Friday, December 15, 2017

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Paula's quilts

I recently finished two quilts for Paula. The first was a stack and whack quilt (Paula's specialty) made from Hawaiian fabric she purchased on vacation to the islands. I quilted it with the Tropics pantograph.

The second quilt was a departure for Paula. More of a civil war type quilt. She wanted traditional quilting on it so we decided on a Baptist fan pattern.

Thanks for letting me quilt for you Paula!

 

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Tessie's Enchanted Garden Quilt

 

This is Tessie's quilt that she worked all of last winter to make. It's a beautiful quilt made of cotton, flannel and wool with embroidery to boot. I was extremely intimidated to work on it not only for its beauty, but because I've not done a flannel and wool quilt yet. I had a feeling that trying to rip out stitches from flannel would not be easy. So I pretested my background filler ideas.

Some worked some didn't and I didn't have to rip out anything. I decided to quilt different fillers in each of the blocks. So I loaded up the top and got to work. I found that quilting on the flannel with a wool batting was extremely forgiving! I didn't even feel the need to use invisible thread for stitching around the appliqué. Half way through, my check spring needed replacing. This was evident by some intermittent bird's nests on the back. I found I could rip out easily if I did it from the back.

 
I tried to do some Nemeshing in the dark borders and around the flowers. I had trouble seeing anything here so it's not perfect!
I love the embroidered leaves!
 
Tessie is a beekeeper and always includes some bees in her quilts. In the bottom center of the outer border, she put a bee skep with some bees flying around. So on the block above that, I put a honey comb design and quilted some drones in it.
 
 
 
 

It turned out to be a fun quilt to quilt. Thanks for letting me quilt your beautiful quilt Tessie!

 

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Kathy's Crab Quilt

Kathy always brings me really fun quilts. Like this crab quilt! And then she says to do whatever I want. How great is that! Kathy used a really interesting product for the crabs that crinkled up when it was hit with steam.

About the time I got this quilt, I took a class on Craftsy with Christina Cameli on machine quilting designs. She had some pebbling designs I was practicing on paper and I thought it looked like an ocean bottom.

So I had to use those designs on the quilt.

Doesn't that look like a rocky shore? I made up a few of my own pebbling designs like shells. You can see the crinkly crabs pretty well here.

I quilted swirls in the dark blue areas. Reminds me of waves!

Thanks for letting me quilt this fun quilt Kathy!

 

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Quilt cake!

About a year ago, I finished up this Urban Pods quilt by Sew Kind Of Wonderful.



Today daughter, Sarah, surprised me with a birthday cake. See, she's an extremely talented cake maker. She can make anything she sets her mind to. And she set her mind to making this quilt into a cake.
Isn't it amazing?!
Thank you Sarah! It's the best cake I ever had. And it tastes delicious too!

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Carol's Gaslight quilt

At 2014 Quilt Market, local designer Jessica VanDenburgh debuted a new line of beautiful, modern patterns. Her Gaslight pattern is one of my favorites.

 

This beautiful quilt was made by Carol. I *love* the colors she chose. When I first saw this quilt, I knew I wanted to put some sort of design behind all the gaslights. I drew all sorts of shapes before Carol and I settled on this tile effect. Jessica thinks it looks Morrocan.

 

I found a path that let me do all the tiles between a line of gaslights in one fell swoop. Added some feathers and pebbles to the gaslights and it's done. I hope to make this quilt one day, so thanks for letting me practice on your quilt Carol!

 

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Paula's quilts

This beautiful quilt was made by Paula to commemorate a Hawaiian vacation. Paula's an expert on stack and whack method of making quilts so she used this on some Hawaiian fabric. She wanted a pantograph which was reminiscent of a plumeria. I think her choice is perfect!
Paula and her husband Ron are also sailors. She made a quilt to use at her camp where they often go sailing. She wanted boats stitched on the top so I tried to make the boats floating on water.
Such fun working on Paula's quilts!