Good day to Madame Samm and all….I am Frances, the Quiet Quilter from
One More Quilt . I am a slow quilter. Partially by choice and partially by…..being slow. I have been hand quilting since 2005 and haven’t made very many quilts or quilty things like a lot of ya’ll. I plan to show you most of them here. It really won't take long. I enjoy every quilt I make and as it nears completion, I seem to speed up. I think life is like that, too.
Here is a quick version of my life before quilting: Grew up, married, had 3 children (older DS, DS, and DD), saw them grown and gone, both DH and I retired from jobs, and learned cross stitch (just me).
Boy, that was a fast 60+ years!
Now to show you my Baggage Claim of Quilts (they’re not in a Trunk yet).
2005 - beginnings
My first quilt was not one I quilted, but one I cross stitched. My DSIL and I collaborated on this quilt for our DHs (DBIL ended up with it)…
It is a series of call signs from a group of Hams, or amateur radio operators (not to be confused with cb radios!) who, in their younger days (1950s/60s) would drive on weekends and search for a transmitter hidden by 1 or 2 of their group, using their ham sets and radios.(big story here…some of the places they hid them! side of a cliff, for one) Several of this group continued to stay in touch and came to a reunion in 2005.
Next, I pieced a Turning Twenty quilt (tied again) for my older son. Recently took a picture....
Bought FQs, washed FQs, cut heavy wads of loose fabric threads off FQs….one lesson noted and learned.
Simple small quilts came next:
These were mainly practice quilts. (Huge!! binding on first quilt)
End of 2005 and into 2008 – Whole Quilt Saga
As I put a timeline together for this post, I realized that, without a doubt, having grandchildren helped this whole idea of quilting along. I had 5 grandchildren at this point (younger DS’s 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004,,, DD’s 2003).
I decided to make them one quilt each.. and I was going to handquilt them…..Yeah! I am tempted to add an extra year to my quilting life here… they seemed forever finishing! I learned so much on what NOT to do with these quilts.
No picture for my first, it was a story quilt (Mother Goose rhymes) for my DGD (2004) to hang on her wall.
Next came all these for the boys…..I decided to try to perfect my quilting skills on these… practically killed me! The boys almost grew up before I finished them:
1) double bed-sized quilt: I got muscles by turning the fabric round and round as I quilted around every planet.
2) And again: trucks and rocks, double bed-sized quilt - quilted around every
truck and
rock!
# 3 quilt – yep…same size quilt, same technique…wouldn’t I ever learn! I did start “appliqueing”
however. Lucked out on finding border fabric that matched so well..
#4 quilt– Big panels! Little 2” squares, cut 1 at a time, sewn one at a time.. I had so much to learn! I drew 3" interlocking circles over that entire quilt! And sewed them one circle at a time, knotting and cutting thread with each circle! What was I thinking!!! Oh, how much I have learned since then!
So in this three year period or so, I made only 5 quilts…. It was not quite as dramatic as I lead people on to believe, but it did slow down my learning of the fundamentals of quilting. But my grandchildren would not trade any of that time for their quilts!
2008-2010 – New Sewing Machine, Discovering Piecing!
I decided by now that quilting was here to stay and I could justify retiring my $100+ Singer from WM (it’s still here as a backup…an okay machine, but I needed an upgrade). So I got a basic Janome. As much as I admire embrodery that one can do on machines nowadays, I had enough to learn without adding that to the mix.
I started looking around the internet. I could say from here on I taught myself, but that would not be true. You lovely quilters were/are my teachers.
Did you know there is a technique called …..piecing? and strip mining er, sewing. Honest! Revolutionary! I have now entered a new phase…
I had almost caught up with the grandchildren,….and here they come again!! (DDs 2008, DSs 2009 and older DSs 2010). Total, 5 boys, 3 girls. More quilts needed.
Spur of the minute Halloween quilt – made it in less than a month.
This was the first quilt I made for a baby who was actually still a baby when I finished it….My neighbor made the clowns for me on her machine….
I was feeling confident now, so I made a signature quilt for a friend who led us in light-weight water aerobics (for the older generation). My first 9 patch!
No, this next one was not a scrappy quilt. You have to buy fabric first before it becomes scrappy. I still have some left…anyone want any? …at least I cut out
all the pieces before sewing them together this time. This is the only one of my quilts that I tried to machine quilt. I used a walking foot with my newly acquired Janome... the back leaves a little to be desired, but it hasn't come apart yet. Also, another step toward appliqué…hand sewn....
And I started naming my quilts....
Christmas Wrapping
My younger sister became a grandma and I sent these to my niece.
Animal Crackers
Don't Fence Me In
Now I am broadening my horizons and starting to include other things besides baby quilts. I am also getting a little faster and trying more designs.
I discovered schlep bags and made a few.
Please note: For my first flannel quilt, I chose the basic block design... love 'em ..so simple. I loved the colors.. had some left so watch for them again later on down the line.
Home Spun
My first rail fence quilt .
Purple Playground
Back to younger quilts
About this time my oldest DS got engaged and married...
So a quilt for the couple
Celebration!
Baby shower gift for my newest grandchild (oldest DS 2010)
Quiet Slumber
I decided to start over with my quilts for my grandchildren. Am continuing to work on this, but have finished one for my oldest GS (he's 12 now).. another rail fence.....honest.
3D Math
We are coming to the home stretch now....
my DH's crazy clothes quilt – you know about this one
Crazy!
Blue/White Sawtooth quilt – and this one
Practice
And that brings us up to the present. And a lot of quilts yet to make!
In the works:
Tool Quilt (being quilted)
Mystery Quilt (no name yet)
and my 2 quilt-along quilts....
See how far I have come!
Thank ya'll for looking, and thank you Madame Samm!
PS: Looks like another baby quilt will be in the works soon! Yep! #6 for DS in June!
