Project Quilting - Friendship Star

As reported last month, I'm participating in a challenge organized by Project Quilting and Persimon Dreams. This is the second month and the block that this month's project is to be designed around is the Friendship Star.

Initially I was on EQ7 playing with designs, when my friend Marei started asking me questions: What color was I going to use? What did the block mean to me? etc.  At that point, the block was a block and I had no idea about the color. Then I happened to see my Laurel Burch fabrics and everything fell into place.

 This is my finished project; I'm calling it "Tribute to Elly."

 

I didn't get my first horse until I was 35, although I can remember wanting one since I was a very little girl. (I used to drive my mom nuts!!) I bought Lady Elysees, "Elly," for all the wrong reasons: She was beautiful and I fell in love.  Many years later, we completed Tevis, the most famous and arduous endurance ride on the West Coast. (100 miles in 24 hours from Lake Tahoe to Auburn, CA)  Myself and my crew wore orange t-shirts and Elly had beautiful orange reins--color decided: Orange. My Laurel Burch fabrics are from her Mythical Horses line. (I'm a freak about horse fabric--it never looks real, so I love that these horses aren't supposed to look real)

Below is a close-up of the quilting on the main star:

 

 The smaller star block shows a mare and foal; shortly before I lost Elly, she had a little filly. Her barn name is Emma. During the two months they had together, Elly was a perfect mom!

 

Another close-up--this one of the flying geese:

 

 And the back...showing all the quilting. 

Although compared to many of the other projects in this challenge (CLICK HERE to see them), I'm really not being as creative as I'd hoped. However, I'm really pleased with how this one turned out.

Dory

Crazy Applique

This quilt came from Carol who lives near Quincy, where I used to live. I didn't even know she quilted until she asked me to quilt this for her! This is a pattern of her own design. Hard to tell from this pic, but the pinwheels and flying geese are free floating. Made quilting interesting!

Here are a few close-ups: I did lots of designs in this one. Echoing and pebbles in the flower basket center.

Continuous curve background, and feathers...

A little McTavishing behind the pinwheels and crosshatching following the "trellis" in the fabric.

 

The back. As you can see, Carol added more flowers and flying geese...luckily, these geese weren't "flying!"

 A couple shots with more close-up detail.  This is the center basket

And the corner flowers...

 

Lots of pics, but this quilt begged for them.  Hope you enjoyed the "show." (Remember you can click on a pic if you want to see it with more detail.)

Dory

Fun 16 Patch Quilt

On my last trip home to Quincy, a friend of mine with her own longarm asked me to quilt a quilt for her. Apparently, when you do only your own quilts, you get bored. So far, I haven't had that problem!!

 

I knew when I started this quilt that I wanted to do something different where the "X" was. After a bit of looking around at my design books and online, I decided to give an Angela Walters design a go. It was a fun one to do and seemed to fit.

  

But here's where it got tricky.  I'll let you in on a little secret...when I begin quilting, I usually have an idea of what I'll do. However, I don't plan my quilting, per se.  I rarely mark anything ahead of time and often, I come up with my ideas after loading the quilt. That makes things a big more challenging--especially when, say, you're quilting along and you notice something has changed...like the center of the quilt!!!

I got here and went, "Hmmmmm, how do I make this look special and like I planned it all along???"  What do you think--were you fooled??

 

Finally, a shot of the border...I really like the look of straight lines mixed with curves.

 

The quilt made it home and Linda liked it enough to enter it in the local quilt show.  I consider that a win for me. Its all about doing the best I can to make my customers happy!

Dory