Quiltville's Quips & Snips!!: How Many Quilts?

Time to post on this blog again. Found this quote recently and just had to share. And one of these days I will get back to blogging again. Too busy quilting....



How Many Quilts?
How Many Quilts?

May 9, 2004:

After having been asked how many quilts I've made, who I'm making this one
for, or that one for or why, and how many quilts do I think I need....

I came to the following conclusion:

I am a creator, an artist, just as much as a painter is...

Does anyone ask a painter who he is painting for or why he is painting yet
another landscape? how many pictures/portraits he has painted? How many
canvases or paintings he needs?

NO!

Does a painter stop wanting to paint because he has reached some number that
symbolizes the end of his need to paint?
"okay, that's #100, I'm done now..."

I create because I am driven to create. My medium just happens to be fabric
and thread, instead of oil or acrylics on canvas..but I create for the same
reason..to express myself, to share myself, to experiment...
Even if the quilt doesn't have a purpose, a recipient, a reason.
Quilting is my voice.

I Quilt, Therefore I Am! *Ü*

Jacket

Wow, it's been a long time since I put anything on this blog. I have been busy quilting tho. Made this jacket from a sweatshirt base and I really like it.
I went to the Lancaster Quilt Show in March and found the fabric that I thought would suit a jacket. I am not disappointed. Now if only the weather would turn cool. This jacket is very warm. Looking forward to wearing it in the fall. But I am going to Wisconsin in May and you never know about the weather there. Could be cool in Sturgeon Bay...lakes breezes and all.

50 State Quilt

In 1997 Ruth Frank, WI, started a project on Q-Xchg of making a 50 state quilt. Participants made 50 blocks of their state and sent them to her. She sorted and sent each person one block from each state. What a job that must have been. I made 50 blue crabs for Maryland. My daughter, Nancy Fons Farrell made 50 North Dakota blocks. I finally got mine together and will put on some borders and have it quilted. I promise to do it this year. We are snowed in in Maryland today, so I will get started.
yeah, yeah, yeah.....

I have a Longarm, machine that is

I took the plunge and bought a longarm quilting machine. It's a Janome 1600P with a Grace Frame. I've had a great time setting it up thanks to Jill. who I bought it from and who had most of the Grace Frame put together. All I had to do was set it in my quilting room, add a few screws and it was set to go. I tried a practice piece and soon got bored and decided to put in a small quilt. I can't wait to start quilting. Had a few mishaps with thread breaking, but I think it is sorted out and when I've finished I'll post a picture. This was a Christmas present to myself and I was very excited. I was almost as excited as my grandson who got a Transformer, whatever that is....

More Winners

Jim and I are the grateful winners of three quilts at the Quilt Bingo in Bowie, MD. See more below.

Quilt Bingo Winners

Here is another beauty that Jim won at the Quilt Bingo in Bowie, Md. on Sunday, October 18, 2009. We are in quilt heaven.

We hit the Jackpot

Can you believe it. Jim and I went to a Quilt Bingo in Bowie, Md and hit the jackpot. We won THREE quilts. I still can't believe it. A friend of mine says I now have my Christmas gifts bought. The quilts were made by members of the Southern Comforters Quilt Guild, Bowie MD. Hope you like them as much as we do.

Budding Quilter

My granddaughter, Amelia is learning to quilt. We started making a doll quilt using 5" blocks. Placed them 4 x 5 and sewed them together. She really has a knack for using a sewing machine. She even used my Purple Thang to keep the seams straight. All that is left is to sew the sandwich together and turn it and it will be done. I'll post a picture when she does that. School starts Monday, so I hope we finish before then. Isn't she cute.

Three Finishes

I am moving right along this summer. I finished three quilts so far. I have one other basted and will get to that next week. The first one is a quilt I bought at the NJ Quilt Show last March. It turned out better than I expected. I call it the "Beach House Quilt". Wouldn't it look nice on a bed in a beach house? I had started to quilt it with a star design using a paper pattern, but my machine just wasn't liking to do that, so I ripped out five rows of quilting, Ugh, and started over. I like the affect of wavy lines using a multi-color thread. I also used Thermore for the batting. Since it is polyester, it gives the puffy affect. Nice.

My second finish is a kit I bought at NQA in June. An impulse buy, but it was fun to put together. I am calling it "Black Diamonds". I have been using Sharon Schamber's basting technique and it went together very nicely. It is a one person method which comes in very handy when DH is not around. Again I used my wavy line design to quilt. I should branch out and try some other designs, but why temp fate. Wavy works...

The third finish is a quilt I started some time ago using my embroidery machine and paperpiecing. Lots of seams, but it finished up nicely. I am on a roll this summer. I have one other quilt being basted as I type. Not really, but will be done tomorrow for sure.

Bermuda 09

Time for a vacation, so I went on a quilt cruise. Yes, that's right, a quilting cruise. I had the time of my life. On cruises, you can only eat so much, drink so much or read so many books. We were kept busy quilting and sewing and eating, drinking and reading. Best cruise I ever took. I'd do it again. And what better place than to see Bermuda, again, ( used to live there) for two days. I just love the bag I made and some of the others made a quilt.

Alex Graduates

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted anything. I've been doing lots of things tho. Including my granddaughter's college graduation from Seton Hall in New Jersey. Now it's job hunting time. Good Luck, Alex. So to celebrate her graduation, we all went to NYC to see "Mary Poppins" and what a great show that is. A good time was had by all. Here she is with her parents and one with me and my daughter.

Bloggers Quilt Festival 2009

What a great idea to spend a rainy day looking at blogs. Could be all week from the looks of things. Thanks Amy for organizing this. My current favorite is my quilt using Kaffe Fasset fabrics. Loved working on it. I am inspired by the creativity of these bloggers.

Two new quilts

I tried my hand at FMQ again using a 17wt thread and I like it very much. Hard to find the thicker thread though. I have heard that it is not being made and suppliers are not stocking it. Too bad, because I like the affect. I used all my Kaffee Fassett fabrics for this one.

I also made the black and red, hearts and flowers quilt. I am committed to using what I have and found all the making for that one in my stash. I wonder what else is there.

Faux mid-arm quilter

I've devised a table to pretend I am a mid-arm quilter. Here's what I did. I saw a YouTube video that looked interesting. Marguerita McManus made a portable sewing table using foam insulation on top of a folding table. I figured I can do that with some modifications. Here is the video of what she did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAS25v3ZTk0, I hope that works. If not, search YouTube, Quilting, How to Build a Cheap Sewing & Quilting Table #1 and #2. I got the information I needed on the #2 video.

The modifications I made was to put my Janome 6500 machine parallel to the edge of my 24 x 48 table, then I put a 24 x 60 board on top. I use that as an ironing board. Placed my machine on one edge, placed my foam insulation on with a cutout for my machine, placed a vinyl on top, cut out the needle area and taped it all down. My explanation may be a bit confused, so a picture says a thousand words.

Handbags

I've been in the mood to make handbags or totes. All sorts of patterns have been coming my way and I've tried several. I especially like the small patchwork tote and the bigger knitting bag. The pattern for these came from Ruth in Oregon from my Stashbuster online list. On closer examination the small tote has the handle on the front instead of to the sides as Ruth suggested. Oh, well, it suits me.

The brown print bag is from Allpeoplequilt.com challenge this month. It was time consuming (for me) but I like the results. The small aqua bag is something that might work for party bags at the kids party. Very easy to make. My photography leaves a bit to be desired, but I'm getting better at it.

Valentines Postcards

I am in an exchange for Valentine postcards. These are what I am sending to the folks on my list. I enjoy doing these. Great satisfaction for a small amount of time involved. Can't wait to do some more. Maybe I'll get back in an exchange on Art2Mail.

I am still alive. Looks like my last post was in September. Where have I been? Busy getting ready for the holidays. Had all my family here 14 in all on Dec. 26, actually they started arriving Dec. 23 and stayed until Dec. 28. Needless to say, we are now eating leftovers, and by the way, they are very good. I did some sewing and quilting, but they took most of it home. I have one quilt left and that is the Frosty book panel for my grandson, Brian. Lots of fun to make, even tho my signature got a bit dyslexic. Writing with needle, thread and a foot pedal is a bit of a challenge. I like the result tho.

Rachel's Quilt

Here is a new quilt I made using a jelly roll. It went together very easily and I backed with with a type of minkee. Very, very soft. I also tied it because I didn't know how the machine quilting would look on the back. It was very slippery. I like to take the easy way out. Also I was trying to make prairie points, but didn't have wide enough fabric left over. So I took two coordinating 2.5" strips, RST, marked a half moon every four inches, sewed on that line, cut the half moons out leaving a 1/4" seam, turned them right side out and pressed. I figured they might flop around when washed, so I edge-stitched around each, fit them together on the edge of the top and side and backed it with my faux-minkee. I like the affect.