Postage Stamp Quilt

    On a recent Saturday my daughter Bethany and I were antiquing in Portland, which is one our favorite things to do. As quilters we always look at quilts and hope to find just the right buy. Bingo! Bethany found this wonderful PostageStamp quilt top that was very colorful with lots of fabulous fabrics. Another wonderful feature of the quilt top is it had been hand pieced. I can't imagine the hours that went into piecing this top. We both hesitated to look at the price, and when we did we found it was only $69. needless to say we did not hesitate to purchase it. The owner of the antique store told us that the elderly lady who brought it in was clearing things out and knew the quilt top would find a good home.

      Denise and I both looked over it thoroughly, and decided we had truly found a gem. We judged the fabrics to be from the 1950's to the 1060's. Of course we don't know when it was quilted, but felt it was some time ago. I machine quilted it in straight rows and it is safe and sound on my bed.

      We often sell vintage quilts after rehabbing them, but I loved this one and couldn't let it go. I'm glad my daughter and I found this treasure.

      Always Treasure Hunting

      Bobbie Hunter

T-Shirt Quilts

Speaking of T-Shirt Quilts, over the years Bobbie and I have quilted a bunch of T-shirt quilts. They are fun to quilt because they are each so unique. The first was a collection of drawings from each year of a young man's life and his sport T-Shirts in honor of his college graduation.

I quilted environmental-themed quotes in the empty spaces. 

Bobbie quilted a T-Shirt quilt that still hangs at

 McMinnville High School. 

Other quilts have included teams, cars and even Highland games. At first I thought they would be hard to quilt, remembering the old days of stitching on polyester double knits, but not so. It turns out that when the T-Shirts are properly mounted on lightweight, fusible fabric that they are easy to quilt. We commonly use polyester batting to keep the weight down. 

#T-Shirt Quilts make great memory quilts and are so cuddly!

News from Bobbie

I just had the privilege to quilt a #T-shirt quilt for a friend at work, Mardi Mileham.  Mardi commissioned our friend, Shelly Sanderlin, to take T-shirts that belonged to her husband and make a quilt for her. Sadly Mardi lost her husband suddenly two years ago. Shelly and I are so glad that she chose us to make this memory quilt for her.  I know Mardi will always cherish the quilt that holds so many memories of her husband.  

Civil War Quilt

Another January quilt is a one made by Bonnie Eberly. It is made with reproduction Civil War fabrics and is the first of that kind that I have quilted. Before starting I researched the type of handquilting that was done during that time period. The two major sources that I used was Barbara Brackman's 
Quilts From the Civil War and the online Quilt Index. From these sources I decided to quilt straight across all three boarders and sashings with pairs of lines about an inch appart. Each 12" block is quilted differently using "elbow designs", diagonal pairs, tripple lines and a small fan. I have two more #Civil War quilts in the queue so watch for them in the near future.

Children's Quilts

Blogpost #1 - draft was dated 2010. 
      You just can't know it all before you try something new....so here it goes.
This BLOG is intended to be the breaking news for creative quilting and related activities from the InPensAndNeedles Studio. Denise Clausen and Bobbie Hunter have been custom quilting on an APQS machine for 7 delightful years. Early on we named it Rosey Deen in honor of our mothers... largely because then we couldn't swear at her in frustration. Fortunately Rosey Deen has been most cooperative with our sewing adventures even though we've challenged her many times.
      I guess the best place to start is with the first quilts completed this year. 

These are two of my precious granddaughters who were here for Christmas. Carrie and Elisabeth quilted these quilt tops for a charity project of my local quilt guild. Can you tell how proud grandma is?

      Well, that is enough for today..... Happy quilting to you all..... Denise 4 Bobbie 2