My Next Full-Size Quilt (I think)

I don't really think this is my next quilt, but of the ones I have it is the next one. I made this somewhere in the nineties. I really liked this row quilt and took a class that was only about 4 hours long toward the end of summer. We came to class with all the pieces cut, and in class we made one snowman, one mitten and one tree. Then, I didn't work on it for about six weeks. I started on a Saturday and finished on Sunday night. Most of the fabrics are Thimbleberries. At this point I had never had a longarm quilter quilt my quilt. But I found one close to my house and took it to her. I thought she did a great job. I didn't have any material left over for the binding so I took it to my quilt shop in downtown Garland. The lady helping me wanted to see it. As soon as I spread it out I saw my mistake. I really couldn't believe I had done it, and all the precut pieces came out even. Well I did have a few pieces left over.....and I did have to cut a few more...but not many. The lady helping me just said one snowman is right and all the others are sagging. A few years later when teaching in a Jr. High I thought of my snowman quilt every time I said "pull 'em up". A much easier fix than my quilt.

My Son's Quilt

When my son was two we put

him in a twin size old iron bed

that we painted red. By now

I had learned how to strip piece

but not the art of 'scrapy'. I just couldn't get that random look. Again I pieced it, mother quilted it and I put on the binding. After piecing it, I had several blocks left over so I gave them to my mother. She made a pillow sham the width of the twin bed to match his quilt. The pillow he slept on was always under the pillow with the sham. Neither of my guys at this point understood just how a SHAM FUNCTIONED. They aren't to be used, just looked at after you make the bed....right? Each night until he entered first grade his dad would read him a story. They both laid down on the twin size bed with their heads on the quilted pillow sham. When it began to look dingy, I washed it often but that didn't help much. I have quilts over 100 years old that are in great condition. This sham disolved. The fabric disappeared and there was nothing but the batting showing. Now that is a lot of bedtime stories.

My Second Attempt

In 1985 there were not many quilt stores. Actually the black calico was left over from a sort of long dress I made when I was pregnant with my daughter in 1974. You see, I was starting my stash even then and just didn't know what for. The blue was also left over from something. I just don't remember what but I actually bought the green and yellow for this quilt. Now I know it isn't very sophisticated but it was 1985. I also didn't have a book or the internet. Was the internet even thought of yet? By this time someone had told me about strip piecing and this quilt went a little faster. Once again I pieced it, my mother quilted it and I put on the binding. It is faded and worn but I can't give it up. We used it as a bedspread on our teak platform Danish modern bed. I am not sure what I was going for but thought it so sheik at the time. Mother quilted some of the hearts going one way and the other half going the other way. She tried to convince me that was the way they were suppose to be. I wasn't convinced.

My First Quilt

This is my first quilt. Soon after receiving my stars from my mother we found a quilt shop in Richardson called The Texas Quilt Co. (I think). There was a lady cutting fabric with a pizza cutter on a green mat of some sort. She was using clear plastic rulers with no markings to measure the strips. She had several rulers of different widths. I was fascinated. Now I could make a quilt with the pieces all the same size. Fabric is wiggly. When we left the store I had everthing I would need. You can laugh here. Did any of us know in the beginning we would be buying 'toys' for the rest of our lives.

I cut strips and cut the strips into squares. I didn't know about the strip piecing. When I finished my mother hand quilted the top and I put on the binding. The binding is bias just because I thought it had to be and it isn't double folded. If I had known how much I had to learn (and still do) I might not have continued. I was so proud of this quilt. And we used it, so now it is a bit faded and worn.

How It All Began

When I was nine years old my sister and I went to stay a week with my grandparents in rural Oklahoma.....RURAL Oklahama. It was the summer of 1953, hot, no indoor plumbing, single source of water was a hand pump in the kitchen. Hanging beside the pump was a dipper that everyone used to get a drink of water. Yes, we went to an outhouse to use the restroom...except at night and there was a pot under the bed. The first thing we did in the morning was take the pot to the outhouse. We were from Sherman, Texas, and lived in a nice airconditioned house with all the conveniences. Well, the conveniences of 1953. But needless to say we were city girls. However, at that age you adapt quickly. My grandmother did not have a phone but she had a radio that she listened to her soap operas. This is where I got hooked on As the World Turns. They had a large garden where I learned to dig potatoes. I thought that was better than looking for Easter eggs. My grandfather grew cotton and had a watermelon patch.

Early in the morning we would pick out a watermelon and put it in the cool creek. It would be ready by the afternoon. They had a jersey cow they milked everyday and we made our own butter. But my very favorite thing was gattering the eggs. I was never bored.

My older sister is another story... I think she was a little more citified. One day while she was painting her nails and reading Photoplay and Silver Screen, I discovered my grandmother's scrap drawer. It was the bottom drawer of the chest of drawers in the kitchen. I had to do something with the scraps. After a little begging, she agreed to teach me to piece. She had a diamond shaped cardboard and a pencil. I traced the shapes on some of the scraps and cut them out. I was ready to piece. While my sister was putting on her second coat of nail polish, I sewed the diamonds together. I was so proud of my stars and could not stop looking at them.

When it was time to go home, I took them with me. I kept them in my room and looked at them on occasion. But like many childhood possesions, they dissappeared. Or so I thought.

I graduated from college, got married, had a baby girl, and was still thinking about making a quilt. I was 39 and pregnant with my son. My daughter was nine and we went to Sherman to see my parents. Mother had been "cleaning out". She had found some quilt blocks and wanted to know if I knew anything about them. They were my star blocks. I couldn't belive it. Within weeks I was making a quilt top.....but oh that is another story.