Latest Projects

I've completed two quilts in the last four days! My new longarm machine is sooo fast. And the motorized fabric advance makes it so easy to move back and forth on the quilts....without "an act of Congress!" It goes without saying that I'm loving my APQS Millenium!

I finished a 1930's style quilt with appliqued flower blocks for my friend Bernice. The border fabric reminded me of gross-grain ribbon, so I quilted piano keys with the stripes. You can't see the quilting, but it gives the borders a nice texture.

I carried the "ribbon theme" into the quilting on the narrow red border...

Next I quilted a top made by my mother called "Fresh Cut Flowers." It's a combination of hand applique with Shoo-fly and Churn Dash blocks. It had lots of negative space that I filled with feathers. I really like the look.

A close-up of the center medallion...

The quilting on the back of the quilt....

 

As you can tell, I've been busy! Now on to my next project....

Beautiful Machine Applique

Wow! I can't begin to tell you how beautiful the machine applique was on this quilt!

Gloria's quilt, made from Kim Diehl's "Bittersweet Briar" pattern, was absolutely fabulous. She used an invisible machine applique technique that was very nice.

It was a real challenge for me to make the quilting as wonderful as the applique. However, I was really pleased with the finished product...lots of McTavishing in the background made the applique really "pop"...feather arches in the border triangles.

I apologize for the quality of this picture...I didn't have my glasses on when I snapped it with my phone! I guess I didn't realize that it wasn't in focus.


Some close-ups of the details in this lovely quilt....

So glad that these close-ups were in focus!

Thank you, Gloria for giving me the opportunity to work on your beautiful quilt. I can't wait to see it in the quilt shows!

Fossils

I am usually one of those quilters that tries to "overthink" the design...taking hours and sometimes days trying to decide on just the right design to quilt. However, when I saw this lap quilt at Country Living Quilts in Flynn, TX, I immediately thought...."fossils."  Then the more I thought about fossils, my mind began to see fern imprints and snail shell designs. Without studying the quilt top for an extensive period of time, I knew I would need to use ferns and snail shell swirls to quilt it.

The full length photo just doesn't give you the full effect of the quilting, so here are some closeup views....

But I think the back is as beautiful as the top...

Thank you to Teri at Country Living Quilts in Flynn, TX  for giving the opportunity to share my quilting. I just loved quilting this wonderful quilt with the flowing design. If you haven't visited Country Living Quilts yet, you need to stop in...located half way between Dallas and Houston....just a hop off of I-45. It's a great shop with a good variety of fabrics, patterns, notions, and classes!

Spring in Bloom for 2013

I just finished quilting this gorgeous iris themed quilt for the Gun Barrel Quilters Guild of Mabank, Texas. It will be the Guild's raffle quilt for 2013. All of the blocks in the quilt were made by various members of the Guild. Raffle tickets will go on sale this month and continue until the annual quilt show in April 2013.

The combination of hand applique blocks and piecing make this quilt really special.

I used what I call my "Las Vegas showgirl feathers" on the pieced tree blocks.

The background quilting around the applique consists of two of my versions of McTavishing. I just love the look of these backgrounds. They provide the movement and interest that is needed in negative spaces.

The dark purple borders were quilted with overlapping arches with microstippling accents.

 And a close-up view of the center block...

Another member of our quilt guild is binding the quilt...can't wait to see the finished product!!

A Piece of History

Thanks for joining me today.

I just had to share a project I recently completed for a friend. I created two baby-size quilts for her using blocks I was able to retrieve from an old quilt that her grandmother had made.

The old quilt was made from blocks cut from family members' clothing...overalls and jeans. The quilt was lined with several layers of flour sacks and tied with string. The quilt was in very bad condition and coming apart. However, I cut enough blocks and sewed them back together to make the center section of each quilt. I added a 1930's cowboy print border and used the same fabric for the quilt back.

Now my friend can share her grandmother's quilt with each of her sons through these smaller quilts. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to help preserve these "pieces of history" for her.

Wildflowers are in Bloom!!

It's a beautiful day here in Texas...sunny springtime weather. And that means wildflowers! Roadsides in Texas are bursting with color as the Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes are in full bloom.

So this seemed to be the perfect time for me to post my "Bluebonnets Etal" quilt. Being a retired teacher, I find that I am often using "Etal" which is an abbreviated form of the Latin term et alia meaning "and others."

Now back to the subject...My "Bluebonnets Etal" quilt combines bluebonnet and other wildflower fabrics as well as other coordinating prints with a  "Turning Twenty" pattern. The colors and flowers remind me of the Texas Hill Country in the Springtime...and some of the wildflowers I see in our pastures as well. The quilting is an edge-to-edge pantograph design called "Linna's Charm #2."

This quilt will also be on display at the Gun Barrel Quilters Guild Quilt Show 2012 on April 27-28, 2012 at the Cain Center in Athens, TX.

I hope the wildflowers are blooming in your neck of the woods as well!

You +1'd this publicly. Undo

You +1'd this publicly. UndoAn abbreviated form of et alia, Latin for "and others."

Spanish Cross Wall Hanging

Since my longarm machine is out of commission at the present time, I decided I would use the "down time" to share some of my other completed projects.

The "Spanish Cross" wall hanging has three hand embroidered crosses set in Attic Windows. I chose shades of brown and tan for this project because those colors remind me of ancient carvings in stone.

I worked on the embroidery on the cross blocks at night while watching TV...seemed like for weeks! Then the idea to use Attic Windows blocks came to me. I was picturing crosses carved into the stones of Spanish missions. The swirls on the background and border fabrics seemed to suggest the carvings of Spanish architecture or Spanish missions here in Texas.

This wall hanging will be one of my entries in an upcoming quilt show, "Birds of a Feather Quilt Together" which is sponsored by the Gun Barrel Quilters Guild. The show will be at the Cain Center in Athens, Texas on April 27 & 28.

In future posts, I will feature some other quilts that I will have in this show.

In the meantime...some close-ups...

Until next time...happy quilting!