As promised

 I said I would post pictures of this quilt when I completed the quilting on it so here they are! The quilt is a modest full size or a generous twin size.

 Remember this quilt will be in the Quilts for Sale booth at the show March 2 and 3rd at the Berry Center.

 I had a chance to practice my freehand feathers in these wide borders. I think they look pretty good for one of my first attempts.

 Here are some shots of the back, I used a white wide back and since I matched the thread color to the top fabrics the back is actually kind of cool since you can see the thread color changes.

That was a lot of thread, I nearly exhausted my whole cone of So Fine White thread! Plus I used some green and red so that  is a lot of thread! 

Last Quilt for Sale on the machine now

Here's a preview of what I am working on now. This top was donated to the Tri-County Quilt Guild's "Quilts for Sale" booth at the Pieceful Moments Quilt show in just 2 weeks!

From what I can tell this is an older quilt top that was never quilted. It has some stains and has been washed since it was assembled but I was really invigorated by all its potential. I am custom quilting it to play up its advantages.

The quilt is done in all solid fabrics which in some ways is intimidating but it gives you a lovely canvas to showcase some texture in the quilting. I embellished with feathers in the green areas. I blew these pictures up as big as I could to show you what I mean:

 Then I took on the white background behind the Mariners Compass pieces. There was some looseness to the fabric here probably due to it being cut on the bias (in a circle) and, having been washed before it was quilted, it just got a little slack.  I felt it needed some heavy quilting to soak up some of that looseness. It really looks different with all the added texture from the pebbles and it lays much flatter as well.

I will reveal it in its entirety once I finish.  Hopefully someone will fall in love with this little gem and want it for their quilt collection.

Mike's Quilt

This beautiful quilt is a block of the month you can still find in Keepsake Quilting's most recent issue. I know because I cut the picture out to sketch some potential quilting designs for this quilt on before I began quilting it!

Mike did a fantastic job piecing it and she permitted me to custom quilt it, with plans to enter it into our guild's show in a couple weeks! With a quilt like this (several borders) there is a real concern that it will not lay flat if the borders are not measured correctly. One ill fitting border is compounded with each border after that making it worse and worse. Mike measured carefully, and this quilt layed beautifully I must say. Well worth her trouble and efforts!

Here it is before I quilted it. It measured 90"x100"

 The unquilted center medallion:

These next two are after I quilted the center medallion:

 

You know by now that texture is my thing, so I added a lot of texture to really accent the quilt's character.

 

The four corners of the quilt had this small block, I liked how it looked like the green was woven around it:

 These are some of the patchwork blocks in the quilt:

 

 each were unique so I tried to tie them together with some of the quilting elements being repeated in them

  

Here are some shots of the back side as well:

 She used a beautiful wide batik back for the backing which was perfect and so hard to find! Good thing my favorite shop carries them!

Hope you are all planning on attending the show and seeing some of these beauties in person!
Go to : www.tricountyquiltguild.org for more information!

My Challenge Quilt

This began with all the colorful 9-patches that are made from 1.5" squares I cut from scraps from other projects.

I checker boarded them with some black on blacks and wah-lah. 

 I had lots of cool ideas for the challenge category but....

  the clock was a ticking! 

Need to plan ahead better for next time... 

or manage my time better.... 

or sleep less.... 

As a result this is not what I had originally planned on entering- much more simplified.

 Several beautiful quilts that I quilted for customers will be entered in  the show which I have posted previously

And I am proud at how gorgeous they all came out. 

 This is simple but, good work. Here are a couple shots of the back

 

I quilted it with one of the suggestions in the book One Line At a Time Quilting by Charlotte Warr Andersen. Lots of ruler work on the longarm but I really dig how perfect it makes every line come out. ( Revealing my inner OCD here I think)

Can't wait to go to the show and see all the quilts! So inspiring!

OMG I finished it!

You may remember a month or so ago when I started this dress with ALL THE RUFFLES? 

Oh my! There were moments I questioned my sanity... but it did come out very cute. 

 I am now a champion rolled hemmer ( on my featherweight thank you very much!) and 19 ruffles later finished this cute little dress using the Daisy Cottage line.

It will eventually go from the shop, where it is currently hanging as a sample to my dear friend Marion's daughter Lily.  

(look at all the sections of the skirt and each a little different from the last) I would have never made this for one of my own children... but for someone else's I was able to push through and finish it. Why is this? I don't know but I have heard the same thing said by other people who sew so I know I am not alone.

Though I made it to be size 7 it was more of an 8 when I tried it on a kiddo so since Lily is just a small 7 she'll have to wait to wear it for a bit.

All my homemade clothing tends to grow a size in the making process...guess it is a good thing I am a quilter rather than a tailor!

My mother's Quilt

My Mom designed and made this quilt based on skills she learned in a variety of classes. 

Techniques included in this little guy are paper piecing, fabric painting, machine applique, design, etc... So for all that to be in this little guy is pretty neat. 

 

She wanted the echoing tears for the quilting so after I stitched it all in the ditch I thoroughly quilted it as she asked. 

The cool trapunto look is achieved by using one layer of hobbs 80/20 batting and then one layer of wool on top of that. 

The dense quilting pushes the white background back but shows off the texture created nicely and allows the non-quilted areas to really look stuffed.

The backing fabric is from Amy Butler's latest line called Lark and it really inspired the other fabric selections.

Hopefully it will make a good showing in the quilt show!