Answering Those Probing Questions...

After my last blog post about "acquiring" two more quilts, my dear niece, Kristin, who is not a quilter, but still has a great blog of her own, left a comment with several questions in it.  I thought I'd take the opportunity to answer her questions in the form of a blog post.

Here is her comment:

Looks like you had a great weekend!I have some questions: 

1.) How many quilts do you have in your house???
2.) Do you rotate/use them all?
3.) What do you do if you ever get tired of a quilt?
4.) Have you ever tried the e-bay game with quilts? Buy low / sell high?
Hmm, sounds like answering those questions could be a blog post...

Okay, here goes...

1)  Number of quilts in my house:  22 quilts of various sizes, from couch quilts to queen-sized...counting the two "new" ones we got this weekend.  This number does not include quilts that aren't mine or ones that are projects that I am working on.  (Please don't ask me how many UFO's ["unfinished projects"] or PIGS ["projects in grocery sacks"] I have right now...that number may be higher than 22.  I dare not count!)

2)  I do rotate my quilts and use them all at one time or another.  Some are only used when we have company, ie, when there are more beds and people to keep warm.  Some are made with spring/summer colors, so get used during those seasons.  Others are in fall/winter colors, and get used during those months.  You must keep in mind that we have NO BLANKETS in this house.  As my quilt collection grew, I gave my blankets away and we just layer quilts.  Right now we have 4 on our bed.  As the weather warms, we will pull them off one at a time.  During the hottest part of the summer we usually use one light quilt.

3)  I've been known to pass quilts along to my kids when they've needed them, as they've gotten houses and more bedrooms, etc.  Just last week, Trinity asked me if I had a full-sized quilt that I could part with because they need one to use on their guest bed.  I think I can spare one!  LOL

4)  No, I've never gambled with buying quilts low and selling high.  I'm afraid that I would fall in love with all that I buy and not be able to part with them!  LOL  But I am a "quilt rescuer"...hence buying the quilts at the thrift store.  Or if I see one for a really low price at a yard sale or auction.  If those quilts had been appropriately priced this weekend, I wouldn't have bought them.  I refuse to let someones hard work and love go unappreciated.  In fact, I been known to bid up a quilt at an auction...or even buy it myself...if I think that it's not going for the price it should... just to get some justice for the quilt maker and for quilters everywhere!  There is a LOT of MONEY and TIME and LOVE that goes into making a quilt for someone to flippantly toss it away.  That's why I "rescue" quilts from the thrift stores.  Like the baby blanket that we put on our pillows for Ginger to sleep on during the day.  It was HAND EMBROIDERED and HAND QUILTED and was on the shelf at Goodwill for $3.83.  :(   Somebody's Grandma was rolling over in her grave when that thing got donated like a common piece of trash.  But she can rest now knowing it has been saved and is being used and loved everyday.  :)   It is not uncommon for the supplies to make ONE queen-sized quilt to cost about $150.00.  And that doesn't even include the HOURS involved in planning and making one.

I love quilts.  I love quilting.  I love the artistry of quilts.  I love the history of quilts.  I love the legacy that quilting leaves.  When you've been surrounded by a homemade quilt, you've been surrounded by LOVE!

Loretta

Leisurely Days...

Quote for the Day:

Never work before breakfast; 

if you have to work before breakfast,

eat your breakfast first. 

~Josh Billings

I don't have to return to work till next Wednesday, so I'm really enjoying this time off at home!  I could really get used to this!  :D   I've been doing things around the house that due to my back pain and lack of time, have been put off for waaayyyyy too long.   I'm taking my time, setting the timer for 20 minutes and just doing tasks here and there...mainly cleaning and straightening up types of things.  It's amazing what you can get done in 20 minutes! 

Since finishing my whole-cloth quilt top, my quilt frame has been empty and my fingers can only stay still for just so long.  So yesterday I finished loading the next quilt top into the frame so I can get back to hand quilting.

Quilt top being loaded into the frame...

Here it is, ready for the first stitch!  :)

And of course, I jumped right in and quilted for a couple hours on it last night.  :D  I can't explain how hand quilting effects me.  It relaxes me and calms my mind and can almost put me into a zen-like state!  :)   It really is my "therapy".

I was disappointed in the whole-cloth quilt after it was washed and the blue lines were gone.  Because I had used white thread on white cloth, I felt like the quilting really disappeared.  I wished I had done it in a white-to-gray variegated thread so that the stitching would have been a little more noticeable.

Now that I realize that I *like* to see a little bit of the stitching, I decided to do this new quilt with a variegated thread.  I chose this one by Star.  It is a pale pink-to-biege-to-blue variegated thread.

It doesn't really show up in the blue area, and may not show up much in the other colored areas, but it should look really cool on the unbleached muslin back and in the cream-colored areas of the front.  :)  At least I'm *hoping* it will look good, anyway! 

This is also the first time I've used this brand of hand quilting thread and I must say I'm in LOVE!!!  It glides through the fabric like a hot knife through buttah!  


Since I haven't done any book reviews lately, I thought I'd throw some into this post.

I recently finished reading "Stuff:  Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things" by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee.  I found this book riveting and would definitely recommend it!

On a recommendation I started reading "Wisenheimer:  A Childhood Subject to Debate" by Mark Oppenheimer.  I read about half-way through it before I became too bored with it to finish it. The first part was about his young childhood and was very interesting.  However, once I got to the part about his debating in high school, it really became boring and repetitive so I stopped after reading about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the book.


As for my audio books, I recently finished two that I would whole-heartedly recommend.  First one is "Transition" by Chaz Bono.  It is the biography of Chastity/Chaz Bono...Sonny & Cher's child, and how Chastity transgendered into Chaz.  Regardless of what your beliefs are on the subject, it is an interesting and informative book.  Many, many years ago, as an ICU nurse, I had a patient that was in the process of transitioning from male to female, so you just never know when someone in this situation will cross your path.   

While on traveling to and from Tennessee this past week, I listened to the book "Inconceivable:  A Medical Mistake, the Baby We Couldn't Keep, and Our Choice to Deliver the Ultimate Gift" by Carolyn and Sean Savage.   Excellent, excellent book!   Have the Kleenex nearby! 


Well...I hear my quilt calling to me to come do some hand quilting!  MUST. GO. QUILT.  :)

Loretta

Update...

Quote for the Day:

"I guess a drag queen's like an oil painting: 

You gotta stand back from it to get the full effect."
---Harvey Fierstein 

This week I've been working on getting my next quilt top ready to go into the quilting frame.

This is the backing being loaded into the frame...

The backing for this quilt is plain, unbleached muslin.  Sometimes I like to keep it simple.

After much rolling, the backing is on the frame and looks like this...

...ready for the batting and top to be added.

Next comes the batting.  Here's the batting attached to the backing.  Once I get the top ready to attach, both the backing and top will roll up at the same time.  Until then, the batting just hangs between the second and third rollers.

I've been busy marking the quilting design on the top for this quilt...

The top has some challenging design issues, so it's really required some thought to decide how to best quilt this.  I hope what I've chosen works out!  :)  I'm almost done marking and hope to get the top loaded onto the quilt frame tomorrow.

I have decided to use varigated thread instead of a plain off-white thread.  Unfortunately, no stores around here carry a varigated hand-quilting thread, so I had to order it online.  I'm anxiously awaiting it's arrival!  :)

My granddaughter's 5th birthday is coming up next weekend and I've had her quilt finished for some time now.

I've even had it packaged in this gift bag, ready to give to her...

It's been sitting in my office area waiting for next weekend.

Then...after looking at the bag this past week, suddenly it struck me how much the princess in pink actually looks like a drag queen!  No, really!!!

Okay...don't tell me you don't see it, too!  I mentioned it to Andy and he immediately saw it!  He said, "all that's missing is a big Adam's apple!"  LOL


Loretta

There's Just Something About a Quilt...

Quote for the day:

Definition of a Quilter:

Somebody who takes large pieces of fabric, 

cuts them up into little pieces of fabric,

and then sews them together again to make a large piece of fabric!

When I'm not busy being a nurse (or tossing out unnecessary clutter), I quilt.  

It relaxes me.  It grounds me.  It rewards me.  It makes me feel good about myself.  It's something I'm good at (at least *I* think so anyway).

And it's cheaper than therapy!!!! 

I come from a long line of Mennonite quilters on my dad's side.  I grew up with a love of quilts because of my Aunt Priscilla who always had her entire living room taken up with a large quilt frame with a quilt in it.  Her sofa never wore out because you could never sit on it...it was always in the middle of the living room...supporting the center of whatever quilt was in the frame!

When I was 18 and working 3-11 as Nurses' Aide in the local nursing home in Archbold, OH, about once a week after work I would go over to Aunt Priscilla's and play her piano and serenade her while she quilted.  (Though she was in her 60's at the time, she worked 3-11, too, and so was up till 1 AM or so.)

I didn't learn to quilt until about 15 years later...self-taught by reading some books.  I LOVED hand quilting from the get-go!  But it took me many, many years to learn to piece the tops together...something I still consider myself a "newbie" at.

Since I didn't piece, I either embroidered the quilt tops, bought quilt tops at auctions and finished them into quilts, or had a friend make my quilt tops for me. 

Several years ago I gave away some of my first finished quilts to my niece and nephew the year their dad died.  I vowed at that time to make each of my nieces and nephews a quilt.  To date, I have fulfilled 4 of those quilts.  I have finished the 5th quilt in my niece/nephew plan, but haven't given it to the recipient, yet.  Hopefully that will take place in the next month or two.

For those of you who aren't aware of what goes into a home made quilt, I thought I'd walk you through some of the steps...

First you need some of this...

Yes...that is a picture of the closet where 90% of my fabric is stored...what doesn't fit in there is stored in picnic baskets...not to mention the cupboard that holds my flannels. 

Then you need a pattern from a book or from the gazillion patterns available on the internet...

You make a block or two to see how you like it...

This particular block has 53 little pieces in EACH BLOCK!   And in the final quilt there were 30 blocks.  53 X 30 = a helluva lot of cutting and sewing!  LOL

Then you make some more blocks...

You sew all of those blocks together and add borders to make the "quilt top".  

You then load it onto the quilt frame, along with the backing fabric and the batting (fluffy inner material that makes it WARM & CUDDLY)... 

You sew all three layers together with stitches that look like this...

till it looks like this...

Then you want to make sure you have your camera ready for when you gift the quilt to the recipient so you can see this...

And that's why we quilters love what we do!!!  :D

To have a home-made quilt is to wrapped in LOVE! 

Loretta