Quilting Again

My grandma was a home economics teacher.  She could cook, sew, mend or make anything.  I am so grateful that she taught me how to sew. 

When grandma passed away, we found she had boxes and more boxes and an entire closet full of fabric.  Sewing was her passion and whenever she found fabric she liked, she bought it.  I don't have the passion like she had (for sewing) but no one else in the family sews so I took most of the fabric when we were cleaning out her house.

I had this dream of making quilts from Grandma's fabric.  When Kidlet One was a toddler, I took a quilting class. I worked diligently on my quilt squares but then Kidlet Two came along and I was busy.  The quilt never got finished and the fabric was moved to storage.  In the back of my mind there was this wish that I could spend time sewing/quilting. 

Move the clock ahead many years now.  Within the past year or so, I realized that at some point in my life I started believing a lie that I couldn't quilt or do crafts until I was retired from my full time Outside-of-the-Home job.  It was quite a revelation when I realized that I could sew an hour or two during a week night.  It may sound strange to you, but I had become frozen in this lie and it makes me sad now.  But, oh the freedom I have NOW to sew!

For Christmas I decided to make my Dad a lap quilt.  The fabric would be from his mother.  Isn't that cool!  So last fall I pulled out the many boxes of fabric and started dreaming of what I could make.  Grandma sure liked flowers and feminine-looking materials!  I had to really dig to find fabric appropriate for my Dad!

 Then I pulled out my quilting supplies and went to work.

 Cutting strips and sewing them together...

 Squares and strips of fabric being placed together...

 Using the quilt pattern called Turning Twenty

 Here I'm laying out the squares trying to decide

where and how each should be placed

The actual quilting (the meandering stitch) was done for me by a co-worker.

Here I am sewing a fleece binding along the edges to turn and finish off the quilt.

And Dad opening the quilt at Christmas. 

Ignore the broken lamp/lightbulb just above his head...that story is for another day.

Right now I have fabric for two more quilts sitting on my sewing machine.  I'm ready for my next projects!