Love Rings Quilt A Long

With all the recent tragedies over the last month and a half that have unfolded for our country, it has gotten to the point where I can't watch the news anymore.  What happened in Charlotte, NC and the massacre in Las Vegas were so upsetting.  It seems like the theme for 2017 has been hate.

Quilting is where I go to get away from all the madness.  I was wondering if anyone would be interested in doing a Love Rings quilt a long.  Something like the quilt show above.  Just use your own fabrics or we could always do a swap.  I can supply the pattern. 

I think our country needs a lot of love right now.  If interested, leave a comment below.

Quilting with cats?

I think I need to rename this blog to Quilting with Cats.  This is my sewing buddy, Max the cat.  I was just getting ready to sew when I saw someone staring at me.  I moved him over to sit on a quilt block where he slept the rest of the afternoon.

Max is one of my "rescue" cats.  A friend of my son's girlfriend found him abandoned at a local park.  He was in pretty rough condition.  He eventually found his way here and has been pampered ever since.

Now whenever I go down to my sewing room, my "sewing buddy" always follows.

I wish I knew his story about why anyone would abandon this kitty.  He is the most loving cat I have ever had.  Since then, I have also adopted another "rescue," a little calico kitten.  So maybe I do need to start a blog about quilting with cats!!  LOL!

Old Faithful!

Yesterday as I was working on my husband's quilt, I started to think about how long I have been sewing on this machine.

I remember going to Sears out at Tri-County Mall every weekend and "drooling" over the new ZigZag machine they had.  This model was considered "top of the line" back then.  I had a part-time job working 16 hours a weekend at McDonalds.  I think minimum wage back then was $4 or $5.  I saved every penny I had until I had enough to buy the sewing machine.  I was oh so proud when I brought it home.  Surprisingly that was 48 years ago!!  And, here I am still sewing on it and it still sews beautifully.

I was thinking of all the things I have made on this machine.  Work clothes for me when I worked at Procter & Gamble, baby clothes for my son, and too many quilts to keep track of.  What a story this machine could tell!

I won't trade this machine in for the world!!!   In fact, I just recently bought another one as a back-up!! Thank you Sears for making such a wonderful sewing machines!!

Blue Nine Patch Quilt

This isn't the best picture of it, my quilting is a lot better than my photographic skills are!!

This is one of my many UFO's (unfinished objects!).  Back in 2005, on a Homesteading Yahoo Group, someone hosted a "Winter Blues 4 inch fabric swap."  So I made a 9 patch quilt out of it.  Well, life and goats got in the way and the quilt ended up in the closet as so did many of my other projects.

As you can see, one of my quilt inspectors is giving it her "seal of approval."

Sunflower Table Runner

I just made this sunflower table runner for summer.  It is machine appliqued and quilted.

I found the sunflower fabric for the borders on eBay.  The seller only had a yard.  I really love that fabric and hope to find more.  I think this would make a lovely quilt!

Variable Star Quilt for my husband

I found both of these fabrics on eBay!  Boy, was I lucky because they both worked out together.

My husband loves looking at the stars and is interested in astronomy.  So when I saw this fabric on eBay I knew I had found the perfect fabric to make him a quilt!  And, of course, I had to use a star quilt block pattern!!  This is one of my favorites!!

This is the first row almost completed.  I have two more blocks to complete it.  I am doing "quilt as you go."

My husband has seen the work in progress and is pleased with the results so far.  This really doesn't go with anything in our bedroom, but what the heck!!  Sometimes you have to "color" outside the lines.

Before Goats . . .

Long before I even thought about goats, I learned how to quilt.  In fact, I think quilting actually saved my life.

When I was in my mid-20's, I became anorexic.  I won't go into the details, but my weight dropped down to 82 lbs.  Fortunately, I was wise enough to seek help and one of my counselors had two antique 6 pointed quilt blocks framed in her office.  Every week, I would always sit by those two quilt blocks and admired them until I asked her what those were and she told me they were quilt blocks.

So later on that night, I searched the phone book (we didn't have the Internet back then!!) and found a quilt store called "Comforts of Home."   I called them the next day and, lo and behold, they were starting a beginner's quilt class!!

Quilting took my mind off of my "problems" and gave me an avenue to express myself.  I fell in love with quilting.  Ever since then I have always loved star patterns and my most favorite pattern will always be the 6 pointed star.

This is a quilt block which will be part of a "scrappy" star quilt.  I hope to use this blog to document some of the quilts I am working on.