Quilt Whisperer

I've just signed up for a class with Carla Ballard. She does absolutely beautiful work and after my class, I'm sure I will too. Okay, well, at least I'll have the right idea on what to do and in my mind, the execution will be perfect! Carla's blog is Feathered Fibers at Wordpress. Take a look--she truly is an excellent quilter.

Quilts....

I've been looking at this quilt for weeks, wondering what to do with it. I was stumped because of the uniqueness of the blocks. The pattern is called "Table for Four" and its by Linda Ballard.


Finally, after much searching and help from my friends from the APQS Chat, this is what I came up with:


And the back...


My customer loved it; so that was good. It took me 11 hours to complete from the initial loading to removing the zippers--not so good. Quilting is not going to make me rich, but I love it!

The Beginning...

This was Elly. I did all the wrong things when I bought her: green horse, green rider. We went through alot together but after all the miles we put in together, we were a team. I knew what she was thinking and she took care of me, but not before I came off about a million times during the learning process.

My friend, Lucy Trumbull, took a picture during an endurance ride that we did together of Elly looking back over her shoulder. She looks, well, crazy...and was the inspiration for the name of my business, Crazy Horse Quilting, that was created after I lost her. Lucy is also responsible for the name of Elly's filly. Elly had been bred with a horse named Galustrus Knight; Elly's Knightmare was born in August 2007. She was a few months old when this was taken. We call her Emma Peanut.

The rest of my family consists of my wonderful husband, Dennis, three other horses (Socks, Andy & Bailey) and two Border Collies, Hank & Chloe.

I began quilting shortly after we lost our house to fire in 2003. Lucy (again) was making me a quilt and brought books for me to peruse to determine what style of quilt I liked. That's all it took; I was hooked. Quilting is the perfect complement to horseback riding. My ideal day goes something like this: Feed horses, quilt, ride horses, quilt, feed horses again, quilt some more...ideal!!

Since that day in 2003 I've been making quilts, joined a local quilt guild and, in the last year, purchased the best longarm available...an APQS Millennium. I am now quilting for others as well as myself and loving it. I'll use this forum to post pictures of my quilts as well as tales of the critters in my life.