Passing it Forward

There is nothing better in the world, other than becoming a mother, than to be a Nana. I have been blessed with two beautiful granddaughters so far who live about 2 hours from me. When teaching in the area I get to spend the night and get some good Nana time with them. Chloe is always interested in what I am working on and decided to help me out marking a small piece. Can't you just see a new quilter starting to blossom?

Hearts All Around

I had to share this project I'm working on before it's given away! I went antiquing with my daughter Emily last week and found this beautiful little linen sewn to the top of an old velvet pillow and bought it for $7.00. I took it off the pillow, laid it on some seafoam green fabric and quilted the devil out of it. I'm in the process of adding freshwater pearls and beads to embellish the front. This piece is being donated to the silent auction at Quilt Camp in the Pines in Flagstaff, AZ and the beading will be finished up while traveling down there this weekend.

Luella's Vintage Linen Tablecloth

Elaine Miller of Redding, California has come through once again with another amazing linen quilt. The piece I have featured here belonged to a family member, Luella Miller, and was discovered in her hope chest. Elaine added some exquisite feathering and bead embellishing. She has taken a standard tablecloth and given it a new life as a beautiful quilt. Note the beautiful label she has on the back. Check out the May 16th Blog which also features the back of another one of Elaine's pieces. Thank you for continuing to inspire us all Elaine!

Fun With Doilies!

I'm always looking for new ways to use our "old" stuff. Joanie Sinclair from Milpitas, California sent me these great pictures of what she did. These aren't "old" doilies but rather, in her words "...are cheap and bought from a Dollar Store".

Joanie also said "I could never gather enough old ones to make it. I just loved the idea. I think they make such a pretty quilt and they look good on a table too. They are cut in half and then just sewn in the center seams of the half square triangles (the yellow and orange), then tacked down. The fans are cut into 1/4 then sewn in with the sashing on two sides".

Thank you Joanie for sharing your inspirations with all of us!

Foremothers Quilt

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Santa Clara Valley quilt guild. What a busy and talented group of ladies! Marie Strait was in charge of me while I was there and shared her Foremothers Quilt. I had to get a picture and share her story ~

My "Foremothers Quilt" was made to honor the needlewomen who came before me. The cardtable cloth which forms the base of the quilt was made by my great aunt, the napkins by my great grandmother, the embroidery floss was in my great grandmother's sewing basket and the buttons in my mother's button box. On the back I used a family damask tablecloth, slightly stained and well worn but full of memories. The apron was made from new fabric that I bleached to look old...and I know my foremothers are pleased!

Thank you Marie for sharing your inspiring quilt and story!

Memorial Day Weekend

Sharing a little more of myself! My husband plays the trombone with the Ophir Prison Marching Kazoo Band & Temperance Society Ltd. Basically it's a "politically incorrect" band of 45-50 guys who have a ball entertaining large crowds with very good music and bad jokes. They are good enough though to be invited back every year to play at the Old Sacramento Jazz Festival and always draw large crowds. This year Jenny, Jeff, and Miss Chloe and Samantha were able to join us for awhile and enjoy the weekend. We always stay at the Embassy Suites mainly for the "separate room" that becomes a sewing suite to get those deadlines met on the quilts! That's when you realize you've become an old married couple when the sewing machine accompanies you to the hotel! :)

Tatting is Alive and Well!

I was lucky enough to have been invited to teach and speak at the quilt guild in Coarsegold, CA which is just a few miles south of Yosemite National Park. I absolutely love tatting and was thrilled to find that two of my students were tatters! Peggy and Fran are pictured here with some of their work.

If you are ever looking for a nice getaway I recommend a stay at the Ravensbrook Bed and Breakfast. I stayed here during my engagement in Coarsegold and I have never been so spoiled or so impressed. The breakfasts are amazing and the setting, which is halfway between Coarsegold and Oakhurst, is gorgeous.

My Cozy Spot!

I thought it would be fun to share "my spot" with you! My sewing room is quite small but very well thought out on how to use every last inch of space. My husband built a countertop to hold both of my sewing machines with pull-out shelves underneath. The shelves can roll out and lock to hold the quilts up off the floor when I'm quilting. All the grandbaby pictures and mementos keep me company on my window sill and beautiful dried flowers on an Aspen branch provide my curtains. Kent took the closet out and installed some custom cabinets to hold my "office". Can you tell he's a cabinetmaker??? :) And look at that whole rainbow wall of my Superior Threads! It will brighten up even the gloomiest of days. A small island in the middle of my room provides my basting table and bookshelves and one end of the room provides my design wall. I decided not to show you the fabric stash as it is SUCH a mess at the moment!

Leaving Comments

I've had questions from readers on how to leave comments on my students' work. If you would like to leave your thoughts for them, just click on the "comments" line that appears right after the date at the bottom of the article. I'm sure they would love to hear from you!

Signing your quilt

I've always felt it is very important to sign the back of your quilt to document the history and the maker. With linen quilts it is especially important as the linen itself is often a treasured family heirloom. Elaine Miller of Redding, CA is another one of my "Linen Ladies" and was lucky enough to have been gifted a linen table runner that was a family heirloom. The flax was actually spun into thread from the family farm in Calabria, Italy and then loomed into the fabric to create the table runner. It is well over 100 years old.

Elaine painstakingly quilted the piece and added pictures of her Grandmother Marianna Campato, Aunt Theresa Baccardi as well as herself to the back and the history is documented on the label.

By quilting this beautiful piece it is no longer tucked away in a dresser drawer. It has been given a new life as a beautiful linen quilt and as a treasured family heirloom.

Close up!

Okay, I'm still learning the tricks to this! Here's another view of Bev's work.

Beautiful Pillow Sham

I wanted to highlight another one of my "star" linen ladies, Bev Armstrong of Chico, CA. Her work is exquisite and she is always wowing me with her amazing quilting and her attention to detail. She also had a linen wholecloth quilt featured in my book!

This piece is one of two pillow shams. She disassembled the backing of the pillow sham before she did the quilting. Due to the open nature of the drawn-thread work she backed it with a gold silk and then quilted it to death! After the quilting was completed she reassembled the back of the pillow sham so it was the same that it was before. I will be posting more work of Bev's in the future!

One more thing...

The picture below didn't do it justice...here's a close up!

Out of the Box!

I am always encouraging my students to get "out of their box" and try new things. Debbie D'Ewart of Chico, CA is one of my long time students and fellow "linen ladies". She purchased the DVD's from Sharon Schamber that had a beautiful pattern to learn her scribbling techniques. Debbie decided to do a wholecloth linen quilt using this pattern and of course tweaked it and and rearranged it to make it her own. I was blown away by the end result! Great job Debbie!

Good Morning Everyone!
I'm off and running on my new adventure of posting Blogs! This will give me a chance to share tips and ideas for your quilting but also give me a chance to show off my students and their work too!

As I travel about to shows and guilds I will be sharing pictures to help inspire you...and speaking of that, when I taught my last Sew Day in Chico, CA one of my "linen ladies", Anita Bolton of Corning shared some of her special projects. She made these amazing purses out of Dupioni silk and embellished them with parts and pieces of her vintage linens. Anita is a very talented quilter and is known for her exquisite one-of-a-kind quilts...she's also an obsessed linen collector like me!

Test

Let's test out this new blog feature to see how everything works....