An Unexpected Treasure Chest

Have you ever been asked to come to someone’s house to see a quilt?  You never know what you might see.  I’ve seen old poorly pieced tops that have holes, tears and stains.  I’ve seen quilts that have been used at some point to move furniture or be the bed for the dog having puppies. 

But every now and then you find a real treasure.  This is the case with the quilt you see here.   My mom was at my Great Aunts house and she said, “Come in here, I want to show you something.”  As my Great Aunt started to pull out the quilt, packed deeply in a cedar chest, she started telling the story of the quilt.   She had gotten it from her daddy, who had gotten it from his Great Grandmother.  (my great aunt is now 89)  She can’t remember when she got it, but said it was probably some time in the 1950’s.  When mom saw the quilt, she asked if she could have it.  My aunt said sure, why not and it is now my mom’s quilt.  Of course I asked to have it next and my daughter will get it when I’m gone and too old to admire it anymore.

Mom is trying to trace back the family tree to find out exactly when my Great, Great, Great, Great Grandma Booth was alive.  We know that it was pre-Civil War and the pattern is called Washington Sidewalk.   It is absolutely fascinating that the maker was so diligent in cutting the fabrics so that strips went in the right direction in all of the pieces.  She also bought yardage for the quilt background. 

If only those threads could talk….What a wonderful family heirloom for a quilting family.   This is 4 generations under a quilt that is at least 150 years old.

Spring has Sprung

What wonderful weather we have had the last couple of days. Monday, we had 5 inches of snow. More than we have had in several years and yesterday, it hit 80 degrees. You just never know what March is going to bring. In the nice weather, we were all outside working in the yard. We have a very large, old oak tree in the front yard. About 20 feet up, the trunk had started to split. Afraid that it would break and damage the entire tree, my DH decided to have half of it cut. It was a beautiful tree. I hated to see it have to be cut at all, but I guess having part of the old fellow is better than none at all. Don't worry, nothing is going to waste. We heat our house with wood, so it will be used to keep us warm and toasty next winter.

You can see DH at the trunk. That is a little perspective on how large this tree is.

Chain saw in hand and a lot of work to do.
Even the kids jump in and help. ...okay, they were told to help. DD got to drive the 4 wheeler, so there was a little enthusiasm.

During the snow day, I was able to finish my Interpolated/Fractured quilt. Here it is all basted and ready to take to Show and Tell.

Here is a close up of one of the flowers. Pictures of the whole quilt just look blurry, but up close and in person it is really a cool looking quilt.

Enjoy spring,

Heritage Quilter

Pics to go with the post

Okay, as promised, here are the pics to go with the post!

This is the $5 block for February.

This is a customer's quilt...more to come later.

This will be the Row quilt once it is completed. Since I am doing the demonstration blocks, I can't put the whole quilt together just yet. So, more of this one later too.

You can see the design that has been created on EQ5 on my design wall just beside of the tree.

Now, it's back to work.

Post Op and $5 BOM

4 weeks ago today, I was released from the hospital after surgery. Everything went fine, just taking longer to recover than I expected. The doctor told me it would take weeks, but I thought I would be different. I'm not apparently. It took two weeks for me to even make it down the steps to the quilt cave. Talk about motivation. To keep a quilter away from her fabric is unthinkable. Even then, I couldn't stay for more than about an hour. A little cutting time, then a little time at the machine. I'm down there everyday now.

The first thing that I worked on was the $5 BOM from Sew Original in Winston Salem. This year, you could choose from 2 of 3 different color choices; black, blue or red. All are with white. Since I already have a black, white and red quilt (which you can see is my profile pic) I went with blue and red. But instead of a blue/white quilt and a red/white quilt, why not 2 red/white/blue quilts. One for each of my kids.

By switching just one fabric out of each kit, I will have one mostly blue quilt and one mostly red quilt. Here is a peek at the first months blocks. What do you think?

The Family Tree

My mother-in-law has traced her mother's, father's, and husband's family tree back as far as she can possibly go. This was her hobby until she just didn't have any more graveyards or court houses to visit. She had a dear friend who went with her on all of these excursions. They even found out that they were related when they searched old birth and death records. She spent years researching and documenting. The result is a very well put together book that gets updated every couple of years with each birth, death and marriage. Looking back at the old pictures and copies of the documents is like looking back in time.

What does all of this have to do with quilting you ask? Well, knowing my mother-in-laws love for family and documentation, what better way to honor her than with a quilt documenting her family.

The idea came about two years ago when my father-in-law became pretty ill. He's better now, back to 100%. Well as he got better and other quilts were circling in my head, it got moved to the back burner. The spark ignited again with the realization that my husband's brother was diagnoses with a terminal disease. I was afraid that I would loose a valuable piece of this quilt with the loose of a family member and my mother-in-law's quilt wouldn't be complete.

Each member of the family had a piece in this family tree quilt, their hand. A real life sized hand, traced onto fusible web. These hands are the leaves on the family tree. Each leaf also has the name of the owner in the palm to document who is who. In the quilting below the tree, my in-laws names are quilted with the year 2008.

The youngest was about 6 months old when I traced his hand, the oldest is fifty six. All are the descendants of my mother and father-in-law. Kids, grand kids and great-grand kids. She loved the quilt when she received it on Christmas Eve. I hope you enjoy it too.

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

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.

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.

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".