Does this mean my studio isn't "pet free"?

Of course not!! Chloe is a Border Collie, she's not a pet...just ask her!  And she's very good; she always lies right by the door on her rug. What a good girl!

Beautiful Black BOM

This quilt was pieced by Diane, a member of my guild. She put this quilt together as a BOM and then decided that it was a bit too large for her domestic sewing machine to quilt. It was 93 x 97 when finished...big!

Below are a couple of close-ups that show the quilting. This was a first for me in many ways, the most important being such obvious feathers. I used King Tut Jacob's Coat thread for the multi-colored quilting on the black and in the blocks...those feathers show!! I took a deep breath and went for...Diane was very happy with the result.

I stippled the background with So Fine's black to push it back and highlight the great colors in the blocks.







This is a picture of the middle. I love how it turned out! (Yes, I'm tooting my own horn!)

Thanks for stopping by to take a look.

Empty Spools Seminar 2011

Tomorrow, my friend, Cindy, and I head for Asilomar and another wonderful (if wet) week of training at Asilomar. This year, we're taking Sally Collins' class. Our main reason for choosing this class is Sally's reputation of a perfect 1/4" seam. No matter how many time I test my seam, its never the same...never.  I hope to remedy that situation.

Cindy and I drove down on Thursday to Santa Cruz where she has inherited a lovely home built by her grandparents in 1948. The house sits right on the bay and I'm listening to waves crash and wind blow...its incredible. My room has the most beautiful bay view...I'm already day-dreaming about how lovely it would be to have my longarm in that room!!

National Quilting Day

Did you know that today is National Quilting Day?  It is...so go make a quilt, then send it to me for quilting!! Just kidding, but only about the "send it to me" part.

I received an e-mail from fabshophop.com with a beautiful log cabin quilt pattern. I love these kinds of patterns, the ones that are not symmetrical.  Since they linked the pattern in their e-mail, I thought I'd do the same. Who knows, I may even make one myself!

Have a look...click here

Spring Romance

I knew Spring was in the air. Lyn just gave me this pretty little table runner called Spring Romance to quilt for her. She belongs to a guild in a nearby town and it was their challenge project.

Doesn't it just look like Spring? She's going to do some embellishing on the blocks and then it will hang in their local quilt show next month.

Another of the back...

Adding to my Repertoir

I'm expanding my business to include making T-shirt quilts for those of you that have way too many. The idea to actually make them came when a friend of mine heard I was purchasing a longarm, so she sent me a box of her t-shirts. I think she just heard the word "quilt," and decided that I was going into the "quilt making" business.

It took me awhile before I actually made her quilt. I don't like the traditional t-shirt quilts where all the shirts are cut to the same size. That style often leaves too much empty t-shirt space and/or causes some of the design to be cut off. I did some research and discovered "Too Cool T-shirt Quilts." I liked their concept, but the quilter in me didn't like the "messiness." So I came up with this...

I made this quilt for a good friend of mine that competes in Endurance Rides. The border and sashing fabric are both from Laurel Burch's Mythical Horses line. 

This one was made for a friend that does Ride & Tie and is small enough to be a nice-sized lap quilt.

So if you're one of those people who competes in any type of event and has too many t-shirts, send them to me and I'll send you a quilt!!  

After it snows...

The sun comes out and makes you realize that even the freezing cold snow is beautiful!

...and then the snow melts and you're left with mud :0(

Cascading Stars by Karen Combs

On occasion, I do quilting for a local quilty/gift shop in Portola called Blue Petunia. This is a quilt Susan wanted for her next few shows. This design presented many questions...allover since its so busy? something to set the stars off? What to do????

It took some consultation with other longarmers to determine a good plan for quilting this one. A fellow quilter suggested quilting it by color rather than trying to highlight each star with quilting or doing an allover pattern. That made the lightbulb go off and this is what happened.

I quilted each area by color, using feathers and loops, along with some meandering to fill in. Here are some closeups that show the quilting:

On the outside, I did a "ray" pattern to give the impressing of an exploding star. The green showing here that continues to the center, was filled with feathers and a loop design at the top to "match" the design done in the center block.

Same with the blue that extended out from the center.

A different feather style in the gold rectangle and a directional feather in the red rectangle to add some interest.

The center. I used several designs from within the quilt in an attempt to tie everything together.












Thanks for looking!