Jubilee Tree

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I got another top done!

The center of the quilt is a panel called "Jubilee Tree" by Clothworks. I adapted a pattern distributed by the manufacturer which was going to be difficult to reproduce consistently and, therefore, difficult to teach.

I'll be teaching this top as a class in September. It will be a great lesson in applying and modifying borders to fit any space.

I picked up the backing fabric and batting today. I'll be putting it on the frame right after Debbie's Crystals.

Jacob's Ladder Block Lotto Winner!

I went to a fabo quilt retreat last week in St. Louis. I don't have the words to express how much fun, laughter, learning and fellowship we enjoyed. This yearly retreat is the highlight of my quilty year.

Plus, this year I won one of the block lottos! Everyone makes the chosen block in the chosen colorway. If your name gets picked, you get all the blocks! And.... I WON!! I put them up on my design wall when I got back home. Now I just have to design a good border for them.

Quilt Rescue

This double wedding ring quilt top is in pretty bad shape.  

It belongs to my cousin and you can see how frayed the edges are.  

I've stay stitched the edges to stabilize the top so that I could wash it.  

I was hoping some of the stains would also come out but they are set in.  I've done a lot of repair work to the seams that had come apart.  It is always so interesting to see the types of fabrics used in an old top like this.  

There is a WIDE variety of fabrics and some of the weaves are very loose.  The one that really made me do a double take was the dish rag scrap.  Really, it is a dish rag.  I wish I knew more about who made this and what the significance is of the fabrics selected.  

But, yep, dish rag scraps is a first for me!

Portrait Block

This is the centerpiece of the T-shirt quilt I'm fabricating this week.  The quilt is a graduation present and the center block is this photo transfer specialty block.

It showcases her daughter's senior photo with some photos of her as a little girl.  

Isn't that a great idea?  This will be a treasured memento for years to come.  

I used the Heirloom Treasures photo paper in my HP printer with Activa ink.  It looks great!

Stitched Memories

I'm working on a T-shirt quilt right now.  My client brought me 23 shirts to use as blocks.  I've prepared those and I'm piecing those rows together today.  It is going to look GREAT.

The quilt itself will be a 25 block quilt, of which two are specialty blocks.  The center block will be a photo composition highlighting her daughter's graduation photo with one of her as a 5 year old. It will be the perfect centerpiece.  I'll post a photo of it when I get it finished.  

But the specialty block I worked on over the weekend was a custom Girl Scout block.  I took my client's Brownie badges off her old uniform and sewed them onto this custom block.  Isn't it great! 

 I was a Brownie a long time ago and I was suprised at how many memories I had of my Girl Scout adventures while sewing.  

This T-shirt quilt is going to be be a wonderful way for her daughter to have her childhood memories stitched together with love!  

Blue double wedding ring

The latest quilt on the frame is this beautiful blue scrappy double wedding ring.  

The woman who pieced this quilt unfortunately passed away unexpectedly.  Her family is getting this top quilted and it is humbling to complete her beautiful quilt.  

She had already marked it for quilting but was going to do it by hand and had marked it with quilt stencils that are difficult to do by machine.  

I've put more machine friendly designs on the top and it is going to be beautiful!

Background texture

I spent my weekend doing McTavishing in the background of 12 applique blocks.  Next up, feathers on the outside borders.  I plan on adding petals to the blossom you see and veins in the leaves.  

Spring Fling

I got a call from one of my local quilt shop gems.  They asked me to quilt a top for a kit they are selling.  Isn't it fun?  I'm loading it today.  My daughter wants me to put Easter Bunnies and Easter Eggs all over it.  That would be cute but would date it too much.  She'll be disappointed when she learns that I haven't utilized her design suggestions.  It was so cute, though, to listen to all her ideas about what to sew with the longarm.  She is a natural!

Fifty two

52 yards.

Yep, fifty-two yards of binding.

5-2     Y-A-R-D-S

It's been a long day.

Featheration= Beautiful!

That Golden Threads pantograph, Featheration, stitches out beautifully!  Look!

I'm still working on the other four quilts that are getting this edge to edge panto.  This is a great example of an inexpensive choice for machine quilting.  

New Pantograph

I got to shop through all the wonderful pantographs offered by Golden Threads at the  Houston Quilt Show.  There were some real beauties there.  

I was drawn to the 13 1/2" wide panots.  These can only be used on larger machines but they provide more breathing space between the stitching lines.  I know that, as a machine quilter, I like to quilt every little inch of a top.  However, most piecers would rather the stitching be less dense. 

 This panto is perfect for that.  It is call Featheration and it is so much fun to stitch.  I'm using it on 5 twin quilts right now.  

I'll post a picture later.  It looks beautiful!

Quilt for the Cure part 2

I put the large Quilt for the Cure top on the frame today.  

It was made by the customers of a local quilt shop, Among Friends.  This is the second one I've quilted for them and both will be auctioned off to raise money for breast cancer research.  

The challenge on this quilt is that there are many 3D blocks with embellishments or embroidery.  I have decided to put a freehand meandering cabbage rose with leaves on this quilt.  You can see the design I'm auditioning using quilter's plastic with a wet erase marker.  

Notice the bright green tape I put all along the edges of the plastic- 

very important!

I should finish this top up tomorrow and get it delivered to the shop in the afternoon.  Next up, a baby quilt for a new little angel.

Sage King Sized Spread

Isn't this pretty?It is a huge king sized bedspread for a local design shop. 

 The color is so soothing.  I wish I could see how it will look in the final room.  

The fabric is made up of diamonds with luscious embroidery defining the space.  

Due to the massive seams from the weight of the fabric and the 3D embroidery, I couldn't do an all over pantograph.  What I've done instead is an echo diamond throughout the top to emphasize the design of the fabric.

It is difficult work, however- making straight lines is one of the most difficult things to do on a longarm.  Curves and feathers are a TON easier.

Ginkgos in the air

I've come up with two approaches to the sophisticated table topper I'm working on for a client.

The first version is an all over, edge to edge design of meandering ginkgo leaves to keep with the upscale Asian fabrics in the quilt top.

The second approach is a leaf branch growing up through each diagonal space with a separate design in the border.

The client has chosen the all over Ginkgo leaf approach and I think it is going to be beautiful!

Feathers take flight

The last time we looked at this quilt top, I hadn't decided on the sashing. I wanted to keep it simple and so a double arch in each of the green rectangles allows the quilting motifs to breathe a bit.

As for the large interior white space, I've put some feathers in to get an idea of how they would hug the interior of the quilt.

I'm still not convinced about the feathers. They are fancy though, aren't they? Of course, that would still leave the outside white space...

Hmmmmm......

Baby Nines Audition part 1

Today I'm playing around with the baby nines quilt. As a reminder, here is the quilt top. I've already finalized what I'm going to do on the top but I wanted you to see the progression of the design process.

I love fluid lines layered on top of very geometrical shapes. With that in mind, I drew some curly windmills that would spin through the open white space. I like the movement but I don't think it elevates those nine patches that are on point. Plus, those white spaces are just crying out for a specific treatment to stand proudly in those open areas.


Here's another idea. I've drawn tear drop petals in the white spaces. It works and looks very nice. However, the next question is what to do with those nine patches. This pattern is a bit complicated to try to put on the nine patches too. It might get too busy.


Let's try it.

Well, it doesn't look like it would get too busy. At this point I've finalized that I want to use one block design in the white spaces with a smaller version over the nine patches. I don't know that this teardrop petal block is the best motif, however. This is a baby quilt so I'd like to incorporate some heart motifs

Maybe a block design repeated throughout but with the petals forming a heart instead. Yeah, that sounds right.

The sashing needs some work and then there is that massive white space dancing around the center of the quilt top.

That will be the next idea to work through.

Love Covers

A sweet friend of mine sent me these two love covers for a charity project we are involved with. Her piecing is so precise and she normally hand quilts everything at lightning speed.

She graciously sent me these two tops to play on with my Millie. I found some great kiddo fabric for the backing and loaded both quilts up on the frame.

It was fast work as I did a simple heart meander on the red brick quilt and an "abc" meander on the diamond quilt. I'm putting binding on them now.

Next up? This blue and mocha quilt is being loaded today! I'm hoping to finish it before the kids come home from school.

Prisms

On my favorite internet quilty message board we are having a summer challenge. The challenge is to use strips of scraps to make a quilt before the end of August. Here's my work so far. GooseyGirl has been helping!