Blogger's Quilt Festival

I love scrappy quilts. I think they'll always be my favorite because they remind me of utilitarian quilts made from clothing scraps and other found material. I have my great grandmother's scrappy quilt and I love wondering who wore the clothing scraps she used to make the quilt. I never met this great grandmother, but I like to think about my great grandfather's pajamas, maybe a shirt sewn for my dad when he was a child, or perhaps a dress she wore to church?

I made this coin quilt top in 2007, the first year I started quilting. I finally sent it out for quilting and got it bound this summer. My large quilt tops like to gel a little bit before I get around to finishing them. This quilt was made from scraps of vintage fabrics, newer stuff, and there's even some tie-dye fabric my daughter and I made together.

Before I quilted, I collected fabric. Crazy, right? My friend Kathy and I spent several years hitting numerous estate sales looking for junk treasures to hawk on eBay and we found great stashes left behind. Hey Kath, Remember Jamajo and Helen Padgett? That Jamajo reference was a house filled to the brim with vintage and retro fabric. Really, I think the oven had fabric in it. There was fabric in every room, every nook and cranny. Gonna be me some day. Helen Padgett was the quilter who sold us her entire quilting operation. That collection was newer stuff, books, rulers, gadgets, and much more. I think it took three carloads to remove everything. Kath still doesn't quilt, but I bet she owns some cute fabric. We're just textile girls I guess.

As we found out that fabric was selling quite well, we started collecting more of it. The vintage prints intrigued me and the first time I saw a collection of old feed sacks, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. So I collected hoarded fabric. I sold a lot of it too, but always thought that one day I'd do something (like quilt) with all the treasures I found over the years.

In 2007, I dusted off my trusty Singer and decided I was going to make a quilt. That first quilt, a postage stamp miniature I shared last year in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Since then, quilting has gone non-stop for me. I absolutely love the process and try to encourage anyone I can to learn to quilt. If I can do it, anyone can do it, and it's so much fun. I still can't sew buttons on stuff, sweat when faced with zippers, and freak out if asked to hem something. But give me a stack of scraps and a sewing machine and I'm in heaven.

Twice a year, Amy's Creative Side hosts a Blogger's Quilt Festival. Bloggers are encouraged to post about a quilt they've made and link up on Amy's blog. There are prizes too! It's amazing at how our online quilting community inspires one another. I am self-taught by this generous community, so I feel like everyone is one of my close friends or mentors. I hope you'll join in the fun. I'm off to check out the entries. Two more days of Blogtoberfest...gah. I'm sick of myself.