Blogger's Quilt Festival

I have the most wonderful Blog Buddy! I have learned so much from her. I have been surprised by her on many occasions. And found many interesting things in the Internet as a result of reading her blog. She is a very interesting woman with many, many different talents and interests. We seem to share more than the same first name. I have added meeting her to my "Bucket List". She sent me an email about something that she thought I might like...A Bloggers Quilt Festival. The Festival is organized by Amy. The rules are very simple...Select your favorite quilt, make sure you have a good picture of it and go post about it! It doesn't matter what size, style, or era it is from - there's no judging here :) In your post tell your quilt's story. Also be sure to link back here so your readers can join in the fun too! Everyone is welcome.

I am by no means a great or ever good quilter. I am self taught and still learning every time I sit down at the sewing machine. I have always loved quilts. I have always admired the hands that craft such beautiful things. So the love has always been there. My quilting story starts back in WI in the basement around 8:30PM every night after the boys would go to bed. At the time we were fostering three boys....one which we adopted and two that we still love dearly to this day...and we were also in the process of adopting a daughter. Raising three boys under the age of three can be challenging most every minute of the day. Quilting and gardening became my forms of therapy. Not just the energy of the boys but all the stuff that goes along with foster care. There were days that I just couldn't wrap my brain and heart around all the red tape. So Mark and I were able to take a weekend trip to Cedarburg, WI and just happened into this quilt shop. There were so many beautiful quilts and the ladies were so nice. We started talking and I ended up walking out with the flannel and pattern for this Rag Quilt. My very first, rather simple quilt...actually it has not a stipple stitch on it anywhere and there is no batting. It's just squares and rectangles sewn with the seams on the outside. All you have to do is add a simple border and snip the seams every half nice. Then throw it in the washer and dryer and wa-la a quilt is born. I remember that the hardest part of the entire process was getting all the pieces to fit in a rectangular pattern. I worked on it for hours. My best neighbor in the world of WI, Yvonne, was called in to help. We worked on it until the boys woke up from their naps. Then Mark walks in the door, takes one look at it, moves a few pieces around and all the pieces fell into place perfectly. (Oh, how I hate that). So now you know every detail of my very first quilt. I must tell you that I have made many, many more quilts that have actually been quilted.These are just the ones that I have saved for the family. And they too, all have stories.Please stop by and check out all the hundreds of wonder quilts at the Festival.