Christ is Born

A belated Merry Christmas to you all. What a busy time of year. In all of the hustle, bustle, shopping, eating and engagements, it is all too often easy to forget what we are actually celebrating. The truth that God loves us so much to give us his only son as a way to show us an example of what being a servant to God is all about.


Without Christ example, would we really understand the depth of God's love? Would we understand what it really means to be a giver? Would we really understand grace?

My life has truly been blessed by God. I have come to know love, happiness, contentment, faith and joy with what I have. My Christmas prayer for anyone reading this blog is that you find the same blessings in your life.

In Jesus Christ holy name, Amen




Heritage Quilter

Santa's Coming!!!

Jolly Ole Saint Nick is on the way. He was also the last of my Christmas decorations to make it this year.

I've had the Santa's Coming kit for about 3 years and this year it made it out of the closet. When I saw this wall hanging on the cover of Quilting for Christmas 2005, I had to have it. So, I placed my order from Quakertown Quilts. The kit was great. It even included all of the buttons and jingle bells to embellish the quilt.

Since this is one of those quilts that I'm sure is the beginning of a family tradition and could possibly become one of those treasured family memories, I decided to quilt this one by hand.

The ornaments are fused to a heavy felt. You then hot glue some floss to them to form the little hanging loop.

The 24 ornaments help us count down the days to Christmas. Each day of Advent, you move one ornament from the boarder of the quilt to the "Charlie Brown" tree that Santa is holding. My son has taken on the job of moving the ornaments each day.

Enjoy

Merry Christmas.....Heritage Quilter

Tagged

I've been tagged by A Passion for Applique. Here's the game, once tagged, you go to your picture files. Pick the 4th picture in the 4th folder and publish it. Well, here goes. Let's hope it is a good one.

This photo was taken recently. This is a close up of some of my quilting with my new friend Maxine (my longarm). The quilt belongs to one of my customers. This was the first time using this pantograph and I wanted a close up of the design. It is called Hears and Daisy's and it is so much fun to quilt. I've used it a couple of times since this first one. I also love the variegated thread on batiks.

Now to tag 4 others. (Most of my buddies have already been tagged, so this could be hard) I guess I'm tagging anybody who wants to play...

Here are the rules:

1. Go to the fourth photo file on your computer.

2. Choose the fourth picture in that file.

3. Post it and explain.

4. Tag four people to do the same

Go or it.....Heritage Quilter

Camo Cards

My 8 year old son wanted a camouflage quilt. Well, I haven't seen much camo in my local quilt shop. So, I've been putting him off for a couple of years.

Now, there is nothing like a deadline to get you motivated. In my husband's family, we draw names each your on New Years Day for the next Christmas. This is great for a quilter. You have all year to make and plan for your gifts. This year, I made one of my sister's in law a quilt. Not too big, just a small lap throw in her favorite color. It also happened to be one of my favorite patterns, Card Tricks.



The only problem with the Card Tricks block is the number of triangles in each block. It just makes the piecing a little trickier. Too make the block easier, I decided to use all squares and rectangles. This really speeds up the piecing! You gotta love that.



When the ladies at the quilt shop saw it at a "Show and Tell", they asked me to teach the class. Not a problem until I realized that I will have already given the quilt as a gift before the class. Now I have to have a sample for the shop.



This is where the Camo come in...It's time to make a quilt for my son. His patience is wearing thin. The closest thing to Camo that I could find were some brown and green batiks. Brown with spots and green with oak leaves. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I have to say, my son loves it. I hope you do too.



Here is a close up of the quilting. Maxine did a great job too.






Heritage Quilter

Interpolated Image

The dictionary defines interpolation as the insertion of something foreign or new. Now, apply that to a quilt and you have an interpolated image. I know, the first time I heard it, I couldn't figure it out either.

In September, my quilting buddies and I went to a quilt show a little over an hour away from home. There we saw the most amazing wall hangings. In this show, there were about 4 or 5 wall hangings and they all had "interpolation" or "interpolated" in the name. After asking one of the "white glove" ladies of the local guild, we discovered that the class for this quilt was taught at a local shop called the "Overall Quilter".

Now being a quilter for going on 20 years now, I'm not baffled on the construction of many quilts, but this one got the better of me. The flowers on the fabric seemed to explode right before your eyes. My quilt buddies couldn't figure this one out either. So, there was nothing left to do but take the class. I had to know how to make my fabric do that!

The ladies at Overall Quilter were extremely gracious. When I asked about the class and told them that there were at least 3 and maybe every 5 of us from "home" that were willing to drive the hour plus to come to the shop just to take the class, they scheduled one just for us!

Are you ready to see the results?

This is MC and our teacher, Debbie showing us how to "find" our image on the fabric.

Here is LB cutting up her image. You can see that she has part of it on the design wall already.

BW is putting hers on the design wall.

This one is mine on the design wall. I'm ready to start the sewing.

Finished and borders added. I'm afraid the pictures really don't do the quilt justice. It just looks fuzzy here.

Anyway, I love the technique so much, I've bought 4 other fabrics to make more floral explosions!

Heritage Quilter

Happy Thanksgiving

This morning as the kids and husband are watching the parade, I reflect on all of the wonderful God given blessings in my life. The Lord has truly been gracious to me. I have a husband who really is my other half. Two children who love each other as much as they love their parents. A home, not just a house. My parents are still in good health and going strong. My husbands parents are older, but still doing well.

So today, I thank the Lord for his blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Heritage Quilter

Meet Maxine

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce you to a new friend. She is reliable, always there for me when I need her and able to make me smile with no words at all.

This new friend is Maxine, Gammill Premier Plus. I expect to spend a lot of time with Maxine. Together we will be able to solve so many quilty problems.

I hope you get to meet her some day, but if not, I do hope you have such a wonderful good friend in your sewing room.

Another trip around the sun...

Winter weather has finally hit the triad region of North Carolina. It was 24 on our thermometer this morning. The kids were excited to hear that there may be some snow flurries today, but we didn't see any.

With fall, also comes our wedding anniversary. 16 years this Friday. My deer hunting husband actually agreed to get married in the middle of doe days. (I must really be special for him to give up a day of hunting just for me.) It's hard to believe we have been married for 16 years. It seems like just yesterday. We are still very much in love and continue to have "dates" regularly. The two kids keep us in check with how time has flow by. As they grow, we realize that the years are passing, but not without stopping to enjoy the moment from time to time.

I love you honey....

The Quilt Cave

I can't believe it has been over a week since I've posted...It must be the sign of a busy week.

Okay, more from the Quilt Cave. I've taken some pictures of the "Cave". The fabric in the wall hangings are from Moda's Mix and Mingle line by Sandy Gervis. I just fell in love with the colors and the whimsy. Those colors were my pallet for the cave. I have bought paint to accent and more fabric from the line to really make the cave fun and welcoming. Hope you enjoy.

This is a clock that I picked up from a doctor's office. Drug Reps are always leaving stuff. I took it apart and glued fabric to the face and put it back together. Don't you just love it on the orange wall?

Here is my treadle. It sews great, but at the moment, it is holding a "Modge Podged" vase and a basket full of wooden spools. The jar is the start of my button collection. All off of thrift store shirts. (Thanks Bonnie Hunter)

This is my peg board cabinet. A local quilt shop went out of business and they had a wonderful "Yard Sale". I brought this one home and painted it to go with the cave. I hold may growing thread collection, rulers, bobbins, and other miscellaneous quilting goodies.

Next you get to meet Maxine, so stay tuned.

Fireproof

My husband and I haven't been to an adult movie since "Titanic". We just aren't big movie goers. We have taken the kids to see several over the years and while we do enjoy them, it just isn't something we have ever really done. Even dating, we would rent and watch at home rather than sitting in the theater.
After going out with some friends for supper the other night, we went to the movies. I had never even heard of this one. It hasn't been advertised on TV that I have seen, hadn't heard of it on the movie reviews. So, with no preconceived notions, I was up for a good movie. The movie is Fireproof. What a wonderful message. It is about a firefighter and his wife going through marriage trouble. In the movie, the husband (Kirk Cameron) thinks that his wife is the problem and she doesn't respect him. What he finds, with the help and guidance of his father, is the true path to happiness is to find happiness in God. With God's love, he then learns how to love his wife unselfishly.

This is a great movie for all couples. If you have problems in your marriage or not, we can all make improvements in how we show our love to our spouses and at the same time, honor the covenant we made with each other. This in turn honors God.

Wall hangings for the "Quilt Cave"

Have you seen a longarm machine in person. Those things are big. Since we had one on the way, we had to start making room. The basement was to be the new home for my Gammill. Just like when you have a new baby on the way, you have to prepare the nursery. So it is when you have a large piece of machinery on the way. We cleaned, painted (twice, I didn't like the first color), put up walls, stripped and painted the floor, and added a ceiling to the unfinished basement. (We thought we could do it in a month) LOL.

When the baby arrived, we still weren't done, but almost. Now the basement has changed names. It is no longer the "nursery" for the baby, it is the "Quilt Cave". Maxine's new home. To decorate, she helped me complete these wall hangings. The lighter orange and the orange cream background are the

colors of the walls. I have pulled the teal and green as accent colors. I think it turned out pretty good.

Iced Tea

There is nothing more refreshing to me than a glass of Iced Tea. Lipton is my brand of choice and being from the south, make mine sweet. But, not so sweet that it can stand up by itself. My mom taught me to brew tea, the same way her mom did I'm sure. I still brew mine the same way, but I have cut down on the sugar content.

Cutting back on the sugar had to be done slowly over time. The first cut back was from 2 cups of sugar per gallon to about 1 3/4 cups per gallon. My husband noticed straight away. "This isn't as sweet". I didn't go back and add more, I just made the excuse that I must have let it steep too long and got too strong. After a couple of weeks, our taste adjusted and it was time to cut back again. This time down to 1 1/2 cups of sugar. The cycle continued until we were down to 1 cup of sugar per gallon of tea.

If tried to cut back even more, but I think I've even reached my stopping point. (I still like my tea sweet.) What I have noticed though is the way restaurant tea is now too sweet for us. We have both learned to order our tea half and half.

No, I've not noticed a difference in my waist line, but that wasn't the point anyway. The side affects are positive, soft drinks are now too sweet as well. There are very few that are even appealing anymore.

So, make mine Iced Tea, but not too sweet.

Heritage Quilter, and Iced Tea drinker

The New addition

Back before Christmas, I made my first attempt at machine quilting. It was a learning quilt for me. The blocks were my first BOM, my first machine piecing, my first queen size quilt, then the first time I tried to machine quilt. A QUEEN SIZE!!! What was I thinking? I did pretty good with the "in the ditch" quilting. Straigth lines really weren't that bad. Then the meandering around the setting triangles, still not too bad. But then the inside squares were a nightmare for me.


I had toyed with the idea of getting a longarm for a while. Test driving them at the quilt shows, then in the local shops really gave me the bug. That little nagging that just wouldn't go away. On Good Friday, I made a date with the only local Gammill rep for NC. The husband wanted to know, "Just how big is this thing, really?" Well, he saw impressed with what he saw and gave me the go ahead.


While in Paducah in April, I was able to test drive all of the different brands of machines in one location. I highly recommend this approch. It is jsut like test driving a new car. You need to feel the power of the machine in your hands. Feel the responsiveness in the curves. Feel the braking power.


In June, I received my Gammill Premier Plus, her name is Maxine. We have already become very close. I could hardly wait to load the first quilt. Of course the it was the 'learning' quilt that I had started before Christmas. (Still untouched) Yet another learning experience. I had no desire to just pantograph the thing. I wanted to drive Maxine on the open road. It felt good.


I'm sure I'll have more to say about Maxine as I continue to post, but that is enough for now. The quilt you see here is that learning quilt. It is named "Baskets of Knowledge".

The Bank that never fails

It's Sunday morning and the preacher had a great sermon on banks. I've never thought about putting my faith in God as a bank that never fails. In this insane time of economic uncertainty, it is comforting to know that we can put our faith in the bank of God and receive our investment with compounded intrest and that back will never fail.