Quilt for my daughter...

Below is a pic of a quilt that I made for my daughter, Meagan, for Christmas.  She moved out into her own place this past summer and decorated her living room with gray and yellow chevron.  So I thought this would fit right in with that.  She really liked it and now has something to curl up with on the couch!

The Black Stars...

This is a project that I've been working on off and on for about 6 months.  It's a little quilted wall hanging that measures 11" x 14" and is all done by hand using 1800s reproduction fabrics.  The black stars are done using English paper piecing and were then appliqued down onto the light circular background fabric which had been appliqued onto the black block squares.  After the top was all done, I hand quilted it as well.  Glad to have this little project done, it was an adventure in hand work for me.  Now to find a place to hang it.



** click on a pic for a larger view**

A stair stepping quilt...

A co-worker asked me to make her a quilt a few months ago.  She's a great cheerleader for my love of quilting, so it was fun getting to work on a quilt for her.  We tossed around a lot of ideas about a color palette and settled on the fabric lines of the designer Kansas Troubles.  Their rich, deep tones are beautiful, and I really like how they look in this quilt.  The pattern itself is a stair stepping one, with the colors of the quilt creating a diagonal pattern.  This is a king size quilt, so quite large at 102" x 102".  The backing has a beautiful gold fabric from the KT "Summer's End" line.  Thank you, Janet, for letting me create this quilt for you!

*click on a pic for a larger view*

 

Quilting the 1930s...

I recently finished quilting a quilt for one of the guilds that I'm in.  It will be their raffle quilt for 2014.  It's a 1930's style quilt with applique in the borders as well as some of the blocks.  I wanted to continue the feeling of the applique vines that are in the border into the remainder of the plain white border area, so I chose to do a vine pattern there as well.  Both the applique border area and the quilted vine area were then echo quilted to unify the two.  For the blocks I did stippling quilting in the background of each one and then simply ditch-stitched the pieced blocks.  The sashings were done with a looping edge stitching.  I'm pleased with how it turned out, and was glad to do it to support my guild as a fund-raising quilt.

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Quilting the Flower Box...

Below are pics of a customer quilt that I recently finished quilting for a lady in one of the quilt guilds that I'm in.  It's from a pattern called "Flower Box" by Edyta Sitar, and the applique was beautifully hand done.  I echo quilted the border areas and then did a winding leafy quilting in the inner background area similar to the border applique vines.  For the baskets I did a simple feather motif and ditch-stitched the diamonds of the baskets.  I really like how this turned out, it was already a beautiful top with the work she did on it, and I think the quilting helps accent that.

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A look around my quilt studio...

I recently rearranged things in my quilt studio, so took the opportunity to take a few photos of the new arrangement.  It came about when our oldest daughter moved out into her own apartment, thereby opening up some real estate in the house.  Melissa moved her sewing things into our daughter's old bedroom, which allowed me to expand my quilt studio in the basement.  Below are pics.  I'm really liking the extra space and the new layout of the room.  And I found all kinds of things that I forgot I had!

** click on a pic for a larger view **

I'll fly away...

Below are pics of a quilt that I recently quilted for a customer.  Lots of flying geese, and I like the gradual shift of colors in the triangle flying geese blocks.  I did a freehand swirling pattern in the sky area to give the feeling of moving air, and then did a leaf pattern in the border area.  This one measures 82" x 102", so was large and took a while. 

** click on a pic for a larger view **

From rags to riches...

Here's a pic of a rag quilt that I recently finished for a customer (and actually, it's for my boss's wife).  She wanted rich colors to match her living room, so we mulled over different fabrics and picked out these ones.  I really like the small amount of black in it, it really provides some pop in places.  It's all flannel and the back is all the deep burgundy color flannel.  So it'll be a very warm quilt.  

*click on the pic for a closer view*

Quilting the Dogwood...

I've been working on quilting a customer quilt for a couple of weeks now and finished it this evening.  It's an applique quilt and was all hand pieced, even the scalloped borders.  She did a beautiful job on the applique so I wanted the quilting of it to be equally as nice.  I've had the top from her for about 4 months and finally was able to get started on it.  Before giving it to me to quilt, she had given it to another quilter to quilt, but after a year the other quilter gave it back to her and said that she didn't want to quilt it.  (Wow!)  So I'm glad this quilt has finally been finished for her.  Below are a couple of pics of the finished quilt.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and hope to deliver it to her tomorrow. 

** click on a pic to see a closer view **

Displaying quilts in the home...

I saw a post by Moda Fabrics today on Facebook that provided a link to a page that showed different ways to display quilts in the home.  I was really interested in that because I had just been stacking them up in the corner of the bedroom, but had been trying to figure out something different.  One suggestion was to use the lower shelf in a foyer table to stack them on, which I really like.  This allows them to be easily seen when entering and leaving, so I stacked my favorite ones on my foyer table as shown in the pic below.  (Note: We normally keep our front door closed, so sun exposure will not be an issue here.)

Here's the link to the page on displaying quilts for more ideas:  http://wannasewitall.blogspot.com/2013/06/beautiful-quilt-displays.html

** click on the picture for a larger view **

New life for an old quilt...

My cousin, Amy, contacted me a few months ago and asked me if I could quilt an old quilt top that she had come across recently.   It's a double wedding ring pattern, and the top was in excellent condition and from the 1930s.  It was all hand-pieced and I could tell that the quilter who pieced it was an accomplished quilter.  The bright yellows of the top made me decide that it needed an equally cherry backing, so I backed it with a matching yellow, and bound it in that as well.  I would imagine the original quilter who pieced this top so many decades ago has gone on to her reward now, but I'd like to think that she would be pleased that her work has now been finished off with this quilt.  :)

Featured Quilter at the Jonesboro Quilt Show 2013

I was both honored and humbled when I was asked a few months ago to be one of four male featured quilters to exhibit some of my works at the 2013 Jonesboro Quilt Show, which was April 13-14.  At first I was hesitant because I thought mine wouldn't be good enough and also because of the distance (about 2.5 hours from where I live).  But after talking some more with the organizer of the show, I decided why not.  I'm really glad that I did, too, because it was a fun experience and was kind of fun being showcased like that.  :)   Below are some pics from the exhibit.

A customer's beautiful first quilt

Below are pics that a customer, Betty Howard, sent me of her beautiful quilt that she had finished binding after I quilted it for her.  And this was her FIRST QUILT!  Can you believe it?  I know that MY first quilt didn't look anywhere near this beautiful.  She did an exceptional job on the piecing, and did I mention this thing was huge?  100" x 105".  Quite ambitious for a first quilt!  But she pulled it off, and now it's been gifted to her son.  Lucky man!

(*click on a pic to see a larger view*)

A quilt that was a "challenge"...

I was the challenge chairman last year in two of the guilds that I'm in, and the challenge was a block-of-the-month using block patterns from the 1890s.  The patterns were offered in 12" and 9" sizes, and I decided to do mine in the larger 12" size.  We also offered an optional 13th block for those who wanted to set their blocks on point, which I did.  Below is my rendition of the challenge quilt.  I decided to do a pieced border on it as well, so it took some mathematics to get that to come out right.  I'm very pleased with how it all turned out, and the challenge was a big success, a lot of people participated in it.  

"Blackbirds In My Winter Garden"

Below are pics of my quilt that I recently finished.  I call it "Blackbirds In My Winter Garden".  The quilt is based on two separate patterns from the "When the Cold Wind Blows" book by Barb Adams and Alma Allen of Blackbird Designs.  The inner portion of the top is based on the "Winter Garden" pattern, and the borders are based on the "Autumn Thistle" pattern, although I changed the borders up somewhat - added the berries in the border, modified the corner treatment, as well as added the 2012 year on the bottom border.  I love the olde world look of this quilt.  The applique is all fused and machine stitched with a blanket stitch around the edges of all pieces, and I quilted it on my Gammill longarm machine.  It's king size, measuring 102" square.

(click on photo to enlarge it)