Happy St Patrick's Day

March is always such a busy month for me. Lots of birthdays in March in my family and spring break. We take the grandkids camping every spring break. My sister Susan always has an annual St Patrick's Day Gathering at her place. I hate to miss it. Everyone always has such fun and she makes the best corned beef and cabbage. Don and I just got back from spring break camping. The weather is usually warm but this time it was chilly down here. Now that we are back, the weather is beautiful. My sister Joanie and her husband will be down next week for a visit. I just finished her quilt. It's my goal to make a quilt for each of my siblings( only 7 more to go). This time I practiced machine quilting other than straight lines. I am taking a great class on Craftsy.com on machine quilting. It really is more difficult that I thought it would be. I did my usual 1/4 in inside the block and then did a border of hearts on the outside border with some hearts inside the quilt. I'm not 100% happy with it but then I'm such a perfectionist I know I will always find fault somewhere in my quilting. I will put a picture of it on our blog as soon as I can find where I put my camera. I joined a quilting group this past month. The group is called "Quilts of Valor" and they have chapters all over the U.S. We meet twice a month for 4 hours and everyone is busy doing something whether its putting blocks together, cutting, sewing strips, etc. All the quilts get sent to VA hospitals here and abroad and to Afganistan. We actually have a married couple in our group. I tried to get hubby to go but sewing isnt' his thing. It did give me an idea of making him a military quilt with his military info on it. He is a Viet Nam vet. Sister Susan and Mimi, her granddaughter went to a quilting museum in Kentucky this past week. She said it was a wonderful trip and her mind was blown from all the ideas she got and quilts she saw. I'm hoping one of them will write us a blog on their visit. Susan and I have been talking about having a gathering of family members for a quilting bee sometimes maybe this summer. I am hoping all the quilting cousins will come. It should be alot of fun. She and Dick live out near Sullivan Mo and their farm is so relaxing and peaceful. We will keep you all posted on a date. In the meantime, keep sewing cousins and share with us your works of art.

Never too late to teach an old dog new tricks

When I started quilting I thought since I had been sewing since about 12 or 13, that I knew all there was to know and quilting would be a cinch. Little did I realize that sewing clothes and such was a whole different story from quilt making. Believe it or not one of the most difficult things for me to learn was rotary cutting. The fabric kept shifting and I couldn't get the fabric to cut just right or lined up just right. I recently figured out that one thing I was doing wrong was I would line the fabric on the side without looking to see if I had lined it up also on the bottom so my fabric would be off the line on the bottom but straight on the side, still making it uneven. I was looking on line today for a book about borders. I always seem to do the same old boring borders, and found there is a place called about.com and when you go there, you can pick your subject, like I picked arts and crafts and then quilting and found a video on rotary cutting. I actually learned something about cutting that will help me. They also have othere topics on quilting. I love the on line videos. Also try Pinterest which I have heard is really interesting. It is a web site that is like a giant board of topics. Pick the topic you want and within that topic are thousands of ideas for you craft. .I am attempting to add a link to that video. If I dont suceed, I figure it out later. As always, keep quilting ladies and don't forget to send in pictures of your projects.

Back in the Groove

I've been out of the groove to sew for awhile with surgery and the holidays but now with Christmas packed up and put away, the house all clean and tidy, I'm in the mood again. I'm working on a quilt for one of my sisters. I am determined to create a quilt for each of my siblings. So far I have done 2 and am almost finished with the 3rd, and already know what the 4th one will be. That makes 5 more to go! I recently stumbled across a quaint quilting shop close to where I live. They have an open house tomorrow and offer a large assortment of classes to take. I am signing up for the hand quilting class. I really have a fasination with hand quilting for some reason. I have arthritis in my hands so I don't know how long I will be able to do hand quilting but want to give it my best shot. If you have shopped for fabric lately, you will have noticed how expensive the quilt fabric has become. Some of the less expensive fabric at JoAnn's and Hancock's is not as nice as the fabrics in the quilt shops. I have decided though, since quilting takes so much work and time, you don't want to use inferior material. I also have used just a sheet for a backing on my quilts but have decided not to do that. When Susan and I were making a quilt for our sister Barbara's 70 th birthday, she made the back out of the leftover fabric we used on the front. With the quilt I"m making now, I'm going to do the same thing. I'm thinking of sewing strips of the fabrics I used on the front to make a backing. Barbara, who was the first in our family to start quilting once told me that when you make a quilt, you want the back side to look nice and compliment the front of the quilt and she is so right. If you live in MIssouri, Susan and Barb can direct you to a fantastic quilt shop in Caladonia. Yes it's way out there in the boon docks but her fabric is high quality and low priced. Well worth the trip out there. Until next time ladies, happy quilting! Debbie

Pieces of the Past

In my last blog I talked about this quilt top created by my maternal grandmother, Dora Winkler Schott, and possibly my Aunt Dorothy Schott. What amazes me the most about this top is how all the pieces line up perfectly and the tiny hand stitches that hold them together. I use a rotary cutter and have difficulty getting each piece exactly the size of the one before it. Not to mention I have a fancy sewing machine to join them together and a 1/4 inch foot attachment to make sure my seams are exactly the same width. Not to mention the hours spent trying to choose the perfect fabrics and paying a pretty penny for them also. Grandma's pieces were made up of old clothing no longer wearable, probably tableclothes, etc., cut with a pair of scissors and sewed together with an array of threads which I think are embroidery threads because of the thickness and the different colors used. I can picture in my mind her living room and the exact spot where the old radio sat. I can see her sitting with papa and Aunt Dorothy by the radio in her rocker, sewing her quilt together. I can't think of any antique past down to me that belonged to her that would mean as much as this quilt top does. Quilting has definitely come a long way since Grandma's day but remains a labor of love to all of us quilters.

Merry Christmas!

Yikes! How did we go from Happy 4th of July to Merry Christmas? I for one, got totally sidetracked after the 4th with preparing for back surgery. The surgery was in September and then had to deal with the healing process. I had planned on using my recovery time to work on the blog, do some quilting, etc; but it didn't work that way. I had no idea I would be dealing with the kind of pain I was having. But enough of that! I'm well on the way to recovery. I'm trying to get sister Susan to either upload a picture of the quilt she made for her grandson and his new wife and also one of the crotcheted hats she is making. She was describing them to me today and they sound adorable. Crotcheting isn't one of the things I have ever mastered. My sister Denise is expert at it and makes the most beautiful things. At Quilting Cousins, we like to brag about any of your sewing or crafting accomplishments. In our album of quilts we have made, sister Susan (country quilter) put pictures of the quilt top that was made by our grandmother and Aunt Dorothy. There were only two that survived that we are aware of and sister Barbara had one that she recently gave to me. I am going to do some repair work on it and then hand quilt it. The entire quilt top is pieced by hand with the tiniest of stitches. I remember Aunt Dorothy telling me how she and her sisters and mother made their clothes by hand. A treasure such as this quilt top made of pieces of my grandmother, Aunt and grandfather's clothing, can only be hand quilted into a quilt. If you looked at each individual piece of fabric, by today's standard, they are not beautiful, but some really plain while others really loud and old fashioned. When you think of how each piece was cut by hand with precision,without the benefit of our sharp cutting tools we use today and then pieced together by hand with tiny stitches and as my mind can envision, done so while sitting in the front parlour by the radio while listening to music or their favorite radio show. The tradition of quilting was not passed down to us by grandma or any of our aunts as far as I can remember. That is to say, they didn't sit us down and show us how to do it. I will say that I remember Aunt Dorothy talking about sewing and things like that. I appreciate the treasures they left us in the wonderful memories we have of them and obviously the ability to sew and create. In conclusion, for this Christmas holiday, I am making doll clothes for my granddaughter Madison, and a few other things. Hopefully next year, I will get ambitious enough to start early and make some quilts for my kids or start on the quilts I want to make for my siblings, or finally make the wall hanging for Christmas I have been wanting to make for a few years but just never started on it. For Christmas I would like for Santa to help me understand finding my way around the blogspot so I can add patterns and things like that. This has certainly been a challenge for me. Have a great Christmas and quilting cousins, keep those wonderful pictures coming of the things you create so we can share them with whomever comes across our blog. By the way, the adorable picture inserted is of my grandchildren ( Natalie, Noah and Evan helping grandma recreate the nativity scene about 12 years ago. Quilting Cousin Debbie

Happy 4th of July

Last year for the 4th of July, fireworks were banned because of the drought we were having. This year they were allowed everywhere except the Schaberg household. The 4th this year was also the 2 year anniversary of our house fire caused by fireworks! My son took his kids to see a display in a nearby town instead. I was home visiting the last week in June and got to see Susan's sewing table up close. So impressed I was that I came home and bought my own cabinet bases at Home Depot. I'm so excited and plan to start working on it today. If anyone wants to make one, I'm sure Susan and I can help you. Susan has an awesome sewing room. It's really big. Alot bigger than mine but the sewing table does not take up alot of room. Right now I'm using a 6 ft table and a 4 foot table set in an L shape. The only problem with that is that it is not really wide for spreading out a quilt when you are sewing. At first I was using 2 6 ft tables together but that really took up too much room. The room I use for sewing is a 11x10ft room. We all have to create our work areas on what will work best for us. What is good for one isn't always good for another. I found that Susan's is perfect for me. I hope you all find what works best for you. On to another topic. I decided awhile ago that I wanted to make quilts for all my siblings. When you have 9 living siblings, that quite a job. I wanted each one to be special and have special meaning to each sibling. I already have made a quilt for Susan and made a quilt for Barbara that Susan and I worked on. Right now I'm planning on making all the quilt tops and then quilting them afterwards. I've got one in the making at the present time and also want to start another one. Before our sister Steffie passed away, she spent nearly a year cross stitching a beautiful poem for each of her siblings. She died before she completed the last one and I finished it for her. It means so much to all of us that she did this.Before I close, make sure you click on the link to "AllPeopleQuilt". They have an awesome video on a quick way to make pillowcases. All kids love these pillowcases. I've made them for my grandkids. They especially love the ones made of flannel. Until next time ladies, happy quilting!

Sewing / cutting table

This has been my project for several weeks.  My largest carpentry endeavor thus far...The surface is 44"x51" a great size for cutting and handling bulky sewing projects. The open back is a great sewing space.  Storage is galore & the cabinet space is for sewing machine storage. I bought 2 inexpensive 24" kitchen units, joined them together, veneered the sides & back, topped it with an extending top and finished the back as a table.  I reenforced the bottoms for weight of old machines, stained & finished.  It's a nice piece, built to last.  I debated on the height.  I wanted a comfortable cutting height, but needed to keep it accessible for reaching my sewing peddle. it is 32" tall and my sewing chair is 24", so it works well.   Now I have no excuse for the mess....right?