THANK YOU!

Just a quick word- for those of you who are buying my book....THANK YOU!!!! I'd really appreciate some reviews as well...it just takes a second...as long as it's a 'nice' one...haha..Thanks again for your purchase and I hope it helps you with your hand quilting questions.

AMAZON

You can own this!

Ding, dong the book is out! FINALLY! I dragged my feet long enough and finished it!!

 

 NOW ON AMAZON!

 

This book is a revised and updated version of my book “Quilt As Desired” that I wrote another lifetime ago. Since it was so popular as a basic tool for hand quilting, hints and tips for individuals, workshops and retreats, shops, etc, I decided to update it and make it available for you again through Amazon.

I hope you enjoy it and more important, I hope it will help with those pesky questions on how to get started and some tools and tips for the beginners AND the experienced hand quilters!

When you've perused the book, I would appreciate it if you gave it a review on Amazon. 

Thanking you in advance and happy quilting!

The Repurposed Life of a Quilt- Repair Tutorial

I'm sure a lot of you have a quilt that's lost its luster. Maybe a little too loved? The dog found it?
Well, I had a quilt that was ready to pitch. Yes, it was that bad. It had hours and hours of hand quilting on it. Feather design, wreath and grid on a simple little 9 patch and was an anniversary gift to my parents.

Little did we know what a bedspread with nylon backing could do to a pieced and quilted quilt! OUCH! 


This is just a small section of the top of the quilt. The nylon comforter that my Mom put over the quilt ATE it! Yep, like a pac-man...just ate up the cotton and totally destroyed it. Well, ALMOST.
I wasn't going to let all that work and those vintage blocks go to the trash. I had to DO something!
So, when necessity is the mother of invention, right?
So, I put together a cotton print for the new back, turned the quilt backwards (top now being Inside) and not only hid the unsightly, chewed mess, but came out with a New quilt!
I'll try to show you the pix of progress on this. Little did I think at the time that I would be using this on a blog or would have taken better pix!
So, step 1- showing the picture and trying to calm the churning stomach at the destruction

2. Ok, I'm over that, now...time to get to work. It was a shame in the first place that I quilted so heavily in the dark brown print border, but I did. You can't really see it, but that's feather plumes around the entire quilt in the border. 
   
   
   
   

This shows the back of the original quilt. See why I wanted to keep it!? Lots of outline on the Flying Geese, grid, and of course, the feather plumes.
Ok....eaaazy, peezy.
1. I just found the cotton print I wanted for the new backing.

2. I turned the quilt so that the back was now the Top of the quilt. The back (which is the gnarled former top) is now going to be on the Inside of the quilt.
   
3. The new back is a green print (why,I don't know, but it works)
   
4. Voila! I not only have a 'new' quilt, it's more of a Whole Cloth quilt.
   
   
   
   

I couldn't let it just go like that. That's against my grain (pardon the pun). I HAD to applique to spruce it up a tad. Now, this was several years ago that I did this and used hand-dyed cottons for the Dogwood applique design and embroidery floss for the stems and leaves.
After taking the pix for this blog, I was Aghast....no, I was a Quilter but still....
The Dogwood applique was soooo faded! I hadn't realized it until then. So, to carry on my never-ending OCD....I Re-applique the Dogwood. It's easy to do. I didn't take off the old, I just applique Over the existing. This is also hand dyed cotton, so in another three years or so, I'll probably be doing this again. I might even go ahead and applique the stems and leaves like I planned to to begin with :)

To hold the three layers together, I used tiny ties/tacks. I started from the top side and took the tie to the back side and clipped closely to the backing fabric so it's pretty much invisible.
So, there ya go! Have any questions? Just ask :)
  Finished product:

Now, I have a dear, dear friend who takes beautiful pictures and has software to clean them up, edit, etc...as soon as she sees this tute...I'm SURE she'll want to grab these pix and re-do them! LOL....well, she can but I'll leave these up until then!

What a difference a day or two makes! Am I right? Well, my book was delayed for a few months but now it's back on the FRONT burner, tweaking and getting it ready to sell on Amazon. YIPPPE!!!
The book is a handy book for beginning hand quilters and those of you who have been at this for a while. I've tried to include all the hints and tips from experience, the good, bad and the ugly.

I don't profess to be a 'writer' but I have tried to cover most of the bases of hand quilting from the top, sandwiching, basting, tools, etc.
So, sign up for my blog and I Hope to make it happen within the week of August 19th. It will be available in hard copy through Amazon and Kindle.
Please, if you'd like to comment on my blog with questions, feel free! I'll be happy to answer or to Find the answer!
In the meantime, I'm getting a page started on the blog on re-purposing a quilt. I'm not that in to blogging, but I guess I'll have to learn to, right?
Ok, I'm off to writing the text on the quilt I saved from the trash! Stay tuned :)

My Very Last Quilt

You'd think that I would have taken more pix of my quilts, sadly, I didn't. I would hand quilt for clients and then ship them on their way to turn around and start another one.  I didn't think at the time that it would be helpful to have a scrapbook of quilts that I had hand quilted for clients and publications. Oh well...

I DID find this one picture of the last quilt that I hand pieced, hand applique and hand quilted for myself. 

It was titled "Quilt of One Thousand Leaves" by my friends. Once I start applique and quilting, there's No stopping me! This was made at a very low point in my life and was my therapy to get through it. I represented personal things to me as to how many Dogwood blooms and then just continued with leaves.
I pieced the Courthouse steps as the background for the main center and then different, muted neutrals for the rest of the background.
I checked and there isn't one square inch that isn't hand quilted. I used 'echo', outline and feather wreaths....it went on and on until I decided it was time to stop, bind it and use it on my bed for comfort during the darker days. When it was time to let go.....I sold at an auction. It happens. I'm kicking myself now, but that was then.
Who knows, one of these days, I might try another one if my hands and fingers cooperate :)

 I always thought, when I grow up I want to be a pioneer woman. Well, I grew up and know that I'm NOT the stuff the pioneer women were made of! Instead, I would 'pretend' in re-enactments and study our local history. That lead to history on quilts, of course, costumes and the women of the frontier. How they lived, where and why. Not just the women, but the families, why did they travel and did they make it?

 

 (alert: this pic of me is After my hat got blown off, not the best picture I might add)

Were they happy? 

My favorite time period of history was the 1800's and turn of the century to about 1920's. I love walking into deserted barns, homes, land that was lived on and the old graveyards of the families. It's not morbid, it's...history!

Some of my favorite people are the re-enactors I've worked with Of course, these men are Confederates and were in different units in Missouri. We've had good times at their camp fires and petting the horses noses. Notice I said PETTING their noses....they'll Never get me on a horse again! As much as I admire their beauty and personalities, they wayyyyy up there to sit on. I know for a fact that they understand my fear of being in the saddle and take Full advantage of it.

Along with my love of history, I've was a member of our local historical society and was the manager/director of our Counties historic museum. It's a wonderful building. Originally an 'Alms' home for the poor and needy, built in 1915 and quite a building at the time. Indoor plumbing, electricity and all. All of the original woodwork, parlors and rooms are still there and displayed with artifacts of the 1800's time period into our museum.
So, that's a little bit of 'me' and my world.

I made most of my own costumes and hats. Another one of my passions. I've kept the most favorite and donated all of the rest to different theatre groups and rental organizations. I got tired of the hoops and trains! I love my Jammies and jeans!
In my book Guide to Hand Quilting that will be available,soon, I add little blurbs of history of quilts and quilting. Who knows, another book might be the making!

While I'm figuring out these images, you can meet my little feathered buddy. She's got a nest right outside my bedroom window. No matter that we had a SNOW storm May 3, she stayed on that nest. Still sitting. I'll give 'progress' reports in between screaming at this computer! :)