Quilts

In November of 2010, a friend of mine called me and asked me if I would like to go to the store with her to help pick some fabric for a quilt she was just finishing up. I thought, "sure, why not, I don't have much else going on". I had no idea what this would lead to.
First of all - some background. My Mom made quilts off and on while I was growing up. They were mostly taking two large sheets or pieces of cloth and putting them together and tying them. I am actually not a fan of tied quilts - I don't like the texture of the yarn. Silly, I know, but the yarn has always bugged me a little.  When the kids all left home, my Mom got into quilting more and she started doing it more often. There were more pieced quilts, and many baby blankets for donating to the Humanitarian center. I kind of always thought of quilting as something "other" people do, but not me. It seemed like an old lady thing or something. Silly, but that is how I felt.
Now, back to the quilt store. When we were looking around, I saw a quilt hanging from the ceiling. It was a very cute pink and brown quilt made of the softest material I had ever felt. I fell in love instantly and said, "I HAVE to make this quilt."  As I look back, this seems so ridiculous. I knew nothing about quilting. I sew a little, but not much, really.  I bought all the material, got some basic instructions and had my friend show me how to cut the pieces. Let me explain that I had no idea you could get these rulers and cutting wheels for making straight cuts. I seriously tried to make a quilt once by hand cutting all of the pieces. It was SO bad that I never got past the second row. Now I understand why. There was no uniformity at all.
Well, I made the first quilt and my youngest child decided it was going to be hers. "Okay" I thought. No biggie. Well, of course, then my other children wanted one, so I made more. Then I made one for a girl who babysat for us, and one for a friend with cancer, and one for my sister, and it just kept going. I loved quilting. Most of them were made with this soft material called Minky. I branched out to a regular pieced quilt, but that is part of another post.  These were all done in the course of a few months. I kind of went a little crazy and bought a new sewing machine and everything so I could do this. I took a break for awhile, through the summer, but when the school festival came up and needed auction items, I made three more. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos.
Here are some photos of the quilts I made:

 This is that first pink and brown one that I fell in love with

 This brown one was for my son

 This (above and below) was for my daughter. The top was made from flannel and cotton and the bottom was minky. I know they don't really match each other, but this is what she really wanted, and this tiger minky material is so amazingly soft, we just couldn't resist.

 I made the one above for my daughter, and the one below in similar color schemes for my sister.

 This one (above) I made for my husband