Welcome fellow Celebrate Hand Quilting 
blog and Facebook friends. I’m Shirley Lucher-Suter on FB and shirlsu in the blogging world. So glad you’ve stopped by!
Pardon the spiderwebs at my doorstep and the dust on my doormat. This blog (actually more of a digital diary) seldom has visitors but I’m thrilled to be part of Caron’s blog hop and becoming better acquainted with hand quilters.
My quilting history: My grandmother was a life-long quilter but I didn’t pay much attention to the process until I was around age eight. By that time, I had learned to machine and hand sew and anything involving fabric and thread fascinated me. She invited me to join her at her quilt frame to thread needles and watch as she stitched. She was a ‘utility’ stitcher, only 4-5 double-thread stitches per inch and could quilt a full-size quilt in a few days.
Eventually, she let me help with the quilting but always made fun of my little stitches and slow pace. In hand sewing, I had been taught to always take small stitches for added strength and longevity… it was a habit that extends into my quilting today.
I began my own first quilt at the age of 15, using scraps from my garment sewing and from friends’ old clothes. It was a simple square patchwork but because I hadn’t learned the importance of keeping the squares a uniform size, the top is ridiculously wavy. I hope someday to completely disassemble and re-make it. Lots of memories live in that quilt top.
Altered Tumbling Blocks – 1980
First finished quilt
My first completed quilt was made when I was in my late-twenties for our son’s first big boy bed. It is a hand stitched, scrappy altered Tumbling Blocks . I used an ugly mustard-colored blanket for batting and rolled the backing to the front for border/binding. It is full bed sized and has been very loved and washed many, many times. It still survives.
Through the years when life allowed, I’ve continued to make quilts. Many are hand pieced and all are hand quilted with the exception of one, which was used to test a very early quilting machine my father-in-law was developing. I hated it and felt it ruined my quilt top. I still carry an aversion for machine quilting because of that.
I continue to love making quilts. I’ve recently made a few machine pieced quilts tops on newly acquired vintage sewing machines but I continue to enjoy hand piecing and always have a hand project in the works. I also enjoy cooking, eating, reading and travel but you can most often find me with needle and fabric at hand.
I’m so glad you stopped by.
Shirl