Hi, I am Cathy and I live in SE Missouri, USA. I have been married 44 years, have 5 children and the 16th grandchild is due in September. Oh gosh, I hope she has the baby before the Des Moines show :shock: I learned to sew when I was about 7. I have made just about all kinds of clothes, except underwear. My MIL and I started quilting about the same time. Probably about 40 years ago. Her mother taught us and she was my favorite teacher. She would hand quilt a full size quilt in 3 days. This was the old way of quilting-cardboard templates, cutting with scissors, machine piecing and stretching all the layers out one the frame that took up the whole living room. My MIL gave me the the last quilt her mother made. I have it safely stored. I have made an old fashioned type of quilt with wool squares, batting and flannel backing. It was tied and we are still using it. Some of the grandkids are sleeping over and will be using it tonight. I was able to get some quilted nylon scraps from a coat factory about 30 years ago. I made a pinwheel block out of them and our friends in Minnesota are still using it. When I started quilting the usual top was of embroidered, 18 inch blocks ususally set up with white and a colored fabric to match the embroidery. Pieced scrap quilts were also popular. I have made numerous baby quilts, some pieced, some appliqued, and some embroidered. I am planning on doing the BOM, but have not started yet. That will be a big challenge for me. I have never taken a quilt class, but would love too. I bought a Gammill longarm last August and am finally starting to feel confident enough to quilt for others. I love going to quilt shows and fabric shops. I have been watching the quilting shows on TV for years and I have lots of quilt books and mags. I am going to the Paducah show in a few weeks, the Kansas City show in May and hope to get to Des Moines in September. Hope to meet some of you at the shows.

Just wanted to say thank you all for organizing and doing all you each have for this exchange....got to get busy about deciding what i will create with my hst"s.....THANKS, THANKS, THANKS.....peg

Hi. I am Karen and live in SW North Dakota. I have been married for 34 years, we have 3 children and 6 grandchildren. I watched my mom make clothes for me and my five sisters (and 2 brothers) while growing up. I started making my little sisters doll clothes when I was about 10. I made some of my own clothes when I was a teenager, because I couldn't afford western shirts! It took off from there. My grandmothers, and mother in law quilted and I made my first double knit quilt when I was 19. I sewed clothes and quilts while my kids grew up and now mostly quilts and simple altering. Quilting is my time to myself. I faithfully watched Simply Quilts when it was on HGTV. I was depressed when it ended. TQS has taken over and I look forward to seeing what's new almost every day. I have lots of favorite teachers. Harriet Hargrave was the first national teacher I took a class from and realized how much there is to learn. I didn't realize the HST mailing was so near. Now, I am really excited. Thanks so much to everyone who participated and to all the workers for their time.

Thanks for all the friendly advice on traveling, I will travel as long as I'm able. This past year I flew to Hawaii, CO, AZ and drove to MO three times. Next week Saturday I fly to FL. Both Sherena & Josie mentioned the Rainbow End Quilt Shoppe, I hope I make it there but I will go where my quilter hostess takes me.

I started making a quilt when I was nine, of course my mother finished for me. Both of my grandmother's where quilter's. I remember sitting on the floor under the quilting frame when my grandmother had quilt day. I threaded her needles for her. I have one wall hanging that my mother, my daughter and I worked on together, it's very precious to me. We never had blankets in our house it was always quilts.

I was born 50 miles east of Kansas City, MO, in 1935. I am a retired school teacher having taught in MO, IL, ND, and Iowa for a total of 30 years. I married an Iowan and have a daughter/two sons, one son-in-law, one daughter-in-law and two grandsons. The oldest graduates for high school this May. He is 6'6' and his father is 6'7", I have made a total of six extra, extra long quilts so they are covered from head to toe.

I love fabric and going to quilt shows. My quilt guild is having a show, Sept 16-18, in Cedar Rapids, IA, so if your close and can come let me know I would like to meet you. I will also be going to the Des Moines show. There is no way I will live long enough to use all of my fabric. I keep buying and I also inherited from my mother's plus some of her quilts to finish.

I'm enjoying this group so much and want to thank everyone that is playing, oh, I mean working. ( I know you will be working very hard, I was just trying to make a joke). Your time and effort is greatly appreciated.

Shirley35

sforster395 wrote: There are a couple of different colors, some pink, some green, some yellow and some white, but all will have the same message. Clara

sforster395 wrote:
Shirley, you will find info about posting photos in the forum here: [url]forum/forum-questions-and-suggestions/4275-tips-for-using-the-tqs-forum[/url]

And there is a video about posting photos to your Profile and to the Quilt Gallery here: [url]daily-blog/[/url]

ClaraLawrence wrote:

Just imagine what the postman's :shock: going to think when he sees that sticker in his mail pouch !

Clara...you are one heck of a "big tease" quilt stripper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You had me going for a few seconds! But, as the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words," and I'm going to be looking for that big, beautiful, Green Sticker every day!
Shirley
Gresham, OR

What a tease you are!!! I thought for sure the notification comment was that they are in the mail! I can hardly wait! The suspense is AWFUL!

Not to tease or anything. Ok, who am I kidding. Yes, of course I'm teasing you. Trying to drive you crazy... When are we going to sort these puppies? Well I'm not going to tell you. Moohahaha!!! But I will tell you this. Keep on the lookout for this sticker in the mail. It will be announcing your goodie package. Clara The Sorting Queen

P.S. I will tell you this much. You will know the moment the sorting is COMPLETE!

sforster395 wrote:

Shirley...we all want to see a Profile Picture of you, too!!!

sforster395 wrote:

I know all of us that will be at Festival would love to get to meet you and to meet each other. Go to http://www.quilts.com for the dates! Photos are easy to upload...just look at the bottom of the page when you're writing a post and you'll see a tab on the left side that says 'upload attachment'. Click on it and there will be a button that says 'browse'. When you hit that, you can find the picture(s) you want to upload and then click or double click. Then save it. There is also a space where you can write something that will appear under your picture. If you can't get it to work, we can always help from the Forum...especially Margo, who knows how to do EVERYTHING!

Josew wrote:
OH MY GOSH!!! Pie tasting sounds like heaven. I am so beyond jealous.

WOW, Josew! I can see a table topper made of yummy lemony-yellow and every other yellow fabric made from string patch strips! WOW! You could have a whole table covered in lemon meringue pie! Yum! Makes my mouth water!
Shirley,
Gresham, OR