A little progress

Hello All,

Wow, Sept is really flying! I can't believe it's the end of the month already. And I haven't posted since the beginning of the month.

But not a lot of things have been going on here. I am slowly working on Jess's newest mystery quilt. And THAT'S IT! There are lots of these in the mystery quilt...lots!

I have to get my project for Black Cat Crossing done, I post on Oct 27th, so I need to get my butt in gear.

This little cutie keeps me, and his Dad, pretty busy. If he's not outside 'working', he is inside getting scrubbed with the wash cloth ;) 

 In this picture, Daddy is teaching him something about one of our generators. This kid loves mechanical things, anything with an engine.

So not much going on in my quilty world, just wanted to pop in and say HI.

My corner of bloggy land

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my blog. I am participating in the 'Around the world' blog hop that's going around bloggy land. My good friend Pat 'tagged' me.

Pat has a lovely blog. She has some beautiful kitties that help her out, some great projects and beautiful fabrics. I love her 'quilty muse', and the ideas she come up with. Thank you Ms Pat, for tagging me :)

I started quilting way back in 1993, when I was pregnant with my first baby. I had to make him a baby quilt. And oh boy, is it funny to look at now! I then started making quilts for some family members. But I really started taking off in quilting 7 yrs ago when Jess Smith starter her forum, the Quilt and Needle. I've really grown and learned a lot in the past 7 yrs quilting. I started out a hand quilter, and now I am foraging into the free motion quilting world.

On to the questions.

1. What are you working on right now?
 
I put the next three projects on hold over the weekend so I could do some mystery testing for Jess!  I haven't tested for her in awhile, and really felt the need to have some fun doing it again. These are the fabrics I'm working with.

I have been cutting and piecing on my project for the Black Cat Crossing blog hop coming up in late October. These colors are a bit out of the norm for me. But I love Maywood fabrics.

My girls quilt and my middle son's quilt are both put on the back burner till the previous two are done.

2. How does my work differ from others of it's genre?

Hmm. I consider myself having a foot in both worlds,the traditional one and the modern one. I love mostly traditional blocks, but I use modern fabrics and always put my own spin on a pattern. Rarely do I use an already made pattern.

This is one of my original patterns. It's called Train stop, I made it for my eldest son.

 I enjoy mixing and matching blocks as well as fabrics. Rarely using just one line in  a pattern. Although I love testing patterns, so most of the quilt tops I have, are tops that I tested for Jess. I just love her mystery patterns.

And I sew on vintage machines. This is my White treadle from the late 1800s.  My first sewing machine. I love it.


                                


And this is my Singer 201-2, I do all my free motion quilting with it. I love it too.

 
                   


3. Why do I write/create what I do?

Over the past 20 odd years, I've dabbled in many different creative pursuits. I have always loved photography. I enjoy writing. I enjoy drawing. And cooking/baking is one of my favorite things to do. I'm not the best at any of these, but I enjoy them all.

Quilting factors in 3 of those pursuits. It's fun to take my projects outside and find just the right spot for a picture session.

These are some of my original patterns, you can find them scrolling thru the archives.

 Pre-baby, I did a lot of tutorial writing. I love teaching a new quilter something, or writing tips to make a certain block easier.

My two most viewed posts are the one on making a Lone Star quilt, and it's companion, set in seams.

 And quilting is just 'drawing with thread', as so many quilters say. So my enjoyment of many creative endeavors are all rolled in one with quilting. And I end up with something warm and comforting to use or giveaway.

4. How does my writing/creative process work?

When I'm looking at fabric, I always buy the ones that I just love. Not only the color, but the design of the fabric too. Or if I am making something for a loved one, I pick fabrics out that I know they will enjoy. Then I start thinking of how these fabrics would look together. What kind of pattern do they want to become? I use pencil and paper, then I move on to EQ when I have an idea down.

This is my girls quilt.

I mix and match blocks, creating the settings that I want and that speak to me. Using EQ is fun, it's so much easier to change the fabrics and turn blocks around/etc.

So that's my creativeness in a nut shell. I hope you enjoyed this stop.

I haven't been able to find any bloggers to continue this blog hopping. If any of you out there wants to do an around the world blog post, please leave me a comment and I'll update this post with links to your blogs. I am supposed to tag 3 of you. You would be posting next Monday.