The Last Day

...of 2007. We survived Christmas. I thought that there might be some problems, but I woke determined to have a good day. I don't know about everyone else, but it worked for me!

When we moved back "home" in 2004, I decided I did not want a China cabinet or a sideboard. We were fortunate that the kitchen had a pantry and a broom closet. I asked Sam to add shelving to the closet so that I could store my "fancy eating plates" and assorted glassware and serving pieces.




On the wall where the China cabinet/sideboard should have gone, I hung a compression quilt hanger. I have rotating art. No quilt stays up over six months and many change more often than that depending on the season. I don't have a specific Christmas quilt so I hung this one.





It is a stamped cross-stitch that took me two years to stitch while watching NASCAR races on television. That was okay though because it took two years to find the red toile I wanted to use for the backing. I kept finding small yardage amounts...not near enough for a backing. Just as I was finishing the cross-stitching, I stumbled across a brand new bolt of red and white toile. I completed this quilt in 2004.

More quilts

How about some more quilts?

The heart appliqued quilt was fun to make, but not under the circumstances. My first husband's mother had a stroke during surgery. A sister-in-law and a niece helped me with this while we spent hours in the waiting room. I showed them how to turn under the 1/4" and baste around the hearts. Busy work. The hearts are hand appliqued and to the best of my memory, the blocks are machine stitched together. All quilting is by hand. This quilt was made in 1987.



The double wedding ring was the first DWR I've ever made...so far it's been the last. It is machine pieced and hand quilted.



Both of these quilts were sold to a customer as gifts for his wife.

I am going to be published!

I am so excited! I had a short story chosen to be published in an upcoming anthology by a local writers group. I'll let you know when/where/what. If you buy a copy of the book, I'll autograph it for you!

The Day After

We survived Thanksgiving!




The first quilt I made for my son is this bowtie quilt. I remember curling up under a similar quilt with my grandmother so many years ago.


I drafted the pattern myself (in those days...mid 1980s...we did not have access to the wealth of patterns and information we can now find on the internet).

He requested a quilt with horses. I found an old pattern for the cowboy on the bronc. I drew the cowboy boot applique. My artistic abilities are slim so I was extremely proud that they looked like boots!

Finished a pair of socks

Hello, All! Hope you are all thinking about your Thanksgiving menu.

I finished another pair of socks a few days ago! This is the first pair that is made with thin enough yarn to wear with shoes.

I am having fun with these. So far I have used four DPNs. I am going to try two different things when I start my next pair. I am going to use circular needles, and I am going to start at the toe and knit up. I have been afraid of running out of yarn if I make the top of the socks too long. I had enough yarn left over to have had the socks about a half-inch longer. Oh, well. Next pair.

Houston International Quilt Show

What a fun, but tiring time. My husband, Sam, and I drove to south Texas and visited relatives. But, I had an ulterior motive...my sisters-in-law, a niece, and I went to the quilt show on Friday. Acres and acres of quilts and vendors selling anything and everything related to (and some not) quilting.


I'll never be good enough to have anything entered in one of the large quilt shows, but I do pretty good around my home town. This is one of the first quilts I ever entered in a quilt show of any size (Country Patches Quilt Show in Longview Texas in 1988). I was so surprised when I saw a third place ribbon pinned to it.

It is machine appliqued but hand quilted and was entered in the "Machine" category.

This was my first scalloped border. Hmmm...it may be my only scalloped border. I had fun with the butterfly motif in the scallops.

New Addiction

I have to admit that quilting is my first addiction. I have a closet full of fabric, patterns, and books related to that art form. This summer I started knitting. A high school classmate (and Spanish teacher at our 'old' high school) is teaching me. After the prerequisite washcloths made out of cotton yarn, I graduated to scarves.

So far I have purchased all my yarn on clearance. And, it's a good thing. The black/gray/white scarf to the left cost $15...had it purchased the fabric full price, it would have been over $40!

The black yarn is a chenille. You can see the knobbies on the gray/white variegated yarn. I knitted them together. I found it rather tough, but was determined to knit this.

I am really pleased with the end result. This will look great with my black wool Sunday "go to meeting" coat.

The white fuzzy yarn on the right was

purchased the same time as the yarns in the black/gray/white scarf. On another trip to the store, I found the raspberry yarn in the bargain bin.

I love the way these two yarns knitted. Look at the fringe. It looks like feathers.

Unfortunately it leaves white fuzzies wherever it touches. This won't be worn with the black wool coat!

The first day

Welcome to my blog. I started quilting years ago and thought it was so boring. Eventually the real bug did bite and I've been busy ever since.

FOUR-LEAF CLOVER
This is the first quilt I ever finished. I suppose you could call it an original. I folded a piece of paper in fourths and cut out a four-leaf clover. I helped quilt it with a group of church ladies. The quilt is hand-appliqued and hand quilted.

OZARK COBBLESTONES
The scrappy pieced quilt on the right is the first quilt I started. My sister-in-law's grandmother sent a pattern to us from Mena, Arkansas. I was in my early 20s and decided that this definitely was NOT my thing. After making the 4-leaf clover quilt, I dug this one out of the nether regions of my closet and finished it. My sister-in-law never started hers.



I quilted this quilt all by myself...a one-needle quilt. I tied a pencil to a string and stuck a pin through a knot on the other end of the string and drew concentric arcs on the backing of the quilt. I later found out that this is the "Baptist Fan" pattern.

This quilt is hand-pieced and hand-quilted.

I really, really like this quilting thing!