Shadywood Quilts & Longarm Quilting

Happy New Year!

I've had a website for years, and decided that it was time to take that next step and here I am! Way too easy, and hopefully very easy to maintain!

By way of introduction, I'm a quilt addict! There! I've admitted it, and now we can move on! I've been quilting since about 1978 when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter. We lived in upstate New York, and was pretty much snowed in from December until March. We had one television station (ABC). I had to do something or go nuts. I found a McCalls magazine that was all quilts (I still have it) and found Aunt Sukies Quilt. Since I didn't have any fabric stash, I went down to Zayre's (kind of like TG&Y) and found a bunch of fabric (of unknown content) for 77 cents a yard. Thought that was kind of expensive - but thought - what the hay! Bought a wide variety of colors and prints, a package of big needles, a yellow sheet (for the backing of course!) and the thickest batting I could find. I was ready to make a quilt!

I had been sewing clothes my whole life, so had no problem following the minimal instructions, and soon had a quilt top completed. I was able to get the layers together pretty well and basted them together. ( I had learned that much from listening to my grandmother). Bought a quilt hoop, and sat down to quilt. had the hardest time tryign to make those stitches, so I ended up doing a " stab and poke" method. The top of the quilt looked great - but the bottom - think\\\\\\\\\\ Each stick was a pretty good sized slash mark. Oh well, I learned a lot on that quilt. Still remember my grandmothers' laughter as I described my progress over the phone.

I'm sure it was a joke, but about a week later a box full of Double Wedding Ring pieces that were left over from my great grandmother arrived in the mail. There was a note in there that choosing a more challenging quilt would expose me to every pitfall and by the time I finished I would be an expert. ( I still have those pieces in that same box!!!)

I put in at least 40 hours a week at my 'day job' as a web developer, specializing in classic ASP and database (SQL) programming. Besides quilting and my family I also like to do family history, and am the offical keeper of the info for our family. I have another website with over 500 pages that is strictly family history for several family names, but primarily the SCARLETT, TALLMAN, MARSH, KILLEN, SEAY and MOORMANN names. More on that at another time.