Becky's quilt obsession

Getting ready for a retreat next weekend. This is my project as we will have a work on anything session with a certified Quiltworx instructor, Eileen Eubanek. I’ve cut my own jelly roll strips as this is to hang next to my Glacier Star on the stairwell. It will have a blue black as well. I've been sorting UFO’s, seeing if I can kit some up for the Guild’s Boutique since I am in charge of it this year. I unearthed these, but I’m not ready to give up on them, yet. What to do with these? I thought I would do the Iron challenge at Missouri Star Quilt Company so bought the charm packs. I thought I would do a fractured quilt from the Material Obsession’s book, but . . . . I’m also cutting up some Dr Seuss fat quarters to make this quilt – I think. . . . Can I make a table topper out of this orphan? It’s too much trouble to make these blocks . . . . I’m not sure what to do with the rail fence blocks, another UFO that didn't sell at last year’s Boutique. This doll bed is an e...

One of the sets of unfinished blocks from my grandmother’s sewing area were these 6 pointed stars set with a hexagon in the middle. I think of them as star flowers. I don’t have early pictures of these, but they all had been set at some time, and then ripped apart, with a LOT of thread tails remaining in the fabric. They smelled like my mother’s house, which had been in Missouri’s 1993 flood up to her floorboards. I remember spreading out these blocks and using a lot of Febreeze on them. By the time I finished I hated the smell of Febreeze mixed with musty! I remember taking them with me on one of my flights to see now DH in California. The flight is about 3 1/2  hours long, not counting the waiting time. I took a tape roller with me, and teased out all the threads. Grandma had a treadle machine, and sometimes it made really tiny stitches. Grandma’s quilts were unique. She worked with the fabrics at hand, and if a quilt was for a specific person, she used scraps sent to her by...

My mother’s mother was a quilter. Most of her quilts were utility quilts, made to be used. She made a lot of quilts! There were about 50 grandkids, and she made us all quilts. She had a total of 13 children, 10 that lived to adulthood. She lived on a farm, had a treadle sewing machine, and must have made a lot of clothes as well as quilts. Grandma died in 1968. My mother lived in California then, but flew back to Missouri and helped with the disbursement of Grandma’s things. One thing she did was clean up Grandma’s sewing area. I don’t know how she managed to pack everything up, but I’ve been amazed at all she had. In 1998 my mother decided to share Grandma’s blocks with me. She had asked me to make her a top out of some earlier, but I didn’t have any idea how to work with the odd stuff then. I’ve gained some experience, read some books on finishing antique blocks, and have periodically worked on some of Grandma’s UFOs. One quilt top that was in poor condition was one made of string...

Last weekend we finished moving things in my closet so I could hang my quilts. I have some that my grandmother made, and I didn't want to leave them folded. I have 2 butterfly quilts that she made. The green one was probably made in the 50's, and the turquoise one was made in the early 60's (it came to our house in 1964). After my brother left for college, they were always on the twin beds in his room with fancy embroidered and crocheted pillowcases on the pillows as the quilts weren't long enough to cover the pillows. If you examine the green quilt, you can see it has the sashing fabric all around the outside. The turquoise one doesn't have any on the top or bottom. I really like how the green one looks - complete! The turquoise one looks like Grandma ran out of sashing fabric, but I know that wasn't the case. Grandma used that same sashing fabric in quite a few quilts, both before and after this quilt was made. She must have bought it by the bolt! I think tha...