ABCs of Quilting Blog

What am I????

Well, quilters, here it is! 

The ‘panel’ from this bolt of fabric is supposed to be  used to stop the DRAFTS from under the door!  What a hoot! 

AFTER, I had designed the quilt and had it made, the rep was here.  He showed me the fabric again and I said, “…you know, we have that.  What are we supposed to do with it again???”  I must be getting older than I thought because both Susan and I totally forgot about it.  AND, here is the really pathetic part:  I have been taking notes when the reps come so I can REMEMBER what we have planned for the fabric.  Oops…..guess that one didn’t make the notepad!

Anyway, my fertile little imagination, also decided this panel would really look great at the top of a child’s bed.  You know, on top of the quilt!  Or the little ones could use it when they lounge around after a hard day of playing/school while they listen to you read the story to them!

All I know is that it is VERY cute!  And, this project probably took me 5 minutes to sew and another 20 minutes stuffing the stuffing into it!  I used a poly stuffing – not batting – because I wanted to be certain I got it STUFFED!  And, yes, I looked like a bag of poly stuffing when I got done, too!

Just to make sure that you can make this (it would be a great Christmas Gift for someone), we are going to put it on the website.  You can find it at http://abcsofquilting.com/fabrics.html#Caterpillar  . 

Happy Quilting!

Good Morning, Sunshine!

Have you ever had a morning that didn’t quite start like you intended????  Okay, maybe that isn’t a fair question — have you ever had a morning that started NORMAL?   As a mothers, you know what I mean!  So, here is the story with this quilt…..

Not too long ago, a bolt of fabric showed up that contained panels only with the caterpillar and the sun on it.  That’s it!  Nothing else and, boy, are they BIG!  I looked at Susan, she looked at me and together we said:  “….did you order this?????”  And, together we said, “….NO, you must have done that!!!!”  Other than sounding like a chorus, we had accomplished nothing and had no clue what to do with the fabric.

So, I decided to have some fun with it and put together a pattern.  I used the fabrics from the Hungry Caterpillar line along with a few ‘friends’ and came up with a delightful little quilt.  You can see the quilt and get all of the kit info at http://abcsofquilting.com/kits.html  Doug, should be adding it this morning.

As I was putting the quilt together, I was reminded of a spring morning when my boys were little.  Since I worked Monday – Friday, I used Saturday morning as my time to ’slowly’ come awake and the boys were pretty good about watching cartoons until I got up — usually!

One Saturday, I ‘felt’ someone in the room and opened my eyes to a HUGE green caterpillar staring at me and inching it’s way across the hand of my firstborn.  I jumped so high there were claw marks on the ceiling!  The screams were deafening and in between them, I managed to yell out, “…..get that THING away from me!!!!!!!!!!”   Eric looked at me with the hurt expression only your child can have and said, ” ….gee, Mom, we just brought you a present!  We thought you would like him — he can’t HURT you!”   Okay, okay,  we had a little difference of opinion about that!

So, now in my dotage, the Hungry Caterpillar reigns!  I like this one a lot better, too!   He can’t crawl on fabric so I know where he is all of the time!!  My grandchildren think this story and the quilt are just the BEST and I try very hard to keep Eric’s storytelling to a minimum! 

By the way, in case I don’t get this updated again before Thanksgiving — have a great one!  You all deserve a special day to sit and relax doing what you love - quilting, watching football, enjoying family & friends, and, oh yeah, EATING!

PS.  Stay tuned for the REAL purpose of this fabric — I should have it done soon!

They are finally here!! 

Last Spring, Susan and I ordered the fabrics, kits and patterns for Gee’s Bend Quilts and we now have the fabric and the kits in the shop.  What a wonderful collection!  The patterns in the kits (yes, we had to sneak a little peak at them) are wonderful and each pattern has a little information about the woman who made the quilt and developed the pattern.  Pretty awe-inspiring!

Of course with all good things there usually is a ‘glitch’ in the system and we have one with Gee’s Bend.  The patterns!  Yup, the individual patterns are not going to be ready until December.  I called our rep today to check on status and am still waiting for a response as I type.  Hopefully, we will have them soon. 

Have you missed the Gee’s Bend info???  Well, you can find all of the history and  information about the products on our website:  http://www.abcsofquilting.com/featured_products.html.  Check it out — the quilts are wonderful!

I think I told you that I was going down to the International Quilt Show in Des Moines, right?  Well, I am back and ready to ’share’!

One of the best things about going to that show is my sister-in-law, Nancy, lives in the Des Moines area along with two of our children (Eric and Ryan), all of our grandchildren, and a niece.  So, not only did I have a great time during the day gawking at all of the quilts and checking out the booths, I also got to see the all of the relatives.  Another child of ours, Jason (who is the play-by-play annoucer for the Lincoln Saltdogs,  http://saltdogs.com/  and, yes, a mother gets to brag a little….), decided to come over on Saturday morning and ’surprise’ his father with a visit.  It was great!  Lots of laughs and new family memories were added to our collection.

Back to the quilt show…. 

Nancy and I had  a good time just being girls!  We got up each morning and headed downtown to spend the day at the show. On the first day, we walked through all of the booths , then went to lunch (priorities are important), then came back and walked through again.  You know how it is — you want to check out everything first and then come back to see if you really NEED it!  We “needed” some projects badly so those went right into our shopping bags!!!!  Of course, I really wanted everything, but I tried to hold myself back!

The next day, we returned and decided to tackle looking at the display of quilts.  Wow!!!  The work that is done is just amazing.  The photos are  a few of the quilts at the show.   Now remember, I am a much better quilter than photographer so don’t get excited if I didn’t get it centered.  I was pretty pleased just to see these — and I got them on the computer with NO problems from the card-eating-console!!!

 Friday night, Doug and I went  to see Eric and Steph and their three children.   We had a great time and I even got to meet our ‘grand – horse’!  I had to finally confess to Eric that I am terrified of horses.  He says, “….but, Mom, I thought you liked them because you took Equestrian Jumping once…”  Yeah — well, I was trying to overcome my FEAR and it failed!  The horse started toward me and I was ‘otta there’!!!!!!

Saturday morning, we were up early and went to breakfast with the family at our niece’s coffee shop (http://www.beingtherecoffee.com/ ).  What a hoot — who knew that the child who hated to cook would be making us breakfast!!  You have to love that!!   While we were at the Coffee Shop eating, Nancy saw a quilting buddy of hers.  She told her how we were puzzled by the lack of quilts at the show this year.  The woman looked at us like we were nuts and said, “…really??”.  We grabbed our drinks and were off to the show.

Now remember, this was my ’shop shoppping day’ so I was on a mission and had a list that was pretty long.  I started at  the booth with a new applique technique and handed in my order.  They needed some time to get it all together, so we headed to the thread booth.  They are always very happy to see me and I left there with two huge bags of thread — lots of nice variagated colors for the long-arm — and we headed back to pick up the other order.

They were ‘almost’ ready for me, so Nancy started to look around while we waited.  Finally, I had my order.  I was now looking a lot like a pack mule carrying FIVE bags of ’stuff’ on my shoulders and in my hands.  Oh yeah, and since the weather had been so crummy the day before, I had my coat on, too.  Suddenly, I notice that Nancy is laughing and signalling for me to come over.  I look in the direction she is pointing and see  THERE WAS A WHOLE OTHER ROOM FILLED WITH QUILTS  AND VENDORS!!!!!!

Yup, laden-down Linda went through the other room very carefully searching for new color combos, new patterns, and new ways to quilt.  Dedicated, aren’t I?  My hubby used another word but I am not putting that in here.

When we left, we were tired, cold and hungry BUT also very happy!    And, I bet you want to see the stuff I brought to the shop, don’t you???  Well, stay tuned — I am going to get some samples made and then will post them on the blog for you.