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

Happy Sunday Morning

One of my friends on FB remarked this morning that the sun was shining and the birds were singing  (somewhere) just not where he was.

Well, Jim...........that somewhere is HERE!

It is only 6:30 am and it looks like it is going to be a beautiful day.

Hey!  I hit a golf ball for the

very first time yesterday!

3rd time is a charm.

I swung two times and missed,

but I got the little sucker on the 3rd swing.

I've never really had much interest in golf

(still don't)

but my son really likes golf and was over yesterday

to help his dad with some chores and he brought

along his golf clubs so he and Mike could hit a few balls in the backyard.

Just might be my first and last attempt at golfing!

Yesterday morning I attended a 3 hour Jazzercise extravaganza!

Yep, you heard that right.....3 HOURS!

Unfortunately I only made it for 2 hours, but HEY!

that's still pretty good!

The first hour was body sculpting with

Tana and Jen.

The second hour was Jazzercise Favs with Chelsie

and the last hour was Stretching with Lynn.

Sure wish I could have done all 3 classes,

but my old body

was talking loudly to me so

I ducked out before the last class,

which unfortunately was one I really wanted to take.

Friday Kathy came over and we completed the quilt top we had started the friday before.

This quilt will be auctioned off to raise funds

for the Susan G. Koman 3Day walk.

Then we attended a small quilt gathering at Cheryl's house.

Here are a couple more quilts that were shown.

(Cheryl....you are such a POSER!)

Guess it is time to drag my aching muscles

and creaking bones outta this chair and get to work.

We are having a baby shower for Jenny today

at the house so there is LOTS and LOTS to do yet.

More on that later........

It's Raining, It's Pouring......

And I'd like to be SNORING!
Really I'd like to be curled up under a quilt reading the end

of the last of the Twilight series of books.

We are having the weirdest weather lately.
First a really windy spring, then 100+ temps in May and now

we've got rain! Weird!

As I mentioned before the hot weather provides me a reason to hunker down and stay in the house and I really seem to get alot more accomplished.

I've been doing alot of embroidery and learning a few new things about that.

I made this shirt for my son who has just started golfing and is addicted!

I saw this saying on a shirt that someone was wearing on a hike and thought it was funny and appropriate for a beginning golfer. But Brian was telling me about his golf score on his last game and I guess he is pretty good.......... Oh well, I still think it is a funny shirt.

I've embroidered 4 shirts for our upcoming cruise:

I put an appliqued ship on the front.

(first time I've attempted an embroidered applique)

And this embroidery on the back.

I've also made 2 pillow cases to match the t-shirt quilt

made out of Jen's dad's shirts.

and quilted 2 baby quilts:

I've started packing for our cruise and found this handy dandy little

sewing pouch that my friend Judy made for me one Christmas.

It is a very simple little case. Just a piece of quilted fabric with binding and a button clasp and baggies sewn into the middle. But it is going to be SOOOO handy to take with me on this trip. It fits TWO hand sewing projects!

COOL!

Here comes the sun!

The old saying goes, "April Showers bring May flowers".

WELL!

I live in the desert.

We didn't have any April showers and unfortunately some of

my flowers are now dying!

BUT!

WE HAVE HAD 14 STRAIGHT DAYS OF OVER

100 DEGREE TEMPERATURES!!!

AND IT IS ONLY MAY!!!!!

Our climate is really no different than many others.

When I lived back east we hunkered down for the winter

because it was too cold to go outside. We went out only when neccessary.

The desert is no different.

Only we hunker down when it is HOT outside.

Actually, I've managed to get quite alot done in the last two weeks

as you can see from the pictures that follow!.......

This is MY QUILT! I rarely get to quilt my own creations, but since I've had trouble with my elbows I wanted to get back in the swing of things on one of my own quilts. Just to make sure that my quilting was up to snuff!

Detail shots.

Quilting is

Not too

bad, if I do say so myself!

This is the gigantic quilt that I finally finished!

And a detail shot:

I've finished up several baby quilts:

I've decided to call this quilting pattern

"Muscle Hearts"



Another baby quilt.

Here's a little project that I was working on.

Can you guess what it is?

MOM? Can you guess?

Back side.

Finished project:

It's a Toaster cover that matches the curtains

that I made for mom's kitchen! (surprise mom!)

I'd say that my "indoor" time has been pretty well spent!

Tomorrow I"ll show you even MORE projects!