Wantobe Quilters 2nd Guest -A very dear Susan Branch " Imagine seeing you here..."

When Madame Samm invited me to be her guest blogger, I thought how wonderful…and then, writing this, I think, where am I? I feel so strange.  I’m not home.  I’m out.  Popping by, so to speak, and in my jammies too, because it’s before dawn my time.  This is almost like time travel!  Which is somewhat fitting since quilts are a little like time travel too.♥

This quilt was the one that started it all, made by my great grandmother.  To me, it’s imbued with her, of a time and place I’ve never been and can only imagine.  From a person I never knew. The moment I saw it, quilting flew into my heart and never went away. ♥

I’ve sewn for as long as I could reach the pedal on my mom’s old black Singer, which was always set up in the corner of our kitchen when I was growing up. But, I’m truly more of an appreciator of quilts and a painter of quilts than a quilter of quilts!  I come by it honestly.

As a child, I loved handwork the best, loved the needle, pushing thread through cloth took all my troubles away and made me feel productive, like I could DO something, be self sufficient.  I found out I could have pretty much anything I wanted if I could make it myself. ♥

My other great grandmother made boxes of dishtowels she sent to my mom every Christmas for as long as I can remember, from her home in Iowa; embroidered flour sacks wrapped in tissue paper.  My mom always cried from happiness when she opened the box. This is the last of them.→

When my great grandmother died, I was around twelve and inspired to make my own dish towels, such as they were; I wasn’t my great grandmother, but I didn’t want my mom to go without, and definitely, I liked to make her happy.  ← This is the last of the mohicans, she saved it, of course.  She’s a mom. ♥ 

I managed to eek out two quilts in my short career.  This was the first one, → a Christmas gift I made for my aunt.  I taught myself, so of course they were simple squares; the second went to my mom and by then I’d graduated to different-sized and uneven patches held together with assorted embroidery stitches.  I will spare you the vision of that one.

When I was in my twenties and married, I made everything for my house; from curtains, to pillows, dishtowels and aprons.  I had “Tuesday Girls” at my house where my girlfriends would get together and teach each other how to make things.  We made everything from homemade pasta, to fabric picture frames, to margaritas (that was a good Tuesday!) and finally, one of the gals, Liz, knew how to quilt and taught us the real thing, with templates, all by hand.  Her Tuesday lasted for months. ♥

←I had to show you my doll…I made her from a Raggedy Ann pattern when my mother-in-law came back from Thailand with a beautiful silk fabric dress that was about size one; there was never a chance I was going to fit into it in this lifetime, so I took it apart, made a new little dress and a doll to go with it. (I thought this would interest Madame Samm on two levels, doll level and orange level. ♥)

 Right about the time of “Tuesday Girls” a life-changing thing happened to me. I bought watercolors and painted the geranium on my kitchen table. I didn’t know I could paint, was kind of a stick-figure sort of draw-er and then suddenly, this showed up!  Well, painting was a whole new creative thing in my life; it stole me away from everything else.  I still loved fabric, and loved to sew, but painting turned me from a maker of quilts, into a collector of quilts.

And a painter of quilts.  I watercolored quilts in many of my first paintings, and when I started writing books, they were the inspiration for the colors I chose; I painted borders of quilt designs.  And I hung them all over my house, draped them over beds and sofas, hung them on walls, everywhere I could squeeze one in, I did, and do.

Each one has a story, mostly my story now, of where I found it and what I love most about it, none of them are signed or dated; I don’t choose them for any kind of “value” they might have, I choose them because I fall in love with them and can’t leave them where I found them.

But I never stopped sewing, never stopped making things for my house.♥

And then, in the way that one thing leads to another, one day the opportunity arose for me to combine my love of watercolors with my love of quilts to design fabrics of my own.  Did I know what I was doing (do I?) No, I did and do not.  I watercolor my designs.  I’m sure there is a faster, better way to do it, but I don’t know what it is.

 

So another miracle happened and fabric came out with my name on the selvage.

I used all my favorite colors, all the ones I loved from my old collected quilts, soft, old-fashioned, homey, with lots of white. Some of the art came directly out of my books.

And then I was asked to design quilts to go with the fabric.  Another thing I didn’t know how to do, and made me question, why don’t I do anything I know how to do?

I still love the charm of applique, still love embroidery.  Sooner or later, words were bound to turn up in my quilts; I wanted people to have a way to add a quote to the border, or do a whole center in an important quote, or celebrate a marriage, or a birth, so I designed these letters-by-the-yard and called this a Story Quilt.

 Of course I never stopped sewing….I still make curtains and pillows, and especially I love to make dishtowels, which still look suspiciously the same as they did when I was twelve. And now I can use my own fabric to do it.  This is what I like about life.  The whole Forest Gump box of chocolates thing, you never know what you’re going to get.  When Madame Samm asked me to come here I wasn’t sure what I would talk about; not being a true quilter, the best I could do would be to show you my appreciation and love for the  beautiful art of quilting.  I’m your biggest fan! ♥ I wanted to tell you how much I admire your creative spirits and the wonderful job you do of making the world a more beautiful place. ♣ 

I have known of "Susan Branch" for many many years..I have every calendar she ever printed....All of my American friends were sew good in sending them to me every year. Her books well I  have every one of them too, her fabric yes that too.Every design she made, have them all.Sew needless to say when I thought of "OUR" official 1st  guest, I wanted Susan ... Susan Branch!

I had already chosen all of the giveaways for each day and then I read about Susan's favorite thing in her sewing room. Her grandmothers sewing basket.Wow, I look at the list and here we have a sewing basket..I know...this happens to me a lot....

This basket is from the Eleanor Burns collection

it is 10 x 71/4...not too large, just perfect actually. 

Let's begin a new tradition since we do have quite

a few of these to giveaway in the next few weeks..

And will you look at all those goodies, pins, needles

threads, finger protectors...

Sew this giveaway for all of our QUILTERS..( yes this one can be yours) filled with every kind of needle you will ever need, seam rippers .. there are Presencia threads, everything you would need to sew anything.....All from Colonial Needles.

Colonial needles I have come to admire. They just acquired Presencia threads which I have been sew devoted to for not only my hand embroidery but also sewing and quilting threads.Sew you can only imagine my surprise when their President gave me the luxury to enter his online store and choose whatever I wanted....Well I thought why should I have all that fun..I called upon Jane from Jane's Fabrics and she had a hoot choosing everything for this basket...

Sew QUILTERS if you like this sewing basket as your very own and you would like to  continue a tradition that your family will wonder "what was she thinking about when...." Leave a comment here, tell us you are a QUILTER and be sure to go visit Susan Branch's Blog subscribe to her blog, RRS feed

.Her blog is just sew darn inviting...having her posts in your inbox is like a sweet treat you give yourself ...I always feel at home with her..sew will you...

Thanks Susan you warm my heart, you warm all of our hearts- thanks to Colonial Needle

and Thank YOU for still being part of all this on Day 2.

"What else will you put in your sewing box?"

I would like to put Susan in there...for now

I will put her post...xx

Mine has a hand embroidered hanky that my grandmother

used to wipe her hands on when she her hands got moist from stitching...

Please tell us you have registered with Susan's blog,

you are a follower here,

you are a Quilter!

that is all.