I have been sewing things for years now...........about 30 years ago when I had two little boys who played Soccer I spent a lot of time going from one side of the soccer complex to the other trying to watch two games at once.....that was when I wasn't doing my turn in the snack bar....or at my sewing machine creating banners for each of the teams......
During that time I also had another life as a sign maker (remember I told you I learned how to use a saw and a hammer from my Daddy?) I was actually working in a dental office but I moonlighted by making wood and painted signs.......you can check out my "other life" on the "My Signs" tab.
So back to the story.........About 25 years ago I made these two banners........both using satin fabric....
This was for my brother's softball team........
This one was for a Country-Western Band.....It looks like I used some sort of glitter paint on the lettering so it would sparkle under the stage lights.......
Ok I am going to change gears now and return to the past decade.......I made this little wall hanging for my church back in 2005..........like the banners above....all applique..........
And now the quilts............. the first bed size patchwork quilt I remember making was for my Son, Jeremy......probably around the early 1990's. It is an "Around the World" pattern made with 4 inch charms.......it went together pretty easily as I recall.........Jeremy used this quilt night and day while he was in college and now since it is too small for his king-size bed has put it away for safe keeping.
Here are a couple of close-ups of Patrick's quilt.
My third son, Josh, got his quilt about two years ago. I remembered how much I liked Jeremy's Around the World quilt so I used the same pattern but adapted it to Josh's love of his Kitty, Tinkerbell.
I also wanted to remember our Kitty "Lucy" who lived with us for 19 years before going to Kitty Heaven..........she is the yellow cat and Tinkerbell is the gray cat:
OK.............now I am going to fess up....................because I said earlier that Jeremy's quilt was the first full-size quilt I had made..............and technically that is true............but that isn't the first full size quilt I ever attempted.............the very FIRST quilt I started was back in about 1973, I think.......and not knowing ANYTHING about quilting (and also being very poor at that time.....I made my own clothes back then)........well I decided that an 8 point star should be pretty easy to do...............NOT!
Not only was I using whatever fabric scraps I had on hand..........that meant corduroy which I had used to make a playsuit for Jeremy (1 year old at the time) or double knit fabric I had made a jumpsuit for myself or just whatever I could find. Just look at this mess!
Well I had no idea what I was doing and after struggling with it for so long I finally gave up and took it to my Mom and asked her to "fix it". Poor Mama had her hands full.........she did the best she could to fix my mess..........put a backing and batting in it, quilted it and gave it back....I remember giving her just the stars on some because I gave up trying to sew them into the yellow background fabric. I don't know how she did it but she managed to fix it and the kids used it for years until it started to wear thin in places and the batting was falling out. I took it apart a few years ago and patched it up. I still haven't put the new batting in it but I will because I can't bear to part with it...........I can still remember the clothes made out of the same fabrics and I know all the love Mama put into rescuing me.........and my boys loved sleeping with this quilt..........here it is as it looks today........
