Stitching away on Winter Garden...

I'm having a lot of fun stitching away on these Winter Garden blocks.  Below is a detail pic from the first block showing the blanket stitch that I'm doing on the edges of the appliqued pieces.  When doing these, I set my machine down to the smallest width and length for the stitch so that it is very small.  I really love the colors in this, nice and subtle.  My mind runs in a lot of different directions while working on this, thinking ahead to how I'm going to do different things with it - the borders, the quilting, the backing, etc.  It's all tumbling around in my head.  :)

first "Winter Garden" block done - "Winter Rose"

I finished fusing all of the parts to my first block of my "Winter Garden" quilt.  This block is called "Winter Rose".  The dark flower bloom parts are actually a deep purple color, but look brown in the photo.  I really like how this is turning out!  8 more blocks to go!

Starting a new project is always so much fun....

And today, I start a new one (o.k., I know I already have too many in progress, but I really want to get started on THIS one!)    It's is called "Winter Garden" and is from the "When The Cold Wind Blows" book by Blackbird Designs (Barb Adams and Alma Allen).  It is a beautiful pattern, and is done in golds, browns, and rusts to give the feel of how our gardens look in the Winter.  Mine will be using a similar color palette as shown below.  I'll also be adding a border using something from another quilt of theirs in the same book.


Here's the background fabrics that I'll be using.  I loved that top one so much that I went online and bought 10 more yards of it!  It's called "Mayfair" by Benartex.  I can see that neutral background fabric showing up in a lot of my future Blackbird Designs projects.

Here are the fabrics that I will be using in my version.  Lots of browns, golds, and rusts for the main body of the quilt.  The blues will be used for some birds I have planned for the borders.

I spent the day today making 3/8" and 1/2" bias strips for the stems of the flowers and branches that will be in the quilt top.  They're all made now, so I'm ready to get started cutting shapes for the blocks.

I won two ribbons in the Saline County Quilt Guild Show.

The Saline County Quilt Guild is holding their bi-annual quilt show this week and two of my quilts won ribbons.   My "Evening Bloom" king size quilt won a 2nd place ribbon in its category.  It's based on the pattern of the same name by Blackbird Designs from their book called "Country Inn".  The other one is a wall hanging I did called "Civil War Stars" that won 1st place in that category.  It's based on a pattern called "Ringo Star" by Deb Karasik.  Overall, there are 120+ entries in the show.  I was pleased.  :)  

Christmas Dresden table runner

Here are some pics of a table runner that I just finished in Christmas fabrics using a Dresden pattern. The pattern is called "Abendessen Table Runner" by Anelie Belden from her book called "Thoroughly Modern Dresden". It measures 60" x 21", so is pretty big. Most of the fabrics are from a line called "Cranberry Wishes" by Kansas Troubles. I fussy cut the cardinals in the setting triangles from a cardinal fabric that I had. Anelie came to our guild a couple of weeks ago during our bi-annual Quilt Arkansas retreat to teach and she was a delight to be around, I highly recommend her as a teacher!

Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt

A while back a coworker asked me if I could quilt a top that her mother (now deceased) had made many years ago. This is a pic of the finished quilt. It is the Grandmother's Flower Garden block pattern that was very popular in the 1930s. The fabrics are indicative of that period as well, so it's safe to assume that's when it was done. It measures 78" x 92". This was quite a challenge to do on my longarm quilter as these are normally hand quilted due to all the seams. But we got it done!