and now Allyson and Doodles use it. (I am making a more masculine one for Carter)

Jan's 'Gee's Bend'

. Tuesday, June 8, 2010 .

Mark picked out all the flannel for this quilt. It is his. He chose colors of his beloved high school...Huntington High School...Pony Express...red and blue. We used a heavier batting to make the quilt heavier and warmer. We should have added another outer border because it just isn't quite long enough to cover his toes when he is snuggled on the couch watching Sports Center.

We use this one a lot, as you can tell. I also noticed that it needs a little repair..the binding has started to unravel in places. Also, if I knew then what I know now about quilting, I would have made sure that the large blue checked fabric matched. That part drives me crazy when I look at it. But it is like the Amish...they always makes sure to make an 'on purpose' mistake because nothing or no one is perfect. I like that!

Big Star

. Thursday, June 3, 2010 .

This is the first quilt I bought at my all time favorite quilt store in Racine, WI...Calico, Canvas and Colors...which I just found out has been changed to Calico Printworks. I will have to check into that. Any way...this is the best quilt shop I have ever been to and I have been to many. It is an old house and it is wall to wall quilts, kits, fabrics, and ideas galore. And the ladies could not have been nicer...they even had toys for the boys to play with. I saw this quilt hanging on the wall and fell in love with the colors. I asked Linda if she thought I could do it. She had no clue as to my skill or knowledge about quilting...which was very little. So Mark bought the kit and that night I began my first real quilt. I don't remember how many days it took but I remember reading and reading the directions over and over. Wanting to make sure that I didn't cut the fabric wrong. Just so happened that the foster child we had at this point had their family visits in Racine. Perfect, get them settled with their biological family and spend the next two hours in the quilt shop. I was usually sitting on the steps when the would open the doors. We got to be real buddies. If I had a quilting question I could call or email and they would help. Sometimes when I just couldn't get it...I would take the quilt in for a little lesson. They were always so willing to help. When we found out that Sarah Beth had been diagnosed with breast cancer they helped me find a pink quilt kit and when I finished piecing it they put my quilt in front of the line and got in quilted in about an hour so I would have it finished by the time I would see her at the hospital). So after the long arm quilting was finished Tammy put the binding on (I didn't know how at that time...they taught me for my next quilt.) When I went to get it, when Tammy pulled it out of the bag to show me the finished product I just started crying. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. To think that I had made that was unbelievable to me. And I was hooked...hook, line, and sinker.

Long Tall Nine Patches

. Tuesday, June 1, 2010 .
I have always loved quilts. They fascinate me. All the different colors, textures, quilting square patterns...and then there is the actual quilting. There is a lot of time, energy, love, expertise and lots of money can be spent on this little hobby. I always promised myself that I would learn to quilt,. Time just got away from me, to many kids, work...life just seemed to get int he way. That was until we moved to WI and I had no life at all. Moving there was a really big change for us. Those six years taught us so many things. I' can't say it was all bad. We had a great church, lots of very caring friends and a wonderful neighborhood. But the winters are long and the nights Mark worked were even longer. Also at this time we were fostering sweet children who just needed a break. I think quilting became my therapy. If I was quilting I wasn't obsessing about what was going on in the court system or what I thought the parents should be doing....One day Mark and I took a little trip to Cedarburg, WI. We were about the only tourists walking the streets. We walked into this little old stone building and I fell in love with everything they had...even down to the quilting pins. We must have stayed in there for a couple of hours...God bless Mark's heart.

There was this little rag quilt hanging on the door. Nice, simple and flannel...I love flannel in quilts! I talked to the lady and she said if I could sew a straight line I could do it. This quilt has no batting and you stitch the seams on the outside, I know it sounds crazy. I really hadn't done much sewing after junior high and then a few things for the girls when they were little. So I jumped right in with both feet. I worked on it seems like forever. I had Ms Yvonne come over to help me figure out how to lay it out...the directions were just a little lacking (today when I look at the direction, I wonder how this quilt ever got made). We couldn't figure it out. Then Mark walked in the front door and we told him of our problem. He looked at it for about a minute and laid it out perfectly...oh how I love to hate that! Them once all the piecing and construction was finished, I had no idea how to put on the binding. My good friend, Joy's, mom quilts beautifully. I asked her to look at the quilt to she how I was supposed to bind it. With her help I was able to finish the entire quilt in less that a week. AWESOME! Now I was on a roll.

We still have this little quilt. We use it for changing babies, a table cloth for the round table when we eat outside and lots of time the little kids just use it to snuggle with. It will always be special because it was the first , the first of many.


If you like this quilt and would like the instructions...I'll share with you...just leave your email in the comment section.

Flannel Rag Quilt