Where Did We Begin?

First of all, Joe's head is better, although his gash was pretty bad. I was just relieved that he had no concussion. Thanks for your concern! I hope that I don't have dreams like that again. The whole experience was very upsetting. Today, I will finish catching up on my blogs, and I will do so later this afternoon.


I read a few of the blogs yesterday, and I discovered that Robyn from Daisy Quilts has come up with a really neat idea about telling how we became quilters. I decided to join in as it would be fun to read how others got into quilting, and to also share my story. My mom and dad had a fabric store. The amazing thing about it is that my dad built the store in the basement of our house with his bare hands. He worked on it a long time and one day they opened the store. It was called Mina's Dry Goods, and many people got to know the store in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.My mom was a seamstress, and she taught me how to sew. At the time, I didn't appreciate it to the extent that I do now. I was taught how to design and sew my own clothes, how to sew beautiful items for the home, and in time, I began to love to sew. I worked in my parents' store, and I learned to love fabric too, and as my mom was also an artist, as I am, I learned to appreciate colours. After I married and moved to Ireland, I got into quilting. I know my mom would have loved to make a quilt, but she never did. I never had time to get into any hobbies until I met Joe and moved here to Ireland.My first quilt was a log cabin that I made from an Eleanor Burns book. It really did not turn out that great, but I was so proud of it. Here is a pic of it.

I then saw a quilt that was appliqued and thought it was wonderful, so I took a class in hand applique, and fell in love with the whole process. I made my first appliqued wall hanging based on a Reva Roark Stewart pattern, and it took me forever and a day to cut out and turn all the pieces and then to hand sew it, but boy did I love doing it, so I made this wall hanging.

Finally, I bought my first Carol Doak's book, and discovered the exciting world of paper piecing, and that became my next passion. This was the first block that I made, and then I was hooked. That led me to tons of quilts that I paper pieced and of course to the Carnivale quilt which I recently completed.

I guess what I love about quilting is that there is always a pattern around the corner that will excite me and challenge me to excel further. I do like to do very challenging projects, I have to admit. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Jennifer Chiaverini'd Elm Creek Series really got me into loving quilting even more. I picked the Sylvia Bridal Sampler to do, and I learned so much about quilting from having completed that quilt. It took me four months to do as I mentioned before, but in the end, I had a quilt that I would treasure forever, and a wealth of information that I had mastered from making it. The beauty of it all, is that there is always another quilt waiting to be completed, and I know I will be quilting for the rest of my life.

That's my story. Today, Joe and I finish the painting outside. We will head to the new quilt shop. I will take a pic of it, and then this weekend is the Jazz Festival, so that should be fun. I will keep you updated on all of that.

Enjoy your weekend and thanks again to everyone!