Around The World Blog Hop: The CarpentersDaughterwhoquilts

Hello, welcome to my blog stop on the Around The World Blog Hop. I hope that you will come to know more about me and my quilting works in progress and the process I used to make them.

I was nominated to participate in this around the world blog hop by my fellow quilting friend, Cheryl who blogs at Meadow Mist Designs. I came across Cheryl and her blog online last year after finding her quilt patterns for sale on Craftsy and Etsy. I have purchased many of her patterns and my recent blog posts have been about completed quilts that were made from her patterns.

I seemed to have some how missed where this blog hop originated online. The whole basis of this blog hop is to share what you are working on and tell about the why and hows of your creative process from four basic questions. I will admit the thought of answering the questions has made me a tad nervous. I will do my best to answer them for you all and maybe we all will learn something.

1. What am I working on currently?

Last week I finished up quilting matching Scooby Doo quilts from a super sized version of Adding Up Nicely from Meadow Mist Designs.

I am attempting to get an early start on Christmas gift sewing. I have two quilt designs cut out and hope to start piecing them yet this afternoon.

I am making a Broken Frames quilt which is another design from Meadow Mist Designs. I am using multiple different black and white prints cut into charm squares with a turquoise solid background and white sashing to finish off the broken framed pattern. I think the bold turquoise will really show off all the fun black and white prints.

The other quilt pattern that I have cut out to make is String of Pearls by Christa’s Quilts. Christa has made a sew along so you can make this fun quilt along with her. I am making mine out of batik charm squares that I cut from fat quarters in my stash, and will pair it up with a silver gray background and the black solid strings around the batik pearl blocks. The original quilt design was made with 36 blocks and I have chosen to enlarge the quilt using 64 blocks.

I am also working on creating a Plus quilt design using the new tutorial by Missouri Star Quilts Co. The quilt tutorial makes a quilt using 4 charm packs. My daughter would like a larger quilt and we have 6 charm packs of Moda’s Rawhide fabric plus two charm packs of cream solid. If we throw in a few squares from our stash along with the others, we should end up with a quilt double the size of the throw size quilt the tutorial makes. I have made numerous notes calculating what we need for fabric, and just need to finalize layout of our squares. Can definitely use a design wall for this quilt idea.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

This question has to be one of the hardest ones to answer for many of the other bloggers participating in the blog hop. I would have to agree. I am not sure really where I fit in quilting genres. I started out quilting over 20 years ago and definitely made more traditional styled quilts. Everything from nine patches, log cabins to variable stars. I would like to say I tend towards a more modern approach and style of quilting now. I think that my style is still evolving. It does not know what it wants to be when it grows up, very much like myself.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

This should be one of the easiest answered. Quilting is an escape for me. It is the one thing in my sometimes hectic life that is truly mine. I taught myself to quilt. I tried to make a quilt when we first got married and it was a disaster. Rotary cutters and all the specialty rulers have been a godsend. Once I got successful results using good tools and creating a proper scant 1/4 inch seam allowance, I have not looked back and made numerous quilts.  I lost my Mom last year and we used to talk multiple times throughout our weeks on what sewing, quilting and embroidery projects we had going on. Mom never got into quilting and I had not tried machine embroidery, but we understood what the other went through to create their art. I have since inherited her beloved embroidery sewing machine.  I really missed our talks and it was suggested to me by my quilting friend and fellow blogger, Cheryl to start my own blog. I am slowly trying to find my blogging voice.  My Mom liked to go to her embroidery group meetings for show and tell nights. I find posting photos of my finished quilts and uploading to the various linky parties to be similar nature just in a world wide reaching spanse. It is great fun to hear from fellow quilters and to hear that like what I have created. I think my Mom would have liked this as well.

I would like to share a photo of the one quilt that my Mom and I worked on together. I had been given a quilt pattern to test and some donated fabrics. I added in a couple of my own fabrics. It was just a test run to try out the block piecing. The quilt top sat in a storage bin for a while and I was actually going to give it to charity, as it was not my style. I just do not particularly care for overly flowerly prints.  My Mom took a liking to it and decided to add some borders to make it a bit larger and she did some simple quilting on it. She shared this little quilt at a couple of her embroidery groups and the ladies all like it and supposedly could not believe I was going to give it away. My Mom had this quilt displayed on a lounge chair in her sun room. After she passed away, I decided to bring the quilt back home and it resides on my rocking chair.

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

Over the years I have spent numerous hours scouring various quilting magazines for potential ideas. I now use Pinterest to find my future quilt ideas and plans. I do not own any quilt design software. I hope to some day. Over the years I have scratched out designs on graph paper to see how something might look like. I go back and forth from having a quilt pattern and needing fabric to having the fabric and needing a pattern to fit the fabric I have. There are so many quilt patterns to choose from and so many fabrics. I have noticed many designs today are for smaller quilts so if it is something I like, I end up adding more blocks to get the size I want and need. I do love all the precut fabrics that you can find on the market these days. I just do not always have some on hand. Alot of times I cut my own charm squares, layer cakes and jellyroll strips from yardage or fat quarters I have on hand. If I do have precuts, I like to create the largest quilt I can with them to make the best use of the fabrics.

One of my favorite tools is the Quilter’s FabriCalc, a specialty calculator I found at JoAnn’s Fabrics. It helps calculate squares, blocks and quilt yardage quite easily. It is quite helpful in creating your own precuts .

My writing/blogging style is said to be like having a conversation with me. I am told that is a good thing. My husband or non quilting friends may disagree. I write as it pops in my head.

I am passing along the blog hop challenge to three fellow quilters I have met online since starting my blog. We have shared and linked up our quilt projects to the same place and shared comments back and forth.

First is a fellow Iowan, Valerie at re-engineered. Valerie was trained as an Engineer and her family lives on a farm just like we do. It was small world to find out we live off the same highway in Iowa, just opposite ends. She shares on her blog some really cute projects like quilts and bedding for her little boy to one really lovely Swoon quilt. A Swoon is on my To do list and hers makes me want to start up one soon. Second, I nominate the Mother Daughter team of Prairie Sewn Studios . Linda is the Mother of this quilting team and she is from Nebraska and Laura, the daughter is living in California. They have many lovely projects that they share on their blog. This Mother Daughter team is even published, having written a book on English paper piecing. I round out my blog hop nominees, with my new friend Zafira, who lives in the beautiful Greece. She has a a blog called Zarkadia quilts and crafts. Zafira has a love for typography applique and has made some really cool quilted pillows. She has an Etsy store that she sells her finished products. She sews some really nice pouches and bags as well.

Thank you for stopping by to my blog on this stop of the Around the World Blog Hop. Please check out my blog, The Carpenters Daughter who Quilts for other quilts I have finished and my current works in progress. Please keep an eye out for my friends posts on their stops on this blog hop as they share their blogs on October 13th.