In stitches...

Whenever the air starts to get that 'fall' feeling, and the sunlight starts to change just a little, I start craving mums, pumpkin-scented candles, foddershocks, and most importantly, my sewing box!

I started quilting about 5 or 6 years ago. It sort of runs in the family. My maternal great-grandmother, Janie Kate Loyd (love that name!) was a prolific quilter. She could whip up a Log Cabin quilt in no time flat. And a good thing, too. She hung them by the old highway up in Temple Hill and sold them to passersby, and from what I hear there wouldn't have been food on the table some days if she hadn't! Her daughter, my grandmother, took up quilting, too. When she was a child the women would gather at the old church in Rocky Fork to quilt, and she would sneak under the biq quilting frame to watch their needles work and listen to the gossip- although it was tame by today's standards. Back then, even when no men were present, they referred to pregnancy as "so and so is getting big" or "in a family way" !

Anyway, I became interested. My first quilt was a very simple pattern called a Nine Patch. each square is made of nine smaller squares pieced together. It took me a year to hand piece and hand quilt it (I took the summer off!), but when it was finally finished, it was so rewarding! I gave it to my grandmother as a thank-you for teaching me to quilt!

Actually, I've given away all my quilts. After the nine patch I did four baby quilts for various friends and relatives, and then a Dutch Doll for my other grandmother. I took some time off when Bella was born, but yesterday I felt that familiar craving in my fingertips, and got out my sewing box!

Right now I have two irons in the fire: This first one is a variation on the Log Cabin, it's a little simpler but still very pretty and very colorful.

And this one is a true Log Cabin. I had planned on making it in yellow and blue, but fell in love with these fabrics.

Both of these are hand pieced. I have a sewing machine, but to me it's just so relaxing (and a little more authentic) to do it by hand . It's also a lot slower, but that's all right! I'm hoping to finish the true Log Cabin by spring, but with a two year old, a new baby on the way, and holidays coming up, that may be a pipe dream!