Good day to everyone!  Thanks for visiting my humble little blog.  I started this a little over a year ago and it has been a good way for me to express my joy of quilting in a forum that doesn’t push it on those who don’t care (like through my personal Facebook profile).  I’m always excited to get comments and feedback and to see how many people have visited my blog pages. 

Today is my 100th blog post!  Yay!  Celebrate!  Also, I’m too cheap to get a fancy blog that can do neat visual effects and stuff, so you get things like .. Yay!  Celebrate!

🙂  Ok … so I thought I would finally start my quilt history entries.  Another reason I decided to do a blog was to capture my quilt accomplishments and always have a place I could come to look back on my life in fabric.

I am starting with a quilt I made for my brother when I was at Texas A&M in Bryan/College Station, TX.  I remember it quite vividly (more so than the classes I attended that semester).   I think the year was 1993?  Maybe?

I did my cutting using a yardstick, clear protractor, dressmaker pencil and orange Fiskar scissors.  NO rotary tools back then!  I marked every quarter inch seam allowance before I sewed my pieces together.  I did my piecing on the coffee table, while sitting or kneeling on the floor in front of it.  I bought my fabric from the Hancock Fabrics chain (similar to Joanns) or even Wal-Mart.  I had no idea there were actual quilt shops with different quality of fabric available.  I didn’t know anything about designers or manufacturers such as MODA.  I was just emulating my grandmother. 

That mauve calico print was very popular – I remember that much.  The pattern probably came from my Better Homes & Gardens (or was it McCalls?) guide book which I had subscribed to as a ‘pattern of the month’ program.  I have a very large 3  ring binder and once a month, I would get an envelope for a new pattern and a sheet of plastic with the templates drawn on them for me to cut out and use, if applicable.  This may have just been called Ohio Star.

After sewing it together, I had purchased a PVC pipe quilt frame by Q SNAP to do the quilting by hand.  I probably used safety bins to baste it.  I don’t remember that part.

I used a piece of chalk and a quilting template to mark different designs on the borders.  You can see above, barely, my feather design.  And below, you can see my simple outline/stitch in the ditch quilting for the blocks and some diagonal lines for the inner border:

Finally – a sunflower motif in the corners:

I had to request my brother to bring me this quilt this past summer so I could photograph it.  I can tell it has been washed more than once and been well loved.  I am so happy about that!  The binding doesn’t feel as though I have any batting in it and it is starting to wear out and wear thin in some spots.  One day, I will offer to rebind it for him. 

Hope you enjoyed my nostalgic look back.  I will share more projects next week.  As I complete a showcase, I will move a picture of that quilt to my History tab here in WordPress.

I appreciate those of you who visit my blog and thanks for being here on my 100th post!

Jennifer