Being Published

Life has been quite busy for a while -- sorry for the lack of posts.  I'm hoping things will slow down a bit after Easter.  I doubt it, but I can hope!

A lot of years ago, the first article about quilts with me in it was in the West Allis Star newspaper.  At the time, I certainly would never have classified myself as a quilter, but our ladies group at church decided to make a few charity quilts.  The newspaper somehow found out about it and decided to come take photos.  I was in my late teens or maybe 20 at the time and I appeared in the photos with my sewing machine working on piecing the quilt top.  I tried to find the article, but I've misplaced it.  We had fun and there were two lovely ladies who knew how to quilt and instructed the rest of us. I'd love to show you the article and I will if it turns up.

The next time was in this publication.

 

A group of us decided to do an Amish Challenge and the American Quilter's Society decided it worthy of publication in their magazine, The American Quilter.

 

 

I am the one on the left in the first row.  My quilt is on the right on the same page.  You might recognize a couple of people in the photo.  Bonnie Browning is in the upper left and several years later was hired as the Executive Show Director by the American Quilter's Society.  Also in the photo is Lorinda Lie who wrote Heartfelt Quilts.

 

Several of my quilts have been published in various magazines and books over the years.  It's a lot of fun to have someone call you to ask if it is okay to publish a photo of your quilt!

 

Lorinda isn't the only one who became an author out of our little group.  Bonnie has a number of books published and I also am the author of Pine Tree Quilts.

 

 

It was my intent to do another book shortly after this one, but we moved a couple of times across country and, though many of the quilts were made for the book, I just didn't get it written.

 

As a result of being an AQS author, I was asked to make a quilt to be published in honor of those who died on 9/11/2001.  The book was called United We Quilt.

 

 

I've shown you the quilt that I made to commemorate that day.

 

 

These quilts traveled for 3 years across the country as they were exhibited in galleries in remembrance of that fateful day.



 

Lately, though, I've had several articles published in the Quilting Quarterly which is the National Quilting Association magazine for it's members.

 

 

The first article was the pattern for my quilt Blue Skies and Sunshine, which appeared in the magazine on the left above.  The next 2 articles are a series I'm currently writing called "Does It Work".  In these articles I test various products to see if they live up to their promise.  The middle and right magazines above show the first two of those articles.  Number 3 is coming out any day and the editor has number 4.  I am also working on another quilt that will be published later in the year with it's pattern.  I showed you the beginnings of it, but now it's under wraps until the article comes out this Fall.

 

Deadlines keep us on our toes when we write!  I have 2 articles due the same week, so I will have to carve the time out to get both done, hopefully before the deadline gets too close!

 

Hope you've enjoyed reading about my adventures in publishing. It is something I love to do and making the quilts or projects to go along with the articles is a lot of fun, too.

 

 

Until next time!

xoxoXOXOxoxo

 

Lois





 

America Remembers!

It was one of those moments in time that we never forget where we were or who we were with.  The shock on everyone's face as the reality sinks in knowing life had changed forever.

One of those moments I remember was the announcement over the P. A. system that President Kennedy had been assassinated.  The other was when our daughter and her husband burst into my Dad's house to announce that we needed to turn on the TV, America had been attacked.

What had been a celebration of my Dad's 90th birthday became something else.  We were all many miles from our homes.  Our daughter, son-in-law and their two older children had driven from Arizona to Illinois.  We had flown.  Plans to return home were up in the air as we watched in horror the planes, the collapse of the twin towers and the Pentagon and Pennsylvania aftermath.

We borrowed a car to drive home as the airlines could not tell us when we would be able to return as all air travel had been suspended.  It was an eerie drive as there were no planes in the air.  People sat in shock in restaurants with eyes glued to TVs as America tried to make sense of it all.

Later that year, I created this quilt that traveled for 3 years with an American Quilter Society Author exhibit.  If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know I showed this to you last year as well.  We cannot forget the heroes of the day nor those who lost their lives.

 

On September 11, 2001,

Lives were lost,

Heroes were born,

Faith was re-examined,

Patriotism renewed.

No American was unaffected

and one American, Todd Beamer,

immortalized the words,

"Let's Roll!"

 

 

 

Let's remember to thank the heroes who protect us daily -- the Police Officers and Fire Fighters and our government leaders.  Even in an election year when emotions and feelings are strong for one party or another, let us remember we are Americans first and foremost.

 

 

Always remember

xoxoXOXOxoxo

 

Lois

Hurray for the Red, White & Blue!

Mom, apple pie and America!  The red, white and blue, the marches, the sentiment!  I love a waving flag.  How can you not be moved by the Fourth of July in America? 

I do love red, white and blue quilts.  I only have several.  I'm showing just a few of those.  I thought I had pictures of my red, white and blue log cabin, but I can't locate them.  It's just a top right now.  If there weren't already things on the design board I would have put it up there to take a picture, but I'll just have to save it for later.

One that I own, my mom made and It came into my possession after my dad passed away, too.  Another that I have is in the process of quilting.  I should say HAND quilting and it's been in that process for a LONG time.  It is a copy of an antique quilt I own that is in less than good shape.  It was just loved to death!  I'm saving those two for a later post.  As soon as the quilting is done you'll get to see both of these.

So, here are the ones that are finished and photographed.  Oops, one is just a top, I'll explain under the picture of it.

The first is the oldest of the ones I've made.  It was made in a class when rotary cutting quilts was fairly new.  It's my least favorite, but it is more of a quilt for grandson's than some of mine so I get it out for them when they sleep over.

Why is this my least favorite?  Many reasons.  First it is just 3 fabrics.  Second, it is the first or at least one of the first quilts I machine quilted.  It's quilted with invisible thread.  My skill level wasn't the best!  It is made up of LARGE pieces.  I never make quilts with pieces this large throughout.  There may be large pieces, but mostly they are much smaller.  However, I did learn a lot on this quilt and it's fine -- just not a favorite except for the red, white and blue part.

I do like this little quilt.  It is only 25" square.  It is called Northwind.

Notice the windmill blocks in the corners -- fitting don't you think?

The quilting, which you can't see here is maple and oak leaves in the main part of the quilt.  There are vines and smaller leaves in the border.  Yep, I like this little quilt.  Hope you do too.

I've shown you this one before.  It is my 9/11 quilt.  It traveled 3 years with other AQS authors quilts.  It touches my heart.  I shed tears during it's making.  It has a lot of symbolism in it.  It just says patriotism to me.

The last one is an unfinished flag.  A while back -- okay, a LONG while back our daughter Mindy asked me to teach her to applique.  It was close to the Fourth of July.  I chose to show her how to applique using a star.  No curves, but lots of points.  Both "inee" points and "outee" points.  She did not add a border to hers and she chose to frame it with batting hanging out.  It looks wonderful hanging in their bedroom with the Log pole poster bed and the red accented walls.

I'm undecided about the primitive looking embroidery on my version.  Until I decide whether or not to leave it.  This little flag will remain unquilted.  Still, it's cute.

The final picture is not quilts.  It was taken the fourth of July our daughters family including her 4 kids and our son's middle daughter came to visit us when we lived in Montgomery.  The girls wanted us to be patriotic down to our toes.  So we were.  We did patriotic pedicures.  It was fun.  Granddaughters, you gotta love their spirit -- especially when it's the American Spirit.

Hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July!  Bring out the red, white and blue!

Until next time - quilt patriotic quilts!

Lois

Let's Roll

It seems appropriate to post these pictures today.  These are of a quilt I made in response to the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks.  The quilt was part of an exhibit by AQS authors that traveled for 3 years following 9/11.

There is a lot of symbolism in this quilt.  The two towers are represented by the side borders, the top and bottom borders are a variation of New York Beauty, the four stars represent the 4 planes and there is a pentagon in the center of each.  Of course, the center eagle represents the USA.

It is somewhat difficult to see, quilted in gray on the blue background are the Statue of Liberty, The Liberty Bell, the words "In Remembrance" and "Let's Roll"

Let's hope that the death of Osama Bin Laden represents the beginning of the end of terrorism against the USA.  We must always remember those who died on 9/11, but we must also remember those who are still fighting for our freedom.

Let us always remember to celebrate and hold dear our freedom!

Until Next Time,

Lois