Little Things

 Gratitude Week ~ Day 7 

Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating in America.  Today I am sharing some little things which I have made and some little things which I am grateful for.  

This is a thread catcher which I made from some practice quilting sandwiches.  It was my first time quilting on such a small scale.  (These are 4 inches tall.)  They looked awful on the back but cute on the front.  Making a thread catcher showed off the front and hid the back because they are lined with another fabric.  

I also recently made my husband some fleece drawstring bags.  These are big enough to keep helmets in.  The fleece was great because it doesn't fray.  I used another helmet bag my husband had as a basic pattern.  They were pretty simple because the bottoms are just rounded not boxed.  

Two yards of fleece was the perfect amount for these six bags, because each piece was cut out at 18 by 20 inches.  

Now for the little things I am grateful for.  I thought it would be fun to list 20 for 2020. Here they are in no particular order:

1.  Sunshine

2.  Mountains

3.  Lakes

4.  Camping with my family

5.  Beautiful fall colors

6.  Chocolate

7.  Pretty fabric

8.  A fenced in back yard

9.  When my husband does the dishes

10.  When my husband does the laundry

11.  Baby laughter

12.  Children laughing

13.  Naps

14.  Seasonal Quilts

15.  Friends

16.  Neighbors

17.  My children's teachers

18.  Flowers

19.  Book of Mormon

20.  Technology to keep in touch with people near and far

What are you grateful for today?

#givethanks

XX,

Jasmine

A Family Heirloom

 Gratitude Week ~ Day 3

Today I am grateful for my in-laws.  I am grateful for the welcome and love they give me and my children.  I am grateful for what they taught my husband, because he is absolutely wonderful.  

I am also grateful for this family heirloom my mother-in-law recently gave me.  It was made by my husband's great-grandmother Nellie.  My father-in-law slept under it when he was young.  It is a treasure just like them.  

Here is a peek at the back of the beautiful quilt.  One interesting fact is that Miss Kitty and Nellie share the same middle name.  All of my children have family names for middle names.  

What are you grateful for today?

#givethanks

XX,

Jasmine

My Mom's Autumn Quilt

 Gratitude Week ~ Day 2

Today I am very grateful for my parents.  I am grateful for the love they share and for the many wonderful things they have taught me.  It was my mother who started teaching me to quilt when I was eleven years old and my sweet father who supported us every step of the way.  

My mother embroidered these beautiful autumn blocks, but had a hard time sewing them together.  They are very stiff and bulky.  I finished assembling the blocks together for her.    

Then I quilted it with my walking foot on my small domestic sewing machine.  

Originally she wanted me to bind it with the same tan used in the blocks, but I thought it needed a darker frame.  She bought a beautiful darker brown fabric for the binding.  

I love how it looks with the darker frame.  

Here you can see how little quilting I actually did.  I am so grateful I can help my mother finish her quilts.  

What are you grateful for today?

#givethanks

XX,

Jasmine

Why I Quilt

 Gratitude Week ~ Day 1

Russell M. Nelson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, shared a special message of hope and healing today.  He said that being grateful can make a big difference in our lives and encouraged us to use social media to express our gratitude for one week.  

Today I am especially grateful for my family.  I love being a wife and mother.  It comes with many challenges, but even more rewards.  My family is the greatest source of joy in my life.  I quilt for them to express my love for them.  I want them to know the comfort of a quilty hug from a quilt made with love in every stitch.  I want them to experience the joy of playing on, under, and in handmade quilts.  

I love this picture.  I took my large apple quilt out to the backyard one Sunday afternoon so Miss Kitty and I could enjoy the shade.  Pretty soon the entire family joined me on the quilt.  See that empty space on the right?  That is where I was laying down.  See that floral tied blanket?  My grandmother made it for me when I was little.  

My three middle children love making quilt forts.  This is the biggest, sturdiest one that they made this year.  The quilts cover two six foot tables.  I love the two heads peeking out along with a pair of feet.  

Miss Bunny loves playing peek-a-boo in her minky blankets and quilts.  I love her happy giggling self.  

I almost didn't share this picture, but it is too cute to resist.  Miss Kitty loves playing on colorful quilts.  Here is one year of Kitty on quilts.  She has brought so much joy into our home.  

What are you grateful for today?  

#givethanks

XX,

Jasmine

Introducing Kitty

(Quilt made for me by my grandmother many years ago.)

It is amazing to me how quickly life changes.  Two years ago we were a family of five.  My husband, myself, and our three boys: Cheetah, Panda, and Monkey. Then we adopted our sweet Bunny.  We became a family of six and my quilting time drastically decreased.  Blogging was pretty sporadic.

One year ago I found out I was pregnant (an extreme surprise as we didn't think we could have any more children). My quilting time decreased even more due to lack of energy. I stopped blogging to take care of my family and prepare for the baby.

Older quilts were brought in to decorate the nursery.

Half a year ago our sweet Kitty was born.  Now we are a family of seven and feel truly blessed.

Three months ago we started hearing more about Covid-19.

Now, not only has our family been changing but the world has been changing.  Our boys have been doing online at home schooling, and Cheetah had a virtual high school graduation.

Miss Kitty is our little sunshine and a great reminder that life goes on even with trial, tribulation, and pandemics.

So while I haven't made as many quilts in the past year, they have been getting lots of use for snuggles.  Blogging will be sporadic, but I'd still like to share the quilts and other projects that I have finished.

I hope you are all safe and well through this pandemic.

XX,
Jasmine

Introducing Bunny

I would like to introduce you to Bunny.  I don't mean this kind of bunny, but my new adopted daughter who I will call Bunny here on the blog.

My husband and I had been working since March to get licensed to Foster to Adopt.  Our goal was to be licensed by the end of September after my sister-in-law and niece moved into their new house.  We told many of our local friends what we were doing.  One of our friends told us about an opportunity for a private adoption, and we decided to try that first.  Everything went smoothly and we have now added Bunny to our family.  We feel it was meant to be.

Bunny is such a sweet little girl who has quickly become an integral part of our family.  She loves her protective big brothers.

She also loves minky just like them.  (Sneak peek at a quilt I hope to finish soon.)

I loved seeing her nuzzle the minky the second I laid this quilt on the floor.  Some of you may remember her brothers always doing that.

I can tell you that it is already so much fun having a daughter.  I have pulled out little girl things I have already made.  We have started decorating her room.

I look forward to spending lots of time with my darling daughter and making her more quilty items.

This sweet little poem has been running through my mind lately:

Cleaning and scrubbing 

Can wait till tomorrow.

For babies grow up,

We've learned to our sorrow.  

So quiet down, cobwebs.

Dust, go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby,

and babies don't keep.

~Author Unknown

As you can imagine, our adoption of Bunny has greatly changed our schedules.  So until things become more routine, my quilting time is greatly reduced.  Blogging will be pretty sporadic.  I'll be rocking my Bunny and enjoying our time together.

XX,
Jasmine

Musical Rooms

Things have been very quiet here at the Quilt Kisses blog.  I have been spending a lot of time with family and any time in my quilting studio has been spent working on projects instead of blogging.  I hope to do some catching up now.  ;)

I come from a large family with eight children.  When my mom wanted a deep cleaning she would have us play "musical rooms," which was completely trading bedrooms with other siblings.  We would have to pull everything out of one bedroom, store it in the family room, then move everything from another bedroom into the now empty one.  Once that was settled, the items in the family room were put back into the now empty bedroom.  It was a lot of work, but everything would be cleaned from objects hiding under the bed to the deep recesses of the closets.  Kind of brilliant of my mother.

We have been playing some musical rooms at my house this year.  First because my mom broke her ankle and my father's hip replacement surgery was delayed a month.  Their home is two stories with their bedroom up the stairs.  We moved over a king size bed from their house so they could stay with us on the main floor for awhile.  It was fun having my parents here and even having an old quilt visit.  My mom pieced it when I was a teenager.  I added the borders and quilted it about 15 years ago.

Panda and Monkey moved their complete bedrooms into the basement.  (See, musical rooms.)

They both decided to put their bug jar quilts on their beds in their new bedrooms.  It is really the first time they have been used although I finished both quilts a few years ago.

While my parents were here, my niece Miss H came to stay with us for a week.  She stayed in our new guest room.

I did not make this cute quilt, it came as a bed-in-a-bag with the new furniture.  She brought her quilt with her when she stayed with us.

My sister did the handwork on the binding and I was able to get some nicer pictures outside.  I love the wild quilting she requested.

My parents are doing much better now.  My dad's hip and my mom's ankle are healing well and they are more mobile and back at their house.  Now, my sister-in-law and another nice are staying with us for a few months while their new house is being built.  My boys are having fun spending so much time with family.

XX,
Jasmine

My Quilty Little Secrets

Notice that I didn't say "10."  Please feel free to stop reading whenever you like.  ;)

Part 1 ~ I have "Quilter's OCD."

1. My craft room has to be spotless every day before I start sewing. 
2. I like working on one project at a time start to finish, but I like an ongoing hand sewing project.  UFO's give me a rash and make me itch. 
3. I love cleaning the lint out of my machine, and do it frequently. 
4. I change the needle in my machine regularly. 
5. I never sew over pins. 
6. I always close and lock my rotary cutter when I put it down. 
7. I love, Love, LOVE quilty math. 
8. I always want to know the finished size of quilts, which is why I include the statistics for my finished quilts. 
9. I am trying to "use up" all my fabric so I can buy for each project individually. 
10. I love patterns that tell how to press seams, because I like to press them to one side and have them nest together. 
11. I love an accurate scant quarter inch seam. 
12. I love perfect points. 
13. I love the whole process of making a quilt, but my favorite part is finishing!
14. I am a fabric snob, meaning that I only buy good quality fabric from my LQS. 
15. I am a thread snob, meaning that I love Aurifil and other good quality threads. 

Part 2 ~ However, some things are "Good Enough."

1. I avoid using pins.
2. I cheat when sewing on borders, but they still lay flat. 
3. I iron gently and use steam. 
4. I sew my bindings down by machine or by hand.  This decision depends on the quilt, my mood, and time limits. 
5. I only unpick when I absolutely have to. 
6. I have no desire to try paper piecing, even if you do get better points. 
7. I'm not very interested in English Paper Piecing either. 
8. Doing applique bores me. 
9. I can't wear shoes when I use the sewing machine. 
10. I always use quilt basting spray. 
11. Mistakes in quilts are good, because they keep you humble. 
12. I love Best Press, but I dilute it with water. 
13. It is more important for some things to look square than be square.  (Like with some directional or geometric prints.)
14. I don't know if my quilts are modern or traditional.  I just know that they are quilts and I love them. 
15. Quilting rules (even my own) are made to be broken.  For example:  I am working on multiple Christmas projects at the same time: One for each boy (including Hubby).   

There is one quote (whish I knew where I read it) which really shows my quilting philosophy.  "Perfect isn't flawless.  Perfect is finished." 

If you made it this far, thanks for reading to the end.  ;)  Also a big thanks to Amy at 13 Spools for starting this fun thing, and thanks to my friends who have posted their own list.  Check out Amy's linky party to see what other quilters confess to. 

XX,
Jasmine

Wishing Everyone a

XX,
Jasmine and Family

P.S.  If you want to watch a sweet, short video of Luke 1-2, click here.  (It is about 8 minutes long.)

Quilting Changed my Life

Shortly after my mom finished her first quilt she decided that it would be fun to have a mother/daughters quilting project. We were all going to make the sampler quilt in this book. 

This was new to me, because as the youngest she was not going to let me use her sewing machine until I took a sewing class in school.  She bought lots of fabric in different color ways and we got started.  This is my first block. 

I just love the note that is still attached with two pins after all these years.   

We decided that if we used all the colors in every block that it would be really busy.  So we narrowed down the colors and selected the ones we wanted to use.   My quilt was going to be in pinks, greens, and blues.  (My favorite colors at the time.)  This is a redo of my first block  called Roman Square in the colors I selected.

We went through the blocks together. Mom cut the fabrics for me and I sewed them together. This is the fence rail. 

This is the log cabin.

Here is the double nine patch.  

I loved it! I just had a hard time waiting for the next block to be made. This is what it looked like when I tried to cut and sew by myself. 

In case you didn't know, it was not meant to be wonky with the stitches showing in places.  ;)

This is my second attempt at the smaller log cabin (with Mom's help)... Not much better. 

So how did this change my life? Let me explain...

I was about 11 years old and the young girls in my ward were having a talent night. I was discouraged and my mom was trying to help. (I think we all know what girls are like at that age.)

She said, "You could play the piano."

I replied, "No, Mary plays better than me."

She said, "You could do a dance."

I replied, "No, Kim dances better than me."

She added, "You could sing a song."

Again I replied, "No, Tanya sings better than me." (Are you seeing a pattern here?)

My exasperated mother then tried, "You could display your quilt blocks."

I stopped, thought, and then said, "Okay."

We displayed my blocks on a solid like this.  It was meant to be my sashing.

I am sure my mom was just relieved to have this drama solved, yet it was a huge turning point in my life.  I stopped comparing myself to the other girls (almost completely). 

The icing on the cake was when all the other girls were so impressed and asked in awe, "Jasmine, you made this?"

Honestly, these blocks are still just that--blocks. Yet I consider them finished and not an extremely old UFO. Let's face it, they are awful. They are not square or the size they should be.  They were ironed rather than pressed...  

At one point I was going to get rid of them. My mother said I should keep them because someday my daughters (um... daughters?) would like to see that I was not always so good at quilting.

I actually have shown them to others frequently when I am teaching beginning quilting to friends and youth. They make a great example for what not to do! But maybe someday I will do something with the better ones...

Do you think I should use them, or continue to leave them be? 

XX,
Jasmine