Just wondering if anyone does quilts here? If so, please tell about them.

I know that Janice was making quilts.

I have made quilts for Laurie, Paul, Makayla and Meadow so far. They are in no way professional -- more fun.

Laurie's is a 5 patch quilt - nothing fancy but I hand stitched the top when she was a baby.

Paul's is just patchwork but I took clothes he had outgrown or no longer wore to make it so it is colors that he likes. I also included a pocket from pants, or a zipper, or words or a picture from a t-shirt here and there. It is really warm and he loves it.

Makayla and Meadow's are patchwork using some material from some of their dresses. On each row of theirs I put something special on one block. Examples: an applique, a bell, a button that looks very much like a quarter, a pocket, bits of hand crocheted lace that my grandma made, and others. It made it fun and special.

Next I need to make David's. Should do that next winter. Laurie suggested making it like Pual's with boy colors in it. I also have some really cute boy buttons that I may add here and there. I should ask her to save some special things that he outgrows for it.

I have cross stitched hearts on squares which I plan to some day put with fabric and make a quilt for myself.

That said, I do not really enjoy making quilts so that is why I haven't done more.

My Mom does at least one quilt each year. She has made them for all her grandkids - a total of 13 right there. Plus some others. My Grandma also made quilts so it is in the family I guess though I am not blessed with a love for it.

That's wonderful, you have done quite a few. The heart one sounds like it will be nice. My aunt in PA made one for me some years ago...it's called "Granny's Plate". I also bought some on sale at Robinson-May....they were only $40 on sale. They are all different patterns and have held up quite well even with the machine washing.

I see on some quilt websites, they are selling for quite alot of money. One was $850....at a different site, one on sale was $130.

Pastor Roger, if you see this, maybe you'd like to tell about the quilts you make? I remember seeing the photos of them at Christiansunite....really nice ones.

My old quilts are still holding up pretty well. Just a few split seams here and there....I used to darn them back together, but haven't been able to get to that lately.

I just saw this a couple of days ago but I'm just now getting to where I can use my photobucket account. For some reason I couldn't get it to work in my FireFox browser and finally had to go to IE in order to get the functions there to work. I started having problems with photobucket when I updated to the newest version. I haven't figured out yet if it's just me not having the settings correct or if it's FireFox itself.

Anyway on to the subject at hand. My family has been quilt makers for many generations. In fact when my family on my Dad's side came over from Ostergottlen, Sweden they brought a loom with them. My g-g-grandmother would make her own yardage from scratch including making the various pictures on the yardage by either using specific varied colored threads or mixing pieces of solid colored yardage.

We no longer have the loom or dying vats. If I heard correctly all of that is in a museum in Rock Island, IL now.

My Mother's side of the family also made a lot of quilts. My g-grandmother on down on my Mother's side made their quilts from yardage they bought or from salvaged material. I still have many of the quilts that they made. Some of those are just the unfinished quilt tops. My maternal grandmother passed on when I was only two but she had made a quilt top for me before she did. She didn't have the chance to finish it and my Mother was afraid to. I do have it and I did get it finished in time to use it for my children but only as the quilt they were brought home from the hospital in. It is now put up in a special bag to preserve it. One of the quilt tops I have was made during the depression from scraps from clothes that had belonged to members of the family. Another one is a wedding ring quilt my g-grandmother made for my grandmothers wedding present and which she gave to my mother on her wedding day. It has their wedding date embroidered inside of two of the rings.

When I was 14 and 15 I had a lot of surgeries that kept me from doing the outdoor things I enjoyed. I ended up doing a lot of sewing of quilts, embroidery and such in order to help pass the time. There wasn't much on TV to watch when we did have a TV and there wasn't much else to do except to read of which I did a lot of that also.

I didn't do anything in the way of making quilts after that starting in 1969 when I joined the Navy. I was kept pretty busy for the next 26 yrs so I never seemed to have the time and it was easier to just buy the quilts. After coming home from Desert Storm we ran into some hard times. Our house burnt down just two weeks after getting back and we lost everything. A few months later I lost the job that I had when the person I worked for went bankrupt and had to sell all of the apartments I was talking care of. We moved around a lot after that going from one state and one church to another.

To make this story shorter we had a lot of tough times financially and my health kept going down hill because of a number of heart attacks and the Gulf War Illness. God was always there with us through it all and always made a way for us to get by. We needed quilts and didn't have the money for them. There was a time that we were able to get three very large bolts of yardage for $1.00 from an unclaimed freight warehouse and some old worn wool and cotton blankets from a church clothing closet. The blankets reminded me of the batting we used when I was young. The thought came to me to use them as batting and to cover them with the yardage we had gotten. We had an old sewing machine given to us by a woman at the church that needed cleaned up and oiled. After fixing it up we started making quilts. My wife is more of a seamstress so she makes a lot of clothes also.

After getting my Social Security and VA compensation we got better sewing machines. One of those is an embroidery machine. We have continued making quilts for the family and have moved to making them for others that are in need. My wife has made a lot of clothes for needy kids in the neighborhood. We get our materials from garage sales or from sales at different stores. There were two stores that went out of business that we were able to get a lot of material from. We currently have about 15 30 gal RubberMaid totes full of material and a closet full of batting.

I thought of making quilts for sale but it takes me so long to make one. Sometimes I have to put them aside for several months because of my health. My wife can't do them at all anymore as they are too much for her.

The following are a few of those that I have pictures of already.






My little buddy really likes them, especially in the winter.

I have even made some curtains with my own embroidered emblems on them.

Thanks Pastor Roger for replying. Yours is an interesting story and the quilts are beautiful. I'm sorry to hear you had a number of heart attacks besides the Gulf War Illness.

If you ever did sell a quilt (twin size), about how much would you charge? Just curious.

My aunt did one for me (Granny's Plate) several years ago and it is holding up very well. But the ones I bought at the dept store are starting to wear down some. I paid about $40 each for them (made in China, I think!). They are colorful on white backgrounds.....one is called Fancy Fans, another is Garden Gate, and I think one is Meadow Star.

Your little dog is sure cute under those covers, too!!

Very nice quilts Pastor Roger.
It was interesting reading your story about your family and your life.
I'm sorry about all the illness.
My Mom has a quilt that one of my Dad's uncle's (I think) made when he was in a home because he had TB. It is quite fragile and is kept put away.
My grandma on my Dad's side made quilts. I have one of hers though it is quite warn now. I have used it and it is so warm.
I also have a small quilt that my Mom made. Mom has made them for all her kids and grandkids and has made baby quilts for the great grands.
I've made quilts for my daughter, son and two granddaughters. Still need to make them for my grandsons. I also made a twin size quilt that I hand embroidered and then hand quilted.
Right now I am working on two quilts. One I am embroidering patterened squares. I plan to hand quilt that one... I hope. It will be a job because it is a full size quilt. The other I did the cross stitch on almost 10 years ago and just got it out this week and decided to finish it somehow. I have no idea what size it will be which is what stopped me but I've decided to put the top together and whatever size it is is the size it will be.
Oh and my sisters and I made a quilt for Mom. We cut out squares of fabric and divided them between the 6 of us kids and the grandkids and asked everyone to make at least one square. Some we got back and some we ended up making ourselves but it is a really neat memory quilt. One square has a picture that my sister made into an iron on of us 6 kids when we were younger. One square is the picture of Mom and Dad on their wedding day. On one we copied and embroidered a note that Dad wrote to Mom. That note has been on her mirror in her bedroom as long as I can remember. Then there are the squares that represent each of our families. Mom displays it in her living room, under a plastic cover to protect it.

Prices on handmade quilts vary depending on whether it is quilted or tied. The tied quilts go for a lot less. It also depends on how many pieces have to go into a design. I made one quilt out of yardage that was preprinted and all one piece. I saw a quilt in North Carolina that had a lot of intricate 1 inch pillows all over the top and ribbons with other designs. It was being sold for $10,000.00. I asked the lady if I bought it could I drive it home?

Their is what is called the Spoon River Scenic Drive that gets held here every October. People in the area put a lot of craft items out for sale flea market style all along the route. A simple twin size tied quilt is going for around 50 to 60 dollars and a king size for about 100. The more the hand work in it the higher the price.

Wow....that's some quilt!!

I vaguely remember a story in the L.A. Times about a group of elderly black women in the South. They did quilts from all sorts of discarded scraps....even from old clothing their families no longer wore. Well, they got "discovered" and now they have been selling their quilts for really big bucks!! It has been a big help to them as they are in an impoverished area.

I remember reading something about them myself. I'm glad that it was something that could help them that way.

I just noticed that your dog, Pastor Roger, looks almost exactly like my son's dog. Here is a picture of Luc taken at Christmas last year. I'm not sure if the picture will be too large. If it it is, I will delete it after you see it. Luc is a Rat Terrier

Yep, an American Rat Terrier. I notice your sons doesn't have the tail cropped. My little buddy was 5 yrs old Aug 22. My mother had one back in 1966 but hers was mostly brown instead of the show quality color. Even though they are very active they make one the best companion dogs. They are also an excellent pet for handicapped people because they are so sharp and willing to learn.

I'm watching Luc for about 10 days while Paul is away for a convention and vacation. I'm a bit nervous but Luc is a good dog. He's pretty much stuck to me right now. I think he may be 2 or nearly that.

Luc is probably just as nervous. They get excited when their normal schedule gets disrupted or have to be somewhere they normally are not. As long as he is familiar with you though he will be alright.

They are a people dog for sure. When my wife went through her knee surgery he stayed with her in her bed. I'm hard of hearing so I couldn't hear her if she needed something. Whenever she called me he would come running to me barking on the way. He usually sleeps next to me with his ear to my chest. My heart started acting up one night and he ran to get my wife and then came back to me licking me in the face to try to wake me up. I got my meds just in time to keep me from going to the hospital or worse.

He has also learned how to turn the touch lamp on and off. He turns it off at night when we go to bed and sometimes turns it on in the morning if it is still dark out when we get up. We didn't train him to do that. He must have picked it up by just watching us. My wife and I have a hard time picking things up off the floor if we drop something. He will get it for us. He has gotten to where he picks anything up on the floor that isn't supposed to be there. My grand daughter knocked some things off an end table in the living room. He picked them up and put them back on the end table. Just last week the twins were here and they had plastic blocks spread all over the house. After they left he went around picking them up and put them in a plastic tote that I was holding. It is common for Rat Terriers to do this with their own toys but usually they will hide them under a couch or something.

I've planned to be home a lot this week while he is here. Have some things in the evening but most likely will be here most of the time. Next week I will have to be gone a bit more. I've definately confused him. Paul works during the day and some evenings. He lives within walking distance of work so comes home between clients sometimes to let Luc out.
He said after he takes him out in the morning, Luc just goes to his crate when they come in. He has to leave him in a crate while gone because he destroys things (and Paul said somehow manages to get things left near the crate so anything within a foot of the crate is fair game). Anyway I took him out this morning and when we came in he went to his crate. I said, not today. Later I took him for a short walk and again when we came in he went to the crate and went inside and just stood there a few min.
He is staying right by me wherever I go.
He doesn't pick up things but I guess is still in the puppy stage. Paul said if I give him a toy in his crate when I am gone, if I'm gone long the toy will be destroyed when I get home. He's sitting near me now chewing on a toy hot dog.

I can understand him destroying things. They have a very strong jaw for such tiny dogs. Being that they are very active they do get bored easily, too. Even at 5 yrs old my buddy still tares things up if I leave him alone too long without things for him to do. Not only do I leave toys with him I also get him a big rawhide bone that is made with a beef or chicken coating. He has a teddy bear shaped toy that has a squeaker in it that is his favorite toy. He doesn't chew that one up like he does the others. When he gets tired of squeaking it he will curl up with and go to sleep. I also leave a TV or radio on in the room he is in while we are gone. It definitely helps a lot. The rawhide chew bone is the most important though. It satisfies their urge to chew things.

Maybe I'll ask Paul about the bone if he calls again. He called to see how he is doing when he arrived in Vegas. He's pretty choosy about what is done with him so I won't do anything he doesn't say to do.
He thinks Luc is afraid I'm going to leave too since if I am busy doing something and can't pet him, he sits and stares at me. He follows me everywhere I go.
He isn't eating but we kind of expected that. I gave him 2 treats today and each time he sat and held up his paw to 'shake' when I asked if he wanted a treat.
Paul gave me some suggestions to try if he doesn't eat for a few days.
I guess I've kind of taken over this thread about quilts.

I can understand that as I am, too. There are a lot of things that are on the market for dogs that I do not recommend as they can cause some serious problems. Recently we've seen a lot of things made in China that has proved to be very hazardous to pets as well as people. I hate a lot of the chews toys and those things touting to be good to clean their teeth. The only bones that I recommend are those really hard ones that are made of natural rawhide. When a dog chews them they don't break up but rather just get soft enough that pieces can be easily swallowed.



That is very likely. After we got back from a three day trip ours wouldn't let us out of his sight.



That is not unusual either. Even pets go through a sort of separation anxiety. It is not unusual for dogs to go through a two or three day period of not eating for various reasons. Under most circumstances it is only for 2 or 3 days.



I'm as much to blame for that. I don't know about anyone else but I'm enjoying it.

Don't worry about talking about your dogs in the quilt topic. I'm enjoying it, too.....also, I often go off other topics, but then I think that makes it a bit more interesting! Both of your dogs sound darling! So cute how your dog picks up the objects, Pastor Roger. GrandmaDee, maybe your son's dog gets lonesome and anxious, and so then devours everything in sight?? Maybe since you are there with him, GrandmaDee, he will be on better behavior.

I am actually a dog person (had a Shih Tzu) that ended up with cats.....due to adopting my first stray kitten from our street when I was very ill, and taking care of the other stray cats that people had abandoned (who then had more kittens!).

At this time in my life, the cats are easier for me since we live in an apartment and I don't have as much energy now. But I still notice all of the dogs that sometimes go by. There are two miniature Greyhounds and one Scottish Terrier that I see fairly regularly. Also, a few dogs are in our apt bldg.

Well, oddly enough I am a cat person. But I will never be able to have cats since my husband, son and daughter are all allergic to them. Now we are petless, mostly out of convenience I guess. We like to be able to leave when we want to. I don't like a lot of dogs. But I do like Paul's dog. Funny thing is they always like me. They always come to me if we visit people. My brother's dog would sit next to me on the sofa. We all had a good laugh about it because he wasn't a very friendly dog and I was actually a little afraid of him. I would never be mean to them though and maybe they sense that.

Oh and Deb, Luc devours the toys even if we are sitting in the same room with him. Just being a puppy I guess.

And Pastor Roger I think Luc ate a little right after I wrote that. Reading my mind??? Anyway it looks like he has eaten about half of what he normally eats. Paul said if he doesn't eat for a couple days to offer his food, give him about 15 min to start eating and then put it up for a couple hours and try again. I'm not really worried about it. I expected it.

Maybe your son could talk to Luc on the phone? Might get him to eat? Animals are so sensitive. When our friend was in the hospital with that major surgery, her dog wouldn't eat. Her husband and daughter let her talk to him on the phone.

What kind of dog did your brother have? The only breed I am hesitant about is the Pit Bull. Once in a while, I'll see one coming with its owner. I'll either cross the street or if that's not possible, I'll stay to the other side of the sidewalk and not look him in the eyes as they consider that aggression.

We've had quite a few severe Pit Bull maulings (one or two ended in death), so that is why I don't care for that breed.

Once a man in our building had a very sweet, white Pit Bull named Angel. I did like that Pit Bull and would talk to it. Wouldn't you know, that man got rid of that dog and got a ferocious Pit Bull instead!! When that dog saw me on the sidewalk about 20 feet away from the bottom of the steps, it nearly pulled his owner down the steep front steps while barking and growling ferociously at me!! I was sure glad that man was a big man and was able to hold onto his dog.

I'm glad to hear that Luc is eating now. Normally it is just a matter of time.

I have never met a Pit Bull that I didn't like or that didn't like me. There have been however a number of Pit Bull owners that have angered me a lot. The media has given Pit Bulls a really bad rap just as they did when the German Shepherd became popular and then after that it was the Doberman Pincher. All it takes is for one of the animals that has been mishandled to attack and hurt people. It isn't always a problem of mistreatment but sometimes rather it is just a lack of proper training. I have seen it happen a lot where people think it's cool to have a big Pit Bull but they know nothing about training them and can't or won't learn how.

My brother has a chihuahua (I'm not sure I spelled that right). He is fine most of the time but can be testy.

Luc and I woke up at 2:30, me coughing. I'm not sure if I woke him or he woke me. But I got up to get more cough medecine and he began eating again. Ate most of his food. It seems he wants me in the kitchen where his food is.. he wants to be in the same room with either me or my husband, mostly me... but if I pay any attention to him when he is eating (even catch his eye) he stops eating. Paul says Luc doesn't have time to eat and he often has a hard time getting him to eat. He eats when he is bored. Anyway when I realized he was going to eat, I just stood there and didn't look at him and he finished most of his food.

We are doing fine today, though he is still staying pretty much by my side.

When my friend left her dog with her husband and son for the first time, he refused to eat and began losing clumps of hair. He is definately her dog. She still leaves him from time to time and he always has issues with eating while she is gone so I expected if from Luc.

My daughter and her husband had a dog that was part pit bull for awhile. She was very gentle. But they were not able to train her so they ended up giving her away. They have a tiny Jack Russel now. Sadie was the runt of the litter and is very small but a tiny bundle of energy. She can jump so high it's amazing to me.

The Jack Russell and the American Rat are very close relatives. They both have English Fox Terrier in their background. The Fox Terrier, Chihuahua and a few other breeds were used to bring about the American Rat Terrier. When I was looking for a little dog just before I got my little buddy I had the chance to get a Jack Russell. I decided against it because the Jack is known for being more aggressive and it is usually a larger dog. Besides that the only Jacks around were in the 5 to 6 hundred price range. I saw an ad to sell Rat Terriers so I checked them out. It was a local farmer here that was breeding them. He was a member of the ARTA and was given a pretty high rating by them. When I went out there he had two litters of age to go out. The one had six pups. They were smaller, more easily agitated and very hyper. The other litter was a slight bit larger even though they were about 24 hrs younger and they were a whole lot calmer. One of them looked up at me with questioning, pleading like eyes. I picked him up and he immediately started licking my hands. I tucked him into the jacket I was wearing with just his little nose sticking out at the zipper, paid the farmer and headed for home. He stayed right where I had put him all of the way home.

My son traded one of his hunting guns for their Jack Russell... to a friend. Paul got Luc at the animal shelter.

As I said Sadie was the runt of the litter and is much smaller than Luc is. Just a bit larger than a chihuahua, I'd say.

This is a picture of the one quilt that I made that I still have - well, most of the quilt is in the picture. It is hand cross stitched, machine sewed together and then hand quilted. I found the panel at a yard sale... it was about the width of a twin size bed. I don't think it was the entire piece but I wanted to see if I could do this. It is backed with blue so the white quilting shows up on the back nicely. I use it as a lap quilt or if only I want to have more covers. I've given all my other quilts to my kids and grandkids. So far the others are all patchwork -mostly 9 patch quilts. I'm working on two cross stitched quilts now.

I think the problem with Pit Bulls here is that gang members usually own them and probably train them to be ferocious. They own them to protect their drugs/property, and also to intimidate other gang members. Alot of Hispanic people also let their dogs run loose.

Once I saw a Doberman Pincher on our street, and it was all skin and bones and barely dragging itself around. I took it a couple of cans of tuna (all I had at the time) and some water. It was laying on its side and lapped up the food like crazy. Afterwards, it must have gotten enough strength to get up and wander off again. I wish I would have called the animal shelter....all I can hope is that some kind hearted person found him and gave him a home.

Oh, yes, Chihuahuas are rather testy. A couple of weeks ago I saw one and just started to say hello to him (I talk to the dogs!) and it started to bark at me like crazy.

GrandmaDee, that's a really beautiful quilt! Such a good hobby to have.

From what I can see that is a really nice job on that quilt. A pretty one, too.

Sadie must be a really small runt in order to be smaller than Luc is. Small dogs like Chihuahuas usually are testy with strangers. I think it has to do more with fear since they are so small. That's what makes them dangerous as a dog that is afraid is more apt to bite.

Thanks for the compliments. I've seen a quilt made by an Amish lady and have to admit that my stitching is not as good as hers but this quilt had dots in the pattern that you follow to do the quilting so it was not so hard to do.

One that I am working on now has the same... dots for the quilting. The other I think I will just maching quilt in some way - maybe stitch in the ditch.

I did do some free hand machine quilting of patterns before arthur got a hold of my hands. It is quite a trick though and when the hands don't work so well it becomes totally impossible. We have an embroidery machine now with a compatible program on my computer. The embroidery machine has some patterns permanently in memory. With the software on my computer along with a memory card we can do almost any pattern we want to do. Anything over a 5 inch pattern though requires breaking the pattern down into pieces and sewing them separately. The Navy emblem on the curtains above is one that I made from scratch on my computer and then transfered to the embroidery machine via the rewritable memory card.

We have also done a lot of clothes with Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and a lot of Ariel the Mermaid as one of our grand-daughters name is Ariel. My wife has a block quilt we made with flowers in the blocks. She also makes her own clothes and then puts various patterns and borders on them with the embroidery machine.

Yes, many of the Amish do make some very nice handwork. They have a lot of training and experience with it. I took a few lessons from one Amish lady. With that and the training the Navy gave me in knots I made a quilt with a pattern using various knots. I didn't have a pattern to follow so it came out as one of a kind.

I recently read about a group of L.A. women that are making quilts for the injured veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. They give the quilts to the soldiers themselves and say the soldiers really love the quilts. They say besides patriotic patterns and colors that the veterans also love flower quilts....they say those remind them of their mothers.