Bound With Stitches

I'd been quilting by hand (yup-- by hand. piecing, quilting-- the whole deal.) for close to 4 years when my husband decided to upgrade my sewing situation & bought me a lovely Viking for Christmas. I adore my new machine, & although I'm sure I'll still sew some things by hand, machine sewing has opened up a whole new quilting world for me. Chain piecing, sewing strip sets-- I never knew how quickly a quilt could come together!
One of the unexpected benefits of having a sewing machine has been reconnecting with my best friend, Lisa. We both left Michigan after college to pursue grad school. After school I moved home to get married, but Lisa continued to travel around the South, finally settling in Virginia. I'm thrilled she's found a place to call home, but I miss my friend. I've known Lisa since we were 12, & she always has a project up her sleeve. There was always some new adventure for us to try, a new craft, a crazy exercise program, baking classes in her parents' kitchen-- you name it, we tried it.
Lisa recently inherited a sewing machine from a generous co-worker, & immediately put herself to work sewing rag quilts for everyone she knows. The're warm, fuzzy & adorable, & in them I saw our latest adventure taking shape. I persuaded Lisa to do a quilt-along with me. I'd been ogling them for a while now & decided with my fancy new machine that I could finally keep up. She took some convincing, but eventually we decided to tackle the Swoon Along over at the Happy Homemaker. It was perfectly paced for newbies, came together easily & all in all, was a very satisfying sew. Through sharing our color choices, my half-hearted attempts to press seams open (I am a big fan of pressing to the side. Mostly because it's easy!), & discovering Lisa's dislike of half square triangles, the distance between us seemed to shorten, & it was almost like having my best friend right next door again.
We decided to start this blog as a way to share our sewing with each other (& anyone else who happens by!) We have totally different quilting aesthetics, & our plan is to alternate quilting projects- she'll pick one, then it will be my turn. Since I chose the Scrappy Swoon, Lisa is up next & I believe she'll be teaching me how to make one of her rag quilts. The rag quilts project will start at the end of the month. (That's my fault-- My twins turn 4 next week & I have a slew of quilts promised that are coming "due" in the next couple weeks. I need a little space to wrap thing sup before I tackle a new project!) In the meantime, we'll share some past & current projects, & get our blogging feet wet!
Til then, Kate