New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop

Thanks to Beth over at Plum and June for hosting the annual New Quilt Blogger’s Blog Hop.  I am thrilled to be participating!  It’s my group’s turn to talk about our blogs.   I have a lot of interests, and I blog about all of them.  I am a quilter, crafter, sewing enthusiast, wool worker, stamper, gardener, hiker, reader, photographer, and I like to cook. Let’s just focus on quilting for a bit.

My grandmother taught me how to sew on her 1950s-era mint green Singer ‘portable’ (yeah, right, it weighed about 40 pounds!) sewing machine.  We made doll clothes, and a vest for my favorite teddy bear when his stuffing was coming out.  Over the years, I would fix my mother’s clothes repairing rips or putting in hems by hand as she couldn’t sew a stitch.  I bought my first sewing machine when I was in college, a workhorse Kenmore that I still have today.  For years I made my clothes, as well as my purses and accessories.  Sewing and quilting are my therapies, a way to take a break from the stress and pressure of work.  I currently own 10 sewing machines, some of them antiques and pictured in my article on the History of Sewing Machines.  I do my main sewing and piecing on a Brother PC7500.  I also use my Pfaff 7550 for its decorative stitches and a Janome Gem Gold for classes.  I quilt on an A-1 Longarm for myself and charity.

We were asked to show three recent finishes, so here are mine.  I had loads of fun doing the Picnic Quilt Challenge.

I went insane for a short time and did this miniature Mariner’s Compass, all paper pieced.  The center is only 3 inches!!

I am thrilled to have one of my quilts in the American Quilter’s Society Show in Charlotte, NC at the end of July. Purple Summer Bliss made it through the jury process.

Many of my posts are actually tutorials.  I really enjoy doing projects and sharing how to do them.  I am posting a Block of the Month so you can quilt along, and I have my tutorials gathered together on a Quilting Tutorials page at the top of the blog so you can find them again easily.

I enter quilts and projects in the Mountain Regional State Fair every year, and have won a number of ribbons there, as well as two ribbons at local quilt shows.

And I am so excited to be the newest quilt designer on the website Fave Quilts.

There are so many wonderful bloggers on this hop, and Beth set us up with a google group so we could do critiques and ask questions of each other.  Readers of my blog may have noticed that my blog pictures got larger and the whole look is cleaner.  This is due to advice I received, new things I learned, and general support from the group.  Thanks ladies!  So my blogging tip is from a critique of my blog, make your pictures full size.  I will add to that to go back and resize pictures from older posts as well especially tutorials and posts you link to.

My quilting tip is measure your borders, don’t use the slap and sew method.  Want to see the reasoning and proof?  See my tutorial on Quilt Borders.

As a ‘get to know you’ question, we were asked what our dream vacation spot would be.  I have traveled all over the US, been to Belgium, France and Holland, and I have to say, I live in my dream area.  I love the mountains of Western North Carolina, and share the mountain view from our Carolina home on the header.  We often go hiking or driving in these gorgeous mountains and woods, to see local waterfalls or other scenery, or just to get out in nature.  I share those trips and my garden flowers too, in the category Mountain Living.  I hope you will look around and check out the categories, tutorials, recipes and visit my Pinterest page and Etsy Store.  Then visit these new quilt bloggers, you’ll find some amazing projects!

Sarah @ Berry Barn Designs

Liz @ Green Cheese Quilting

Janet @ Simply Pieced

Ruth @ Charly and Ben’s Crafty Corner

Kristyn @ Melon Patch Quilts

Joanna @ Riddle and Whimsy

Linh @ Calling All Stitchers

Alida @ Tweety Loves Quilting

Rachel @ Quiltineering

Thank you for visiting From My Carolina Home!