2016 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop

Hello everyone! Welcome to Quilted Blooms, my little corner of quilting blogland. The 2016 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop is kicking off this week and I'm one of the firsts, so here goes...

I learned many skills for sewing when I was a young child while sitting on the lap of my paternal grandmother at her Singer sewing machine.  Even when I was too young to operate the machine, I watched and soaked in everything she did from moving the reverse lever in order to backstitch to winding bobbins.

She stored all of her sewing supplies in hat boxes which she painted all the same color, an aqua blue. (Notice any similarities here?)  Many, many years ago she gave me some pearl buttons shaped like flowers still on the original cards. (You're beginning to see the influence she had, right?)

Vintage BGE Originales pearl buttons once belonged to my grandmother

I should also mention that she was an avid gardener as well, from flowers to fruits and vegetables of all varieties.  When visiting, we would all go out into her yard to see what was blooming or 'coming in' at the time.  After my family moved to South Carolina from Mississippi in the late 70's, she always shared plants or cuttings from her garden.

Grandmama's Legacy of Flowers, made for a guild challenge in 2011, is, and probably will remain, my favorite quilt of all time. The Journal of Life challenge had the following rules:

• The quilt must contain the pieced "Tree of Life" quilt block(s)
• Must have some applique included
• Interpret LIFE or life experiences in some way 
• Size 40" x 40"

Grandmama's Legacy of Flowers by Paige Alexander

The the four 20" tree of life blocks which make up the background were pieced as one large block in order to eliminate as many seams as possible.

The layout and some of the applique motifs are original designs.  The iris and daylily blooms are from a pattern, Vintage Dreams, by Colette Belt.  The dimensional applique technique used in the center hydrangea was from a book, Fabulous Flowers by Sharon K. Baker.

On a recent visit to Johnson Daylily Gardens I snapped this photo of my quilt where you can see more of the dimensional applique and quilting.

Grandmama's Legacy of Flowers by Paige Alexander at Johnson Daylily Gardens

The quilt label says it all...

In memory of Sadie Mae Gordon Taylor Sinquefield

July 13, 1921 ~ June 21, 2002

The flowers represented in this quilt were those grown in Mississippi by my

 paternal grandmother and transplanted to my garden in South Carolina.

Daylily ∙ Iris ∙ Acuba ∙ Yellow Rose of Texas ∙ Hydrangea ∙ Nandina

Now you can see from where my love of flowers comes and why I decided on Quilted Blooms for the blog name, right?

Another favorite quilt is one I made in September 2013, Up the Wall.  It is a variation of  Leaves and Vine from Sunday Morning Quilts by Amanda Jean Nyburg and Cheryl Arkison.  It has more of the machine applique I love and slab blocks which Cheryl explains here, an intentional improv way of piecing.

Up the Wall by Paige Alexander photographed at Hagood Mill

I enjoy participating in challenges whether a fabric or a theme challenge.  I made Witco's Daisies in November of last year for the QuiltCon triangle challenge.  It wasn't juried into the show, but still my favorite make from 2015.

Witco's Daisies by Paige Alexander

Barcelona was made for the MQG Michael Miller Glitz fabric challenge and I was excited to have it juried in to QuiltCon West this year. It was inspired by the artwork of Donna Mibus who recreated the panels flanking a Turner mirror from the late 1950's.  The curved frame of Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Chair (1929), still manufactured today, inspired the quilt title.

Barcelona by Paige Alexander

You can see I love all forms of quilting from traditional to modern. Now, a couple of tips, a quilty question and a random fact about me...

Blogging Tip:

If you are a new blogger or thinking about starting a blog, consider securing your domain name NOW.  I found this blogging tip about domain name registration on the WestHost blog. (non-affiliate link)  You never know where this blogging journey will lead and you may want your own website one day only to find YourBlogName.com is already taken.

Quilting Tip:

When entering a quilt in a quilt show, if you are like me and feel as though your free motion quilting skills are less than perfect, consider a 'busy' fabric for backing your quilt.  With a patterned fabric, it's harder for the the judge to focus on things like quilting stops and starts or tension issues.

Quilty Question:

When given the opportunity, I try to take quilt classes from national or well known teachers.  I've taken classes from Denyse Schmidt, Elizabeth Hartman, Jacquie Gering, Paula Nadelstern and more just hoping some of their knowledge would rub off on me.  I would still love to take classes from a few more, but at the very top of my list has always been Diane Gaudynski.  I would love to quilt beautiful feathers like she does.  So my question to you is...

If you could take a class or spend time with any quilter, who would it be?

Random Fact About Me:

To this day, the most challenging thing I have done, both physically and mentally, was to hike the Grand Canyon with my uncle and three of his friends in December 2008.  We covered over 50 miles in 5 days. Weather conditions were less than favorable, it rained a lot and snowed, even at Phantom Ranch.

My favorite picture was taken of these cottonwood trees looking back toward at the South Rim on the way to Ribbon Falls hiking on the North Kaibab Trail. One day I would like to make a quilt with the this photo as inspiration.

Cottonwood trees on the North Kaibab Trail of the Grand Canyon

Enough about me, thank you for visiting and hope you will follow along on this quilting journey with me.

Please show your support and visit my fellow new quilt bloggers from The Sewcial Network hive:

• Amanda at Gypsy Moon Quilt Co.
• Melva at Melva Loves Scraps
• Tish at Tish's Adventures In Wonderland

This wouldn't be possible without the hard work (and a little hand holding of us newbie bloggers) of the bloghop hosts.  I hear there are some wonderful prizes up for grabs, so please visit them for all the details and links to more new quilt bloggers this week.

• Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl
• Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs
• Stephanie at Late Night Quilter

Note:  Work has been going on behind the scenes the past two weeks to update the blog.  I'd like to thank Valerie at Inkblog Design Studio for incorporating the vintage pearl button from my grandmama just as I had envisioned into the blog header design and other graphics.  And thanks to Emily at Blogaholic Designs for the re-design, adding a gallery and more.