History of the Apron

The principle use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, but along with that, it served as a holder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears. From the chicken-coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven. When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms. Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls. In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees. When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds. When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that "old-time apron" that served so many purposes. REMEMBER THIS! Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw. They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don’t think I ever caught anything from an apron…… But Love !! Until next time cousins......

Cool New Stuff

I did add some cool stuff today. One is another website to follow. All People Quilt is an exicitng website full of free patterns and videos on "How to Do" stuff. I also added inspirational daily prayer. I thought we could all use that from time to time. The creator of allpeoplequilt.com is Better Homes and Garden, a name we have all known for years. I received a free magazine and decided to buy a subscription after visiting their website. You can never get enough inspiration and tips on quilting. I've been searching for a project and decided on a picture quilt of my grandchildren. This is where you take a picture and duplicate it with fabric. First I have to gather the kids together for a group picture. I want to take them all out in the country for a picture in a Texas bluebonnet field. Our wild flowers (thanks to Lady Bird Johnson) are something else and you havent' seen anything until you see a field of bluebonnets. What a beautiful wall hanging that would make! I will be home in late May or early June and I thought it would be nice if the "quiltingcousins" got together for lunch and quilting. We could also get our picture taken for the blog. Let me know what you think of that idea. Until next time ladies, keep on quilting! Your quilting cousin Debbie

a modern baby quilt

I wanted to share my latest creation, a baby quilt that I made with my dear friend, Molly. She is due in April with her first baby, a boy, named Carl Champ. Molly designed her nursery using a fabric collection by Moda, called "wee woodlands." She and I designed the quilt, and I machine quilted the piece. It was a wonderful collaboration, we worked together several days, in between nap times and lunches, to create this beautiful baby quilt. I will add pictures of her nursery soon, so that you can see the quilt in its "natural environment."

Look mom, I'm blogging!!

Well Sisters, I am blogging....Debbie is talking me through this. She is definitely the computer guru in the family and I might add a creative quilter.  I am in the process of setting up my new/old sewing room and committed to getting at least three prayer blankets done before mass this Sunday.  Some of you may know that we have a prayer blanket ministry in our parish, St Joachim in Old Mines.  Myself and another woman in the parish started it after receiving prayer blankets/shawls when a family member died.  Steffie's death was my inspiration and Monica's son, Austin, killed in Afghanistan, inspired her action.  To date our ministry has made and given more than 200 blankets.  I will post more information about the ministry, after Debbie shows me how.    

I fell in love with the pattern to make these dolls. It is Simplicity 2462. I made these three for my triplet great nieces on their 3rd birthday. When my 8 yr old granddaughter Madison saw the dolls, she wanted one so I made her one for Christmas and most recently made one for the 5 yr old daughter of a friend who is like a granddaughter to me. All the dolls take on a charater of their own as I made them. On each doll I put a heart on the tummy with the child's name on it except for Madison who wanted a peace sign on hers. I myself love dolls and am considering making some for myself for my sewing room. The pattern is really easy to make. I wish now I would have thought to make a label to put on the back of each doll saying who it was made by. I didn't think of it at the time. All the little girls I made them for just loved them. On a new note, I added some more pictures to our album of quilts. Sister Susan(country quilter) and I made a quilt wall hanging for our sister Barb's 70th birthday. Make sure you go take a peak at the quilt and the label. Keep on quilting and crafting ladies... til next time.... Debbie

I don't know if you're like me but I was forever rummaging through my sewing drawers looking for my scissors, seam ripper, etc; until my sister Barbara made this for me. She made one for me and our sister Susan off the one she had that someone had made for her. I found a pattern in Simplicity for the sewing bucket and wanted to share this with everyone. Now I no longer have to rummage, everything I use often like scissors, seam ripper, tape, marking pen, etc; is right there in my bucket and it looks so cute. It fits over a 48 oz coffe can. It would make a great gift for yourself or a friend. On a different note, I spent most of yesterday reorganizing my sewing room. I had been sewing on a 6 ft folding table with another one set up as a cutting table. It worked alright but I have a very bad back and the table was just too low. Hancock fabrics have their Hobby tables on sale and I went over and bought one. The one I bought has two large drawers (good place to put your olfa cutters) and folds out to 60 in. but better yet it folds up when not in use. I still am using one of the 6 ft tables to sew on. I have my regular sewing machine, my embroidery machine and a 1951 Singer electric. Sews like a dream and is great for those heavy items you might need to sew like hemming jeans and things like that. I might add I call this my "Woman Cave". My little peace of heaven where I can go in, shut the door, turn on the tv and chill. Till later, keep on sewin' and creating ladies!

Organizing Fabric

A few years ago, July 5th, 2010 to be exact, we had a house fire and my entire life's worth of sewing notions, patterns, fabrics, etc; was destroyed. Now that I'm rebuilding my "stash", I'm trying to organize it in colors. I bought a wall shelving unit at the Container Store and I have big plastic boxes sitting on the shelves with specific colors in them.As you can see it is still a work in progress and more shelves and units can be added as needed. One thing I had issues with were prints that had off white or white background with different colors in them. I finally decided to go with putting those all together in boxes rather than put them with the coordinated solid colors. Like I have a white background with a black print on it and it goes in with the white and off white backgrounds instead of the black prints. I'm not the kind of quilter who just shops for fabric when it's on sale. I have to have a specific project in mind before I shop for material. I also have a tendency to buy a bit more than what I will need so I have something left over. It's going to take awhile to rebuild what I lost.I still struggle with fabric choices when I go to make a quilt. My sister Susan has a great eye for putting fabric together. She was a great help to me when I was picking out material to make my daughter Susan's "Memories of Monet" quilt. I'm sure I will improve with time. It does seem to be getting easier. We at "Quiltingcousins" would gladly appreciate any suggestions anyone has on how they organize their fabric. Until next time.....Happy Quilting! Debbie