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.

Where has time gone?

I guess I have just been that busy...time has flown by.


Here are some of the things I've been up to since my last post.

1. Laundry
2. Cooking supper
3. Cleaning house
4. Taxi for the kids
5. Work


Hey wait a minute, you don't want to hear about those things do you? WE ALL have been doing those things right?


How about the Quilty things I've been doing, do you want to hear about those?

1. 5$ BOM at Sew Original
2. Binding my Interpolation quilt
3. longarm quilting a customer's quilt
4. Scrap Therapy (my stash is now taking shape)
5. Teaching a Row quilt at my church to new quilters
6. Sewing my scrap quilt with Leaders and Enders


Sometimes there just isn't enought time to quilt, be a working-homemaker wife and mom and look a the computer. I would rather give up the title of working mom and just be a quilting homemaker, wife and mom. Not necessarily in that order. Wife and mom come first.


Hopelully, I'll have some pictures of the different projects I've been working on very soon.

Clocks, Clocks and more Clocks!!!

A couple of years ago, DH decided to take a clock repair class at the local community college. He was looking for something to piddle on during the long winter evenings when it gets too dark to work outside. Little did I know what a path this would lead us down.

First, we had to find an old, dirty antique clock that he could take to class. I really liked this part. We spent the entire day wondering around in antique shops. I LOVE antique shops. I just had to re-train my eyes to look for clocks instead of quilts, quilt books, sewing machines or oil lamps. (Another of my favorite things) He finally found a clock that he liked at a price we could afford. It helped that the clock didn't work! This is the clock. Isn't it beautiful?




During the class, I learned all sorts of new terms and saw the need for new tools coming through the house. Very tiny little tools. He set up shop on his work desk in the basement. The kids were not allowed to go near the clock or the parts. One big sneeze and the little screws and washers would go flying!

Clock fixed and now rest on top of our entertainment center. It keeps good time and has a beautiful chime.

Next on the list of clocks to fix was a Cuckoo clock that had been my Great Aunts. I have no idea how old the clock is, there was no date in the back or on the works. I just know that it is at least 65 years old. It hadn't worked in 30 years that I know of. As a child I remembered the clock on the wall at my Great Aunt's house. I would sit and stare waiting on the little bird to come out and bob his head.



Anyway, 30 years in a box does take it's toll. The clock was dirty. Layers of dust, dirt and the nicotine from a smokers house made the little clock a big job. DH was up for the challenge. He spent endless hours in the basement cleaning and repairing this clock. The hands and numbers changed from the brown that I knew into a pretty creamy white. The wood from dull to shiny and clean. Now, my son has taken on the job of pulling the chains to wind the clock twice a day.

We now have 3 clocks in the family room. We found another at an auction that DH had to have. All going off each hour. We have gotten so used to them, we don't' hear them anymore.



What a wonderful path we have traveled down together.

Loving the old stuff,
Heritage Quilter

Will it ever be finished?

My mom taught me to quilt about 20 years ago. She started by teaching me to hand quilt before teaching me to hand piece. I'm glad she did. The project was finished and I had a nice wallhanging for my bedroom. This is mom handquilting a baby quilt for my cousin.

After learning to hand quilt the wall hanging, I made several baby quilts out of panels that I could just quilt by hand and give as gifts. If she had started with hand piecing, I still wouldn't have a quilt. Soon, I was ready to tackle piecing. Mom had several quilting magazines and books laying around for me to find the perfect quilt. And wouldn't you know it, as a newbi, I would pick a very labor intensive pattern. Pieced hearts and diamonds set on point with half diamonds all the way around the border. Each heart block has 39 patches and there are 20 of them. Each diamond has 22 patches and there are 12 of those. Then you add in the setting half diamonds. There are about 1400 patches in this quilt. This is one of the hearts.

Want to talk about a UFO, this is my big one! After about 15 years, I have completed all 20 of the heart blocks and 2 of the diamonds. But, I'm still working on it. I don't even like the fabric anymore. But when I need something to do that is portable that I can work on with my hands, this is still the one I reach for when I have nothing else going on.

Why don't I just let it go you ask? I don't even know the answer to that. I guess it is because it was my first attempt at picking a pattern, first attempt at picking out fabric and first attempt at hand piecing. NONE of which were very good back then. But I'll still try to make it right. Maybe in another 15 years, I'll get around to quilting it.

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

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