First day

Well, here I am, starting a new blog. Some of you may have followed my blog at another blogsite, where I blogged under the same name and same blog title. Due to problems on that site, I decided to move my blog and have viewed the blogs of other quilters here at blogger and thought it would be a good place to start over.

I've been quilting since 1999. I quilt every day, for at least a little while. I may not be at the sewing machine, or have my rotary cutter in my hand, but I do something quilty, even if it's just planning or designing. I like to create my own quilting motifs and am not afraid to try something complex. I enjoy the quilting process as much as making quilt tops. I hand quilted for several of those years, but then I upgraded my machine and now I am a machine quilter. I love how fast I can finish a project when I machine quilt it, but even with that, my average time from start to finish is 9 months to a year. I usually work on a top, and when it is finished, hang it on the wall and wait for the quilting inspiration to hit me.

I always was a piecer and have pieced a lot of patterns. This year, and I'm not sure why, I've gotten into applique. I never did much applique, but now, have at least two applique projects in the works. I have 5 BOM projects going on (Memory Lane from Block Central, Tisket a Tasket from Bunny Hill, Star Struck from Gourmet Quilter, Come over to My House from Forever Green quilts, and a batik BOM from my local quilt shop.) I'm also working on a really cool Cmas BOM from an older pattern that a friend shared with me.

I use bold colors and am not a pastel person. In fact, I've only started using pink at all. My partner and I are adopting an 11 year old girl and I didn't use any pink until she came to live with us. Now, everything is pink, it seems. Of course, because it's her favorite color, she wants to have everything I make that is pink, no matter who it is planned for.

I also have a quilting mentor who I consider a master quilter. She has taught me so much about quilting. She's a prize winner from APQS in Paducah and has made countless quilts. While I still tend to make a lot of quilts, 27 last year (including quilts for project linus), my mentor usually only makes one a year. But, what a quilt she makes every year. She also prefers a professional quilter, and who can blame her with her works of art, but I do my own quilting.

I'm going to miss the old blog site. I had a lot of friends there. I hope that it comes up long enough for me to let them know where I am. If not, I hope a search will lead them here.

Here's a picture of the last quilt I finished. We'll see if you can actually see it. Take care. Lane