It has been several days since I last posted. I am still working on finishing the previously mentioned projects. Now my digital camera has died. The latch that closes the battery compartment broke off somehow. So, that being said, I don't know when I will be able to take pics of my bags. May try to use Tommy's webcam. Anyway, I thought I would post some pics of my first quilts and my current UFO's. Of course with the way blogger works for me, I will have to upload them individually as separate posts.
I guess before you see my quilts, I should warn you that I am a self taught quilter. I know of no one in my family who quilts or quilted. My mom taught me to sew when I around 10. I remember my grandmother making clothes for my doll's when I was small. But no one quilted. I have always wanted to because I love the patterns and the art of creating pictures with fabric and thread.
I first started quilting in July of 2005. I was living in a two bedroom cottage behind Mountain View Grand Resort and Spa in Whitefield, New Hampshire with my husband Tommy, Rafal, and Tommy's nephew Jeremy. Tommy was working within days of us getting there. Raf and Bug (as Jeremy is affectionately known) weren't. So I was stuck for hours upon hours with these two. The only vehicle we had was my Ford Ranger and it was having issues. Someone always had to be in it so we didn't turn it off or you couldn't get it restarted. Anyway, Raf and Bug had the very bad tendency to monopolize the only television set. I got very tired of watching the History, History International, Military, and the Discovery Channels nonstop for days. So when Tommy got a day off, finally, I made him take me to WalMart in Littleton. I picked out some fabric, a 6" square ruler, a rotary cutter and mat and haven't looked back since. I still have not put those blocks into a quilt yet.
When we moved here to New Orleans, we lived in the hotel for the first 2 and a half months so space was very limited. I decided to make quilts for my mom, brother and mother in law for Christmas. How hard could it be right? I mean it was the end of October and I had til the middle of December. Of course I had to find time to look for a place to live, travel 5 to 6 hours every other weekend to visit either my family or Tommy's and do laundry. All that on top of trying to cope with a severe sinus infection from the mold and such pervading the city. But life in New Orleans in the weeks after Katrina is a whole other topic. Anyway, I spent my days cutting out blocks. I figured that since time was kinda limited I would do easy ones this time and then better ones later. I cut over 800 squares and then sewed them together by hand to make 3 quilts. I ended up having to add to them because the people I was making the quilts for were not children. Well, my mother in law is less than 5 ft tall, but my brother is 6 ft. Then night before we were to leave to go to Bossier City for Christmas at my in laws house, I was still sitting at the sewing machine saying every dirty word in my vocabulary trying to finish those quilts. My dearest husband was right there with me, helping me work the wads of fabric through the narrow opening in my machine. He was very patient with me, although there were a couple of times he did add to my vocabulary :p
My mother in law's quilt has lines of vertical rectangles with blue sashing (pic posted); my mom's has a green cross; and my brother's has his name appliqued on moleskin down the middle of it. As soon as I find pics of my mom's and brother's quilts I will post them.
My ufo's include quilts for my best friend Allison, my sister in law Shelly, and my nephew Thomas.