2015 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop

Today I’m participating in the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop.  If today is your first visit to my blog, Welcome!  My name is Vicki and I’m a longarm quilting addict.  I began longarm quilting in 2010 and I  quickly fell in love.  Roscoe, my Gammill, and I spend lots of time together.  In fact, I had to leave him to focus on writing this post.  That was hard.

profile
                That’s me and Roscoe!

A little about me…I married my high school sweetheart.  We’ve been married 20 years now and have 2 kids, Hannah and Jake.  My hubby was in the Air Force for 21 years.  He retired in February of this year and we moved to Las Vegas.  That wasn’t planned, it just kind of happened.  It’s worked out rather well so far but I don’t think we’ll stay here forever.

Fun fact:  Hubby and I were once on an episode of Trading Spaces.  I was such a dork.  Cameras really freak me out which is why you will not find many pictures of me on the blog or anywhere else.

I spend lots of hours quilting which cuts into my house cleaning and cooking time.  I’m really torn up about that…NOT.  My husband and son haven’t starved to death yet but they probably do eat an unnatural amount of sandwiches and pizza rolls.  I should try harder to cook more but I really hate cooking and quilting is way more fun.  I’ve quilted lots of quilts over the past years.  Let’s take a look at some of my favorites.

Big Star
Big Star
meandmyshadow_f
Me and My Shadow

Both of these quilts have been in several shows and received ribbons.  That’s not why they’re my favorites, but that does help.  Just kidding!  I would love them even if they weren’t ribbon winners.  Me and My Shadow is an original design of mine.

I really enjoy designing quilts.  Nowadays, I design quilts just so I can quilt them.  Usually I start out with an idea for the quilting and have to design a quilt around that.  I’m starting to think it’s a sickness but it’s super fun and keeps me busy.

This little mini quilt is an example of designing a quilt just so I could quilt it.  I wanted a simple top that would allow the quilting to be the star.  This is my entry for the MQG Riley Blake challenge.  I’m really digging this type of radiating quilting right now.    RileyBlakeChallenge

Fun Fact:  I get to travel to Virginia next January and teach at the East Coast Gammill/Statler Conference!!  Pinch me…I must be dreaming.

My biggest blogging tip…I guess my best piece of advice is try to schedule time for blogging.  It’s a huge time commitment and having a schedule helps.  I should follow my own advice.

My quilting tip…be yourself!!  I spent a lot of time trying to be other people, trying to copy their style. That left me feeling frustrated and inferior.  I was never able to reproduce what they were doing.  Once I figured out I needed to be ME, my quilting really improved.  I stopped trying to be someone I wasn’t and I let myself do what comes naturally.  It’s so liberating!

Am I the only quilting blogger who has become lazy and figured out that not blogging is way easier than blogging??  Tell me I’m not alone.  I blame Instagram and it’s insta-graitification.

One last fun fact about my family…we lived in Germany for 4 years.  It was so awesome.  We did lots of traveling and our son was actually born in the Krankenhaus (hospital).  We call him, our little German. Hannah was born in Florida but now she’s in Texas going to college.  Gosh I miss having her around. Let’s change the subject before I get all emotional.

Please take a moment to check out the other awesome bloggers that are participating in the hop:

Eleanor at Cat Approved Quilting

Lisa at Sunlight in Winter Quilts

Corinne at Must Love Quilts

Karen at Sugar Free Quilts

And don’t forget the the lovely hosts of this hop:

Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs

Stephanie at Late Night Quilter

Terri Ann at Childlike Fascination

Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl

I hope you enjoyed your visit to my blog and maybe you learned something about me that you didn’t already know.  Thanks for stopping by and hopefully you will visit often.

Vicki

32 thoughts on “2015 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop”

  1. Wow, your quilting is amazing! I really love both the idea and execution of Me And My Shadow! I also love the little corner of blue binding on your mini, works really well!

  2. Your quilting is wonderful and inspiring, I’ve been following you for a while. It’s nice to learn a little more about you! 🙂

  3. I’m here visiting from the New Bloggers Blog Hop. What beautiful quilting you do! Wow. I have been to Las Vegas a few times in the summertime. I hope you aren’t melting. Ugh. My housekeeping and cooking also needs some improvement — but I’ve decided that even if I didn’t quilt, I probably wouldn’t be cleaning. It’s so boring! 🙂

  4. How fun that you were on Trading Spaces – I *loved* that show. Did you enjoy how your home / room was transformed and did it last well after being put together so quickly? What designers did you work with – I have so many questions – ha! 🙂 Your quilts are inspirational to me, Vicki. I really look forward to following along with your journey.

  5. Gorgeous, gorgeous quilts and quilting! I totally agree that trying to be anyone but yourself leads to frustration. Quilting or otherwise. We all have something to offer! I’m with you ~ cleaning is overrated! It was reat getting to know you Vicki!!

  6. Hi Vicki! It’s nice getting to know you better through your blog. Your quilting is so beautiful. I’m a Gammill girl as well, and I look forward to taking one of your classes at the East Coast Gammill Conference!

  7. Okay Vicki, you are hilarious! I love your voice. I love your quilting, too. I can see why you and Roscoe are so close. You are quite talented. That bird quilt – oh my! How long have you been quilting? I announced to my family that I’m not longer cooking on a nightly basis, either – been there, done that. My son is going 1000 miles away to school in the fall, too. I’m so excited for him, and also excited for the guilt I won’t feel about not cooking…great to find you and your blog.

  8. I love that star quilt, the quilting is amazing. I’m trying to come out of the lazy rut. You have to really work at generating ideas, taking photos, scheduling time to blog etc. And you’re right, Instagram is SO easy and brings immediate results so it’s easy to focus on that.

  9. Hi Vicki, it’s so great to meet you. I was a part of last years bloggers and it was such a wonderful experience. I hope you’re enjoying it as well. I think your quilting is just stunning. Not surprised to see some of the ribbon winners. I really want to learn how to long arm quilt one of these days, but the hard part about that is that I’d have to finish more quilts in order to use it! I guess it would be a great motivator. Looking forward to following along in the future.

  10. Oh Vicki your quilting is absolutely lovely! I used to watch Trading Spaces all the time how neat was it to be on that show? I’m so glad to have you joining us on the blog hop this year 🙂

  11. Love your blog! I can so relate to the cooking. I have a kitchen because it came with the house. My kids have all moved out now so they can finally cook for themselves. Reminds me of my favorite quote: “I’d ruther quilt than to eat on the hungriest day I even seen.” ~ Eliza Calvert Hall, Aunt Jane of Kentucky

  12. I’m so pleased that you’re getting teaching offers now. It must be so exciting! You’re absolutely not alone. Blogging is much more difficult and time consuming than using Instagram. I believe I read something on Julie Herman’s site about her feeling similar. I like my blog, because I like to talk, and I don’t even mind that I feel as though I’m talking to myself about 99.9% of the time.

    You know I love your quilting. I just don’t really understand how you’re able to sit through so much marking. I think that would drive me nuts.

    I got some great advice from Lisa Calle, when I stressing about my personal style and trying to find it. She said it just comes with time. Which made me feel a lot better, because at that point I’d spent two days working with five teachers, and I was thoroughly confused. Although thoroughly confused seems to be my general state.

    See you soon.

  13. hi Vickie!! As you might know by now, I’m in Germany and loving it so far! Although we have a military background, it’s a non military assignment. I’m also a Trading Spaces fanatic – at least I was when it was on the air! What city where ya’ll in when you did it?

    You’re a super duper talented quilter and I enjoyed looking through your pics!

  14. I’d rather quilt than cook any day, but machine quilting isn’t that much fun. I sit at a machine all day and I dread having to quilt on my machine, although I tried very hard last year to improve my free motion skills — tennis elbow as a result. So I admire your free motion joy.

  15. Your picture is adorable. It’s fun to put a face to a name since I’ve been following you on IG. Your MQG Riley Blake challenge quilt is awesome. I love the fact that you’re designing the quilt by starting with the quilting. Obviously this is working for you! It reminds me of the days of scrapbooking when friends and I just HAD to use some cute paper, so we had to plan events that would go with it. 😉

  16. i love the spring bouquet quilt you quilted, your work is beautiful i would love to own a long arm, I ve been quilting for about three years and im so addicted, I chose quilting over my man. So you see quilting is a big part of my life along with my children.

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