How it All Started

In or around July 2011 I was invited to “Quilting”. The 3^rd Saturday of every month, a few of my sisters from church get together to make quilts for charity.  Now, I remembered going once before a couple years prior and I remember it was an okay get together, but there weren't any sparks between me and quilting.   Anyhow, one of the sisters kept bugging me about coming to “Quilting” so I gave in and went. This time around, something truly magical happened. I mean, it was more than a spark…it was full on fireworks baby!!!  I've been a quilting maniac ever since!

This is the 1^st quilt I made. It is a Brick Quilt called "flannel" (I didn't use flannel) from Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting Magazine. It was in the November/December 2006 issue and it looked like the perfect “1^st quilt”.  I made it for a very special boy, my grandson Gainz.  I didn't start small either! It measures 70” x 84”. I quilted an “X” in each brick. It took me about a month to finish it. 

1st Quilt made August 2011

Gainz

Thrifty Quilter

So, some people might say I'm cheap, I prefer the word "thrifty".  When I started quilting 2 yrs ago, I really had no idea just how expensive this hobby ( I prefer the word "passion") would be. I've even saved all of my receipts, with the intention of adding them up one day. But do I really want to know how many hundreds or thousands of dollars I've spent? No, I don't!  So I haven't brought myself to add these babies up...but I still collect them. 

One day my friend invites me to Goodwill,  where she had recently found some fabric for quilting. Now, I like 2nd hand shopping and I had frequented Savers but I never thought about looking for fabric there. I have to admit, initially, in my head, I kinda turned my nose up at the idea. I mean, I could buy clothes for me and my family there, maybe some knickknacks for my home, but quilting fabric?! I didn't really like the idea initially. Fast forward 6 months or so and the majority of my stash is compiled of  fabric from Goodwill!!! Every other Saturday they offer 50% off just about everything in the store. We make it a point to hit 2 or 3 stores each time we go. 

The growing stash

Here's what I got this past weekend at Goodwill for under $20!!

Also, Joann had a 60% off coupon this week. I had 5 coupons (1 from my Joann mailer, 1 from Joann text message, 1 from preferred customer email and 2 from my friend) and bought these beauties and fleece. 

Hello, my name is...

Zenia and I am a Quilter! I've been quilting for 2 yrs and am just recently inspired to blog about it. It's kind of odd because I've never cared for writing much but I am quite passionate about quilting so I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about it!  I've made 20+ quilts over the last 2 years and I plan to post all of my pics on here eventually. Someday I may write up some tutorials but  until then, I'll be posting about projects I'm working on and hopefully pass on some tips and tricks that have helped me a long the way. 

I'm currently working on a kaleidoscope quilt inspired by Maxine Rosenthal's book, One Block Wonders,( I prefer to call them one bolt wonders).  It's my 2nd one using this technique. I am using a fabric called  "koto" by Alexander Henry. 

I fell in love w/ this fabric about a year and a half ago but I couldn't bring myself to buy it at $12.99/yd.  So I put it off and put it off until finally one day I was browsing the Red Tag section at Joann when all red tag was 50 % off and  guess what?!! It was there!!! I ended up paying something ridiculous like $3.50/yd! Needless to say I bought all they had which ended up being about 8 1/4 yds.  

I plan to make 2 quilts for my bed. One for Spring/Summer and another for Fall/Winter. 
This shall be my Spring/Summer quilt  which I hope to have at least the top finished by this December.

The quick short version of this technique is. 

First stack and cut the fabric yardage into 6 pieces with the same design element. (I believe this is also referred to as a "stack & whack")

Cut into strips. I did the suggested 3 3/4 inches.

Cut strips into triangles. 

Stacks on stacks on stacks

Because the fabric is stacked up w/the same design element lined up, you end up w/6 identical triangles. 

You then sew the 6 triangles together to make some awesome hexagons! 

So this is what I have so far. I will be back again w/my progress.