Saturday, January 24, 2015

Grow Your Blog

Hi my name is Lynn - welcome to my blog!  This is my place to record my accomplishments, a place that I can write my goals and wishes. A place to remind me of my never ending list of unfinished projects. :)  
I'm married to my best friend.  I have 3 children, 5 grands, 1 great and 1 great that is making his appearance in about a month. 
I grew up in Southern Oregon until I was a teen, then moved to Northern Oregon where I lived all of my life, until recently when my Husband and I retired and moved to Arizona.  So I have gone from being an Oregonian to a what our cousin called a "Zonie".   
I love to do most anything crafty - however I'm focusing on quilting right now.  I got my desires and talent from my Mom. She was extremely talented, she could draw, cook, paint, sew, carve and wood work, you name it she could do it.  I am blessed to get most of that, except I struggle with the drawing part.  So much of my childhood was watching and eventually helping her with whatever she was working on, and through it, I was learning. Even though I learned to sew clothing, it really was not a passion of mine. I originally got very interested in counted cross stitch.  I don't know how many small, medium and very large cross stitch I did over the years and gave away pretty much all of them.  So how did I get into quilting? When I was in 7th grade many many years ago in Home Ec class, we sewed some blocks together for a quilt, so I guess I always had a little bug in me to some day try one of my own.  After my Mom passed away and I inherited her sewing machine (the one I grew up with) I started playing around with sewing some squares together.  I looked on the Internet and found a pattern that seemed to be close to what I had already done and decided I was going to make this for my oldest Granddaughter.  As a beginner quilter, I was pretty naive  about the complexity of making a whole quilt, so i started with a queen size. :) And after talking with a couple other quilters I decided I needed to hand quilt it.  That took me around 2 years to finish.  :)   No I didn't learn there, I made another queen size and hand quilted over 3/4 of it also.  I ended up machine quilting the borders.  Here is the center of my first quilt.  Our Granddaughter is a book worm and this was one of my cross stitch patterns that I created myself.  


Above is the whole quilt that I made her.  It was made with mostly scraps that my Mom had left over. 



Here is the second queen size quilt that I hand quilted. I originally started this quilt for my husband and I, however our oldest daughter fell in love with it and so a couple years later when I finally got it done, I caved in and gave to her.   
From there I moved on to several projects, wall hangings, table runners, more quilts in all sizes, baby quilts given away to friends and  members of our church, and I love it all.
  I've been quilting for about 5 or 6 years now and I'm still learning tips, and tricks to make them easier and better.  Some people are real focused into one type or style of quilting and for me I love learning it all.  Folk Art quilts, Applique of all sorts, including wool applique,  (one of several I have done - or started) 




paper piecing, traditional piecing, you name it.  I'm getting to experience a lot of new things and loving it. 
 Recently I have been working a little harder to practice my Free Motion Quilting skills including using my free motion foot to do some thread painting on some mug rugs.  (zoom in to see) 



I will also be doing a lot of thread painting on this wall quilt from a class I took.  


And because the UFO's need to get finished some day I am hoping all this practicing will help me to tackle the big quilts with some Free Motion Quilting. 
I could go on forever, and I wish I could post all my quilts and projects but there are many more people to visit.  So go back to our host Vicki at 2 bags full and check out some other bloggers.  Thank you Vicki. 
If you have time scroll through some of my older posts and take a peek at some of my other quilty stuff. 
Thank you so much for stopping by. 
I'm giving away a pincushion OR a pair of mug rugs. (Sorry the mug rugs above are already taken) Leave a comment which you would like. I will pick a winner and announce who the winner is on February 15th. 
Thanks for stopping by. 
Blessings,  Lynn 

PS ...  When you have a moment check out my other blog where I record revelations that God shares with me, where He leads and I work at following.   Growing in His Love 

27 comments:

  1. Love your grandaughters quilt, we are book worms here too. Would love the mug rugs

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  2. Hi Lynn! I'm visiting on behalf of Vicki at http://vicki-2bagsfull.blogspot.com/. Welcome to the Grow Your Blog Hop! I hope we're all successful at growing our blogs! Blessings :)

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  3. Lovely quilts. Your thread painting looks great. Love those sea turtles.

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  4. Those turtle are gorrrgeous! Okay...funny thing...I moved from living in Arizona my whole life to Oregon just 71/2 years ago!! (Couldn't take that heat annnyyyy more!) Anyhoo...I'm you newest GFC follower and see you've already added my Tuesday Archives button...THANK YOU!!!! Glad we have met and look forwrad to getting to know eachother. V:)

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  5. Hi Lynn. I have been following you for a while. I love your thread painting. This is something that I have never tried, but yours is so beautiful, that it makes me want to try my own pictures now.
    Thank you so much for your giveaway. I would love to have a pincushion.

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  6. Glad to meet you! I am having a lot of fun seeing all the great inspiration, so many new ideas! Love the turtles! L

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  7. I love your work, I think I would like a mug rug if I were lucky enough to win. Thanks for the chance

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  8. Hello from Pennsylvania, right now we are the snow state =)
    I would love some mug rugs.

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  9. Hi, Lynn. I'm Angie and so glad to meet you during this GYB event. Your mug rugs and wall hanging are going to be great with FMQ. I, too, want to get better at that and finish some WIPs this year. To that effect, I have a linky party every Friday called WIPs Be Gone. It makes me do some progress and encourage others to do the same. I'm having a giveaway too. Good luck and thanks for the chance of a mug rug.

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  10. PS: Off to visit your other Blog - from your newest Bloglovin' follower.

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  11. love your quilts, I am a quilter from Ga. and came over from Vicki's and am now happily following u

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  12. I've been here before via Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday but it's nice to know a little bit more about you. Thanks for the giveaway. Would love the mug rugs.

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  13. Thank you for sharing how you began quilting. You were crazy! Hand quilting such large quilts!? I started off on a difficult pattern for my oldest grandchild. I didn't brave hand quilting for a few more quilts.

    I am one of the volunteers with GYB to help Vicki in checking blog. She wants you to know how much she appreciates your participation in this years "hop!"

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  14. Hi Lynn...it's been a bit, but I read your blog periodically thru some of the blog linkys and challenges we both belong to! You've got some fun things going on and I think a pincushion might be nice!

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  15. Your work is lovely, the thread painting is amazing! It's been a pleasure to meet you. :)

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  16. Nice to meet you! I would be honored to win something hand made by you. I could use a fancy new pincushion :)

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  17. Visiting from GYB...really cute mug rugs.. I am really into mug rugs! THanks!
    Cheri, the quilting nanny
    quiltingnanny(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  18. Visiting from St. John's, NL Canada via GYB. Love the mug rugs! I have a giveaway over on my blog too.

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  19. I love pincushions! Hi from BC Canada!

    t_ktl at yahoo.com

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  20. I'm embarking on the scary process of making my first 'real' quilt and am jumping in at the deep end and doing a king sized Rail Fence pattern. It's a special request from my son and d-i-l so I couldn't say no! Thank you for having us over for a visit. I love pincushions (but rarely stick pins in them because they're too nice for that).

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  21. Visiting from GYB. Like what I seen and will follow. Happy Quilting.
    Mary

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  22. Lovely to meet you - you quilts are fabulous and I love your thread painting, something I've never tried!
    I'm visiting from the UK and if I was lucky enough to win I would choose the pincushion!

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  23. I love your beautiful, artful work - especially the thread painting! And how exciting it must be to be waiting for a new great grand baby! I have one granddaughter and she is the light of my life. Thanks for sharing your lovely work and thanks for the awesome giveaway. I would love anything that you create!

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  24. Stopping by from GYB, lovely quilts! That thread painting on the turtles will be wonderful. I haven't done any of that technique and greatly admire those who can.

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  25. Hello from NYC! Your quilts are amazing, I'll be stopping by regularly. Thanks for such a great giveaway!
    - afistfuloflemons @ gmail.

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  26. Your quilts are just gorgeous. Love the swimming turtle. I've never learned how to do the thread painting but have seen them at quilt shows and marveled over them. btw, I'm visiting from GYBP, just slow getting around to all the links.

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