Quilts Made By Hands

                                                 Quilts made by hand

Quilting is one of the things I love, quilting from scraps left over from things I have made.  Homemade  quilts in my family go back many years.I have heard more about the grandmothers on my Fathers side than others. I have seen many of their quilts, including  quilts my own mother quilted.

When I was first married and had children, I did a lot of sewing making my children's clothing. After a few years I  noticed I had collected a lot of  scrap material  left over. I knew some of my friends did sewing also so I ask them what they were going to do with it. They gave me so much material, that's when I decided to make a quilt. So over time I worked on my quilt, and guess what? It turned out to be a king size quilt top. Before I could get it quilted, I had another baby, moved, so the quilt had to wait. So, one day I was gone for a while and the basement flooded from a water heater. When I came home my husband had cleaned it all up. The later next day I went down in the basement to see about the things that was stored there , a lot of things were missing, but the one thing I couldn't find, was my quilt top along with a lot of memories.

 I still quilt things for my children and  grandchildren and have a lot more to do.  and I have built a lot more
loving memories.                                                                           Judy

Memories

                                                  Memories

My mom had a pedal  Singer Sewing Machine, and as a teenager I watched my Mother sew. She taught me the importance of self help, how to sew , and how to make clothes,and do quilting , put away canned food. I came from a large family four boys and five girls.  So it took a lot to take care of them.

My Dad was a farmer and planted a large garden to feed us. My Mom had a big job taking care of us kids ,cooking  ,baking, making clothes especially for the girls and herself.

There was a lot of things they had to buy at stores, like sugar, cornmeal, shortening, flour. All these things were bought in bulk sizes, especially the flour,it came in very pretty color printed material. She made me lots of pretty dresses and kept all the left over pieces of material to make quilts with.That's when I fell in love with home made quilts.

When I was in middle school we had sewing classes.I made my first article of clothing it was an apron,I didn't received a blue ribbon , I received a red ribbon which  was ok.

Years later I married and when I had my first daughter, I found that sewing was part of my life I enjoyed sewing little dresses  for my daughters, and myself. I also saved all my left over material for home made quilts.

A lot of my friends sewed also ,so I ask them for their left over material, that I also  saved for my quilt.Some time later I started on my quilt which turned out to be a king size quilt. It also had a lot of memories in it.

What ever you do enjoy it ,and you will have great memories .

                                    

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CrochetingGreat Memories

Crocheting Great Memories


There are so many beautiful things to crochet and so many colors to choose from. If it's your first time to crochet you'll need a book of instructions and start with a skein of yarn and a large size crochet hook.  I found that practice makes perfect,  so just start with holding the yarn and crochet hook in your hands properly until you feel secure.  Then start making rows of single crochets.  A single crochet is what one stitch is called. The stitches should be even not tight or loose, you'll be able to do the rest easily.

Crocheting a small baby quilt with yarn is the easiest to crochet first.  I like the light weight yarn also for making baby bibs and booties to match with baby blues and pinks. They are so soft and as beautiful as the baby.       

Look for books with patterns for crocheting baby quilts or afghans for your sofa or bed or in the winter to cover up while watching television.  If you have a family you may have to make more than one or maybe share it but I bet not. It's great for traveling and keeping one in the car.

The next thing I did was to get crochet thread and a small crochet hook.  There are all sizes to choose from but you can buy large and small sets and you will have them on hand for any thing you might need.

The smaller crochet hook is the one I use for making doilies.  I love to make doilies with coasters to match and I make up my own patterns for the coasters but I'm sure you can find all the patterns you need.

Doilies make wonderful Christmas gifts. I have a Christmas tradition, I always give dish cloths/towels and wash cloths for Christmas. One year I made doilies for all my children and put the doilies in the middle of the towels and rolled them up in Christmas wrap with bows on both ends.  It looked like a huge candy cane.  They weren't surprised except for the doilies inside.

Many, many years ago a very special church building was destroyed by lighting and fire and burnt to the ground. A few years ago this church building was rebuilt just as before on the same site.  When I read about this church building being rebuilt, I crocheted a prayer cloth for one of the prayer alters in this building  while it was being built. This church building sets on a hill over looking the Mississippi River.

Learning to crochet makes your home more personable and a trait to pass on to your children.

                                                                                                                                           Judy

My Family Came From Ireland

My ancestors came from Ireland.  There were three brothers, the story is that one brother returned to be with their father in Ireland. While the second one settled later in Florida.  My family was some of the first to settle in Kentucky in the early 1700's.

They bought thousands of acres and prospered very well.  They planted and made everything they needed.  They had acres and acres of planted field consisting of fruit trees, wheat fields, hay, corn, tobacco and cotton fields.  They had black smith shops,flour,wheat,and corn mills. They made liquor, cut lumber to build homes and barns. They baled cotton and refined the cotton to make material for clothes and quilts. The quilts were very important because of the cold winter months in Kentucky.  This was a tradition passed down to the family.  They helped to build the small town that I grew up in . The Court House still stands.  I have been told it's the oldest Court House this side of the Allegheny Mountains.
     
In the fall my great grandfather would build a barge, fill it with all their excess goods, fruit, vegetables,leather, corn, wheat, flour, hay bales and cotton bales. He would float it down  the river to the next town where he would sell all the goods on the barge, including the barge and walk back  to his home.

Years later on the family land my father was and born grew up along  with two brothers.  When the youngest boy was in his early teens he came down with polio and was told he would never walk again.  My father worked with him and encourage him to walk, eventually he did.  So in the years to come my uncle was able help his mother with the quilting. She would cut the quilt pieces and he would iron them. The iron was heated  on a wood stove. She quilted each piece by hand. When she passed away she left thirty one quilts behind. I was lucky enough to inherit a beautiful quilt made by my "grandmother" from this uncle.
     
I also grew up part of my life on that same land. The same traditions were passed on to me. The canning,  storing food for winter and being thrifty.  The main thing was learning to sew, sewing clothes and quilting. I have twenty one grand and great -grand children.  I have made a lot of baby quilts for them and quilts I've given away to friends.  They all love the quilts because they were made by me.

         It's important to take things you've learned like quilting and start early gathering your material and
        supplies so that you can share your family qualities with others and give precious gifts with love.
                                                                 

                                                                                                                                          Judy 

Crocheting Ideas

         Crocheting Ideas

I have a beautiful blocked crocheted  throw on the back of my sofa.
It is made with different colored yarn. Each block is rotated with a
burnt orange and a dark brown of yarn encased with beige and all
around the sides with the same color beautiful beige.

When I first married with two children I taught myself to crochet but
I was too busy with children to keep it up. But now that my children
are grown, my oldest daughter ask me about the doilies. It was then
that I started to crochet again.

My oldest daughter loves red so I started to crochet again. I made her
 red doilies large ones and small ones. I thought she would use them   http:/quiltingandcrocheting.blogspot.com
for Christmas but I was wrong , she decorated  her  kitchen with the
red ones.Then I made her others for the rest of her house.

I use all colors and all sizes for the home or any place you might want
to place them. I also make doilies for any season of the year with
coasters to match.

I have other favorite things to do and that is make baby items,such as
baby booties, bibs to match,baby quilts,made with crochet thread or
yarn.I crocheted a quilt made with white thread for one of my Grand
daughters when she was first born it looked like lace.

I have a favorite doilies pattern it's about fourteen two sixteen inches
round I have made it all colors but my favorite color is white.I have
given away so many to my friends and family but finally have one for
myself .

All you need is a skein of yarn a large size crochet hook and practice
making rows of single crochet stitches and holding the yarn properly.
Then you need to practice with  crochet thread and a small crochet
 hook just as you did with the yarn and a larger crochet hook.
Then your ready to crochet, just get a book of doilies patterns and
inside it will also show you everything else you will need to know
about crocheting.

There are so many things you can make besides doilies.There are clothes,
purses, table runners,table cloths,vest, sleeveless jackets and many more.

Get your supplies today and  learn , you'll have beautiful things for your
 home and also build great memories and wonderful  gifts,
 MADE WITH LOVE

                                                              JUDY

Quilting For Fun

  Quilting For Fun     

    

   When I was a little girl, I loved to watch my mother quilt. She would quilt on a frame made of wood.It 

   would be hanging from the ceiling in the dining room with ropes on all four corners that the quilt was
   supported by.  When she lowered it to quilt the chairs were already there.  There was five girls and four
   boys, twenty two years between the oldest to the youngest .I was the eighth of nine children. She had a        very large family to take care of.

 She had a large garden, had fruit trees, she canned food out of the garden and dried fruit. So we would      have fruit tarts in the winter.   She planted a certain kind of corn for  popcorn and grew peanuts .We had     molasses  which was made from sugar cane. My mom would cook the molasses and we would take small
pieces and keep pulling it until it turned into taffy. She made fudge and sometimes would add walnuts, hickory nuts or pecan nuts. We never did without.

 Mom made my clothes and she was always  working on a quilt. Over those years
 she made at least fifteen quilts. When I was old enough she taught me how to sew and quilt. There was certain size quilt needles to use, also a thimble.  That was the hardest to get use to.
 There wasn't any patterns so my Mom would  make up her own. She would use chalk or pencil on a string  to make semi-circles over lapping each other.

 Now that I have a family of my  own with five girls and two boys I too had my hands full. I now have grandchildren and great- grandchildren. I have found that sewing and quilting to be fun and useful.

 It has been several years since I made my first quilt.  I still go shopping for material mostly for baby quilts.
I keep a lot of simple pink and simple blue. You never know when a new baby will come along.  
              
I always keep my eyes open for special  materials for quilting. I also keep plenty of backing material 
all kinds and colors.  But I like solid colors to match the quilt.  I always keep plenty of  batting on hand,
it comes in different weights, and different sizes of rolls.   I love to give baby quilts,  each one is made
with my gift of Love.       Judy

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Baby Quilts Made With Love

 Baby Quilts Made With  Love 

 My Mother -in law loved  to quilt and crochet. She had three children with eleven grandchildren she made quilts for those grandchildren and for her daughter she made a regular size wedding ring quilt. 
 She also made baby quilts for some of my children.  My children treasure their quilts even today, they are quite worn but put away for safe keeping and memories.

Our youngest daughter was still in her teens when we made a trip to Orlando, Florida for a wedding.  As always she took her quite worn quilt with her and that was alright because she loved her quilt. We arrived at the motel we unpacked our bags and retired for the day.  The next day we went to the wedding and sight seeing and returned to our motel.  Our daughter saw that her quilt was missing but she had to wait until the morning to check on it when the staff returned.  The next day we called the desk to ask about her quilt. It had not been seen. So we went to the laundry department to check also if they had seen it.   The laundry personal had not seen it.

My daughter would not leave without her quilt. So we had the laundry personal help us look for her quilt, They searched every washer and dryer but couldn't find her quilt.   Finally, one of the staff members went to the dumpster to look for it and there she came back with the quilt in her hand.
A lot of the personnel from the motel had joined us as we waited for the lady to return from the dumpster. When they saw the quilt in hand one of the workers turned to another worker and said, "you mean that ragged thing was what we were looking for".  They just didn't understand that the quilt was made by her grandmother and how much this little girl treasured it.

 When my Mother- In -Law passed away we found a lot of quilt pieces and material. The first quilt pieces we found matched along with the backing. So, I finished the quilt, it was not a baby quilt. It was oblong pieces in pastel colors.  I thought it would be good to put on the floor for my grand daughter to lay on but no, it was never put on the floor. It was too priceless.

My next grand-baby was a little girl, she is nine years old now and treasures the quilt made by her Great-Grandmother. 

 She also made my youngest son a quilt, he put it away with other treasures from childhood. He is now twenty eight with a family of his own. A new baby girl five months old.  I have since made her a quilt as well and a satin pillow to match. He also has a little boy that is three.   I found material with cars and also material with an assortment of sports themes for his quilt .He loves his quilt.

I enjoy making baby quilts to carry on her legacy. I enjoy picking the colors that match their room or simple pinks and blues to match their gender. This is an example of a  good quality to learn, to quilt and give each one you make away to someone with love.          Judy