I've been quilting for a long time - in fact I feel old when I start thinking about it.  I completed my first quilt in 1988.  It was a twin-sized double Irish Chain.  I still have leftover fabric from it that I just can't seem to part with.  It pains me to think about piecing it since I had no clue what a rotary cutter was back then, not to mention strip piecing or chain piecing!  Every little square was done individually.  No wonder many of the seams didn't line up :/  The piecing and quilting were done on my domestic machine - at the time, an old machine my mother had found for me at a yard sale.  My husband often helped by pressing seams.  During the quilting phase, he would sit at the back of the sewing machine and pull while I pushed - it was quite the ordeal!  Overall, the quilt ended up pretty nice and I was hooked. 

My college roommate had made a quilt for our wedding and she was my inspiration for getting started.  So, in turn, I made a quilt for my high school friend's wedding the following year.  At this point I had upgraded to a nice Kenmore machine.  Between friends and family getting married and my own children's births, I kept up my new hobby of quilting. 

Joshua's Quilt - 1991

Christopher's Quilt - 1992
(although I have to confess...  the quilt wasn't finished until his first birthday
in 1993 - two in diapers doesn't leave a lot of time for quilting )

But, having young kids and working full-time does not leave a lot of time for hobbies.  I dabbled a bit here and there, stitched up some Halloween costumes, created a bed quilt for each of my sons (they had long outgrown their baby quilts), did lots of mending...  Wished I could do more :(
 

 

Joshua's Twin Bed Quilt - early 2000's

 Christopher's Twin Bed Quilt - early 2000's

Then came along my first Viking machine and some time to craft since my children were growing up and had their own hobbies to attend to (lots of sports!)  My co-worker's wife was having a baby - a baby boy!  What a great excuse to make a quilt.  My co-worker,  a math teacher, also happened to be my boys' wrestling coach.  Now, how to design a quilt for a little boy whose daddy was a math teacher and a wrestling coach??

It was a no-brainer, and turned into a family affair planning out the design. 

Just wanted to share another quilt that I completed this summer.  When I knew the delivery date of my longarm quilting machine - end of June - I knew that I would need practice material to help me feel comfortable using the machine.  My friend had passed on lots of fabric from her mother who had recently downsized so I had lots in my stash to choose from.  I went with the burgundies and quickly put together a disappearing nine-patch. 

With all the sashing and piecing, I had wonderful practice material to try many different quilting patterns. 

 

To finish it all off I had my first attempt at a scalloped edge.  I think it turned out great!  Now, what to do with it???  We only have so many beds in the house!

 

Although I love quilting, I do create items other than quilts.  I'm not a purse gal, never have been.  Yet, I still need something to hold a wallet, phone, and a few small items in when I'm out and about.  What better way to show off some fun fabric!  Check out these purses - just the perfect size :)

How about a badge holder?  So many of us need to wear an identification badge while at work.  I like to use my embroidery machine to create personalized badge holders.  

Last spring I was asked to put together a quilt for my friend's parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary.  Over the years her parents had 'Cousin Camp' during the summers for their grandchildren.  Each year the kids were given a different color t-shirt that Grandpa had decorated.  Often the kids added their own decorations as well.  The t-shirt were nice!  I was able to find a striped fabric that contained most of the bright colors and went to town piecing.  With the addition of a few embroidered blocks, the quilt was finished. 

 

Sharing another quilt...

School is in full swing now...  Too much grading to do, not enough time for quilting :(  Here's a quilt I created this summer.  Hopefully posting it will give me incentive to quilt this weekend.

It's made with Robert Kaufman's Whisper Prints.  Zoom in and you can pick out the 16 different fabrics.  It was a lot of fun working on it - but nearly drove me crazy trying to keep all the piecing organized.

Went up to the cabin this weekend...  The weather was gorgeous!  Sunny,  breezy and only 70 degrees.  Almost unheard of for Virginia in August.  Our cabin is on top of Blue Mountain and we have extraordinary views of the Shenandoah Valley.  For quite some time now I've been wanting to take some pictures of my quilts against the beautiful backgrounds that we have at the cabin.  This was the weekend to accomplish that goal.

Check out the baby quilt, Circles & Squares that I previously posted about.  My quild meeting was canceled last week, so I haven't passed on this quilt yet so was able to photograph it in this gorgeous setting.  How neat to see through to the circles!!

To rig up the clothesline to hold the quilts was an interesting process.  First to find the best spot...  then to find the best spot that wouldn't require us digging out a ladder...  We ended up attaching one end of the line near the roof of the cabin and my son was able to throw the other end of the line over a nearby tree branch - I guess there was a purpose to all those years of sitting in the little league baseball bleachers!  We were then able to lower the line while loading a quilt, and pull on the line to raise the quilt to nearly 10 feet off the ground.  My son put his engineering skills to task :)


Speaking of my son...  at the beginning of the summer when he was home from college I asked him to go through his closet and weed out the t-shirts that he didn't wear anymore.  It was next to impossible for him to give up any of those special shirts so I suggested a t-shirt quilt.  I had just received my longarm quilting machine and needed practice material.  I told him to pick 12 shirts and I proceeded to piece them together with stash fabric I had on hand. 

 I have to say that the finished product turned out pretty good - and looks great with views of the valley!

So, needed some more pantograph practice on my Innova...  Had this great piece of baby print fabric in my stash - the squares. 

Found a sweet piece of pink polka dot fleece at JoAnn's yesterday at 70% off - the circles. 

And, 'Circles & Squares' baby quilt is born.  Plan to donate it to Operation Homefront through my quilting guild meeting this week. 

I'm the Thread Engineer, Julie.  Welcome to my blog.  Previously an engineer in the electronics industry, currently a high school math teacher, but always a want-to-be-quilter, I've just recently rediscovered my favorite hobby.  It's always fascinating to me to watch the piecing come together and with the recent addition of an embroidery machine to my arsenal, I have fun embellishing with thread.  Look at this fun baby quilt I made for a fellow math teacher's newborn baby girl - what could be better - numbers & embroidery!! Put it all together with some wonky squares and all fabric from my stash and voila!