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