Ingrid Whitcher

Since October this is how I most often see my daughter Emilie. My parents got her a camera for her Birthday and she has been loving it. She goes out and can take 400-500 shots in a day. She usually ends up with a lot of good ones. I have no idea where we are going to store all of these pictures. Thank goodness it is not a film camera. =)

She has been taking a photography class and needed some portrait pictures. She usually takes her younger brother outside, but both of them have been getting tired of it, so I grudgingly volunteered. I really do not like getting my picture taken. I was pleased to see that she had actually got a few pictures that I liked. She picked her top 4 and did some editing. (I wish she had taken out the bags under my eyes!) This is my favorite of the group.

To see some of Emilie’s photos, you can visit her website.

I am thankful to be part of a quilter’s guild that makes community outreach one of it’s main goals. I do not get to go to the sewing days due to my work schedule, but I am hoping to be able to quilt one top a month for them. They can give me larger ones now that I can just throw them on the long-arm.

This last month, I was given a beautifully pieced top to quilt. I loved the design and the bright colors. I backed it with a bright green minky and used a polyester batting. The minky fabric quilted up so nicely.

I liked the designs I used and NO tension problems!

Sometimes, you just have to take pleasure in the little things. This is the coffee that Mark brought me this morning. I love his latte art. This sweet man makes me a latte every morning and sits with me before I head off to work. I am truly blessed and thanking God for the “little” things in my life that make my heart smile.

There is a new pattern in the works. The turtle is based on the quilt that I made for a friend several years ago.

It is going to take some time and effort to get it together – but I am so excited about it.

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This is a picture of the original quilt.

Along with the free frog quilt, I also picked up this top off of the Guild’s free table. I have no idea who put it there- but I enjoyed receiving it.

This quilt had a few more problems. The blocks were hand pieced with rather large stitches and many of the seams had started to fray.

I fixed the frayed seams and then used this top for an experiment.

My teenage son was in dire need for a larger quilt. He is about 6 feet tall now and the quilt I made him for his “big boy bed”, though a twin was not cutting it. (He actually sleeps with both of them now.)

My experiment was this:

What would happen if I put a layer of muslin between the top and the batting?

Why would I want to do this?

• I knew this quilt would be used and washed often (teenage boy and Pug sleep with it every night.)
• I knew that it would not be treated gently – many of the fabrics look like they had been well worn shirts at one time – and the fabrics were already aged.
• My thought in this was that if any fabrics started to wear of the seams did not hold, then the muslin would become the new top.

Since I was going to quilt this on the long-arm, I was not worried about the additional weight/bulk. I was quite careful when rolling the quilt, to make sure all the layers were even. I still had a little trouble with the cotton batting (where it had been folded) but overall the experiment was a great success. It quilted up beautifully and I had NO problems with the tension! I am looking forward to seeing how it holds up and if my muslin 2nd quilt top idea works out in the end.

Regardless, Logan has a new quilt that I did not have to piece, that is wonderfully soft and bigger!