Good Morning, Quilters!
It was so much fun to read the comments yesterday to discover where YOU are from!
We’re certainly a cosmopolitan group!
WINNERS
Congratulations to Helen S. from Assisi, Italy-YOU are the winner of an electronic copy of 180 More Doodle Quilting Designs!
It’s a great book and signed copies (with a little treat!) are available at my Etsy Shop HERE
Congratulations to Margaret Greenwald as well! You are the winner of the Good Morning, Quilters mini quilt!
(Helen and Margaret, please send your email to me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thanks!)
YOU KNOW YOU’RE A QUILTER IF…
No matter where you are from-
There are certain “tells” that one is a quilter…
For example, if YOU know what these scraps are–and wouldn’t dream of throwing them away…
Then YOU are a quilter (and not a quilter’s uninformed husband–ahem!)
If YOU are a quilter, then YOU know that these are “Leaders and Enders” and highly valued for chain piecing!
(FYI–Someone told me that the first quilter to use scraps of fabric to prevent threads getting jammed in the sewing machine while piecing was the amazing Donna Lynn Thomas--a fabulous teacher and author!)
You also know you are a quilter if the word “stiletto” makes you think of quilting and not shoes…
You know you’re a quilter if you measure progress
and can’t throw away…
Is there any other way YOU know Quilters are a little different?
We’d LOVE to hear!
Yours,
Lori Quirkennedy
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thanks!
100 comments
Maggie Martin
You know you are a quilter when you have all these sisters making funny comments! AND ladies, we ARE sisters
Ca E
You know you’re a quilter if. . . it is impossible to concentrate on the job, doing chores, listening to your spouse or children, oh let’s just say everything, because you can’t get your next project out of your head!
Suzanne
Oh yeah, I resemble that remark…I just zone out and sew. My husband has begun grumbling about buying me that lovely new machine last year!
worldpresscom986
You know you’re when someone says, “You did what in the ditch?!
Linda Creswell-Hartman
You know you’re a quilter when you walk around JOANN Fabrics auditioning fabrics to form with the bolt(s) you are carrying.
Rhonda Costanza
You know you’re a quilter when you know the names of block patterns created almost two centuries ago.
You know you’re a quilter when you don’t need a ruler to draw ¼”.
You know you’re a quilter when you wish you didn’t already own every quilting tool that exists so you had something you needed to buy at Joann’s.
You know you’re a quilter when you know the weight and ply count of your Italian import thread, and which needle it needs in both American and English sizing.
Marla Harrison
You know you’re a quilter when you doodle piecing and quilting patterns in meetings.
Donna K McMichen
I do that!!! Then I was assigned to take the weekly staff meeting notes. That ended my most productive doodling time! =/
Delia
You know you’re a quilter when your engagement ring is kept in a trinket dish on your dresser BUT your fabric scissors are kept in a locked sewing cabinet for safety.
Donna K McMichen
You know you’re a quilter when…
I have a cat named Bobbin. (She has a bob tail, so of course we had to name her that!)
I have an ‘I’d rather be quilting’ tag on the front of my van.
I have a FMQ foot hanging from my rear view mirror in the above van.
AND – my email and most of my passwords have either the word sew or quilt within them! =)
Line Paquet
You know you are a quilter… when you arrive at work with threads on you!
Linda D Moon
You know you are a quilter if people never walk across your post barefoot for fear of stepping on pins.
Your son grabs you by the hand and drags you past the door to the fabric store.
The more you try to complete your UFOs, the more fabric you need to buy.
cheriec12
You know you’re a quilter when you spend more money on fabric than groceries for your family.
Priscilla Brumbaugh
You know your a quilter if you forget that your needle and thread are in your blouse and you go to the grocery store with it and catch the check out girl looking at it with a puzzled look on her face.
Terri
You know you’re a quilter when you start worrying about what will happen to your stash after you die and then start making plans to put your desires in your will!
worldpresscom986
Oh, I could have written this. I am 76 and just learned I have kidney disease. Using Lee Hull’s book and following a vegan diet to keep it at bay, but there is no cure!
Marta
I will be 77 in 5 months ! YES!
Marta
Dear 986, Please don’t give up. I was told Stage 4 NH Lymphoma terminal incurable back in 2012. Been thru the ringer
with treatments and going strong ever since. Everyone who knows me, in and out of medical field, knows I refuse to be a sick person or die because I have so many more quilts on my list to make yet. I remember while in hospital once last year, I was so
sick I wanted to just get it over with. But, a Nurse Leader came
to visit me. We somehow started to talk about my quilting and I realized, hey, I am not done yet by a long shot !! Think about tomorrow’s sewing, trust God, and stay close to this group. Your future quilts are valuable to those who will receive them.
Lynne
You know you’re a quilter when you walk around a quilt store with bolts of fabric in your arms, a salesperson says “Do you want me to take that to the counter for you?”, and you say “No, I’m just bonding.”
Marta
Or, “Nope, someone else might grab them while you are not watching!”
Pamela Simpson
My granddaughter and I agree – You know your a quilter when you love making sandwiches that can’t be eaten.
Gretchen
You know your a quilter when you saved fabric from the clothes you made your daughter when she was little with plans to make her a quilt from them. I gave the quilt to her last year for her 37th birthday. It was so much fun remembering the clothes I made her!
Terry
You know you’re a quilter when you are up all night sewing and see the sun rise, only going to bed because you might need some sleep. Then, after a short rest, you are back at the machine, promising to get to bed earlier, only to watch the sun rise again! The amazing part is you weren’t even tired because of all the fun you were having.
Marta
Ditto !! LOL…And when that sun appears the second morning saying, “Really, where did you come from? I am still busy!!”
Christine Kamon
QUILTERS are indeed a rare breed! We can see potential in EVERYTHING!
Rosemaryflower
Congratulations to the winners. Lovely gifts from you!
Lori, I missed this post yesterday bc I was busy —
I am going to read the comments.
I would add that you know you are a quilter when no matter where you are, you see quilt designs. Also you know you are a quilter, when all you think about is sewing sewing sewing
Marta
This is not a new one but I laugh. My friend was on a trip thousands of miles from home and was in line in a big box store. The lady behind her picked a thread from my friend’s clothing and said, “You must be a quilter!” Several folks in line laughed and nodded, knowingly !! It was almost a quilter party!
Suzanne
Yep! That’s called “Quilter’s Radar”!! LOL!
Hey Marta, I just want to add a little note to our conversation about the altered quilting foot…I went rooting through a box of old machine accessories and found (can you guess?); that’s right – a clear, open toed, hopping foot! I did the adjustment to it and tweaked it with the rubber band then put it on my machine. Oh No! No matter what I did, it remained too high for quilting. Then I realized I needed to attach a presser foot shank extension. I’m lucky enough to have one already and when I put it on everything was perfect. I tested it out on a small sandwich and Wow! It was so easy to see where I was going and without that distracting hop!!
It depends on your machine, whether it’s high shank or low shank, so you might not come across this situation. But if you do, I didn’t want you to be upset or frustrated because there is a very simple solution. Our friends at SMPlus can probably help you out if you don’t already have an extender.
Keep on quilting!
Marta
Hey Suzanne, Just back for couple days from out of town..Both my machines are low shank..One is going in the shop tomorrow.
: ( If I understand correctly, the high shank is the one which might need an extender? I have clear feet to sew with for regular stitching. I finished a quilt top while gone and will be starting on the quilting asap. Still mulling the best design. Thank you for the info. It is great to learn something new all the time here!
Kristin
I agree with and LOL at all the replies, I always see lovely landscape quilts or art quilts when I’m hiking in our beautiful country! The spring green of vine maple leaves with the sun shining from above is a fave. Quilting has been my passion for thirty-five years…..and I’m blessed to have a wonderful hubby who took me to Hamilton, MO last last fall just to check out MSQC!!!
Barb E
If your doctor says that you need more fiber, you head out to the quilt shop!😍
Marta
LOLOL yes yes
KJ
You know you are a quilter when you buy a pre-sale condo and the first room you “design” is the sewing room.
Also, when you go into a major funk because your sewing machine is in for service. In my case, a new motherboard. 🙁 I am seriously tempted to take my projects to the shop and commandeer one of their machines.
Maja
When your ironing board is always set but you (almost) never iron cloths.
KJ
lol Actually, the only time I iron clothes is when I am ironing new fabric fresh from the dryer.
Maureen B. in B.C.
I missed the boat yesterday, but as I sign myself Maureen B. in B.C., I guess everyone already knows where I’m from … Salt Spring Island to be exact, just a spot on the map full of lovely people, and many many quilters.
In 2006 my hubby and I were in Venice. We took the vaporetto over to a tiny island to see the Basilica of Santa Maria Della Salute, an architectural wonder of its time that sounded interesting, with its curlicues that hold up the roofline. What I didn’t expect was the marvellous marble floor set in a complicated pattern everyone would recognize in modern-day quilts. No flash pictures were allowed, but there was enough light streaming in from the beautiful windows to allow a non-flash picture that showed very well. THAT’S when you know you are a hooked quilter! I did wonder how many of the amazing little homes along the narrow winding streets held wondrous quilting stashes. 🤗
Kari
I really LOVE all these stories! I feel like I’m finally an “organized” quilter after I started a journal of all my quilts…1 photo and 1 page of written history of each quilt. This will serve as a history for my family to read, remember, share and hopefully appreciate. Is there a way we all can share our quilts? Can we ever post photos on this reply? All your quilts sound fabulous!
Jacki Hillman
I have often regretted not keeping a journal of the quilts I have given away over the years. I was reminded again this montht when I received a wedding invitation from a young lady who is getting married. She wasn’t one of the earliest to receive one of my baby quilts! SO take that picture, say when and who received it….
Rosemarie
I also have a journal/scrapbook of the quilts that I have made. However, I also include little pieces of the fabrics that I used (about 1 1/2 inch squares, or smaller, depending on the amount of room available).
Kathy
I do the same thing Kari. I have a photo book that has been “in progress” for the past two years and have managed to find photos of my quilts for the past 25 years. It’s a great way to record the history of all your quilts, who they were made for and why.
D. Joy Summers
You know you’re a quilter when you not only check your clothes for threads but your family membesr too before leaving the house. It has had to be done.
Ellen KR
Congrats to the winners! I love that little quiltlet. I am sure that the winner of that will love it.
Lorraine Doyno Evans
Now you start saving threads for art quilts.
Lorraine Doyno Evans
When you take pictures of rugs in hotels and other public place to use as inspiration for Free Motion Quilting designs.
Lynne
And you take pictures of floors in churches, sidewalks with quilt patterns in concrete (Armenia), or tiled front door steps (Cyprus).
Mary Mc
As a new (NOT young!) quilter, I love all your comments, and have a question to ask, if it’s ok: I want to learn the 12 most basic quilt blocks for a sampler quilt. My goal is to make 10 versions (varying colors, fabrics) a month of a particular block pattern to learn it well, put one of each design into a sampler quilt, and use the remaining blocks in various other quilts. I figure I’ll start with Rail Fence, coz it looks pretty easy. What would you suggest as the others (in rising order of difficulty)? BTW, I’m sure this is not a new idea; has anyone done this already, and is there a name for it? (No really complex stars or curves, please! Those will be next year’s challenge!)
worldpresscom986
I too have a fear of curves, but there is one pattern that uses circles (use a saucer for a template) The circles are folded back (Cathedral Windows?) and there is a square in the middle. It looked simple when I saw it demonstrated.
Mary Honas
Four patch is basic but you could make a double 4 patch.
Pinwheel is good for half square triangle blocks. Honey Bee is a common first applique block. Drunkard’s Path is a common first curved block in samplers.
Marta
Card trick and attic windows…instructions can help sew any block design…
Phyllis
Amy Gibson Craftsy class was one of the greatest for sewing all those different blocks.
Jo L. Stauffer
Nine patch and churn dash, then log cabin, for 3 more.
Patricia Trujillo
I know I’m a quilter since I understood all of the above while smiling and laughing. We all belong to the same club! Thank you all!
Karen Foeller
You know you are a quilter when you are in a hospital room waiting for a procedure and you notice the pattern of the tile on the wall and think it would make a cute border for a quilt!
Pam
We plan our vacations around quilt store stops. When traveling through Texas last summer starting in Houston, we were asked why we were still in the state at the end of the first day. (We were traveling east.) Not very many miles, but SEVEN quilt stores.
Chris Petee
We don’t smoke our stashes!!
Nancy Simon
Exactly! That is perfect! I think I need to make a wall quilt that says that!
Lori Kennedy
LOLOL!
Millie
You know you are a quilter… when your family members question your sanity as they see you cutting up larger pieces of fabric into smaller pieces and then sewing the small pieces together into a larger piece.
Lori Kennedy
The just don’t get it! That’s why we have to stick together!
Marilyn
I have often wondered what our quilting ancestors would think seeing us cut up perfectly good fabric to make a quilt when they used every tiny leftover piece of fabric to make a very useful and necessary item.
Lori Kennedy
I often wonder that myself! LOL
Terri Crothers
I asked my quite informed husband what your picture said and he suggested an Arial photo of Area 51. I thought his UFO reply was intuitively close!
Lori Kennedy
LOLOLOL!!!! Hilarious!!!!
Gypsybaker
Terri…that made me LOL…thanks for brightening my day!
Suzanne
You know you’re a quilter when you print dozens of pictures of pretty quilt ideas & patterns from Pinterest, plan to put them in a binder (the one you don’t have yet!), stuff them in a cubby right above your cutting table, then find them weeks later and say “Dang, it wanted to make this with that fabric I bought last month!” (Mea culpa)
And then there’s Quilter’s Radar. I was in a big-box hardware store the other day, waiting my turn to have plywood cut when the woman ahead of me started chatting, Within moments we were talking quilts and our favorite fabric sources. She actually used the Quilter’s Radar phrase! She said she can recognize another quilter anywhere and we had a good laugh about it. This happens to me often – quilters seem to zone in on one another. And it’s not just when I’m in a fabric store either!
Is it the tiny bits of thread stuck to our clothing? The stray pin we stuck in our sleeve temporarily? Or is it that glassy look we get when someone we meet is wearing a gorgeous shirt that would look great pieced into a quilt? Is that what it is? Who knows? It just is.
Lori Kennedy
I have never heard of the Quilter’s Radar…but I get it! So funny!
Lori Hope
I did that very thing (the gorgeous shirt). My choir director was wearing the perfect plaid shirt for the Seahawks quilt I was designing in my head…and I told him I wanted to use it in a quilt, and that he should guard the shirt carefully. I found a very close match, and used it in the quilt, which was auctioned off at the next choir auction–imagine his delight when he saw what looked like his shirt in the quilt. 🙂
Andi Cushman
Similar to an auction, I started a new tradition at our family’s holiday gathering. I made a quilt and a couple table runners to raffle off. It’s a win win opportunity. I get to play with fabric and make something I don’t have to find a place for, a family member gets a homemade piece, and a charity gets the proceeds!! They loved it. It raised $350 for charity! I plan to do it again this year and for our church fundraiser.
Suzanne
That’s a delightful story! I love the idea of an auction. Think I’ll mention it to the others in my church quilting group.
Lori Kennedy
That is so cool! I bet everyone loved it!
Lynne Tinsley
All of the above comments resonate with me but I didn’t notice that the food aspect wasn’t mentioned, Layer Cakes, jelly rolls, honey buns… we do speak our own language
Lori Kennedy
That’s so true! We do have our jargon, too!
Deb Mac
I had quilted for several years and tried to get a friend to quilt but she wasn’t interested. “That’s my mother’s thing, I don’t want to quilt.” I kept talking about quilting and one day she admitted she had bought some fat quarters for a table runner. We kept in touch over her progress and one day she called me so excited. “I am a quilter, I finished my table runner and I have scraps!” In January, the same friend and I planned a shop hop for June while her husband was fishing. Long story short; my husband took another job and I was in the middle of packing for a move in less than 2 weeks and we still did our shop hop. Some things are just more important than others! We are quilters!
Lori Kennedy
It’s funny that your friend didn’t want to be part of her Mother’s Club and now she’s “all in”! I agree, everything can wait for quilting!
Becky Shaffer
You know you’re a Quilter if you spend so much time thinking how you can copy a quilt that you see in a TV show or movie that you forget the plot! BTW has anyone noticed the quilt that hangs behind the bed on “The Americans”? I would LOVE to find that pattern!
Lori Kennedy
I quilt so I don’t have to follow the plot! LOL! I will have to watch the Americans!
Dottie
You look at ordinary things and think it would make a nice block or quilt.
Lori Kennedy
I was on a plane once and liked the interior–planned a quilt around a plane interior–(though I never made it)
Rhonda Costanza
Had to be Alaska Airlines! Many years ago.
Janette
We all know what a fat quarter is , doesn’t have anything to do with weight!
Marta
…or coins…. 🙂
Judy
you have lots of projects going on at the same time and you know what a UFO is.
annthompson51
You have a box of scraps for they may one day combine to make tiny blocks or provide just the right color/pattern for and art quilt.
Linda D Moon
Only one box?
Mary B
If you take a picture of an interesting tile pattern on the floor of a public building, because it might make an interesting quilt.
CHRIS REESKE
Or the floor of Santa Maria Majore in Rome.
Mary Honas
or the outside walls of the buildings on the site of the leaning tower of Pisa…
Lynne
Floors all over Venice.
Chris Reeske
Or of the Cosmati on the floor in Santa Maria Majora in Rome, and start a tourist trend.
Reberta
Or the patterns of the beautiful walls of Morocco . . .
Dottie
Have done this more than once. LOL
Karen Fairbrother
You look at the clock and think “Do I have enough time to run to my quilting machine and stitch a few minutes before I have to leave for work or get back to work at lunch time?”
Sue
When you see quilt patterns in public buildings, floors, etc!!!
Michele R
You know you’re a quilter when your family doesn’t dare go near, let alone touch, your sewing scissors; and ‘bobbin’ doesn’t mean floating around in a pool on a hot summer day.
shoshana
if you and or your house is usually covered with stray threads, you are probably a quilter!!!
yanicka hachez
You know you are a quilter if you find threads in your underwear. (True story….no I don’t know how it got there)
Suzanne
I find them when I clean out the dryer lint filter!
Marta
LOLOL.. yep me too! Maybe the washing machine or dryer did it!
Karen
to Shosbana’s note: You also wait to vacumn until you get that project done, motivates me to try and get it done. Enjoy reading quilting friends notes before reading the obits!
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