Saturday, February 23, 2013

Empty Spools 2013

I am so fortunate to be going to Empty Spools again this year! I leave next Wednesday on the travel adventure--car, ferry, train, plane, car--and that's just to get there.  This time, Cindy and I are taking a class from Judy Niemeyer. I love her quilts and feel so privileged to learn from the lady, herself.

However, now that I've chosen my pattern (Agave Garden), choosing fabric/color has been a chore. I don't want my quilt to look exactly like hers, so I've tried to shake things up a bit. Honestly, give me a kit for this one--I'm making myself crazy.


I studied the pattern for a long time trying to determine how she'd done her color placement and then I imitated that. I'm still not sure about what I've chosen and even though some of my colors are different, I just noticed that I'm still going with the basic yellow/red/orange combo in the middle. Oh well...


More pics to follow as I get things cut out.




Thursday, February 21, 2013

Quilting - Montana Style

Carolyn accompanied her husband on an annual hunting trip to Montana. They took their trailer and while the "boys" were out hunting (read "freezing their butts off) in the snow, she stayed in their nice, cozy trailer and put this top together.
I really wanted to do something to accent the off-center motif and lead your eye around and and around--does that make sense? Unfortunately, I was at a total loss. I loaded the quilt, and worked on the border--notice the triangular feather motif to go with the interior pattern (sorry for the poor photo quality)--but then I was stumped. I started doing a fancy continuous curve in the blocks and then went to bed.  I don't know about you, but some of my best quilting ideas come as I'm just waking up in the morning. This morning was no exception.

After spending the next TWO days unsewing all the sewing I'd done (why does it take so much longer to take stitches out than to put them in???), I started on my "morning foggy idea." It took walking away from the quilt to really "see" the angles and how they worked. I kept trying to put the half-square triangles into the same "row," but that's not the way this one works. Once that was determined, I quilted feathers in a continuous angle to follow the piecing and then did SID outlining each row.

I'm sorry the photos aren't better, but cream colored thread on a cream/black quilt really doesn't stand out much. If you've been following my blog, you'll note that I rarely do thread that jumps out as I want the piecing to take center stage.

Thanks for stopping by!




Monday, February 11, 2013

Quincy Crazy Quilters Opportunity Quilt

I'm honored to be asked to quilt the QCQ Opportunity Quilt again. This year they chose a Kim Diehl pattern (with a few changes) for their project.  Currently, its hanging in my studio as I decide how I want to make this one sing!!


Until I actually hung it up and stood back, I didn't notice the secondary pattern that appeared. I love how using only two blocks creates such interest. Now I have to decide which blocks I want to emphasize since I seem to have two options.


Opinions welcome and all will be considered. I won't be quilting this one until I return from Asilomar; too many other irons in the fire right now.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Australian Fabric Quilt

Carolyn sent this quilt to me and requested minimal quilting on the bright Australian fabric; however, there was lots of negative space just begging to be filled with feathers and swirls and pebbles!! This is the front of the quilt.


This is the back.

And here are some close-ups of the quilting in the negative spaces.


Notice the flurry feather ala Jamie Wallen???  

And another feather...just cos.


Monday, February 4, 2013

Last of the Egg Money Quilts

Yep...this one was it. The last of the Egg Money quilts; I think I've done four or maybe five of them now. The most challenging part is making sure that they don't all look the same. I'm quite pleased with how this one turned out and so is Lyn. Its a big quilt and I took a lot of pictures, so you might want to get a cup of coffee and enjoy the show.  Rather than just showing one or two, I'm going to post the majority of them--hope you like it as much as I do!

My ceiling isn't very tall; this quilt really drug on the floor.



Next...the individual blocks: (Remember, you can click on a block for a close-up view)






































































































And finally, the front and back of the different border treatments.


















Hope you enjoyed the show!!!