Way to Calm for me!

Well, today I had a very relaxing day of sewing, and chatting with my son Jeff, and then later on chatted with my parents. Of course chatting with Denny off and on all day long. Now…..I am going to do some planning for the food shopping, and a party I am going to have for my dad.
Then I will climb into bed and play with the computer. I have to say such a calm day! Really, it is way to calm for me. Lol. Chat later. Morgan

My New Attitude

Many years of my life I have fought with myself to be thin.  I am not a thin person by nature.  Every New Year I vow to lose weight and diet until I could be happy with the way I look.  A few years ago I even decided to reward myself for a large weight loss with a trip to a place I have always wanted to visit.  It didn't happen.  Disappointment, Diet, Despair.  No more "D's"....Time to rethink.

I studied nutrition in college.  I know what to eat and what it takes to lose the weight.  As a side note all my nutrition teachers were morbidly obese save one.  We all know what to eat.  I do eat well most of the time.  I am addicted to sugar and chocolate and do not keep those items in the house.  I have maintained the same weight with in 5 pounds for the last 5 years.  So what do I need to do to change? 

I have been having trouble remembering things and have little or no energy for a while now.  Don't get me wrong, I am busy all the time, but I am just not myself.  This needs to change.

This New Year I decided not to diet.  I will eat sensibly when ever possible.  I did not set an unrealistic weight loss goal.  

This is my new attitude...  I now exercise 20 minutes in the morning on a stationary bike.  I started with 3 times a week and have worked up to 5 times per week, first thing in the morning, no excuses.  I have decided to look at my weight loss one pound at a time.  My goal is to lose one pound per week.   If I didn't make it, I add an extra workout in the evening until I make my goal. I also plan to add yoga when my weight loss stagnates. No huge life change, just a little something to make me a healthier person.

The results so far...  I have lost a pound each week.  My muscles are stronger and my waist is just a bit more shapely from the bike riding.  I have more energy during the day.  My memory and my concentration are improving and I sleep well at night for the first time in a very long while.  

This year I am rewarding myself with that trip as a birthday gift to myself.  I will join some of my girlfriends on their annual trek to the AQS Quilt show in Paducah, KY. Maybe I will see you there!  

Charity Quilts and Going With the Flow

Forgive the lighting in the following photos, it wasn't the best as I was shooting these pics.

This is the first of 2 small wall hanging quilts where I used pieces cut from an old worn vintage quilt and some ticking I've had sitting around for ages. I'm participating next month in a group art show to raise money for our local Habitat for Humanity and I will be putting both of these pieces in, along with some older work. 100% of my proceeds from the show will be going to Habitat, so I hope they sell!


I machine quilted it in an all over wonky, honey-comb looking pattern. I needed to really quilt it pretty heavily as there were a lot of worn and thin areas to the old quilt fabrics and I wanted to make sure this piece was nice and stable.


This is the second one I did.


I quilted this one pretty much the same as the one before. I still need to wash the quilts to soften them up a bit, and bring out the quilted texture better.

And in totally other news... went down into the basement yesterday to do some laundry and found our water heater pouring it's contents onto the floor! Thank goodness Hubby was home. He drained it, and then dismantled it. That's when we saw the whole back side was never sealed up properly, it was actually split open (even though the leak was coming out of the front.) We figure 13 years ago when the builders installed it they used a second, knowing we would never be able to squeeze our heads behind it to see the defect. All's well that ends well, and by the end of the day Hubby had installed a brand new water heater. (That thing was a bear to carry down our steps, and now we have to carry the old one up! Yikes!)

Then...

This morning I went outside and found someone, (no idea who) had left, (or purposely turned on) the hose spigot. It was on full force spilling gallons upon gallons of precious water. What a waste.

So I am asking myself what is up with these water leaks? I am always looking for symbols and meaning in everything and I want to know what the message for me is. What's my lesson that I need to learn? Is it the pessimistic "When it rains it pours" (so get use to it, kiddo) or what I prefer to think, the helpful reminder "Go with the flow, baby!" ... It's actually been my mantra lately, and control freak that I am, I'm trying too, I really truly am! I keep imagining myself in a canoe letting go of the oars and just going with the flow... (something I think I heard on Oprah!) And if this was any kind of test, I passed with flying colors as I stayed calm the whole time I was mopping up water off the basement floor.
Now, I am hoping... no more water leaks!

I got Grandma Quiltin!!

So you all pretty much know that the mother-in-law is living with us, and she helped sew pajama pants so I decided to try and get her quiltin'.

She made one heartstings style block last night, but I think she's up to making more. Here's her first block ever! OK so I have lots of Thimbleberries leftovers.

From 2009-01

A Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek at the crazy quilt block I just completed for the current president of the Friendship Quilt Guild. I was so pleased to have a chance to use my imagination. Each year we make a quilt for our current guild president as a thank you for their service. The theme is chosen by the president but she does not get to see the progress until May when the completed quilt is presented.

My apologies for the brief posts I've made lately. Something had to give way to make room for all the other things going on in my life. I have attended two weekend retreats this month. No, this in not normal for me but it sure was a great way to start the New Year.

I also taught a class about hand piecing quilt blocks at the Piecemakers Guild which meets at Patsy's Retreat once a month. This was the first time I taught the class so I had some work to do to get the samples in order for class.

Last weekend was our annual Sleep-In for the Friendship Quilt Guild. Our Art Quilt group met to share paints, markers and other messy embellishments. We also did a little color discharge from fabric. Lots of fun and a great chance to see which products worked well and which did not.

Here is another project we worked on at the overnight. Our group is sewing pillowcases for children with cancer. These pillowcases will go to the cancer ward at UW Hospital in Madison. We made 40 pillowcases on Saturday. I was able to finish 3 at the overnight and have 4 more to complete this weekend. Suzanne will continue to collect these into next month. See info on RC blog for details.

The biggest reason I have not been blogging as frequently is exercise. I used to read and write my blogs in the morning before work. I am now riding my exercise bike each morning. More about that soon.

I recently started using Google Reader to read posts and have sometimes waited so long that I have 200 posts to read before I can get caught up. Please know I am reading and enjoying what you write. I am not commenting as much as I used to because Google Reader does not have a option to comment (or am I missing something?). Also, please note I do not reply to comments on my own blog but will e-mail a reply to you if you enable the e-mail feature when you leave a comment. I welcome comments and e-mails.

Wishing you all lots of time to create and dream. - Chris

When you come to a stop?

Yesterday, I got three quilts prepped and stitched on the zippers ready to be loaded on the machine. I'm finally getting Susan's quilt on the machine. She gave it to me in Sept/Oct and said it wasn't needed until after the first of the year. So of course, it got delayed until then. Well, now it's on the machine and the beautiful fabric that she picked for the borders doesn't work with any of the thread I have here in the studio. So... I had to order some more thread! And so now, I'm stalled until the thread arrives. What should I do? I thought about unzipping it and putting another quilt on, but that quilt probably won't be finished by the time that the thread gets here and I'll feel like I need to get Susan's quilt back on. So I decided that I get to work/piece on the Happy Ric Rac quilt that I've been working on.

What do you do when you get stopped in your tracks working on a project????

First mixed vet and freshie scrimmage!

Tonight was my first practice back after about two weeks break. This break was forced by one flu, then a snowstorm, then MLK day, then freshie assessments. Oh, and also the fact that a bolt came loose on my plates and I couldn't skate on them for a bit. Once it was explained that I'd been trying to correct the problem by tightening the wrong bolt, I was shakily back on skates, hoping to god my trucks didn't fall off in the middle of a jam.

While it took me the first half of the scrimmage to actually pay attention to the game around me (I was too focused on worrying about my skate falling apart and breaking my leg), I pulled it together in the second half. I'm especially proud of:

1. A few sweet booty blocks - I was using my booty more during this scrimmage than I have in a while. Since discovering that I can hit well, I'd kind of stopped booty blocking, even though I knew that it was a more long-term, conservative way to control the other team's players. Tonight I remembered why I used to like doing that so much. I'll have to keep it up.

2. I was using my teammates more than I ever have before. I'd see a fellow blocker on my outside, see the jammer coming up on that side, and rather than cut across said blocker and going in for a hit, I'd push her instead. Go me and my improving track awareness.

3. Actually getting my mind off of my wonky skate problems in the first place. I can get way up into my head, and that was a huge contributor to my struggle last season. Had this been a year ago, I'd have probably given up and found a reason to sit out more jams (or possibly the scrimmage itself) while tinkering with my skate. Instead, I stuck it out, and my skate wound up being fine. Once I made myself focus on the game, I was doing well again. I want to make sure to get used to this process for when I'm inevitably having all kinds of nerves at a bout, where saying "I'll just wait until next week" isn't an option.

My goals for the next scrimmage are:

1. Play outside more. I never play that, and I need to learn that role.
2. Booty block more. I'm not half bad at that, and I should be trying to get even better.
3. Fall back more quickly. I still keep finding myself at the front of the damned pack, even when playing back. I've got to get over that.

Another quilt for Niquie

My Quiltin' BFF could probably keep me in business by herself with all the quilts she makes. I have a pile of her quilts waiting to be quilted.

From Drop Box

Then she'll throw another quilt my way saying, "Could you get this quilt done for my friend's daughter who is getting married next week, and I made this for her?" So I don't know if I'll ever get caught up on her pile between customers who actually expect their quilts to be finished and the emergency ones that Niquie has me quilt.

This one didn't make getting quilted before the wedding, but she presented the top to the bride at the reception, and I got it quilted 2 weeks later. That's soon enough right?

From Drop Box

The back was a solid black, so I put variegated in the bobbin and it was so fun to see what the backside looked like when I finished.

From Drop Box

Road Less Traveled

I took a different route home the other day and stopped to take a picture of some of the limestone bluffs common to our area.  I thought I was capturing a herd of cows in the foreground. I had to do a double take.  There were about 30 ponies mixed into the herd.  I'll have to make it back this way some day when it is warmer so I can captures a better photo.

Jeanne's fabric sale ended last weekend.  Much thanks goes all who shopped and helped reduce the incredible volume of her stash.  A very special thank you goes out to Linda (who put in 100's of hours) and all the volunteers that came to organize and help out on sale dates.  Linda plans to post a slide show this fall containing items made from Jeanne's fabric.  If you have pictures you would like to contribute you can find Linda at her website here.

Winter Quilt

I had planned to be a sewing whiz this weekend, completing all of my unfinished quilts. Great plan but I got side tracked a bit when I slightly threw my back out, (from lifting up Molasses)... she may be short in height, but she is long in body... and 45 pounds of wiggly Molasses may be good for my soul but not for my back. All I can say is thank goodness for heating pads, pain killers and Mo's sweet face!


I was determined to get something done though and did finish this quilt. It looks very nice against the bare robin's egg blue walls of our dining room, which need a little something, so I plan on hanging it there. I especially like the big F & M , (do you see it?) on one of the feedsack strips. Hubby and I got married in the F & M College chapel, so the quilt has a bit of personal symbolism in it, which makes me happy!


The colors in the quilt remind me of winter, so that's what I am calling it.


Here's the back side. You can better see the various quilting stitches I used all over the piece... zig-zags, wiggles and straight stitches. (Wiggles... now there's a very technical term!) xo

Todd and I spent a glorious weekend (long weekend) at Lairdland Farms Bed & Breakfast. How incredibly wonderful it was! We spent time walking in the meadows and woods; exploring creeks and streams; journaling and spending time in God's Word. It was heaven-sent! The country there was beautiful, and I couldn't help but lift my arms in acknowledgement of God's amazing creation. Wonderful weekend.

He spoke to me about a thing or two . . . priorities, in particular. Where are mine right now?

Time for me to adjust myself to my Father's priorities!

Hallelujah!

:)

Whoa....computer deal!

Well, The other day, I decided to change my password on my computer and it was for getting into my computer. Well, I forgot what it was..due to not writing down. I will never do that again..as I had to use a upgrade to get into my computer. The story is long and it was really very ugly too in what i had to do to get all of my things back into my computer, as it cleared it out when I downloaded that update disk. I was so upset, and did not sleep at all the one night working on my computer. Another issue was the Norton security system, as I let Jeff have my disk, for his computer. Well he claims he gave it back to me, and I know he did not. Yet I tore my house apart looking for it. Of course, it was not anywhere. I had about 109 days of use on it. Oh well, I just bought a new one. I will not give mine out anymore. So finally have the computer up and back in shape after two long days and one long night. Plus spending $94.00 for a new disk. I am smiling again.!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great night! Morgan

Wedding Quilt Success!

My friend got on the plane to Ohio today with her Gi-normous quilt neatly tucked in her luggage! Woo Hoo. I quilted it all in one day. Whew! The next morning pulled out the ping pong table to put the 102" x 106" monster on to trim. It was right next to my sewing machine, so I left it up there and got it bound too. She was major HAPPY!

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

A Helping Hand

My good friend Ronnie's hubby stopped me at church a week and half ago and told me that she could use a little bit of help getting her quilt finished for their daughter's wedding, and would I mind calling her. So I dropped by and she was putting together an Eleanor Burn's Trip Around the world. She got a couple of strips in the wrong order, so I brought that half home to unpick and put back together while she worked on the other half.

From Drop Box

Oh! I am so glad it is Friday!

Hello!
As usual, I could not sleep well last night! So of course, my day has started rather slow. I am up now, showered, and dressed so ready to make my trip into town. Need stamps, pay a bill, and get my medicine. When I could not get those zzzzzzz’s in last night, I designed three different quilts. I have to say that they are so cute. Now I know I am behind times with just having EQ5. Yet, that is due to being out of the scene for a long while. I just ordered the EQ6, which is an upgrade. It will be here in a few days. I just cannot wait. The quilts I designed last night, were Christmas ones. I have a goal of making all of them, for my website and for the family. The pictures for my web site and I am making up kits, too! One of these days my son Jeff will help me finish designing my website. I am so ready get up and running. This year it is my turn to have a good year. I am ready for new changes… more skills learned to make this possible. Lately my lungs have felt better. I even started to walk on my walking machine. Sure, it is only a half a mile to start with. That is tough on me. Let me say this, it was tough at first, now I am finding it easier each day. So today, I am going for more than the half a mile,
Have a wonderful, peaceful day! Morgan 

KoolKat January customer newsletter

Our customer newsletter for Summer 2009 has just been released. Just go to our website and subscribe if you would like to receive this (http://www.koolkatquilting.com/). I've been working on a new pattern which is soon to be released. Australian Patchwork and Quilting this month (Februrary 2009 issue) has run a Quilter's profile on Kathy Adams, and also a feature on Piecces of Time, which won Best in Show at Brisbane Royal Show (see earlier post below).

Ahh balls.

Freshie assessments were last night, and one of my skater sisters was cut. She and I ride together to practice, and we've gotten pretty close. I'm beyond upset about this. :(

Oh, and my skates are messed up.

Hooray.

Hello it is Thursday!

Good afternoon, I would like to say, it sure did get very cold here, as the weather- men said it would. It was 30 here when I woke up this morning. Brrrrrrrrrr yes we are not use to these temperatures. Yet not to worry, I am all warm and cozy inside the house.
Today I have a few things I want to do. Of course, I have a few bills to pay, and get out to the mailbox. Then I am working on the Dresden plate quilt for a little while. Then I will be moving back to another wall hanging quilt. Then I do have to go shopping for some food. I am back on the Suzanne Somers diet. I lost 40 pounds after I got ill 2 years ago. I had gained extra weight due to all the medicine for breathing. Now I am not too bad in weight yet 15 pounds is bad enough. I gained back that during the fall season. Why? Got off my diet...shame on me. I do like her diet, as you can eat as much as you want till full. It is what you eat is the point here.
Well off to get started with all I want done. Have a great day everyone!
Morgan

Finishes. (I stole that from Mary)

A lovely lady in our neighborhood is making quilts for her 7 grown children and I had the privilege of quilting the first 2 of them. Aren't they beautiful?

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

Cinderella

I promise, this is the last post I will do about the pre-inaugural gala eldest daughter attended. Unfortunately most of the picture they took of the gala, didn't turn out too hot. I don't wish to bore you with blurry pictures of people you don't know. However I do want to share the picture above, of my daughter getting ready for the festivities. Beautiful, isn't she? (And she's as lovely on the inside as she is on the outside.)


And here's proof that they indeed were invited, along with proof of their identity! (Can you imagine the security that had to surround such a gig!?!)

Well, that's it. Thanks for indulging the pround Mama in me!

I've decided to take a long weekend, so I will be back on Monday with a new post, hopefully stitch related!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cold Night Here

Today I made some whole wheat bread. I worked on my dresden plate blocks....and chatted with my husband and started planning a surprise party for my Dad's 80 B-Day March 15th. Denny wants to cook up the meals for the party. Getting everyone in the family to do something towards this party. HA! At least I am going to try to do this.
I am out of here, I need to do a few things before bed. Morgan

Hello! Today it is very cold here in Florida. Working on this new blog. I have much I want to add to this. I will get it up and running the way I want it, very quick here. I hope everyone is having a great day! Morgan

Living Vicariously Part 2 (and a Mo Update)

If you look in between the two woman in the forefront, and past the young man with the white tie, you can see the back of my daughter. She's in the strapless black dress, with the white sash and with her back to the camera. She found this picture on line from the Washingtonian.

The short story of what my daughter reported back to me about her Cinderella experience is:

- Hotel accommodations, not so luxurious... turned out she and her friends had to share a room with 5 other people.
- Got to have hair professionally done up in a fancy do. "Inhaled enough hairspray to kill a small rodent".
-Spent most of day blowing up inflatable guitars, and tying strings to hundreds of helium balloons.
- Lunch was 1 sandwich shared between 4 other people.
- They got kicked out of the room while trying to get dressed for the gala... it was taken over by an actress, (who shall remain nameless)
- Sat on floor outside of room, painting toenails, when Anderson Cooper passed by, (yes he looks as good in a suit in person as one would imagine.)
- Was given a free bottle of champagne by a passing bus boy.
- Dislikes champagne, but enjoyed the added oddness to the whole situation.
- Waited for gala to start. Stood in long lines. Finally got in.
- Was surrounded by nice and generous people. Everyone she met was incredibly kind.
- Saw great globs of wealth, and lots senators trying to dance to hip hop.
- Saw Bill Murray in a plaid bow tie.
- Had an artist do her caricature
- Crashed in the wee hours of the morning, sleeping huddled on the floor, just the floor, of a cramped hotel room. shared a thin blanket with her friend.
- Tuesday morning, decided along with her friends to leave D.C. before all of the roads were closed off, as they had no where to stay, nothing to eat and were afraid to get stuck in D.C. (Plus they were concerned with missing more classes of the brand new semester.)
- Passed lots of police, secrete service, and FBI cars all zooming by.
- Made it back to college in time to watch the inauguration on the T.V.
-Realized the last 8 years were finally over, and felt relief. (Amen to that.)
- Had an experience of a lifetime.
- Went to the last class of the day, an art class, where she got to meet her new professor, a british woman who used the word "flummoxed". This made eldest daughter very happy, for two things she dearly loves are words, and a good british accent!

All in all, my daughter said that if she had to sum up in a sentence what an inaugural gala is like, it would be an "Alcoholic Prom For Adults"!

I would have loved for her to have been able to stay for the actual ceremonies, but at the same time I was worried as to how they would ever get back home, with all of those people jamming the roads, (along with lack of any decent sleep). So when I finally heard that they were all back in Pennsylvania safe and sound, the mom in me was very relieved!

As for me... I teared up plenty watching the events unfold on T.V.
What an amazing time in our nation's history.

PS. Molasses my dog, is still hanging in there, bless her soul. She has been having some various problems though and we had to take her in to the vets today for some antibiotics, as she has some skin infections due to her suppressed immune system. He is utterly amazed that she is still here with us. I am so grateful. She still enjoys eating, and playing with her toys and loves going outside and walking around the yard. I haven't been able to sew this week, as I am spending time with her. We have always been close the two of us, but the time we have spent together over the last couple of months has brought us closer then anything I can adequately explain. She is my hero. I will try to get back to the sewing hopefully today, or sometime this week, as I'd love to have something new or finished to show on my blog here... but if Mo needs me to just hang out with her, well I know you all understand.
xo Victoria

Dreams, Hope, Prayers and Faith

All of my life I have dreamed that the world would unite and celebrate one another for the beauty within.  Today I celebrate and place my hopes in the hands of a new American President who speaks of my dreams.  

I pray for our nation and our world these things:

Acceptance of one's religion, no matter what faith or god or prophet. 

Compassion for those in need.

A celebration of the differences that make each of us so unique.

A universal race: humankind. 

I have faith we can achieve a better world if we open our hearts and love one another.

Excitement, Hope, Gratitude and Living Vicariously

Today's the day folks!
We finally get to shed the old and embrace the new.
I am full of emotion at this most historic day.
It's been a long time coming.

I have also had the added pleasure of getting to enjoy some of the pre-inaugural celebration thrill ride, by living vicariously through my eldest daughter. She and a group of her best college buds got to attend the Illinois State pre-inaugural ball in Washington, D.C. last night!

They all happen to be good friends with the daughter of the gentleman who was in charge of organizing the bash. This connection got them all a gig helping to set up yesterday for the evening gala, which was held at the luxurious Renaissance hotel. In return for their work afterwards, they all got to put on their fanciest black tie attire and be guests at the ball! They even got to spend the night as guests!

We spent yesterday eagerly awaiting each text message received on youngest daughters phone, (I admit that the art of texting alludes me, and my phone is so old I don't think you can text on it!) After about 12 pm they got fewer and far between, and by 1 pm, well I imagine she was so caught up in the whirl wind of excitement that she was too busy floating on cloud nine to remember even how to text! Who can blame her!?! So I don't know much at this point except that she was staying on the same floor as Anderson Cooper. He passed by her in the hall! She has promised me photos of the nights festivities, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed they turn out.

She wasn't sure if they would be able to stay for the actual ceremony today, I hope that they can. What a thing to experience!

I am so thrilled that my daughter got to be a part of this. It was her first time eligible to vote, and she worked tirelessly helping to register others. Obama becoming President of the United States is bigger and more full of hope and promise, then anything else I have ever witnessed in my life. I hope that each of us will be inspired to help him on this most difficult path, doing what we are able to, in order to help restore America to her full potential, and to once again be a beacon of light, and hopefully a true messenger of peace and goodwill, in this worlld.

UPDATE: She and her friends were up for 22 hours. Both Michelle and Barack Obama were at the gala, as well as Oprah and Stevie Wonder, but alas they didn't run into them in person. They did get to see Bill Murray though, and they think Maya Angelou. People were taking their pictures as they went into the party, thinking my daughter and her friends were famous, (little did they know!) All in all it was a surreal and extremely glamourous evening, one that she and her friends will always remember and treasure!

Now back to Quilting!

So I had a very special request during my Holiday break. The Lizzie Be Cre8ive gals asked me to quilt a quilt for their upcoming book!!! I was so excited, not just to quilt for some pretty terrif quilters, but my first quilt to be in a book! It did make the week between Christmas and New Year's kind of crazy and a few days after New Year's. But it was definitely worth it. I had so much fun quilting on their way cute quilt. I got permission to post a small Picture! Woo Hoo! I hope you'll check out their book and all it's cute projects when it comes out for Spring Market.

From Drop Box

Breakfast and Presents

Another Tradition - Crepes for Breakfast.

From Drop Box

So after the picture on the stairs we go around the corner and see what Santa has brought and then we eat breakfast. I know I'm a mean mom and we've done this ever since the kids were small. I hate for Christmas to be over so soon, so we eat breakfast before we open the rest of the presents. Oh and did I mention? We don't get up on Christmas morning until 7? I think that's how the everyone sleeping in the same room began. So when they do get up early they have someone to talk to while they wait til 7. This year however, Dad and I woke everyone up!

Amanda, Jason, and baby Nora arrived in time to help scarf down the crepes and then we opened presents.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

Works in Progress

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. It is freezing cold here in Pennsylvania, so I stayed holed up indoors... as I have stated before, I am not a fan of cold weather!

Here's what I have been working on this last week... everything pictured below is in one stage or another of its creation, and all are awaiting completion.


I have been playing around decontructing and reconstructing a rather thread bare and worn, but visually intriguing vintage, (crazily pieced) scrap quilt that a friend gave to me. Here, in the picture above, I am using the most salvageable parts, adding ticking fabric for the sashing.


I've done the same thing with this piece above, but have used muslin from a vintage feedsack for the sashing instead of the ticking. Notice in this picture the vintage quilts very worn areas, (click on the pic for a better view.) I have decided to keep them in as a way of honoring the fabrics journey.


The photo above is of a string quilt which I am making from strips of vintage feedsacks. I am basically constructing it the same way that I constructed this other quilt. It's an unorthodox way of quilting, and I am sure some quilting purists would frown upon my method, but it works for me.

I start with a roughly cut piece of batting, in this case apx. 6.5", and sew my strips directly on to the batting, placing one on top of the other. Then I trim the sewn piece of batting to a nice straight square. When I have all of my small squares sewn, I then take two of them, butting there flat edges up against each other, side by side, and join them with a zig-zag stitch.


After the whole top has been put together in this fashion, I then place the backing fabric behind it, pin baste it and machine quilt it, (something I have yet to do on this particular one).

This method might look a bit rough around the edges for some folks, but visually I think it works well with the vintage feedsacks. I applied the same method here to completely different style quilt, but on that quilt I covered up the zig-zag stitching with strips of folded fabric, creating a sashing effect.


Above and below are two more "String Studies" all quilted and waiting to be bound.



Oh and one more thing... My quilt, Study in Blues and Red made Etsy's Front Page the other night as part of this lovely treaury put together by One Canoe Two (One Canoe Two... such a cute name!)


Enjoy your day!!