 I finished quilting this beautiful quilt for Marilyn several weeks ago, and I'm finally getting to show it off because life has been busy here. Marilyn had this beautiful peony fabric waiting for just the right project, and she created this design herself. Even with a simple 4-patch design, the fabrics - especially that black background - make it stunning!  I quilted it with a pale yellow thread and an edge-to-edge pattern called Daydream.  Thank you, Marilyn, for letting me quilt this lovely one for you!  And here's the #1 reason life has been busy around here! We got a Goldendoodle puppy around 4 weeks ago. His name is Jack. I knew having a puppy would be a lot of work but wasn't quite expecting the stress that comes along with it. He's fun and cute and doing great, though. We've gotten used to each other, so I've been able to get a little sewing and quilting time in. Unfortunately, Jack isn't interested in watching quilting videos with me at all, and what he likes best about sewing is trying to run off with the foot pedal :-)
Thanks for stopping by. I'm taking a little break for a few months from quilting for others, so I'll have some of my own projects that I'm excited to show you in the coming weeks. See you soon!
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 If you like the video tutorials from Missouri Star Quilt Company, you may have seen the Rhombus Star. Some of the ladies at my church have been having a good time making their own Rhombus Star quilts, and this one belongs to Darlene. She had this pretty floral fabric stashed at home for a while just because she loved it, and so she decided to make a quilt for herself with it.  I quilted this one with cream colored thread and a pattern with birds and flowers called Tweet Tweet.  It's a big, beautiful quilt. Thanks for letting me quilt for you, Darlene!
There is a lot of sewing and quilting still going on at my house. You'll probably see another Rhombus Star quilt here in the near future! I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It UP Friday. Thanks for visiting!  I recently finished quilting for Aunt Sharon and Aunt Alice. This beautiful quilt belongs to Aunt Sharon. It was a kit that she purchased from Jordan Fabrics. She said the triangles were already cut for her, and it was easy to put together. I love the overall design and colors of this quilt. When you stand back and look at the whole quilt the circular design in the pattern is really visible. So cool!  Below is Aunt Alice's quilt. This was pieced using one of the Moda Cake Mix Recipe paper sets. Alice worked on this one at Quilt Camp 2017. Instead of using a layer cake pack she chose yardage and cut her own 10" squares. It is another really cool pieced design, especially that center.   These quilts got delivered last weekend, so it is safe to show them to the world now :-) Great job, ladies, on your beautiful quilts!
Jakob is my helper/quilt holder for taking pictures outside since the weather has been nice. It's a good workout for his arms, holding the quilts up there waiting for the wind to die down. Alice's quilt was so big that we had to get my dad's help, too. Thanks for visiting! I'm linking up over at Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday even though it's Saturday. Oops.  Check out this lovely Trip Around The World quilt that I just finished quilting for my friend, Carol. Her mom pieced the top many years ago from a kit which instructed that the top be tied at every corner of every square so that each square was kind of puffed up. It never got tied, and I have been offering to quilt it for Carol for a while now. She finally agreed :-)  I quilted the top with the pattern Flowerumpus with dark blue thread. You can't see the quilting on the top because of the calico prints, but it looks great on the back.  I experienced some frustration on this quilt with major thread breaks and shredding, and so I'll share this experience so that maybe it will help someone else... I changed my needle, changed my bobbin case, changed my bobbin, re-threaded the machine, tried adjusting tension, checked the timing of the machine. I even pinned some practice fabric to the end of my rollers to try and recreate the thread breaks and figure out what was causing it. I could not make the thread break on my separate practice fabric. I think it must have had something to do with the older fabric of the quilt top, though it didn't feel unusual like there would be a problem. The backing was brand new Kona solid fabric, and the batting was black Quilter's Dream. I had read about quilters using silicone spray to help with different stitching problems, but I was not going to spray a product all over someone's quilt top. I found this product - Ease-A-Thread - which is a silicone liquid that you apply to the cone of thread. It was the answer!!! I had not one thread break on the last two-thirds of the quilt when I started using this product. If you are having trouble with thread breaks and/or shredding, I recommend giving this product a try.  And finally - there's the whole quilt! Thank you, Carol, for letting me quilt for you!! I hope your mom will be happy that you'll soon be using the beautiful quilt she made, too.
As usual, I'll be linking up over at Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday. Thanks for visiting!  I recently quilted this pretty quilt for my mom. She worked on this project down at the Little Foot Quilt Shoppe where she likes to hang out on Wednesdays. The pattern is called Prairie Path designed by Pam Mildren, a local quilter. Mom used fabrics mostly from the fabric line Sugar Pie by Lella Boutique for Moda. The pattern and fabric are a lovely combination!   I quilted this one with white thread and the edge-to-edge pattern called Camellias.   Jakob helped me take a few pictures this morning outside down by the creek at my parents' house. It was a beautiful spring morning. I'll be linking up over at Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday. Have a wonderful day, friends, and thanks for visiting!
 Today I finished binding this cool quilt. As Jakob and I were outside taking some pictures in the wind, I thought this quilt kind of looks like green grass coming up among the dirt and melting snow. It was nice to be outside, and even Butterscotch was happy to be hanging out with us. The quilt pattern is called Wistful from Villa Rosa Designs. It was easy and quick to chain piece.   These are the two block units that make up this quilt. I used some fabric that has been stashed away at my house for a couple of years, a black and white jelly roll and blue/green yardage. It's soft and fluffy with white and black flannel backing. I quilted it with a spiral edge-to-edge design called Be-Bop.   This one is going in my small collection of quilts for charity. Hopefully it will make somebody smile and feel special. I'm linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday. Thanks for visiting!
 Several weeks ago I shared some clues to a quilt mystery that I was trying to solve. You can find that post here. Finally, all of the puzzle pieces fit together to reveal the mystery! This was so much fun to make with the Grids Girls Facebook group, teacher and designer Deb Heatherly, and some of my favorite Creative Grids USA rulers. I purchased the background fabric and the dark blue border fabric, but all of those bright colors are from my batik stash (I'm kinda proud of that stash :-). Below are the 4 different blocks we made.     The Creative Grids rulers used to make the blocks were the Pineapple Trim Tool, Cats Cradle Tool, Strippy Stars Tool, and the Ultimate Flying Geese Tool. Many quilters in the group found that once you learn to make some of these basic units, you start to see how you can use the tools in many other quilt patterns to make piecing easier and more exact. Who doesn't love that?  I need to quilt this still, but I think I might hang it on the wall, maybe even in this spot.
It feels great to get some sewing done! I haven't touched my machine much in the last couple of weeks. I hope you can get some sewing in this weekend, too. Thanks for visiting, and I'll be linking up over at Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday where she has a fantastic quilt finish to share!  This week I finished up Aunt Brenda's Cruisin" Under The Stars quilt that she pieced at Quilt Camp 2016. Yes, it's now 2018, but that's okay. Usually quilts take some time, you know? The pattern uses Creative Grids Scrap Crazy 6" templates. You can read more about Quilt Camp 2016 and the patterns here. . . and here.  Above is what one pieced block looks like, but when you put them together, depending on the color values of the fabrics you use, they create a secondary pattern like the one below.  I quilted this one with silver gray thread and a pantograph design called Cascade. Very pretty, I think!  And now for some fun - here are pictures of all the 2016 Quilt Camp Quilts made by me, Mom, Aunt Sharon, Aunt Alice, and Aunt Brenda.  Thanks, Aunt Brenda, for letting me quilt for you!!
Isn't it wonderful to see the same quilts each made with our unique fabric selections? I'll be linking up over at Crazy Mom Quiltis Finish It Up Friday where you can visit for more quilting inspiration. Thanks for stopping by :-)  Isn't that Dutch Rose quilt block above beautiful? It's my favorite block in the quilt that I finished up on the longarm this week. My mom pieced the top following the Modern Sampler QAL (quilt-a-long) pattern that can be found at Elven Garden Quilts. Some of the gals down at the Little Foot Quilt Shoppe were working on this project. She didn't quite finish all of the blocks there, but the ones she did make fit together perfectly.  I quilted it with a pantograph called Daydream using cream colored thread.  Here are a few other close-up shots of some blocks.    I just love those blocks! They all seem pretty traditional for a "modern" sampler. I think maybe it's just the setting style of the blocks that is modern. Just above on the right side - there's that Cat's Cradle unit that inspired my little wall hanging a few weeks ago.
This quilt is being donated to a fundraiser to help a family in need in our church and community. So Mom is getting the binding on it this weekend. Way to go, Mom, and great job on the piecing!! (Great job rotary cutting, Dad :-) I'll have to get something new on the quilt frame tomorrow. Hope you get some quilting in this weekend, too! I'll be linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday. Thanks for visiting!  Last week I shared my progress on a mystery quilt I'm currently working on. This past week I finished quilting one of my own quilt tops that has been waiting patiently to be quilted for 5 years! This was the Winter Mystery Quilt from (one of my favorite local shops) The Quilt Company in Allison Park, PA, back in 2013. It was meant to be a scrap buster. All of the fabrics in this quilt were from my stash. Even the white is a collection of different white-on-white prints mostly. I love the combination of blues, greens, and sprinkles of yellow and orange here and there.  Above you can see (picture from back in 2013) I had all of my pieces cut and ready to sew - all 1,400 of them!! This is the actual block . . .  . . . and here's the whole quilt.  It was such a nice day today I thought maybe we could get some pictures outside. It was Friday afternoon, and we were all feeling goofy, I guess.  The backing fabric is this great aqua/blue flannel with circles. I love the happy colors in this quilt, and it's great fun to see some of the little prints up close and remember what I made with them. I might bind this quilt with white which should frame it nicely, though I'm not 100% sure.  It was quite windy outside today also, but I'm thankful for my helpers :-)
Don't be discouraged if you have a project sitting around for years! It's definitely possible to get that quilt finished if you still have some love for it. Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday. Thanks for visiting! |
This is me...I LOVE to quilt, and every day I must sew for my sanity! Archives
March 2020
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