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Part of me is thinking, "You're not really going to go through your quilt pictures and blog about them one at a time, are you?"  The answer is: I'm not sure.  Maybe?

What's this? Another log cabin quilt thanks to Eleanor Burns's Quilt in a Day book?  Guilty!  Why mess with a good thing?

This was made for a childhood friend of mine who was having her first baby - a girl.  And our school colors were purple and gold - did I really purposefully choose our school colors?  I honestly don't remember.  It's a good combo, nonetheless. 

Another thing I keep saying to myself: "Bless your heart, Jess".  I don't know if that translates well, but I'm so proud of my beginner self trying new techniques, even if they aren't executed that well.

Maybe you can see from the photo above, I both tied and machine quilted this baby quilt.  I had a little pucker in the machine quilting, but I wasn't too worried about it. :) I also see that I did a binding instead of turning it like a pillowcase.  Again: points for trying, young one.

I totally remember being thrilled with finding the most appropriate, fitting backing fabric.

Baby quilts are my favorite thing to make.  It's because of the size mostly.  Being able to try out a new idea on a smaller scale without the same time/resource investment as a full size quilt.  But still the act of giving a gift for a new life - it just doesn't get better in my opinion. 

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This was my first finished quilt.  Not the first one I started - mind you - the first one I completed. :)  The one I first started is still a UFO.

In the spring of 2005, I gave up working an office job I really liked.  I left for another job I ended up really liking too - it was a working from home gig called M-o-m. :) One of my former coworkers-turned-friend got married in the fall of 2005.  At the time, I was just discovering patchwork and becoming enamored with fabrics and pattern - I couldn't wait to finish my first quilt.  I saw my friend Josh's wedding as an opportunity to gift a quilt of my own to the happy couple.  Having a deadline definitely helped me see the project through to completion.

Following Eleanor Burns's Quilt in a Day Log Cabin book, I made the blocks shown above and really had a good time arranging them into different configurations.  I landed on the layout shown and sewed the top together.  And then I honestly looked at it and thought -- okay, why isn't it a quilt yet?!  Why doesn't it look like the one my sister made for me?  I hadn't actually considered that the quilt I'd made was really just a quilt top.  I had no idea how to finish it, so I called my sister who I knew had pulled off a finished quilt at least twice before.

I found a flat sheet on sale at Bed, Bath & Beyond and used it for the backing fabric.  I bought one of the standard polyester high-loft batts from Joann's.  I sewed the three layers together around the perimeter and left a hole to turn that mother out, pillowcase-style.  It worked!  For the finishing touch, and to add much needed stability, I tied embroidery floss through the layers all over the quilt.

It's funny that I don't have any pictures of the finished quilt.  The only two pictures I do have look exactly like the one above.  I didn't care about photography, that's for sure.  And honestly? I was probably in too big of a rush to finish before the wedding that I didn't have time to stop and take more pictures.  That sounds more like me.

Inspiration for quiltmaking

My paternal great-grandmother was a quilter.  I still have faint memories from my very early childhood of visiting her house and seeing a big, wooden quilt frame set up in her living room for hand quilting.

Great Grandma Estelle made my sister, brother and myself quilts from fabrics we definitely recognized - they were also used by my mom in making clothes for us.  Because of these warm memories, I've always had a fondness for quilts.  My Grandpa Bob made me a hanging quilt rack for my bedroom and I loved it - I probably asked for it in the first place. :)  I remember displaying my quilt that had come from Grandma Estelle and being proud of it.

Flash forward several years to when my husband and I were newly married.  My sister Emily  made a quilt for us.  She is a couple of years younger than me and I was 22 at the time.  Emily knew how to make a quilt because our small, rural high school had offered a class in quiltmaking.  It wasn't available when I was a student, but there was enough interest in Emily's class to have it be a home ec option.  I believe it was called Independent Quilting. Now that I look back on it, I think it's pretty incredible that our school offered that class!  It really changed the course of my life if I'm being honest, and I didn't even take the class.

Present-day quilt, wrinkles and all.  To say this quilt is loved is an understatement.  It's been loved to death - this is its best side.  I've had it folded  next to my couch for several months now with the hopes of restoring it - patching the rips and tears it's sustained over the last twelve years and then quilting it.

My sister gifting us this quilt introduced the possibility that I could also make quilts.  Emily helped me with shopping to get my initial quilting supplies and when I was ready to start my own quilt project we sewed blocks together, going through Eleanor Burns's Log Cabin Quilt in a Day book.  It was the same book she followed in making the quilt above for us.

Her gift opened a door for me that I've never cared to close.  It ignited this inspiration and passion that is still going strong ten years later.

Thank you, Emily! 

Counting up

Last Saturday when I got this site up and running, I had the chance to look through my long-neglected picture files on my laptop.  I was inspired to do a little spring cleaning through many years of digital picture files and folders dating back to my earliest digital images from 2002 when I spent WAYYY too much money on a 1.6 megapixel Canon camera. 

Over the last few days, I separated the pictures into family/personal photos, quilting photos of my personal patchwork, and then longarming business photos.  

Oh Jess, you're so adorable!

I've had a sewing machine for the last 10 years exactly.  As I remembered it, I started a quilt immediately after getting the machine, but photos actually reminded me that I first made a curtain for my new baby's nursery and didn't start quilting until a few months later.  So, as I approach my 10 year anniversary of quilting, I'm feeling this need to look back and take stock of the quilts I've made.  I do want to know a number, yes - but I also am wanting to be reminded of how that quilt-making tracked alongside my life.

In some years, there are very few photos of a very few projects.  In other years, the folders are bustling with hundreds of photos of various stages of quilt-making with all sorts of colors, sizes, techniques and people in mind as recipients. 

As I look forward to many more years of quilting, I'm also taking the time to look back and remember what came before.

Adel Bricks pattern

I live in a small town which also happens to be the county seat.  Part of the charm of my town is that it has chosen to keep/maintain brick streets surrounding the courthouse square.  Let's just say that visitors to town find the brick streets more endearing than the residents who travel regularly on them. :) 

For better or worse, the brick streets are here to stay and they inspired the name of this quick and easy baby quilt - the finished dimensions are 40" x 40".  It's definitely fat quarter friendly!

Two years ago when I wrote this simple pattern, I didn't have a good platform in which to share it.  Now that I do, I thought I'd publish it and make it available as a free download.  Just head on over to my patterns and click on the image.  From there, you can print, make, enjoy. If you decide to make it, I'd love to see what you come up with: tag me on Instagram or post a picture to my Facebook page. 

Having a website

I've known for a long time that I would need to take the plunge and create another website.  I say another because I was a regular blogger/site operator for over three years of my life, from about 2008 - 2011.  I grew so weary of keeping up with the ever-changing Wordpress platform and photo uploading/editing, that I stepped away and took a much needed break.

I'm back and am pleasantly surprised that there are now much more simplified ways to update and maintain a site.  Hooray!  I do want to offer content that I think might be useful for the quilting community I adore and this will be the place I do it.

Instagram first, expanded content here (like videos) and eventually, I have several quilt designs that I'm in the process of patterning now and hope to make available as soon as I possibly can.

At this stage of my life, I'm longarming for customers and that's my primary focus.  I decided late last year that I needed to follow my passion of creating quilts in all stages and at that time began ramping down quilting for others.  I'm booked with that final quilting work until the end of 2015.

I hope you'll join me in this journey to discover what's next for Threaded Quilting Studio.