Sewing Technique Class

At the request of The Wooden Spool in Excelsior Springs, MO, on July 24th, I will be teaching a class in which I will share my secrets to my sewing/piecing techniques.
My Mother began teaching me at the age of 9 years old, how to sew and she purchased me my first Singer sewing machine (which I still own). All it did was straight stitch and zig-zag, but boy did it help me turn out of lot of my clothing. In High School, I made pretty much all of my own clothes.
As part of my learning to make those first garments, I ripped out a lot of seams that Mother did not think was good enough...especially seams where I was trying to match up plaids! It didn't matter if the plaids were off a 1/16", if they didn't match up...out came the seam.
But all of those hours of agonizing over doing it the right way, carried over into my piecing of quilts and to this day all of my seams line up perfectly and my seams lay flat. It may take me a little more time to turn out of quilt top, but my Mother will be proud!
After the class in July, I might be convinced to share some of my techniques with others. Stay tuned.

2009 Spring Patchwork Party

Well, after 14 months of procrastinating, I finally finished the spring version of 2009 Patchwork Party.
I had seen this quilted at Quilter's Station in Leavenworth, KS in either January or February, 2009 and absolutely feel in love with it. You would purchase a block from each of twelve quilt shops from across the United States and then choose the finishing kit from the shop that you wanted to complete your quilt. The center of this quilt is what caught my eye and I just had to have it. It is again, out of the norm of my taste in quilting fabric, but this one had to be added to my stash.
Well, after purchasing the first block and finding out that the blocks where made from templates....not my favorite...and I was soon wishing I hadn't started this project. But I continued and had the 12 blocks quickly put together and then the quilt was put away as I had other quilts I had to get done for one thing or another.
April 30, 2010, I attended a quilt retreat and took the Patchwork Party quilt with me to start putting together. Yep, I spent the entire quilt retreat piecing. Got it all done except the last floral border which I got sewn on first thing this morning. It is beautiful, but I am really worried that my oldest granddaughter will be here in a few weeks for a visit from South Dakota and decide it has to be hers. Cassi is very partial to pinks and browns! Well, Nana will just have to wait and see.
But needless to say, I am very, very happy to have this quilt pieced. I think I will be taking it back to Quilter's Quarters to have them quilt it. I do want to have it custom quilted in order not to destroy the beautiful center.
Happy Mother's Day to All!!!

2010 Northland Needlers Quilt Show

Well, we are now just under 5 months until the 2010 Northland Needlers Quilt Show here in Gladstone, MO. The show will be September 17-18, 2010 at the Gashland Presbyterian Church on North Oak Trafficway.
The quilt show committee has been working hard for months on the show behind the scene activities, such as securing vendors for the show, securing sponsors, working with the many wonderful volunteers, getting the Opportunity Quilts made and getting all of the wonderful miniature quilts that will be donated to support a local charity through a silent auction.
We are also excited to have a lot of new vendors participating in our show this year including, but not limited to, Ann Hazelwood, nationally known quilt appraiser; Linda Everhart, internationally known quilter; The Wooden Spool Quilt Shop (Excelsior Springs) and Pigs In A Blanket Quilt Shop (Weston). The local Bernina dealer will also have a booth at the show!
As we get closer to the show, I will try and update you with additional details.

2010 MSCS Quilt Challenge

After months of worrying about what I had done to accept a challenge to participate in designing my own quilt....it is completed!
The quilt shop that initiated the challenge sent us a pattern to make the blocks for six consecutive months and the only rule was we had to use the background and floral print in each block. They also would send us various other fabrics each month with the block pattern and it was us to us whether we chose to use them or use other prints. Over the six months, I had used what I was sent, but then by the time I received the sixth block...the fabric choices didn't look good together. So, back to the drawing board and I ended up remaking three of the blocks trying to give some color consistency.
The rest of the challenge was to complete the quilt with our own design, get it quilted, bound, labeled and it must be at the quilt shop in Minnesota by May 1st.

I am so happy to have this project behind me and can tell you I won't do this again when I have so many other commitments hanging over me.

Once again, I requested a local quilter by the name of Angela Walters to do the quilting. I must admit that I was blown away when I saw the quilt as she made each block stand out on its own. Angela, thank you for helping me complete this special project.

I will post one final picture of one of the blocks so you can see the quilting up close.

Quilts for Silent Auction at 2010 NN Quilt Show

As many of you know, I haven't posted in awhile. So I thought I would show you a couple of the quilts I have been working on. These are two miniatures that I will be donating to the silent auction at the Northland Needlers 2010 Quilt Show that is coming up in September. The Northland Needlers is a Quilt Show comprised of two local quilt guilds (a daytime guild - Northland Quilt Guild and a nighttime guild - Nitetime Needlers). I belong to the nighttime guild and am co-chairperson of the nighttime committee.

The label to the left is the label that I embroidered and have put on the two quilts I am donating.

The quilt to the right is called Civil War Legacies and the pattern called to make the quilt up in plaids. Well, since I am not a big fan of plaids and have all of this Thimbleberries fabric around, I made this little quilt up from 1-1/2 and 2-1/2-inch strips in my stash.

The two miniatures were pieced by me, of course, and then a local quilter (Angela Walters) quilted the quilts for me for free. She wanted to do this because she knew that I was donating the quilts and the money raised from the auction is going to support a local charity that our quilt guilds like to support - Synergy House.

Thank you Angela, as always, your quilting is outstanding and some lucky winner of these quilts will have a treasure.

This little quilt is called "A Tisket A Tasket" and is a Thimbleberries pattern by Lynette Jensen. And for the ones that don't know it (are there any of you?), I am a huge Thimbleberries fan.

Again, Angela Walters quilted the quilt for me and her outstanding work helped to complete the quilt.

I also had to add some embroidery work to a couple of the baskets and I must admit, it is very cute. If I hadn't already committed myself in donating this quilt, I would be adding it to my huge inventory of quilts. But a promise is a promise!! lol

My hopes is that some of you reading this blog will be enticed to come to our quilt show in September and bid on the quilts. Remember, the money raised goes to a good cause.

Thank you for stopping by to read what I have been up to. I will be making another post later today and will unveil the quilt I designed for a Thimbleberries Challenge.

Embroidery Filled Weekend

This last weekend of January has been filled with experiences using my new Bernina 830 embroidery module.

My first introduction to making my own embroidery designs was about this time a year ago. My dear husband bought me a Janome 350E which I really enjoyed, but then this past fall I upgraded to the Bernina 830. This is a sewing machine, embroidery machine and a quilting machine. It didn't take me long to get the hang of the sewing module, but working with the embroidery module was another thing. I have only had one hands-on lesson from the Bernina Sewing Center here in Kansas City, but I have taken a couple of webinars. What I am learning is that I still have a lot to learn! lol
I had been asked by an online group that I belong to...to make a special quilt label for a dear friend that has been very ill. With this request, I had to learn to incorporate lettering into a design, but it took some time to figure out how to add multiple lines of text. Well, now I am a pro! (NOT!)

Once I completed this request, it was then on to making a Thimbleberries name tag which we were challenged to do at our last Thimbleberries monthly club meeting. Well, since I am also a member of another online group, the "ThimbleBees", I wanted a bee on the name tag. What do you think?

The embroidery projects didn't stop there. I also used the lettering techinques to create hand towels for my daughter and daughter-in-law with the initial of their last names. That accomplished, I then wanted to add a little extra to a miniature that I have made for our local quilt guilds 2010 Quilt Show this next September. The miniature was one of Lynette Jensen's designs, a Tisket A Tasket, from one of her pint-sized quilt books. But the little baskets looked a little plain and I thought some embroidery work added to them might help to increase the bidding price for our silent auction. So, off to embroidery websites to find the perfect flower design for the tiny baskets. Once again, I chose a Lynette Jensen design. Not wanting to fill every basket, I had to decide which baskets to fill and it made the most sense to place the design in the two center baskets.

Next weekend, I will be teaching a class at one of our local quilt shops, The Wooden Spool, and won't have time to spend in my sewing room. But the best part of my weekend will be getting to spend time with my Aunt Margaret and my cousin Cherry. More about that to come.

2009 Black & White BOM

2009 was a year of the BOM's (Block of the Month). I had ten separate quilting projects going and now we are three weeks into 2010 and I not only have several of the quilts completely pieced, but I put the final stitches in the binding of one of them today.

The first Saturday of each month in 2009, I got up early and drove about 30 miles to get to Leavenworth, KS to arrive by 8:30 AM for Quilter's Quarter's BOM club. To participate in the club, in January 2009 I paid $5.00 for the January block and purchased all of the background fabric for the entire quilt. Then starting in February, I would take th previous month's completed block back to the quilt shop and get that month's block pattern and fabric for free. Well, I didn't always make it back on the first Saturday for my free pattern and fabric, but I think I only had to pay for one or two.

Then, of course, I had to purchase the finishing kit and the backing. This sounds like a sweet deal, but I still have about $250 invested in this quilt by the time I had it quilted.

I think what most of my friends will tell you, is that this quilt project is definitely "outside my box". Why? It isn't Thimbleberries. But I love it! Hope you will too?

2010 Road to Ohio

Approximately a year and half ago, I was able to join an online Thimbleberries quilt group that many of my Kansas City quilt friends already belonged to - Quilter's Hollow. The online group is made up of 50 ladies from across the United States and Canada that share a love of everything Thimbleberries. And since I am an addict when it comes to everything Thimbleberries, it was only logical that I get involved in this group.

Many of the group had gotten together here in Kansas City in 2008 for a weekend of sewing and of course - "shopping". So when I heard about their plans for a retreat in Dayton, Ohio in August 2009, I was one of 9 women from Kansas City that packed 3 vehicles with our sewing machines (and of course clothes) and set off on a two and a half day drive to Dayton, Ohio. No it doesn't take that long to drive to Dayton from Kansas City, but we "shop hopped" all the way. By the time we arrived at our destination and the wonderful retreat center, we were practically sitting on our purchases from the many quilt shops that we stopped at because we were filling up our vehicles to the point it was becoming increasing harder to find a place to put anything.

This was my first opportunity to meet the ladies from our online group that did not live in Kansas City and the weekend provided a lot of fellowship, food, little sleep and lots of sewing. And then since one of our members who made all the arrangements for the retreat and who also owns a quilt shop not too far from the retreat center, we left our machines for a few hours on Sunday morning and Cynthia opened her shop so we could shop some more!

By the second day of the retreat, everyone was have such a wonderful time they were already talking about another retreat in 2010 and plans got underway for just that. So how do you keep the excitement going from August 2009 to August 2010 for us quilters, well, we participate in a "Block of the Month" or as us quilters call it...a BOM! So, another one of our members kicked things off in October with giving us a block pattern and then each month another member provides another pattern. The blocks are to be made from our choice of fabric and then when all 12 blocks are complete...we are to come up with our own finishing ideas and hopefully, everyone will show up at the retreat in August with a complete quilt top.

Below, you will find pictures of a couple of my blocks. My choices for fabric colors are kind out of my norm, but thought it would give me a chance to expand my horizons. As the months progress, I will post additional pictures and then maybe by June or July I can post the completed quilt.

History of my Sun Bonnet Sue Quilt

The picture above is a newly completed project that took several decades to finish. Below, you will find the words of its history written by my Mother.
My Mom, Edith Hazel (Chastain) Wilson was the person that pieced the Sun Bonnet Sues. Mother had put these dolls together over a long period of time - the in between times of her other crafting, crocheting, sewing, and quilting. I got the “Sues” at her death in 1992. After several years, I gave them to my oldest daughter, Kathryn. A few more years passed before she finished the blocks and she finished putting the blocks into a quilt.
Back to Hazel: she never belonged to a quilting club and purchased few of her materials. Being married at fifteen, in 1929, quilting was done from necessity. This being the time of a depression of the economy, there was little money to buy quilting fabric. All of her piecing was done by hand, using scraps from garments she made, or scraps given to her. Many times she used the better parts of worn out garments and even printed feed sacks. In later years, she did machine piece a few quilts from scraps of knits. A lot of us can remember when knits were “in”! Remember? You did not have to iron this material. Oh, what a revolution when women were freed from part of the time spent at the ironing board.
You have to know that these hard times found her also using old blankets instead of cotton for batting. And once again the old feed sacks, the plain and the printed, served as linings, when four or more of them were sewed together. Where did they come from? The feed for her beloved chickens, our milk cow, and our pigs often came in feed sacks that were usable; and she did not throw away much. The chickens gave us our eggs; the cow our milk and butter; and the pigs got butchered in the winter to give us meat. Sunday dinner often found a chicken that was not laying eggs, on our dinner table. Some of the bounty was sold to neighbors, which in turn gave her money for other groceries.
Quilting time! I remember getting excited when she and my Grandma Chastain started talking about “putting in” a quilt. The quilting frames always hung, and never came down, until they were ready to be used, from the ceiling at Grandma’s house in Pelly, Texas. When not in use, they were “wound up”, out of the way. First the lining was hand sewn with very heavy thread, more like twine, and long stitches to the canvas cloth that covered the side pieces of the 1 by 4 pieces of wood. These were held together at the four corners with “C” clamps. After the lining was sewn in, then the batting or old blankets, maybe even another quilt that was worn and frayed, was laid over the lining and smoothed out. Then came the quilt top. I do not remember patterns of any kind, only blocks. Some quilts were small blocks, some were larger. If fabric was available, a quilt might have strips putting the “blocks of blocks” together. These quilts were practical, not so much for “pretty”. The quilt top was pinned ever so often to keep it straight. The “marking” for quilting was done quite often with chalk and a piece of string to keep it uniform. Most of the time these markings looked to me like quarter moons, nothing like today’s fancy patterns.
Now it was time to pull up a chair and get started. The beans were probably on the stove cooking for supper, or maybe the water was in the wash pot outside, with a fire to get it boiling. When the water got hot, they stopped and did the washing for our family of five, and Grandma and Grandpa. The clothes were rubbed on a rub board in soapy water, wrung out, then put through two tubs of rinse water. One of those tubs had “bluing” in it to help keep our clothes white and bright. All of this was hard on the hands that wanted to get back inside and get on to that quilt. Once in a while they would listen to a “soap opera” while they quilted, or maybe the “Chuck Wagon Gang” on the radio. That was about all the entertainment they had.
My job was to pick up whatever they dropped and play under the quilt until I was called. I was never, never to bump the frame or stand up under the quilt, which made them stick their fingers. Every time, one of them would tell me that they did not want blood on their quilt!
Sometimes a neighbor or friend would come along and help them for a “spell”, which was a good chance to catch up on the neighborhood gossip.
As they finished each side, they would get help and roll each side, keeping the frame and the quilt taut. Then they marked again and started the next row.
In later years, Mom had these frames up in her garage in Highlands, Texas and did some quilting there with neighbors and friends. An invite to quilt, some coffee to drink and some real friendships were made. Some of these friends were ladies from Highlands Assembly of God missionary group. They “turned out” a few quilts a year to give to the “needy”. Some of those tops were donated by Mother. Some of the tops, at church, were ones done for ladies willing to pay for the quilting. This added funds for other projects.
One summer Mom got Kathryn’s daughter, Demi, interested in the Sues. However, I never caught the bug to quilt, but in the past few years, Kathryn has and has become very talented and artful in piecing quilts with beautiful patterns and fabrics. I am enjoying a couple (quite a few) of her works. I am excited to see the Sues come to life under the hands of Kathryn and her friend, Eileen Schamel (Boonsboro Maryland), the quilter who is quilting it by hand.
Oh, I forgot to add, you had better not get Mother’s or Grandma’s scissors and cut a piece of paper with them, it would make them “dull”.
Kathryn, Grandma would be so proud of you and pleased that you are seeing that her Sun Bonnet Girls are becoming a thing of beauty.

Mother
(Billie LaJune Roeder)
April 10, 2009

I want to thank everyone who had a hand in this beautiful quilt. It truly has been a Labor of Love! Grandma, I hope you are looking down from Heaven and smiling.

Not much sewin today...

What a change in our weather today. Some of the snow actually melted, but of course, now everything is going to be dirty until the streets get a lot drier.
I did manage to spend a little time in my sewing room tonight. I am Co-Chairing a quilt show in September and started working on a little quilt for the silent auction. It is a simple little Civil War log cabin pattern and shouldn't take a lot of time to complete.
One of my goals in 2010 is to get my basement cleaned out. Today my dear husband purchased a small Rubbermaid cabinet with doors so that we can start working on getting the basement better organized. In May, our homeowners association is going to have a garage sale and we fully intend to get rid of a lot of things sitting around that we have collected...and don't use.
And then, I needed to check on all my ThimbleBees bingo cards to see how many of them had today's words called by my good friend Sharon Vickery.
So, with a full day of work at my "paying" full-time job and then coming home and spending some time in my basement (sewing room), I am off to bed.
Hopefully, tomorrow will bring us more sunshine and warmer temperatures....which will cause more of this white stuff to disappear!

2009 Thimbleberries Big Club Quilt

Despite being a little under the weather, I have managed to finish piecing my 2009 Thimbleberries BCQ.

The original variation of the quilt was to have been 80" x 98", but I needed the quilt to be larger than that to cover my queen size mattress and box springs. Therefore, after much thought and planning my variation ended by being 99" x 118".

I also made some changes to the pattern as I thought the center was a little busy for my taste. Again, making some variations to the pattern, I added sashing between the various block sections to give it a little cleaner look.

You might also notice that 30 of the 6" blocks were embroidered. Thimbleberries had provided a cheater fabric for these blocks.

Now, back to my sewing room and do a little clean up. It really feels nice to have this project completed. I will need to find someone to custom quilt this project for me as with all of the embroidery, I do not want an all over quilting. Some day I hope to have this quilt appraised.

My Business Logo

I put my business logo on my blog tonight. Still working within the blog options to figure out what I am doing.
I need to get to my sewing room tonight and work on my 2009 Thimbleberries BCQ. I have modified the pattern and have enlarged it to a king size, which is what I need to fit on my bed. The approximate finished size will be 98"x118". Yep, it will be big. But the other goal enlarging it was to also take the busyness out of the center of the quilt. It was just too busy and by adding additional sashing between the sections, the embroidered blocks stand out better.

The Beginning

2009 is behind us and we are off starting a new year! I hope to met many of my personal goals in 2010...one of which is to start my own embroidery business! Another of course, is to loose some weight. As I age, the weight slowly creeps up and the next thing I know I look at myself in pictures and DON'T like what I see.
Also, a personal goal is to get caught up in my sewing room. As many of my local quilt friends can attest, my 2009 New Year's Resolution was not to purchase any new fabric or kits, but that resolution quickly went out the window. But now it is another new year and I have to make new resolutions and try and stick to them. Maybe this year (since several of you have been saying the same thing) I will get all of my BOM's completed and just have a couple of projects laying around unfinished.
This is my first post to my Blog, so we shall see where things go from here. I will first have to learn how to create my site and this will help when I start my embroidering business.
Until next time...