Any Quilters?

I'm a quilter and wondered if there were any others on this forum who quilt.

I do it the old fashioned way by hand. I machine piece but the quilting I do by hand. Right now I'm working on a double wedding ring quilt in solids with a red background. My oldest son is getting pretty serious with his girlfriend and he's hinted at marriage so I am making this quilt for him if he gets married. It takes me forever to make one so I thought I better get started now. I can always put it away and save it for when he does get married.

Laurel,
I have my wedding dress, along with both of my girls', in storage. With them I have some other special occasion dresses, all connected to a special time in our lives. I've been wanting to make 3 quilts, using all of the dresses, to give to our 3 granddaughters. I'm afraid to start taking the wedding gowns apart in fear of not having enough material for 3 whole quilts. I can't think of how to add to the material without buying more, which would take away from the keepsake character of the quilts, in my thinking. These thoughts came out all barbled, but I hope you know what I'm saying. Any suggestions? I've only made a baby quilt and it was with a machine - way back when. I want to do this by hand. I've even acquired an old fashion quilting stand.
Your suggestion might be to find a quilter and have them give me a quote....right?

Have you ever made a quilt before?

I think keeping the dresses as they are would be special for future generations.

If you decide to do it; a complimenting fabric in the same type of material would set it off.

Laurel...how wonderful. I envey your patience to do something like that. I've always wanted to quilt and even bought several books on the subject, but when I go into the store there's all these things you have to buy and it looks like it could get expensive. I have a couple of old photos of my grandmother quilting with her ladies group from church. I always thought it would be neat to make wall-hanging sized quilts. Do you do any of those? Any pictures of projects you'd like to share?

Yes, I've made a few wallhangings. That's a great way to start. Baby quilts are another good small project. They don't take up so much room and are easier to work with.

I have pictures but most are snap shots and not on my digital camera. I'll take some and try to post them here. Lola gave me instructions on another thread how to do that.

Laurel

Do you have any special equipment? I have a sewing machine and that's it. Would that be sufficient to do simple quilting? I love to see what you've done.

You know they try to sell you all kinds of fancy expensive gadgets and many of them are helpful, but when you first start out I wouldn't invest in too much. Especially until you see if it's something you enjoy doing.

I do have a lot of paraphernalia I've accumulated. Years ago though, I just had the basic sewing tools; sewing machine, scissors, thread, thimble, needles, etc. I'd say the most useful of my tools is my rotary cutter and mat. If you have a Hancock's fabrics store they run half off sales on tools every so often.

They will tell you the smaller the needle the smaller the stitch (hand quilting) but I make the same size stitch no matter what size needle I use. I've started buying larger needles because my eyes don't see as well as they used to and their easier to thread.

Laurel

Laurel,
Bonnierae makes quilts. On one of the other forums, I think, she said she made 18, prior to Christmas one year.

I'm not much on sewing. I used to sew when I was young, but now I hate to even sew on a button. My sister-in-law does beautiful quilts. I once made a quilt for my son. I did it on my sewing machine. I got tired of it, so it never fot to the full size I intended. It had big red, white and blue squares. He used to use it all the time. I remember how he used to wrap it around him in the chair and watch tv. As he got older and taller, it didn't fit around him anymore, but he still used it, even when it lost some of its stuffing and had lost a few squares. I guess I must have finally had to throw it out.

I saved both my kids' Christening outfits. My daughter had them. Her dress is in perfect condition, but his suit had stains on it and she says we need to toss it. But, she is going to Christen Katie in her dress. Got rid of my wedding gown years ago.

I love quilting, and find just the mix of fabrics gorgeous. The best thing I find is my quarter inch foot as that makes machine piecing much more accurate now that my eyes belong to a 46 year old with a 20 year old mind!!!!
I still have my wedding dress from 25 years ago. We dont have much family history or hand me downs and I am saving some things like my wedding dress for the future generations.

The quarter inch foot is a wonderful invention.

18 quilts! Good Lord.

One year I made patchwork blankets for my two sons for Christmas and I thought I was doing good. They weren't quilts. I sewed together 12 inch squares and backed it with fleece. I tacked them instead of quilting them. I used fun fabrics with their interests like, drums, cars, hamburgers and french fries and the like. They have enjoyed them and I didn't worry about how they took care of them since there wasn't alot of work involved.

Laurel

The only quilts I've made were out of t-shirts. We had what seemed like hundreds of t-shirts from fishing tournaments. Since my husband is such a fishing fan, it was a good way to use a bunch of them up. Also an easy way to make a quilt, because you cut large squares out of the front of the shirts, to include any design that's on the front. You can either sew the t-shirt squares (after backing them with inner facing) in rows, and then sew the rows together, to make the top of the quilt......or you can put strips of other fabric inbetween the t-shirt squares. After getting the top done and layering it with batting and a fabric backing, I ran diagonal lines thru all layers with my sewing machine, to quilt it, and then put binding around the edges. I've made two of these -- my sister-in-law saved a bunch of my nephew's college t-shirts and I made one out of those, too.
I can handle doing the t-shirt quilts because you work with large pieces of fabric........I have several friends who quilt and work with little tiny pieces of fabric and have to cut what seems like millions of pieces to put together.....that's not for me.
I think I found directions online someplace for t-shirt quilts, I can dig around and see if I can find them again if anyone wants them.
When the finished quilt is on the bed, it's kind of fun to look at it -- every square is a different memory.
Several of my husbands friends who saw the finished product all said they wanted one, and supposedly they're saving their t-shirts for me......but I'm kind of figuring (hoping!!) that none of them will show up with a pile of shirts and expect a quilt..........

I have a quilt that my Mom made out of all of my old jeans. She would take them home when she came to visit over the years. She presented me with it about 10 years ago. I don't sleep without it...it's my blankie. One of my few treasures.

chick