Mail Surprise!

I got a real pleasant surpise in the mail today, well, ok, it wasn't a surprise after I saw the return address. I knew it would be my first square from my friend Patricia in California. The surprise was how she knew the fall colors to choose. Fall is my favorite time of year, well next to winter ( and spring) and Patricia has made me an absolutely beautiful quilt block for our first 12 Month Block Swap! This is going to be a great year for quilts, I am Block Swapping with 2 sisters and 2 friends and we all live in different states. It will be an exciting year for surpises in the mail! And what a great way to start a friendship circle, I met my friend in California at a GetQuit Summitt for people with special stories to tell. I will have "more on that" in another blog. My other new friend is in the military, stationed in Alabama now (Roll, Tide, Roll!). I met her last Soccer season because her daughter was on the same team as my grandson. I have one sister who lives in Vermont and another who lives in Illinois. That rounds out our little swap circle. Unless I can talk a long time childhood friend in Battle Creek Michigan into joining us. "More on that" later too! But today I received this lovely block from my new friend,and she is such a quilter! All the seams look to be exactly 1/4 inch and they are ironed flat and beautiful! This is what I strive for and now my friend has challenged me to be more exact in my own measurements and seams! And I will Patricia, my friend...Thank you!
Peace, missd

So, today I paid a visit to the Southside Hancock Fabrics store. I wanted a chance to talk to the quilting teacher in that store because I need ideas for my own classes. Oh, yeah! I forgot to mention, I am teaching quilting classes on Monday and Wednesday evenings at the store near my house. I missed her by one day, she is there on Wednesdays only. I am so excited about this, but of course I do tend to get excited about my Quilty stuff! I live such a blessed life! Henry David thoreau said "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you have imagined". I am so doing that. I think I have been living my life to get to this point. I get to create such beautiful things, I get to be close to family and friends (the people I love the most), and I get to work doing what I love! I am living the life I imagined and it is all because the Lord has blessed me! I hope all who share my "Quilty Pleasures" journey will live a happy, peaceful life too. God bless you for being who you are and what you do!

Peace, missd

 

 

OK...I did promise the story behind the dark green and rose quilt you see above. All quilts have their own story and evey story deserves to be documented. This quilt, particularly, is special to me, for the memories it holds. My husband and I purchased our home at the lake in 1990. I started this quilt for our bed in 1991. So it is now 18 years old. (Of course it was put away for awhile). It was to be all hand-pieced and hand quilted. I pieced every block a different pattern. The center Peace Dove is my own design. The colors matched our bedroom decor. I would set with my husband in our living room and sew on the quilt blocks while we watched TV. Night after night this would be our routine, our time together. I got all of the blocks done and he watched every shoot-em-up ever made! I finished the sashing and borders in the summer of 1993. I finally sandwiched the quilt and started on the hand quilting. My sweetie use to say that this quilt will never be done in his life time. It wasn't. He went to be with the Lord on Nov 9, 1993. That's when it was put away. For 16 years. Then one day I unpacked the quilt and one look at the 3 hand-quilted center blocks and I had an epiphany! This quilt will not be done in my life time either! Mahatma Gandhi said "You must be the change you wish to see in the world". My wish was to see this quilt finished, on my bed, and loved as it was intended to be. I knew I had to finish it....Now!! Being the sensible, practible person I am, I also knew it would be done a lot faster if I machine quilted the rest of it. So I did! In Feb of this year! No, it is not ALL hand made, but it was made by me, it is mine, and it is already 20 years old! It is finished, it is on my bed and it is loved for all the memories that keep my heart warm.

 

I was going to blog every night, but last night got away from me and it was very late before I turned off my machine. I have been planing a quilt for by best friend for Christmas and I found this beautiful Asian Jar material and it just screamed Maria's name. It is so her! I just cannot find the right pattern for it because the print is big! I did put together this Attic Widow sample, on my design board. I kinda like it..Maybe someone out there has an idea....I am so open to suggestions right now. Here is a picture of the pretty print. I have paired it with a warm maroon, a peach and a black. They look lovely together. What do you think?

Peace, Donna

So happy to be able to place the Quilting Bloggers logo on my page. I am still trying to find my place in the bloggers world, so bear with me and enjoy the changes to my site. They will be occuring frequently until I am confortable with what it is! Now I have to take my grandson to a birthday party. His social life is busier than mine. I think thats because there are not too many people in my quilting place.
Enjoy your Sunday. Peace, missd

Wanted to let people know that the quilt at the top of the page is my 18 year old project. It was started in 1991 and matched the colors in the master bedroom at our lake house. Every block is hand sewn and the center block is my own design, I also got around to hand quilting the 3 center squares, then in 1993 my beloved husband passed away and I moved into town. For work mainly. The quilt got put away because work interfered with what I wanted to do with my life. The years slipped away so quickly I didn't even know they were gone. I had an epiphany one day as I was getting ready to set up a sewing area in my room. My sweetie use to say "That quilt will never be done in my lifetime"... and it wasn't. My thought now was that it probably wouldn't get done in mine either. I did not want this quilt finished by someone else! So I made up my mind right then and there to machine quilt it instead hand sewing so I could use this quilt and enjoy it! Soooooo....I finally finished it in February of this year (2009).

What a great Saturday! I have spent almost all day in my inner sanctum designing this blog site because I really want to share it with everyone. I have big plans on posting my beloved quilts and causes. I also want to do some tutorials to guide those who want to learn. Right now I am planning a baby quilt for my neice who lives in Ohio. It is so much fun because I have not had an occasion to make a baby blanket in many, many years. Lucky Patti, she will probably get 2 or 3 before her son is even born. So I am planning it out on my design wall ( the one in my head). I plan on watching a movie tonight and cutting 3.5 inch blocks. I am doing a 9 Patch in cute baby stuff and will have a lot of crisp white squares in it too. I will post a picture when it is done.

Peace, missd