Changing of the Quilts

Every spring and fall, I have my version of England's Changing of the Guard - The Changing of the Quilts. I love quilts - have for years. When I first learned how to make a quilt, everything had to be by hand - cut out templates from cardboard and everything hand stitched. After my first class, I ran like H-E-double hockey sticks as far as I could get. Don't like that hand stitching. I figured that I would be buying whatever quilts I wanted from that point on because it was just too much work no matter how much I loved the things. A few years went by, and then inventions to make quilting easier appeared on the scene. I went into it full throttle.


This was last year's fall quilt. It's made from Thimbleberries fabrics, for those who are in the know about fabrics.


This isn't the greatest picture, but it was the plaid fabric that originally caught my attention and the floral fabric in the center of the basket . I had to make something out of those fabrics! There is a great store in Minnesota that carries the whole line of Thimbleberries fabrics so it was just a matter of waiting for the postman to deliver the goods (that poor postman - the hairs on his body probably stand on end when he gets near my house)!




This is my Spring quilt and also my favorite. There is a story behind this quilt. I saw it, with these fabrics, in McCalls Quilting. I HAD to have it!!! I was like a raving manic. I had to have those fabrics!!! I'm sure, you as stitchers understand that feeling that if you don't get your grubby hands on it, you will split into a million pieces. Well, that's what happened to me. So I made one of my famous road trips - two hours west to a quilt store I knew (or hoped would have the fabric). They had most of what I needed, but not all. But I felt I did good, but still had to have the remaining fabrics. So another trip was made to another quilt store in the area - this one an hour north! YA HOO! They had the fabric. I was good to go. But what I didn't know about this store when I drove up (as I'd never been there before) was that it was a quilter's mecca - 11,000 bolts of not only the latest and greatest fabrics, but rows and rows of those fabrics that you might just need a little piece of for another quilt that you ran out of the fabric for. All color coordinated in rows as far as the eye could see. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. When I walked in the door, I must have made some kind of weird gurgling noise (and probably was foaming at the mouth a little) because one of the women who worked there asked if I was okay and if I needed a glass of water. That's how overwhelmed I was. I will not even mention how much money I spent that day! I didn't need a glass of water when I walked into that store, what I really needed was to be married to JD Rockefeller for all the damage I could see myself doing in that place. I tried to restrain myself, but suffice it to say that DH was not pleased! LOL He did get over it though - after a while.


These quilts are all on display in the guest room. This is my santuary where I can do pretty much what I want (and also run to when DH snores like a gale force wind). My Shepherd's Bush samplers (or most of them are in this room too - DD ran off with a couple of them). But I'll save those for another day. You can probably make out part of a couple of them over the bed in the picture above:


The Earth Gatherers - Not the greatest picture - but one of my favorites. Also one that I broke down and ordered the Jill Rensel mats for this one.



Harvest Moon - I love the moon's cheeks!

Stitching wise I've gotten some done on my Shores Block 2 and I'm hoping to have that done by the end of the week! Have a great week everyone!