Welcome to my new blog.  I’ve attempted blogging a couple of times before, and those blogs are still floating around cyberspace, but I’ve decided to start fresh and hopefully be more intentional about keeping up with it.  I plan to post once a week, mostly about my quilts, but also other things as they pop up. 

Every quilt has a story to tell, and I’m going to revisit some of my older quilts, and let them tell their stories.  (I began quilting when I was still in high school, so I shouldn’t run out of material for a while.)  I’ll also do some step-by-step (not exactly tutorials) information about the processes as I make some new quilts.  Maybe I’ll even do some tutorials.  I’m open to suggestions as to what kind of tutorials you are looking for.   Maybe I can fill that niche (or maybe not, depending on what it is).

I’m going to start off with the story of my first quilt, started in about 1956 or 1957 with my paternal grandmother, Margaret Moore Morris.  She lived with my family for a time, and one day she announced, “You and I are going to make a quilt.”  I don’t remember being exactly thrilled about it, but as I recall, my mother encouraged me by saying something to the effect of, “Grandma needs to be needed.”  Anyway, Grandma ordered a pattern from Michigan Farmer magazine’s quilt pattern service.  There wasn’t much around in the 1950’s, since the big quilting movement was yet to happen.  The pattern only had a number, no name. 

Grandma and I both pieced blocks, using scraps from her collection, and unbleached muslin (she called it “factory”). 

   This was my first attempt at hand quilting.   I did it over Christmas break during my first year of college.  (Remember black and white photos?)

My quilt got finished in 1960.  Grandma’s remained a stack of blocks (she died in 1961) and a few years later my mother made them into a quilt for my brother.  Many more years later, when my children were nearly grown, my mom gave me 18 more blocks that were left over from my brother’s quilt (Grandma enjoyed piecing, and just kept making blocks, without really counting if there were enough to make a quilt).  They languished in my closet for some time.  After all, what do you do with 18 blocks?  They don’t fit the usual parameters of a quilt.  About the time my first grandchild came along, I had the idea to make a quilt for each of my three children’s first child, so that each family would have a quilt made by the child’s great-great grandmother.

The leftovers from the recycled wool Fireside Star quilt were sitting there staring at me, so I needed to do something with them.   I saw some similar pillows in a quilt shop, and thought they would be a good way to use up some of the scraps.  I had to use flannel for the green, as there wasn't any green wool.  The stitching is NOT hand buttonhole stitch.  I don't DO handwork if I can help it!  My machine has a very nice double buttonhole stitch, so I use it.

By the time I got done with the pillows, there were no large pieces of wool left, but it was still sitting there staring at me.  So--let's use it all up.  I can't bear to see scraps of non-traditional fabrics sitting around.  Quilting fabric scraps abound, but the others I seldom use, so don't really want to give them space.  So after  a 1 1/2 hour search, I finally unearthed the nearly 30 year old bear pattern.  Patchwork bears--so cute.  They're ready to spruce up the space for Christmas.  My 5 year old great-granddaughter Bella was here when I was making one of them, and when it came to the stuffing, she was eager to help.  She's not ready for the sewing machine yet, but the stuffing was a way she could be involved.  When she can sit still for 5 minutes, and reach the foot control, I'll teach her to sew.

I promised that I would post pictures of the finished Fireside Star quilt.  It is already on my bed, and ready for me to try it out tonight.  Can't wait to snuggle up under that wool and flannel!.

Here's the whole thing.  As I said, because I was using recycled wool clothing, no pieces were big enough to do large areas, so several different backgrounds were used, as well as two fabrics for the large star points, and the border was the leftovers.  Obviously it is not going to be making the rounds of the shows, but know what?  I took it to my quilt guild for Show and Tell today, and they loved it.  At least they said they did!

A little closer in toward the center.  The quilting is a bit more visible.

Really zeroing in on the center.  I love that quilting design and will most likely do it again.

Same design in the corner.  The tan piece was maybe coat fabric, as it was heavier than some of the others.  Really makes the pinwheels pop.

The quilting is much more visible on the back.  As I said in the previous blog, this is purely a practice piece, and has bumps,bobbles, and birdnests.  But it was a great learning experience!.  Anyway, done is better than perfect, as they say.

I've been very lax about posting to my blog.  I'm starting a new one associated with my website and will try to be more diligent about keeping up with it.  Things have been crazy busy for me lately.  Someone once told me that when you get older, it takes longer to even turn around.  Maybe I'm turning around too much!
Recently my daughter gave me a box of old wool clothes that she had been saving to make a braided rug, which didn't look like happening any time soon.  I deconstructed them and washed them in hot water, then dried on high in the dryer.  Not exactly felted, but dense and clean!.  After staring at them for a few days, and being in the midst of another project (Fireside Star) from the book Flannel Gatherings, I laid that project aside for a while and proceeded to make a wool quilt for my bed.  Needles to say, it is full of interesting things (some call them mistakes).  First of all, there wasn't enough of any one fabric to follow the pattern, so I substituted where necessary. Next, I should have pressed the seams open to reduce bulk.  I quilted it on my Tin Lizzie, and had some problems with the thickness of the 3 layers of wool quilt top, batting, and flannel backing (I wanted it to be WARM).  So there are lots of bobbles and bumps, but overall, I am satisfied with it, and I will be the one sleeping under it, so that is ok.  My main reason for making this quilt, since I rarely use patterns, was to bring my longarm quilting to a new level.  I pretty much do meanders and feathers, and this one looked like a challenge.  I found the designs not as difficult as they looked at first, once I got a good look at them.
I'm posting the picture of the unquilted top here and will post the finished product when I get the binding completed.