Q is for (what else) Quilting

Hello.

My name is Tammy.

I am a Quiltmaker.

This quilt was hand embroidered by my mother
and hand quilted by my great grandmother.
I've been wrapped in the love of quilts from
the very beginning!

When I was a little girl and dreaming of 

"what I would be when I grew up"

I always thought that I wanted to be a 

wife and a mother.  

Quilt made for my granddaughter

As I got a little older I considered the other options open to me.......

Nurse, Secretary, Teacher.

As a child growing up in the 60's, 

living in a very small, rural

town in Southeastern Ohio with very traditional values this is what I saw as my choices.

Maple Island BQ2 quilt design

High School in San Diego saw me taking typing, business and accounting classes.

Yep, I was going to be an accountant. 

Talk about fitting a square peg in a round hole!

This quilt was made to place on the floor so my grandbabies
have a clean place to play

Fast forward.....I DID become a wife and mother and 

I DID work in the accounting field and I DID work in the school system,

but never a Nurse.  (too afraid of needles!)

Ironic since I now work with needles ALL the time!

I just don't stick anyone with them.

(My husband might disagree with that.....his feet always seems

to find the needles that I drop on the floor!)

Quilt still in progress.
I need to finish this one!

What I didn't realize was that my work training began in a tiny little house in the attic where I

sat under the quilting frames of my great grandmother.  

Small quilt made for a Breast Cancer fund raiser.

Every day on my way home from school I stopped by grandma's house

to watch Dark Shadows.  

Speaking of Dark Shadows....I'm not sure I'm going to like the

new movie that is coming out.  Looks

like they are going to be making a spoof of the original,

but I digress.....

Before I left gramma's house

it was my job to thread 7 or 8 needles so she could hand quilt in the evening.  

Harmonic Convergence quilt made for my son when he got married

I had free access to her scrap box that resided 

under the bed in the attic.  

I can still remember cutting heart shapes from the fabric, 

sewing them together

then stuffing them to make little pillows.  

Engagement quilt

My love of quilts and quiltmaking began with my 

great grandma Lizzie,

but my "formal" training began in a 6 week quilt class 

in Secunda, South Africa.

This little quilt hangs in my husband's office.

That was it!  I was in love and have been quilting

for the last 30 or so years.

The last 6 years it has been my profession.

Quilt I designed for my daughter when she graduated high school
Each of the larger squares contain a picture.

I worked at a quilt shop for several years until I 

purchased a professional Longarm quilting machine.

High school quilt for my son

Following in my grandma's footsteps I

 now I put the decorative quilting stitches on other people's quilts.

Only I use a machine....she did it all by hand.

Quilt design was inspired from a postcard made by
New Orleans artist Jamie Hayes

All of the quilts pictured here are ones that I have 

pieced and quilted.

(with the exception of the very first one pictured)

Mariner's Compass Wallhanging.

Some of them are patterns from a book,

or a class

and others are ones that I have designed my self. 

Scrap quilt made for my parents.
Hey mom......are you using this quilt?

This is just a small sampling of the quilts I have made.

It doesn't include any of the t-shirt quilts

OR any of the customer quilts I've quilted.

Baby quilt I designed

The majority of the quilts that I make are quilts

that I want people to use!

Bullseye Quilt.
Totally made from scraps.
My kids used to take this quilt to camp!

Quilts to cuddle up with 

Class taken in Durango Colorado

and hopefully feel the love that I've stitched in to it

Double wedding ring
HAND QUILTED!

and hopefully feel my arms wrapped around them.

Lover's Knot

 Some of my quilts are Art Quilts.

Quilts that are made mainly to hang. 

Teacup exchange quilt
Each teacup was made by a special friend
Their name is written under the lace of each cup.

Definition of QUILT

1

a : a bed coverlet of two layers of cloth filled with padding (as down or batting) held in place by ties or stitched designs

This may be the dictionary definition of a quilt,

but my definition is :

Quilt = Love

One of the really cool things about my job

as a longarm quilter is that I get to be part of

some really cool quilts!

This quilt was made by Linda and will be given to her son.

The quilt was very geometric with alot of straight lines,

so I tried to bring some curves into the quilting.

This is a close-up of some of the quilting details.

We celebrated the 4th with a BBQ at our friends Bob and Jenni.

Mike and Rafael are enjoying some homemade ice cream in this picture.

Poor Mia only got to watch!

No sweet stuff til her 1st birthday!

The Gibbs can clearly see fireworks from their driveway

so we all sat outside and watched the display.

Last Saturday we all donned our finest and

attended the wedding of Oliver.

Oliver has been a family friend since he was just a little lad....

What joy it was to see him marry a really wonderful

young lady. 

The icing on the cake is that they clearly adore each other.

I wish them a lifetime of happiness.

tammy