New Year, New Quilts for 2022!

Oh my goodness! It has been a while since I last posted on my blog!!! Life has been busy and I finally have some time to catch up on things, including blog posts!

I actually have been working on some customer quilts and here are some photos of my most recent quilt.

This quilt was made by Cynthia H for her granddaughter. She did a great job with the piecing and we decided on free hand feathers and swirls for the quilting.

The quilt is 51 x 62 inches, it has Soft & Bright batting and I used Signature, Golden Harvest variegated cotton thread for the quilting. The backing is a very plush Minkee!

Click on the photos for a slideshow and a larger view.

Thank you Cynthia for letting me work on your quilt. I know your grand daughter will love it!

PS – I will be adding more quilt photos soon!

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Hawaiian Gnomes!

I just finished quilting this too stinkin’ cute, Hawaiian Gnome quilt for my customer. The pattern is based on the pattern, A Tale of Two Gnomes, by Cotton Street Commons. As you can see, my customer used Hawaiian prints for the Gnome hats and switched the pine trees from the original pattern to coconut trees to continue the island “vibe.”

Click on any photo for a larger view

The quilt is 59 x 70 inches. I used assorted high sheen poly threads and Warm & White batting.

My customer made this quilt for her nephew and his family who live in Hawaii. The quilt will be hand delivered when a friend of my customer visits Hawaii in a few weeks.

Here are some photos of the blocks. The blocks are a combination of piecing and hand applique.

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There was a fair amount of border area so I kept the quilting simple and did wavy lines to represent water. Where the block borders “overlapped” I also overlapped the horizontal and vertical wavy lines. These overlapping lines look like “fish nets” which, IMHO, enhances the island vibe!

My customer has picked up the quilt and LOVES it!!! She can’t wait for her nephew and his family to see it!

This quilt was WAY too much fun!!!

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New Year, New Quilts!

My oh my!! I don’t believe it has been six months since I have posted to my blog! Where does the time go? These last few months HAVE been busy. Even though I have been somewhat housebound – thank you Mr. Covid – there is still a LOT of quilting to do, patterns to create, instructions to be written, samples to be made, etc., etc.

On New Year’s Day 2021, I hosted my annual Mystery Quilt Along class on the Longarm Classroom website. This year, the quilt was “Winter Stars” For more details on this quilt and online class Click Here 

Click on the photos for a larger view.

The quilting, which was done with contrasting thread, was fairly simple feathers, but when they feathers “came together” they formed some secondary patterns. 

       

When the dust settled from the Mystery Quilt Along, I began working on some customer quilts. 

This quilt, Prairie Points and Pinwheels, 37 x 44 inches, was impeccably pieced by Connie M, and it is FUN to quilt! 

I quilted a feather border and had the feathers dip in between the Prairie Points. The body of the quilt is quilted with an all over, free hand feathers and swirls pattern. Click on the photos for a larger view. 

   

And today, I finished this quilt, 56 x 73 inches, for Shirley R. Again, an impeccably pieced quilt! This is the Boomerang Quilt pattern. You can view the pattern details by Clicking Here Click on the photos for a closer view

     

The quilting is all free hand with the matchstick quilting in the main part of the blocks and a diamond “spiral” in the smaller part of the blocks. The quilting was going along smoothly with no problems. Then, when I was finished and turned the quilt over, Oh NO!!!! I had the dreaded “big loops” on the back of the quilt. This has not happened to me for a LONG time!!! It started from when I put the last bobbin in the quilt. The quilting goddess is keeping me VERY humble! 

So I took the quilt off the machine, took out all the bad stitching, put the quilt back on the machine and re-quilted the area. All the time checking the back for the big loops. Thankfully, the big loops disappeared and the back now looks wonderful. Check out the photos below. 

Here are the dreaded big loops!

 

And here is the back of the finished quilt. I LOVE the texture on the back! You can’t even tell where I took out the stitches! 

I am going to believe that my “big quilting mistake” of the year is now over and done with, and that all my quilting in the rest of the year will be problem free! 

Now, on to the next quilt! 

 

 

 

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Snowflakes and Feathers

It has been a wild last few weeks! It seems like the more I stay home, the busier I become! Of course, I’m not cleaning the house or anything like that. I have been sewing, quilting, knitting and creating many new things!

I just finished this quilt for a customer, and I can’t tell you how much fun I had quilting it!!

The pattern is Snowflake, by Modern Hand Crafts. (For details on the pattern Click Here) and it was perfectly pieced.

Click on any photo for a larger view

This quilt is 60 x 72 inches. I quilted swirls in the background with silver high sheen poly thread. The snowflake has a combination of feathered wreaths and feather.

Here is a close look of the snowflake.

And here is a closer view of the “middle” of the quilt.

We can’t forget the back of the quilt.

This is a spectacular quilt and I love the fabric that my customer used!

Here is one more quilt I recently finished. This is a quilt my sister pieced a while ago and she wanted to gift it to a friend. She sent it to me and I went a little crazy with feathers! Which was totally appropriate for this quilt. All the feathers are free hand and I did have to make some (many) registration lines for the outer feather borders.

Click on any photo for a larger view

I can’t remember the exact size of this quilt, but it was about a Queen Size. My sister did an excellent job with the piecing!

Here is a corner of the quilting. I used a cable feather in the outer borders, wavy lines in the inner borders and all over, free hand, feathes and swirls in the body of the quilt. I used Soft & Bright batting and Signature 100% cotton machine quilting thread in the color Linen.

Here is the other corner of this quilt. I LOVE the texture of the quilting!

And, of course, you got to see the back of the quilt!

My sister gave the quilt to her friend and her friend LOVED IT!!!!

Stay healthy, keep busy, keep quilting!!!

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9 Patch Plus

It has been a while since I have posted, but I have been keeping busy, busy, busy! It is hard to believe that November is right around the corner!!

I finished this quilt for Chris W and it is looking great! I went with a little different style of quilting, sort of modern-ish.

Here is the full view of the quilt – I love this pattern!!! Simple but yet so elegant!
click on any photo for a larger view.

It took me a while to figure out the quilting, but it was worth the wait. Here is a close up of the quilting –

The quilting was done all free hand! NO rulers were used!! The lines are about 1/4 inch -ish apart, using Madeira high sheen polyester thread. There is no quilting in the 9 patches and only a bit of quilting in the center of the Plus block. I used Warm Co, Soft & Bright batting.

Here is a photo of the back of the quilt. I love the texture and you can really see it. Some people call this style of quilting “match stick” quilting.

This was a fun quilt to work on! It did take a little extra time due to the density of the quilting, but it was well worth the effort!

I have more photos of other quilts I have been working on and hope to post them in the next few days.

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An Amazing Log Cabin!

I can not tell you how much fun it was working on this quilt! This batik Log Cabin quilt was made by Karla S. and it was perfectly pieced!!! And, it was HUGE!!! 110 X 132 inches!! The blocks were 22 inches square! Did I mention (again) that this quilt was AH. MAZE. ING!!!!

Here is a photo of a small portion of it before it was quilted. Click on any photo for a larger view.

Here is the quilt on my quilting machine with a block partially quilted. I did a diagonal feather design so that the feathers framed the center block. I also changed the color of my thread for EACH section of the block!! That was a minimum of 4 different colors of thread in each block!

There was a light and a dark thread for the log cabin part of the block and then there were at least two color changes for the quilting in the block center! Yes, that was a lot of thread changes, but I feel it was worth it!

I used Madeira high sheen poly thread throughout the quilt. I love the look  of this thread and I used 9 different colors! Here are all the threads I used!

Here is a quilted block. The photo is in a “large format” and if you click on it, you can see all the detail of the quilting.

And finally, a view of only half the finished quilt. The quilt was so large that I had to fold it in half to get it onto the clothesline so I can take some photos!

I used Soft & Bright batting from the Warm Company. I love the little bit of loft in this batting which makes the feathers – and the other quilting – really stand out.

This quilt was an absolute JOY to work on. Thank you Karla for letting me quilt your AH. MAZE. ING quilt!

 

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Ric Rac Rabbit

Oh my goodness, it has been a (long) while since I have written on my blog! A lot has been happening and I finally have a few moments to write.

It was a busy late Summer, Fall and early Winter! Where does the time go??? I have been teaching, traveling, quilting, knitting, designing and in all of that, I had the floors replaced is 75% of my house!

Here is a quilting update –

My latest finished project is a quilt for a customer, who is going to be a first time Grandma. She is so excited!! Her daughter in law picked the fabric, my customer pieced it and I quilted it.

The fabric is from a line called Ric Rac Rabbit from Andover Fabrics. The quilt is 35 x 42 inches and it is way too cute!! I used Soft & Bright batting and Signature 100% cotton machine quilting threads for the quilting.

Click on any photo for a larger view

Here is a close up of the center of the quilt. In the background I used a grid design that is based on diagonal half square triangles quilted with wavy lines. ( I LOVE wavy lines!!) Around the rabbit I did echo quilting and then quilted some detail on the star.

Here is a photo of the back of the quilt where you can see most of the quilting detail.

Flower Basket Quilt

Every New Year’s Day for the last 11 years I have done a New Year’s Day Mystery Quilt event, and this New Year’s Day was the Flower Basket Quilt.

Here is what I started with – pieced baskets, lots of background fabric and lots of borders. I know, it’s going to take a LOT of quilting to make it look good!

When it was finished, it looked like this! What a transformation!!! There is a TON of texture in the background, lots of feathers in the borders and the flowers and basket handles are appliqued with the longarm!!!! 

You have got to click on the photo to see all the detail!

Here is a closer view of one of the baskets. Notice that the background quilting in this block is the same as the Ric Rac Rabbit quilt above!

And here is a closer view of the feather border, which is done free hand!! In fact, ALL the quilting on this quilt is done free hand!

The Flower Basket quilt is an online class and is open for registration. You can get more details by Clicking Here

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that 2019 will be a fabulous year for you and your family!

 

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Catching Up!!

It HAS been a while since I have posted quilt photos!!! Even though I haven’t posted many photos, I really HAVE been busy. As always, I am working on several project at one time (I must be the Queen of multi-tasking), and sometimes when multi-tasking it takes more time to get things done! If anyone know of how to get an extra hour or two out of a day, please let me know.

I recently finished this way too cute Snowman Quilt. It is 38 x 51 inches and it was very nicely pieced. There were a lot of small-ish pieces and the stars were done with the folded triangle technique.

Click on any photo for a larger view.

The batting is Warm & Natural and I used several high sheen polyester (HSP) threads. The background fabric is a tree print, and I think the trees are birch trees (I am not a tree expert. Let me know if they are different). The main color of the trees are gray, so I used a silver HSP thread and just “followed” the direction of the trees with wavy lines of quilting. You may be able to see the quilting lines if you expand the photo below.

In the snowmen I quilted spirals. The backing photo below shows more of the quilting.

I love when the quilting on the front of the quilt almost “disappears” but REALLY shows up on the back! Which is exactly what happened with this next quilt.

This quilt, Color Splash quilt, is huge at 101 x 101 inches!!! It is so big, that I could get only half of the quilt over my clothesline to get photos! The photo below is only about one fourth of the quilt! I’m not sure if you can see the quilting from the front of the quilt. I used silver HSP thread and quilted free hand feathers and swirls as an all over design in the body of the quilt.

In the outer border I quilted my “straight edge” feathers and the inner border has my “more bang for the buck” feather! You can see the quilting a bit better in the dark border. (For an online class on how to quilt these feathers Click Here)The batting is Warm & Natural.

But the back looks spectacular! The backing fabric is a dark,  black on black print, but in the photo it is showing up as gray. Trust me, it is DARK black fabric! And since I use the same thread on the top and the bobbin, the silver HSP thread really sparkles on the back of the quilt.

On the left edge and lower left corner, you can see the border feathers. ALL the feathers are done free hand – and I LOVE quilting free hand feathers!!!

I am planning on posting more quilt photos in the not too distant future.

 

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A Log Cabin and a Sampler Quilt

I have two quilts to show to you today. A Log Cabin Quilt and a Sampler Quilt and both of them are gorgeous!

Log Cabin Quilt

This Log Cabin Quilt, 82 x 101 inches,  was pieced by Chris W and she does an amazing job with her piecing! The colors are very calming and look great together.

Here is a full-ish view of the quilt

I quilted my curved feathers in the light fabrics and wavy lines in the darker fabric. I LOVE the texture that these quilting designs make when used togehter.  Make sure you click on the photo for a larger, more detailed view.

Here is a closer view of the quilting in the body of the quilt. I have quilted several Log Cabin quilts this way and I have details of the quilting in a blog post from a few years ago which you can read by Clicking Here

The batting is Soft & Bright poly batting from The Warm Company and the thread is a combination of Signature 100% cotton thread and Madeira high sheen poly thread.

In the border, which was wide (I love wide borders) I quilted my Feathered Baptist Fan pattern. The “half” feathered wreath is the middle of the border and the other feathered wreaths “meet” at the middle wreath. (I quilted the Feathered Baptist Fan border using the Longarm University Feather Guides. For info about them Click Here) Sounding like a broken record, I LOVE the texture in this border design! The first inner border has a “football feather” design.

Sampler Quilt

This quilt was pieced by Trish S and she did a wonderful piecing job and I love how all the different fabrics work togehter! This is a GREAT quilt.

When quilting a Sampler Quilt, I like to quilt something different in each block, depending on how the block is pieced. In this quilt I used a LOT of different thread colors and matched the thread color to the fabric color.

This Sampler Quilt is huge at 91 x 108 inches. There is a LOT of quilting in this quilt, but it was worth it!

Here is an almost full view of the quilt. I have it hanging outside on my clothesline – Click on any photo for a larger view

Here is some more of the quilt

I quilted a partial “football feather” in the outer border, continuous curves and spikes in the 9 patch and another football feather in the inner border.

Here is the corner of the outer border

The batting is Warm & Natural cotton batting. Here are some of the individual blocks and I hope you can see the quilting in them.

Please click on the photos to see the detail in the quilting.

Both of these quilts were FUN to work on. When I have great quilts to work with, the quilting is (almost) easy!

 

 

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Bits and Pieces

I have several quilt photos I want to show you all. I have been having fun working on several quilts lately and I am excited to show you all what they look like.

Quilt #1 Gwen’s Quilt

Pieced by Connie for her niece. This quilt is way too cute and extremely well pieced.

Here is a closer view of the quilting. I used cotton threads and Soft & Bright batting. I quilted feathered wreaths in the purple blocks .

I am not a huge fan of pieced backs. You have to take as much care, maybe even more so, when piecing the backs because there is the potential of pleats and puckers on the back during the quilting process. Connie pieced this back so well, there was NO problems.

Quilt #2 Woodland Diamond

This is an amazing quilt pieced by Chris W. It is traditional Radiant Star design, but with some applique. And I LOVE the choice of fabrics. Click on any of the photos for a larger, more detailed view. I used several high sheen polyester threads and Soft & Bright batting.

I had so much fun quilting this quilt! Below is a close up of a corner and you can see the quilting around the applique and the curved crosshatching I did in the corner block. Yes, this took some time, but it was well worth it!

Here is the back of the quilt. Again, click on the photo so you can see the detail.

One more view of the back. Here you can see the detail of the quilting in the corners and in the diamonds in the star.

This quilt was beautifully pieced and appliqued, which makes my job a whole lot easier!

Quilt #3 – Tree of Life

This is one of my own quilts which I created a couple of years ago. Yes, I do work on my own projects from time to time! I LOVE this quilt! It is one of the first holiday quilts I hang in my home.

The block is only 12 inches square – the half square triangles are only 1 inch finished size! This proves that you can take a single block, add a lot of borders and make it into a decent size wall quilt. The finished size of this quilt is about 48 inches square.

The photo below shows the quilt top before quilting. The border has fusible applique on it. (Fusible is the only applique that I do!)

Here is the quilt after quilting! And yes, I had a TON of fun quilting it! Click on the photo to see the details. I used several different types of thread including gold, high sheen poly and cotton threads. I also used several of my templates and a lot of free hand designs too.

Here is a close up of the tree block.

I am making another quilt with the same block – sized differently so the half square triangles aren’t quite so small – and I may have it as an online class. I’ll keep you posted when that happens.

I was also doing some online research on “Tree of Life Quilt Pattern” and my quilt wasn’t showing up.  That is because photos were not online! Now they are and they should show up in future online searches!

I hope you have enjoyed the photos. Now I have to get back to quilting!

 

 

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