The second the All About Alzheimer’s Carnivals at Alzheimer’s Notes, where I’m a co-blogger with Liz Lewis, is up and running.  It’s a platform for you to write your thoughts and feelings about Alzheimer’s and caregiving if you’re involved in these areas.  You also might tie quiltmaking into it.
My daughter and I both were involved in the care of my mom when she had Alzheimer’s.  Beth also made a lap quilt for Mother as a Christmas gift.   Mother would rub her hands over it and remark about the “pretty colors.” 
Quiltmaking had been part of Mother’s life from her childhood, and she encouraged me …read more

   Quilters continue to respond to my posts about quilting, family times, and tea time rituals that bring back memories.  They also share stories of memories-in-progress as they gather with children for cooking, crafts, sewing and quilting, as I did with my grandmother and aunt.  We also created memories in my own home which span the generations. 
Why not start writing down these memories and memories-in-the making?  These are part of your family legacy and should be saved!
If there is interest, I’ll make this a regular feature, where I share quilting memories and tell you about research I’m doing as I develop my Trails End …read more

Quilting poems and stories have great appeal.  Why not write some of your own?  Or share those you write?  I often work with youngsters in poetry writing.  We find the acrostic form frequently is easiest for them to start with. 
What about an Acrostic Quilting Poem?  This can rhyme, be unrhymed, tell a story, give random facts, relate a family’s quilting history. You can use a word, phrases or complete sentences.  That’s why they’re so much fun…you can set your own rules.
 Mine is sort of a random list of acrostic facts.  But it has me thinking about one that tells a story or …read more

   I discovered today, a most amazing crazy quilt with it’s history, at Fiber Fantasies’, History In An Antique Quilt post.  The author purchased the quilt at an estate auction, then went on to research the history of the quilt, the home, and the quiltmaker.  She explains:
 I was unaware of this home’s history [located in Cedarville, VA] until I began researching some of the antique textiles that I purchased at the estate auction. Who would know that a bag of threads, unfinished textiles, and a few antique quilts would give me the clues to research local history?
(In preceeding blog entries, you can …read more

            In my previous post about Grandparents’ Day, I suggested one way to commemorate was recalling your quilting occasions with Grandmother…if you quilted with her.  So I should do this myself. 
My maternal grandmother, Nanny, taught me the first rudiments about sewing and quilting when I was 6-8 years old.  Our first sewing sessions together consisted of making clothes for my dolls.  Nanny even made a cloth leg for one of my dolls who lost hers.
Then Nanny let me help her make quilts for us four children.  I recall sitting at her kitchen table, cutting pieces, then sewing them together by hand.  …read more

             Quilts with a flower garden theme often remind me of my grandmother who taught me to make patchwork quilts.  Then when I see the Grandmother’s Flower Garden design, I think of the lovely flowers that abounded in the yard of her farmhouse.    We had flowers at our farm, but nothing compared with those at Trails End Farm. 
I have photos of family gatherings.  Somehow the background for many was the flowers that grew in their gardens. 
(The Dresden Flower Graden book above also brings to mind the lovely dinnerware Nanny brought out for special meals we enjoyed around her dining table, …read more

Writers say they have “muses” that inspire them with their work.  Once at a writers’ workshop I attended, the teacher instructed us to describe our muse, either in words or a sketch. 
 Until then I didn’t even know I had a muse or was supposed to!  However, as I put pencil to paper, a whimsical lady appeared, who seemed to be floating in air above a desk with my work.  Now when I’m asked if I have a muse she comes to mind. 
         Does this apply to my quilting, too.? Could you say that someone or something inspires you…one person or …read more

Do you have a notebook or sketchbook for jotting quilting thoughs and designs?  These can consist of various types and sizes and used for a number of purposes, depending on your needs.
My daughter has a sketch book, about 8 1/2 x 11-inches in which she sketches ideas for quilts.  Perhaps she sees a flower that strikes her fancy.  Or she may have some interesting fabric, so she plays with ideas in the sketch book.  Perhaps she acquires some embellishments.  What should I do with these? might be answered through sketching.
I have a Trails End Quilters notebook where I jot down …read more

Thinking about my daughter’s mini quilt album, inspired me finally to put together an album about my Trails End Quilters heritage.  I’ve been researching my Trails End ancestry and the quilters who lived on this farm that was in my mother’s family for nearly 200 years.
My grandmother, Emma Tipple, who taught me quiltmaking when I was 8 years old, married Burton Coon in the early 1900s and lived the rest of her life on the farm.  As my daughter and granddaughter have taken up quiltmaking and fabric art, I began to realize we came from a family of quilters…if they didn’t quilt, …read more

Even though my mother is no longer living, thoughts of her and quilting come to mind today.  If it hadn’t been for Mother, my only quilting experiences might have consisted of those occasions when I was eight-years old and helped my grandmother sew quilts.  After Nanny completed those quilts for her four grandchildren, I don’t recall her doing any more.
My mother didn’t make quilts, except perhaps when she was very young and sewed beside her mother and grandmother.  Nevertheless, she inspired me to take up quiltmaking again during our country’s Bicentennial Years of 1975-76. 
Mother operated a general store in a small village and …read more