Monday, June 2, 2014

Plum and June New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop!

Hi all!  Thanks for visiting my stop on the Plum and June New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop.  There's a really great group (and lots of us) this year, so I hope you get to visit all our new blogs!

Plum and June

I'm Mary and I come from a long line of creative people.  My great-grandmother was a knitter.  My grandmother knits and quilts.  My mom seems to do a little of everything, and was the one to teach me that if I wanted something I should try to make it first.

I wrote about my Economy Block Quilt here.

From a young age, I remember making crocheted dresses for my Barbies or wrapping fabric scraps around them and stitching them in place.  We'd make dolls and pillows, and every time we'd change the color of my bedroom walls, a new bedspread would be produced.  (One was made from two sheets splatter painted with acrylic paint, then tied together.)

Me at eight (?) making myself a doll with two sets of clothes.

In college, I was itching to make something, and decided to start quilting.  My grandmother gave me her sewing machine (with the desk it was built into!) and my mother and I bought a quilting magazine and a pile of batiks.  It's an amazing quilt, but I laugh about it because I hand-quilted it as I didn't realize free motion quilting was a thing I could do.

Here's the post about this guild quilt I did the final quilting on.

After a few hand-quilted quilts, I realized there had to be a better way and Googled "Quilting" (or something like it) and found the world of modern quilt blogging.  I learned so much from people like Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts and Elizabeth at Oh Fransson!, like how to actually free motion quilt, but also that there were really no rules and I didn't have to buy a pattern magazine in order to make a quilt.  And now I hope to add my voice to the quilting blogosphere.

Read about my kitties here.

My quilting style is always changing, but I love tend to love bright colors.  I use a lot of scraps, and will happily take scraps of any fabric from anyone!  And I love to quilt a quilt to death.


Now Beth has asked all of us to give you all some of our own wisdom.  Here it goes.

Blogging Tip:
I am by no means an expert, but we're all new here.  I'll give you the best tip I've come up with so far: RELAX!!  When I started blogging, I thought I had to post everyday, hit up every linky party, have the best photography, and never show any flawed work.  And for a while it all stopped being fun.  Now I post when I want, enjoy what I make, and I'm trying to be more honest about the whole process.

Quilting Tip:
There are so many great tricks and tutorials out there, but at the end of the day you're just cutting up fabric and sewing it back together.  So my best tip is to have a sharp blade, a sharp needle, and to just go for it.

There's nothing you can't learn from a YouTube video, and it's only fabric anyway.

Dream Vacation Spot:  The IceHotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden.

Seriously, how amazing is this place?
Favorite Book:  The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Favorite Movie: Addicted to Love (with Matthew Broderick creates a giant camera obscura, and Meg Ryan rocks the best of 90s fashion.


Favorite TV Show: Sherlock and Dr. Who (just turn on BBC America and point me at it)

Fun Fact About Me? Toughy, there's a lot of weird facts about me!  At the age of five I could recite the alphabet backwards faster than forwards, and still can (though I haven't done it in a while, so don't quiz me!)  Sadly, this wasn't an early sign that I was some sort of child prodigy.  

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to check out the rest of the group!

40 comments:

  1. I love your economy block quilt, those colors just pop!!!

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  2. That was going to be my fun fact too!!! Guess I'll have to think of another one... :D

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  3. The Ice Hotel would be an amazing vacation location, but I think I would have to take all my quilts with me to try to stay warm! I love the photo of you sewing when you were younger. You had such fierce concentration!

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  4. I hand quilted my first quilts, too. I really love free motion quilting.

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  5. Nice to meet you Mary. I really love your quilt guild quilt, such pretty colours and I love the design. Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself, it's nice to get to know you a bit better....

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    1. I have a close friend whose two children are named after birds (she's got a bird name too) - her son is named Bower! Most people here in the US have never heard of it.

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  6. Great intro! I think you're right about the "relax" part ... I'm trying to teach myself FMQ and the more I stress the worse it gets!

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  7. I love your gorgeous bright quilts. So true about relaxing and remembering there are no rules.

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  8. I like your picture. Fun! Your intro made me hit the follow button so I say good job Mary! :-)

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  9. I started off with hand quilting too, and hopefully will move on to FMQ soon. Your economy block quilt is brilliant - I love the bright colours :-)

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  10. Relax is a great tip! I sat down to FMQ some loops and my shoulders were hitting my ears I was so tense! Thanks for a lovley post - I'm a big Doctor Who and Sherlock fan too!

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  11. Hi Mary! I love the photo of you at the sewing machine at age eight. You still have the same intensity when you're FMQing (a relaxed intensity). I grew up with the 'go make it' thing too. :) I made doll clothes and furniture. I still have an oven I made out of a small, square cardboard box. Drew spirals for burners. Glad you kept that first quilt that you hand quilted!

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  12. Bright fabrics, dream vacation @ Ice Hotel...we're quilters of a feather! How about the Ice Festival in China?? Look forward to following you!

    www.sewcraftychick.blogspot.com

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  13. Love your catvent quilt! I need to either start mine up again or just start again altogether! (Amongst all the other things i need to do :D).

    Great blogging tip! Sometimes it really is hard to remember to relax!

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  14. Love your tv choices and your favourite book! Great quilts too, your first one is amazing - especially the fact that you hand quilted it!

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  15. hello and nice to meet you! It's great coming from a crafty family, thanks for showing us your quilts!

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  16. I like the vintage photo of you working away! Nice to meet you, Mary. The other day I tried saying the alphabet backward and it took great concentration. If I ever got pulled over at a check stop and that was their sobriety yardstick, I'd be in big trouble!

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  17. awesome quilts, love the saturated colors on that first one. You would definitely need a couple of quilts in an ice hotel, but it does look interesting.

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  18. I like your bold color choices! So vivid! And the catvent calendar, of course. Great job with that one!

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  19. Yes! Another Dr. Who-lovin quilter! I just saw that the third season of Sherlock was aded to neflix so that's on my to watch list for this weekend (while quilting, of course!)

    p.s. I love the colors on that kitty quilt - so fun and vibrant!

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  20. The Phantom Tollbooth is my favorite book, too!

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  21. Mary, I adore that pic of your 8 year old self sewing away.......and that your mom and grandmother were responsible for your start in quilting. Family is what it's all about!

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  22. Great tips! And I love your header - that's new, right?

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  23. Hi Mary. It's nice to read more about you and your quilting. You sound like me - I too started out hand quilting and I'm just working up to machine quilting now. I also learned to sew and knit at a young age. I love the colours you used on your cat quilt. Enjoy the blog hop.

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  24. After having such a FREEZING winter I am not sure I would want to go to the ice hotel- maybe a sunny island somewhere! Fun that you have a photo of you as a child sewing!

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  25. I like the bright colors in your Economy Block Quilt.

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  26. I think it's great that you were sewing at such a young age and that you had family members to learn from. My mother used to sew a lot but only clothing or curtains really. I wish I'd learned when I was young (not when I was 42) and had that tradition passed down. Beautiful quilts!

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  27. Your Economy Block Quilt is so cheerful. Bright colours are a real tonic!

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  28. Ooh, I see you're part of the Seacoast MQG, Mary - I was just on their site today looking to see if I could make a meeting to check it out! (I'm in Portland ME : ) That guild quilt is beautiful!

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  29. Great intro post! Your economy block quilt is beautiful, and I love the picture of the 8 year old you sewing.

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  30. the economy block quilt looks so cool!

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  31. Oh the ice hotel! I want to visit there also! I love all things cold! Love your quilts! It is nice to meet you! :-)

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  32. I was sewing at that age too. I think the ice hotel is beautiful, but having grown up in a warm climate, without snow, I struggle to get my head around being among ice and being alive at the same time! :)

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  33. I love your Cat wall hanging! I did one as a Christmas gift last year and I am still sad that I had to give it away. Your quilting tip is spot on. I spend way to much time dreading cutting into the fabric some days that I never get any work done!

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  34. What a great picture of you at your sewing machine! I love photos like that!

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  35. The second quilting tip should be put on a plaque. I love it!

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  36. So nice to meet you. I love the picture of you sewing when you were a kid. That is so great! I love your tips on not being perfect and just going for it. Such a good reminder!

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  37. Nice to meet you (I'm catching up so a bit late). Your quilts are beautiful and I love your colour sense. I'm really liking your rainbow quilt as you go - it looks very similar to a quilt I'm working on and I think I may QAYG it, too. Have added you to my reader and looking forward to seeing and reading more!

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  38. Hi Mary - Where is the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guilt? I love your kitties quilt, and the quilt guild quilt. Do you have any cats? If so, tell me about them. I am participating in the blog too, and posted on June 4th. Glad I stopped by and visited you.

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  39. I know I’m six weeks late to this post but I just wanted to share the love for your favourite movie Addicted to Love.
    I think it's lovely and sad and yet it's hopeful too ... Meg’s outfits are total 90′s grunge and her famous haircut is on display, and with a Milky Way Man, a kissing monkey and a frothily light French tunes soundtrack. What more could anyone ask for?

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Go on! Comment! I love reading what you think! -m