Antique Surprise! Made In America!

     What a wonderful morning I had yesterday! I totally love when something happens unexpectedly-and that something is really wonderful. I was just sharing the morning with my husband. He was getting ready to leave on a business trip.We were talking and laughing.....I hear a ding on my phone- I look at it and see that someone has sent me a message on messenger. Curious- I checked it out. It was someone who I did not know. Her message was this: " I have a friend who is looking for someone to quilt a family quilt". I was like- hhmmmm.... cool! So you know--I had to answer right away. It turns out it was a small group of woman ,who were at a local church laying out the quilt top because the owner originally wanted to pin baste it and hand quilt it. Her friends talked to her about a different option----machine quilting it. One of the ladies had seen a previous post of mine on face book about a quilt I had quilted for a customer . I remember that exact quilt too---very vintage looking quilt. Well, we texted back and forth and agreed on them coming over in a couple of hours. 

     What a rainy and cold day. When the car pulled up--I felt bad that they had to get out and come to my door. The woman did come out and what a sweet thing--A Grandma ma! She introduced herself and told me she was excited to show me the quilt. It turns out, it is not one that she pieced. It belongs to her Great Niece's Husband's Great Great Grandmother. Wow!!!!That was all I could think right away. Double wow!This woman told me that this young man remembers his Great Great Grandmother sewing together this very top. What a precious memory.

     We took it out of the bag and opened it up. I loved it instantly---it is all scrappy. It looks like an X and O pattern-sort of . As I held it, I ran my hand gently across it. I had to fondle it. This fabric in the quilt is fabric that was all made in America. We don't have that luxury today. I was so jealous---I wish we still had our mills and produced our own textiles. Anyway---back to the quilt.

     We talked about it--we decided to do a simple edge to edge. I thought a gentle design that would reinforce all of the seams without distracting from the design was perfect. She said she would leave the thread choice up to me. She is a seamstress but does not feel she can do the binding. I offered to do it for her and put a label on the back for her. She gave me a big grin when I told her she can archive about the quilt on the label. We talked some more about the quilt and of course- vintage machines. She was so cute--she kept saying : "I have chills on my legs talking to you" , " It is so nice to talk to someone about quilts and machines". I tell you- that woman makes me smile ear to ear.

     When she was leaving she left me with this statement of hers: " I want you to treat this quilt top as if it was your Great Great Grandmothers and do your best". That made my knees go weak and brought tears to my eyes. I simply answered: "Yes, I certainly will!". With warnings of take your time and don't rush, she was out the door and gone. There I stood--looking at this quilt. It is really difficult to express my thoughts and feelings at that moment. I can tell you that I feel as if the Universe has blessed me with a gem. I feel so honored that this woman would bring me her treasure. I truly can not wait to load this up an work on it. You can be sure that I will post some more about it as I work on it. 

Here she is!!!! She is 100% made in America!

Closer view of it--isn't it just scrumptious!!!

Here is a close up view. Look at all of those scraps of fabric. All made in the good ole USA!

Look at that---she hand stitched this whole quilt together!! This quilt is priceless!!! What a wonderful family heirloom!

    

Design Concept Of Family Love

    I woke this morning cuddled under one of my favorite quilts. I love the quilt that is currently on my bed. I love looking at it and I love sleeping underneath it. The quilt is special to me in many ways. One of the things that makes it so special is that I designed it. I crack up when I say that because I am by far not a Pro Quilt Designer. I am just someone who loves fabric, cutting it up and sewing it back together in a way that pleases me. There are many great and wonderful patterns out in the Quilty World that we can use. Those are great---and they were designed by someone else. To me---the way my mind works------If you design it, then that quilt becomes extra wonderful, extra special and A+++! Between the planning, buying, cutting, placement, piecing and then quilting it-I have poured myself on every level into the making and then presenting of the quilt. When I am piecing it, I get lost in my world of thoughts and emotions. I tend to go down memory lane and have conversations in my head about it. Time goes by quickly, the sun rotates from the east and then down in the north. Day after day the cycle continues until it is finished. That is what happens to me when I make most of my quilts. So, I do wonder if it is like this for all Quilters?? I kinda think so- at least all of the ones that I have ever met.

     Today I want to show you a quilt from a customer of mine. I call her Rebecca the Quilter. Do you recognize that name?? You should- I have mentioned her a few times on my blog. She makes wonderful quilts. To me they are unique and special. Special because most of them seem personally designed to me. Meaning---most of them have been her creation. I love that. I can tell when I am quilting them that she puts time, thought and effort into her quilts. This quilt today has meaning- it has" Family"meaning. I would describe this quilt as modern meets scrappy meets family.

    The blocks are scrappy log cabin against a white back ground. What brings emotional meaning to this quilt is that each block represents a family member and the blocks are placed in the order of how a family tree would be. People who are special in her life. Does that not hit you in your heart?!!! It definitely does mine. This was made for a special woman in her life. Not only do the blocks have meaning- but so does the quilt design that she picked. She picked an edge to edge meander stitch with white Glide thread. This stitch was used often by the person this quilt was made for. While I was quilting it, I had to smile and agree- the meander stitch was a good choice. In this picture, you can see that the quilt is still attached to the top leader cloth of the frame---but can you see a bit of her backing material? It is black and white with words printed on it. Perfect backing for this quilt. I love her choices for backing on a quilt. They are pretty neat.

    To me- this quilt is so wonderful. It is jam packed with loving meaning and emotion. I can't wait to see it with the binding on. I can't wait to hear that she presented it to that special someone. It makes my heart swell. 

     Today I have another quilt top to go on the frame. It is another top with much meaning. It will be a good day working on this. It will definitely put me in my happy place like the one I am showing today. Later on, I want to play with my machines and fabric and see what I can create. Happy sewing everyone!😊

    

   

Quilting Pleasure

   Well Good Morning to all! It is off to a good start in my neck of the woods. I have not been able to blog for a few days because my computer has not been playing nice. I am not sure if it is still under the weather from the cyber attack a few weeks ago or if this is something new. Either way, it is working now so I am going to go for it.

   Even though I have not been able to connect with everyone on the net, I have been very busy here. I am down to one child still home-but will be going back to college today. We have all been plagued with some sort of virus/bacteria for weeks non stop. My youngest son has literally not been totally well since Thanksgiving. I think that at college and living in the dorms--it is just one big bacteria fest and everyone passes everything around to each other---and then---they bring it home to share with their families. Lovely, just lovely. Well---the good news is that Joseph is finally healed, and the rest of us are on our way. So-- me being totally busy??----- that is a Big Fat Yes! I have been playing Nurse to everyone. I have also been working hard on customer quilts. I was able to accomplish much with them and shipped them back to their anxiously waiting owners. I will be able to share pictures of these quilts now that they are back home.  

   One of the neat things on quilting other people's quilts is that I am able to see different patterns, colors, fabrics and sewing styles all different from my own. It is educational and fun for me at the same time. No two quilters are the same. I love that!💓 I love that everyone is different and their design concept is all their own. I feel very fortunate to be able to take some part in their creativity. It opens my eyes up to different possibilities. It makes the gears in my head turn to things that I want to try for myself in the future. When I receive quilt tops from my customers---I really take my time looking at them. I like to look at all the different fabric. I like to see how people put blocks together to make an all over quilt top. So far--none of my clients are the notorious " Quilt Police". That is a really good thing! Quilt Police squash creativity and love of sewing. They are not welcomed in my studio.

   I want to share this quilt that I recently finished for my customer who I call Quilter Rebecca. She is the lovely owner of the "White Modern "quilt that I shared earlier in my posts. I love her style. This top of hers I have had for a bit. One of the things that I love about Rebecca's quilting style is that she takes her time and puts thought into picking out her backing material. I wish I had a photo to show you of the back. For some unknown reason-I don't have that photo any longer. I love the unique fabric that she chooses. This block is kinda cool because it is made up of a plus sign and an X. One of those blocks that are two for the price of one sort of thing. She seems like such a free spirit to me. I love it!👍👍👍

Isn't this just so much eye candy?! I love the total scrappy look to it. I love the aqua boarder. Rebecca wanted  an edge to edge flower design. We decided on Khaki colored Glide thread. I decided not to use my robotics to stitch it out. This was done all free hand. I just love to do free motion quilting.

I love the texture in the quilt. I think that the Khaki colored thread went very well with it. It just seems to play nice with all of the fabric colors. It blends so well. It is my go to color of thread for many quilts.

Can you see the flower stitched out in the middle of the "X"?

The flower design really showed well on the aqua boarder. It made me smile as I was stitching it out.

There's No Place Like Home!

   Here it is---one of the posts that I have been waiting to write and share! I am soooooo excited to share this!!!! I had to wait to give it back to the owner before I posted anything on it. I am so excited to share this quilt that one of my customers pieced-Rochelle. It is a pattern from Bonnie Hunter. It is the scrappy house quilt. It is beautiful in every way--- and I have to say-Rochelle, you did an awesome job on this quilt top!!! This is Rochelle's first scrappy quilt. I remember when she was starting it and she was trying to let go and not control the color combinations of each house. When you are starting to be scrappy, there really is a switch in your brain that has to be flipped, because we as quilters are so used to being in control and being specific on what goes where. I think quilting scrappy really helps to allow your creative juices to flow. Rochelle and I spoke about this a few times. I had suggested to throw the material scraps in a bag and just reach in and grab. What ever you have in your hand, then use it no matter what. I am not sure if she used that suggestion, but for me, it does help.

   I was given this quilt top a couple of months ago. I was so thrilled to receive it. I love this quilt.So many different scraps of fabric, so many colors. It is so darn cute! There is something about the house block that I love.  And of course, with me loving Bonnie Hunter and this is her pattern---well, it is a match made in heaven!!!! I myself. have a House Quilt on my "To Do List". Rochelle worked diligently on this quilt top. She put in a great deal of time and effort. Slowly the top grew. It was such a delight to visit her in the shop and see how her house blocks were coming along. If memory serves me right, she had other ladies come to the shop and sew house blocks for their own quilts. I would love to see their quilt tops. I bet they had so much fun getting together, sharing fabric and ideas and watching each others houses grow into beautiful neighborhoods!

   Well, when I was given this quilt top- I was told these sweet 5 words: "Do what ever you want". As a quilter, as a longarmer, I can not tell you what that does to your whole complete body to hear that from a customer. It is like all the neurons,atoms and protons are firing off in your body at once. Like a virtual Forth of July going off in your head. My mind started going in a million directions at once on all of the possibilities---not to mention if I wanted to use matching thread or contrasting thread. Oh decisions, decisions, decisions....! I can not tell you how many times I would lay the top out and look at it. I would get my doodle pad out and start drawing designs. I bought several shades of various colors of Glide thread to start off with. There were so many thoughts floating through my head, I think it would immobilize me, because I would catch myself standing in my studio just starring off- stuck in my own little world of creativity. This happened more then I want to admit.

   When I read what Rochelle had appliqued on the top: "There's No Place Like Home". It set me off into a sort of a Wizard of Oz type of thinking. I was sort of thinking of all those houses in Munchkin Land--the brick pathways, the flowers, the trees, the house trimmings. With that in mind, I knew I wanted real type of flowers, and then not so real type. I wanted pathways, I wanted a sun in the lighter colors, and none in the dark-as if it was night. I wanted smoke coming out of the chimneys. I decided on using matching and slightly contrasting color of threads. I was thinking of various custom quilting designs I could use in the sashings and boarders. I recently purchased my robotic system for my Long Arm- so I knew I wanted to incorporate that also. So.......... with all of those thoughts and ideas running crazy in my head....I started with all the stitch in the ditch in the sashings and boarders first. I then used the computer to do some block stitches in 3 of the boarders and in all of the corner stone blocks. In the sashings, I used matching thread and did a variation of a ribbon candy stitch. I did a "lacy" type of stitch surrounding the appliqued letters to help make them pop. I then did my free motion style of feathering around the whole boarder of the quilt. After all of that--the top was pretty much sewn to the backing, so I felt confident to move the top back and forth on the frame so that I can start in on the house blocks.

   I can't say that by stitching the house blocks was were all the fun began---because truthfully, I was having fun from the start. I loved combining my computer program with my free motion. Awesome!!! But, I can honestly say, that my creative mind was really "running full speed ahead" while doing the blocks. Out came my doodle book and all my different colored of threads and away I went. It took me awhile to do it all. I did not rush, I enjoyed the whole process. It took me almost 2 months to do this quilt---but and I mean BUT----I had two big holidays in the middle of all this and kids coming and going from College. Trying to balance all of this was a bit tricky.

    I remember the feeling of completing the last block. I couldn't believe it was done. I stood in awe just looking at the whole top---moving it forward and backward on the frame. I stopped counting bobbins after the 15th one. To me, the quilt is beautiful. With the scrappy piecing from Rochelle, and the custom quilting on the top---this is a truly one of a kind quilt. It is special. It is unique. Oh--I want one! Here are some pictures that I took. I wish I was a much better photographer because these pictures don't do the quilt justice. These pictures were all taken with the quilt unbound. I can hardly wait to see it with the binding on it.

Here it is... all of it's scrappy goodness!!!

This is the top of the quilt with all of the appliqued letters. Can you see the lacy stitching I did around the letters?

Love the teddy bear in the window. Great fussy cut job Rochelle!

This house has a whimsical inspired landscaping

Outside capstone block with matching thread. Design is from my computer.

These stitches are from my computer also. I put them in the middle of the outside boarders with the free motion feathering to the right and left of it

Some of my free motion feather stitch on outside boarder

More feathering. I love to do feathers.

More whimsical block stitching. It is very difficult to see the design in the grey blocks. I used  matching thread. Those designs are from the computer also.

Chocolate Covered Cherries

I could not wait to wake up and take pictures of my new eye candy. I could not wait to wake up and blog about this quilt top. I have been looking at Irish Chain quilts for some time now, to me-they are beautiful. But, I just never got around to it. I also in my head could not decide if I wanted a color theme or make it scrappy. I have seen one that was scrappy and that was so delicious looking. Well, for a couple of years now, while I am surfing the net, I have come across this pattern. I have seen it under different names-but the original name is Chocolate Covered Cherries by Jo's Country Junction. After eye balling this pattern for a couple of years, I finally said " Oh Nadine, just print the pattern for goodness sake!"So I did. That was a few months ago. I read the directions, figured out what I needed to make this. I needed a mix of brown fabrics, red fabrics and a cream for the background. With that in mind, I kept my eyes open for any opportunity to buy these colors. Even though I was sticking to 3 color schemes, I still felt that it was sorta scrappy because I wasn't just using just 3 different fabrics. Love to mix and match. My first place of purchase was at the Westfield Quilt show this summer. I was so delighted to see vendors there. One in particular had a lot of what I was looking for. Next, stop was quilt shops. I know the directions said to use yardage, but I am a huge lover of fat quarters. I bought a few of them and just made do. I knew that I would be going to my quilt retreat this October, I planned on putting it together there. I decided to pre cut all of the pieces(that took HOURS), label them and put them in a tote--I was so organized- I amazed myself. Well- the retreat was finally here. Away I went with my tote. Opened it up, read the directions some more and saw that- Oh my God, what did I get myself into. I hate cutting fabric, I hate chopping vegetables-to me it is all tedious. Silly me, this is not one of those patterns I can get away with just slapping it together. There not only was a great deal of pre-cutting before the retreat- I was in for a great deal more. I had to make 144 nine patch blocks, 144 square in a square blocks, etc... Before I could do this- I had to make strip set after strip set after strip set, then cut-cut-cut. That took me 3 days to do. I had visions of completing this at retreat-oh foolish me. I did not. I brought it home and decided I would finish it here instead of leaving it in the tote for next retreat. I worked on this Sunday night to last night. I can safely say that I burned the midnight oil.  I was so focused. I went to bed last night with peace in my heart- I had finished it!! I wanted to take it outside and take pictures of this Irish Chain variation quilt top of mine amongst all of the fallen colorful leaves. Ahhhhh Mother Nature, gotta love her. I woke up to rain. That is OK, I settled for just laying it out and clicking away with the camera. I love it!! I can't wait to put it on the Long Arm and quilt it. I am playing with all sorts of designs in my head. I am not sure who's bed this will end up on- possibly mine. I think I deserve a new quilt for my bed!

Here she is- my beautiful Chocolate Covered Cherries quilt top!! What girl doesn't deserve chocolate and cherries?!

I am looking at this over and over--playing out all kinds of quilt designs in my head. There are so many possibilities. I am thinking of thread choices. I may use 3 different colored threads on it. I would love to buy fabric that is a mix of browns and reds for the backing. That would be so lovely. I will have to keep my eyes open when I go to the quilt shops again. I think this is a good reason to go out fabric hunting.