Day Three: Marie Bostwick's Ties that Bind - Blog Hop Tour

Welcome to Day 3 of the blog hop tour for Marie Bostwick’s latest book Ties that Bind. I hope you enjoyed visiting yesterday’s guests. Be sure to visit all the guests and leave comments on each site. We all have books to give away to our readers. I’m giving away two copies, so visit the Day 1 post and leave a comment there. I’m also giving away two copies of Garden Dance, a lovely appliqué pattern – Enter here!

Here’s the complete schedule:

Tuesday, April 24

Michele – Quilting Gallery – you’re here!
Jackie – Canton Village Quilt Works
Wendy – Ivory Spring

Wednesday, April 25

Jennifer – SewHooked
Erin – One Piece at a Time

Thursday, April 26

Victoria – Bumble Beans Inc.
Sandi – A Legacy of Stitches

Friday, April 27

Michele – With Heart and Hands
Melissa – Lilac Lane

Saturday, April 28

Melissa – Sew Bitter Sweet Designs
Kim – Crafty Apple

Marie is also sponsoring this week’s Wall Hangings quilt contest. Submit your quilt by midnight tonight (Thursday) to enter.

Baby Quilts from Today’s Guests

In Ties that Bind Philippa decides she’d like to learn how to quilt and signs up for a baby quilt class. I asked our guest bloggers to share a baby quilt they’ve made with us.

Victoria – Bumble Beans Inc.

As I read Marie’s new Book Ties that Bind it made me recall the first quilt I made my daughter. When my husband and I made the decision to adopt, I was overwhelmed with ideas of what kind of quilts I would make her. I had made quilts in the past, but I’d never had formal training in “quilt making.” I learned from my mother and grandmother to quilt, in a very non traditional way. I was great with sewing squares together and set about making 9 patches for her. I remember going to City Quilter and picking out a setting and backing fabric for this first quilt nervously selecting what I thought to be sweet. I also picked out vintage squares of fabric that I had purchased off ebay to make those 9 patches.

I hand sewn my patches together and recall feeling stuck when I had to fit together because of the different size patches. Making it up as I went along, I managed to make it a complete top, and “pillowcased” the backing on it, as I didn’t know how to do a BINDING at that time. (I had always learned to roll the back forward for binding.) I then took the quilt with me as we traveled to China and hand quilted it on the way to bring Boo home with us. Excitedly, each stitch was leading me closer to becoming a mother.

I ended up making three more baby quilts for her, trying to make the PERFECT one for her…

My idea of perfect, and her idea of perfect, Well, Let’s just say, she picked her favorite quilt, and it’s the very first one I made her and still sleeps with it til this day.

Our first instincts are usually the best… and so is being a mother. Just the best.

Sandi – A Legacy of Stitches

Here are two photos of Jacob and the baby quilt that I made for him. He’s sleeping on it in the first photo (Summer, 1999) and then in the second photo …… the top half is ……”Where is Jacob?” and the bottom half is “Here he is!” and what a big smile I got!

I made the quilt from mostly remnants and even some bits left from pajamas that I made for his mommy, my daughter Collette. She knew just which ones were from her pj’s when she was a kid. I chose the “Trip Around the World” pattern because I like that look in a quilt. I machine quilted it and actually finished it before he was born! :-)

Jacob will be 13 this May and I can’t believe how fast the time has flown. We enjoy making crafty things together and have made more than one favorite football team pillow together!