I am from West Texas and love fabric! I aspire to be a quilter!!! I was recently RIFFED and took it very badly after 12 years with the company now that I am finally "healing" I find that for the first time in a long time I am having time to do what I have longed to do for a very long time!!! I have dusted off my machines and plan to finally work on my projects.

I have a "needy" husband and 2 dogs that think they are more important than my fun :-) I am waiting on software so I can begin the Dear Jane quilt. Are any of you working on one? I am also "hand quilting" a cheaters quilt in order to learn how to hand quilt. I am amazed that we all use our machines and I don't see much hand quilting done any more. In searching the web "quilting" always points me to "piecing" and the quilting seems to be glossed over. Anyway, when I was growing up all my grandmothers and mom and relatives, everybody, made tortillas. The supermarkets began making them and now no one makes them anymore. It's an art that died -- I remember my great-grandmother hand quilting when we went to visit her and that's how anyone that knew her remembered her. With practice I hope to develop to her skill level.

Of course, I plan to learn how to machine quilt as well!!! I have tons of plans and just hope that I will have the time and energy to complete the most important ones!!!

Regards, and I look forward to chatting with all of you.

eliza

Hi Eliza and welcome to the board! I'm sure you'll find it very helpful and friendly here. I'm sure you'll even learn quite a bit here. If you have any questions, comments or pictures...feel free to post them! WELCOME! :)

eliza,welcome to the board. i make real tortillas here at home for my family. but i've never hand quilted. all ways used my machine to quilt my quilts down.

Welcome aboard.

Howdy back to you, Eliza! :lol: Welcome to the board! You will love it here! Everyone is Soooooo supportive and nice. :) :) :)
MiMiDeeDee

Hi Eliza. Welcome from the South Plains. There a few of us on here from Texas.

Welcome Eliza! I think that you might find that a lot of us hand AND machine quilt. I hand quilted my 1st quilt and have hand quilted a couple more since then..( I just started to learn to quilt in 06). I like doing it both ways...some designs seem to just call for hand and some just tell me they want to be machine quilted. Both ways are fun

What is a Dear Jane quilt? Can you tell I'm still a newbie?

welcome this is a great group

Hi Eliza,

Welcome! :) It's nice to meet you :)

Hi Welcome Aboard. Everyone is friendly and helpful here. :) See ya around sometime.

Hi Eliza, welcome aboard! I was from the DFW area but have been here in East Texas for the last 4 years. You sound really motivated and ready to go! I admire you for wanting to learn to hand quilt. My mom hand quilts all of her quilts but I machine quilt (I'm just now learning how to do more than stitch in the ditch!) One of these days, I do want to learn to hand quilt also. Hope you enjoy the message board here!

Eliza,

I am sure you will enjoy this board. It is nice to be able to talk about quits with folks who understand.

re: hand quilting being a lost art...I am predominantly a hand quilter. In then past ten years or so I have watched machine quilting become much more popular. I have also seen the quality of machine quilting improve, becoming an art form in itself. So I am teaching myself machine quilting. My output has increased. I think this is why machine quilting has become so popular. People want a finished product in less time. But I think there is a satisfaction that comes from hand quilting that I don't get from machine quilting.

Welcome!!!!!!!

I have hand quilted only a few quilts. Not my strong area. Too little patience. I love doing the piecing, the color selection, everything up to the end. Of course, getting something quilted is extremely expensive, so I have a few quilt tops laying around, waiting their turn.

M

hello and welcome...

I have only handquilted - just learning to use my machine for quilting. Love the look of hand quilting - but the speed of machine!! I will always hand quilt something - so relaxing for me - but I'm trying to talk my husband into a quilting machine... maybe one day.

Hello Eliza. A wam welcome from a member here in England.

Welcome and Hafa Adai from Guam!
Tons of stuff in here, just ask and someone will help

Bienvenidos de Espana!! You sure won't regret joining us for lots of fun and inspiration!! :D

welcome and it is nice to see others notice that there are lots of things that are dying out due to our hectic life styles from baking bread to making jams and ofcourse handquilting. I try to do my little bit when i have time as enjoy all above including growing some vegies but it is a juggling act trying to do it all so i have times where i dont grow vegies and bake and handquilt and other times where i do the other things...

i used to do all my quilting by hand, but since my hands gave up on me it's the good old machine now, but still enjoyable to do.

Hi all -- I was surprised to suddenly hear from so many of you -- I thought I was the only one on this board and it was lonely!!! I have been practising on my hand quilting and still have a long way to go!!! I love it still and hope that one day I will be able to make it as natural as some play the piano!!! he he! right now the piano (of course) needs tuning!

You may have heard about the trouble in West Texas with a Mormon group that practices polygamy and had it's children removed -- one of the ladies in our town had the ambition to get us all together to make a quilt for each of the children and I have been tying quilts like crazy!!! it's much easier than hand quilting!!! We still haven't completed the goal but will continue working on it until we do -- I think it's 306 quilts!!! It's been fun and challenging!!!

We had rain over the weekend and everything looks green! We have had Hot and Hotter weather so it was a nice relief!!! I hope that I can get back to my own projects which I have decided to make a double wedding ring quilt!!!! I have all sorts of ideas but this is the one that keeps coming up!!!

I am also working on my Dear Jane but it's a lot of work for those 4 inch blocks!!! I enjoy it and may take it on as a hand pieced project that I can take with me and work on when I have to wait.

Gas prices and fabric prices are going up and I will be spending more time at home -- I will enjoy that part -- but one can only eat so much peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!!! Hopefully I will be so caught up in my sewing it won't matter!!! I ordered some thread from an on-line source and I got it today!!! I am getting prepared for the days that all I have is time and no money -- which will be ..... NOW!!!

good to hear from you all -- let me know how you are and what u are up to !!! I will get some pictures up of the homefront and of some of the quilts we have completed and some of the WIP!

prickly!

Welcome Eliza! :D

Welcome Eliza!

I'm also from West Texas, in the panhandle. There are a few of us here from Texas.

I admire your hand quilting. I cannot do it. I have tried, and I do not have the patience. I am so very slow at it!

The only other thing I have to say is, mmmmm fresh tortillas!

Robbi

Welcome Eliza! It sounds like you have some interesting projects going on!

That is so sweet of you and your group to make those kids quilts, but I feel the need to mention that they are not Mormon! They are a break off and the Mormon (LDS) church has nothing to do with how they run things in that group. I'd imagine it's no fun to be indentified with that group!

Hi DCJ-- you are absolutely correct -- the group is a break off -- and with all the information that is being revealed -- it is not getting better.

A bead store nearby has also made a cross in honor of each of the children and has given them to the community in an effort to remind everyone to pray for each one of them!!! There is much work to be done and we can only pray that it comes to a good end.

I agree, I've not heard good things and it breaks my heart to think of what those children went through! It sounds like there are a lot of great people in your community!

Hi there, Nice to meet you. Recognised the prickly pear, we have them here to, tasted one for the first time when I came to Spain to live. You are so going to love just doing your own thing and not having to do something someone else wants.

Sat out finishing off my second quilt but it got to 102 and I started to cook so finishing the rest off tonight.

Good luck with your quilting Elle

Eliza-welcome!! So glad you are with us too!! Yes, I started on my Dear Jane..about half way thru...am presently working on the Civil War Diaries and Love Letters...(so have parked DJ)once I get the 2 caught up, I am back to jane:))That is how I learned to quilt!! You will love it. I took my book up to an office supply store and had them cut my binding and put a spiral in for a few bucks as to make page turning and the ability to leave it open while I worked. You will love the CD...very good thing!!:))I will be posting pics of my blocks soon as I promised bebe I would. They are seperate and in a 3ring binder in plastic sleeves:))Maybe it will motivate me to at least sew some of my rows together:))Glad to have you and remember one really important thing....too much talent is wasted at work!! (I know it is survival for most! Me too)Artistic people are meant to create!!:))And, thus...another door will open!! Keep it up!! Skeat

PS Eliza...I too handquilt and love it . In fact am getting ready to baste one to do..which might take me 5yrs to finish..but, that is okay. I also love to machine quilt on my sewing machine...and, piece both ways also. My prob is I want to make so many and hand quilting slows me down:))I also can my own grown produce, make jams and do our own chickens and beef...:0)So, it isn't dead yet!! It's what I call survival here:))And, fresh!!:))Skeat (Check your local library for books on handquilting...very inspiring espec Jenny Beyers-my favorite!)

welcome aboard....I hope you will enjoy this site as much as all of us...
Friendly great people....with a lot of help and tips....

Thank you all for the warm welcome I have received!!! I look forward to chatting with you all on the various aspects of quilting and other topics that encompass our lives!!! I am happy to say that last week I was able to attend a 1 1/2 day workshop with Didi McElroy of "That Perfect Stitch" and Roxanne Thimble!!! I gained a lot of knowledge and confidence!!! Half day was devouted to hand quilting and the full-day to hand applique!!! I like that when I use a machine, I can estimate when a project will be completed -- handquilting and applique is much slower but it does seem to journalize the seconds that I have to indulge myself in striving for that perfect stitch, however, I can't determine when a piece will be completed!!!

Welcome to the board! Glad you've joined us.

I have never made tortillas..are they hard to make? Would you be able to share your recipe as i would love to try them..

Mexican food is my favorite too!!! I should say "Tex-Mex" food as there is a distinct difference. I recently went to a tiny cafe that just opened and the cook told us he cooked "Norteneo" Mexican style. I have to say, I don't know the difference but he did a fabulous job of cooking each plate to order!!! My mom and I go out to eat on Wednesday when we break for quilting and I want to do is go to his place since it opened. As he gains popularity, he is getting busier and I hope that his quality will not suffer!!! He makes tiny little tortillas (by hand) and then wraps them around the filling -- be it meat or cheese ..... and makes his own chips from them as well!!! MMMMM -- just thinking about them makes me excited for Wednesday to come!!!