Some quilts that have gone home ...

Here's a few quilts that have gone out the door ...

 This is Joy's Star Sampler quilt.  This was so busy and so pretty that I decided to use Magna-Glide Lime Green thread on top and blue in the bobbin ... 

No, you say!!!  But look at the close-up of the back of this quilt.  Great tension on my APQS Millennium machine.  I love this machine!!  With tension like this, what's not to like!

Ok, enough about tension...

I used a Star and ribbon pantograph to go with the stars and ribbons in that black sashing/border.  Turned out great!

Close-up of one of the blocks.  See the lime green thread?  Pretty pretty pretty...






















This is a close-up of the backing.  Blue thread only!  Wheee!!

This is called President's Ladies (or something like that, I have forgotten) that Cathy made for her husband.  Huge huge quilt with "medium" quilting.  The large dark inner border has wheat sheaves so I picked up a wheat design and worked with that.  Good job, Cathy!

This is a table runner or bed runner that I had a lot of fun quilting for my NY friend Jeanita.  She does a great job piecing and this was a dream to quilt.

And this is Mary's 9-patch sampler quilt.  I used a flowy flowery panto on this and I think it turned out great.  Notice how those 9-patches creep out onto that first border.  Great job, Mary!!

Cathy made this for her son and his bride-to-be ... they are modern kiddos so she made this very modern quilt with the beautiful grey linen fabric.  What a dream to quilt!  Being modern, I went with a modern box-in-a-box type pattern.  See close-up below.

It turned out lovely!!  Congratulations to all!

Again, with the Catch-Up ...

Again, with the catching-up.  Time just gets away from me.  I'm getting ready for a trip North and decided to take Max in for his "Spa" treatment at the factory.  Good timing since we're going up that way anyway.  I figure after 3 years he probably needs to be tuned up a bit.  We have been able to recalibrate the stitches as needed but a good tune-up can only be a good thing.  

So in preparation for that I've been working like mad, getting quilts done.  Some I don't have pictures for ... sigh ...

So here goes ...

First up is Janis and her Lonestar.  Our small church quilting group took on this project individually and we have about 7 of these Lonestars out there ... Janis actually got hers done!  Woo Woo!  Mine, of course, is "almost" finished ... hey, the cobbler's children had no shoes!  (The quilter has no quilted quilts ...)

Her Lonestar turned out beautiful.  I used a circle with star template on the quilting with a soft blue/grey Magna-Glide thread.

Next up is Barbara's Yellow Brick Road.  Barbara took a Beginning Piecing class that I taught at Cottontail Quilts and she finished up her YBR.    Barbara chose only a few different fabrics for her YBR and it turned out great!   The quilting is a feather meander and again, the thread is the Magna-Glide in a soft gold.  

 REMEMBER TO CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO GET A CLOSER LOOK!

Next is Carrie's HUGE pink and green floral quilt.  I say HUGE because getting a full picture of this quilt is almost impossible.  But here are some pics.

This is one of the matching pillow shams.  On both I used Feather Meander and of course, Magna-Glide thread.  HOWEVER, I played with the thread on this one and ran two threads through the needle ... a pink and a green.  It gives a different feel to the stitching, not quite a variagated feel but a soft pink/green.  I have done this on one of my own quilts (that big bad Kaffe Fassett quilt I did last year) and I just love the texture look of the stitching.  It's fun to play!

Happy Belated Birthday ... and Happy Independence Day!

Belated Happy Independence Day!  I barely noticed as it's so hot here (how hot is it?  Hotter than fried pies!)  that I really stayed underground doing what I love.  We heard lots of fireworks but with all the trees around us we couldn't see a one.  


My sweet MIL turned 91 on the 3rd of July.  Sometime ago I met a customer who does wool work and we struck a barter-bargain.  I asked for a red/white/blue wool braided bowl that I could give to MIL on her birthday.  The bowl came and I took it to our local home decor store and had them work up a floral arrangement to fit the bowl.  Here's the result:

Isn't it pretty?  Happy Birthday, Lois!!


So the quilting world continues on and here are a few of the quilts that I've been working on.


This first one is Pam's baby quilt Spot's Favorite Colors and it turned out so sweet.  I used the panto Water World on it.  

The next two quilts are LARGE quilts and because they are so so so big I was unable to get a good overall picture.


Carrie's Blue and Brown Boy's quilt is huge!  And this picture does not come close to doing it justice.  It is a beautiful batik quilt.  I used the pantograph Fossil on it with a Deep Mint Magna-Glide thread and it came out beautifully.  No feathers or florals for these boys, you know...
Remember to click on the picture for a closer view.

This gorgeous Yellow and Blue sampler quilt went home with Susan.  Again, this one is very large.  I used a Feather Meander on it with a yellow Magna-Glide thread.  I absolutely love this thread!  It doesn't go with every single quilt, but for those that call for it - wow!  

Stay cool out there!  We are experiencing near-100 deg weather.  I just feel blessed that I have air conditioning and work that I enjoy doing INSIDE!   I'm real tempted to try that "fry an egg on the sidewalk" thingie ... 


I've got several projects on my design schedule right now so I'm busy busy busy.   There's a One Block Wonder that needs to be finished, a Snail's Trail that's ALMOST done, and two Lone Star projects.  Plus I've done two of those cutie-patootie Iron Caddy bags.  Christmas is coming, you know!

Go Gators!

Go Gators!  (Boy, I hope I have that right ... i am so college-football challenged! Yes, it has that green gator face ... whew ...).


Barb gave me this cute college quilt to finish up for her.  She put a wonderful bright orange minkee on the back and it quilted up beautifully.  I really haven't had a problem with minkee.  But it does look like I got crazy with a bag of Cheetos in my studio!  Little bits of orange fluff which, from a distance, look like pieces of Cheetos!  And I don't care how many times you vacuum, some of that stuff runs, hides, and comes out later to tease and taunt you!  


Anyway, here's her quilt.  I used Magna-Glide threads, blue on top and bright orange on the back.  Love those threads!  Look closely ... no tension issues what-so-ever!  

Here's Pam's quilt that I started calling "Steve Jobs".  Lordy, don't ask ... i had a moment and just went with it.


Anyway, it's a beautiful muted batik - great for a guy - and I again used the Fil-Tec Magna-Glide thread on it.

Can it really be Christmas already?

I've been singing Christmas carols this week!  LOL!  Don't you just love being your own boss and being able to sing as you waltz with your long-arm machine?  Max and I had a great time quilting Joanne's and her friend's two Christmas quilts!  Those quilts are twins ... and being that I have twin daughters (Hi Em!  Hi Liz!)  this task was really a fun task.  


Joanne told me that she and her friend wouldn't mind if the quilts were quilted the same, but I decided (and don't you love that YOU get to make a few decision?) that these two sweet quilts deserved their own individual quilting.  


So on Quilt #1, which is Joann's, I used the Swinging on a Star pantograph.  BTW, working with Patricia Ritter out of Urban Elementz (www.urbanelementz.com) where I get my pantographs is a real joy.  Thanks, Patricia, for answering all my questions and helping me make good quilting decisions!  Ok, so Swinging on a Star was used on Joanne's quilt ... and on her friend's quilt I used Winter Wonderland #1.  On both quilts I used Magna-Glide thread from www.bobbincentral.com.  That Glide thread is so good.  And on these sparkly quilts the sheen of the Glide thread is over-the-moon!   And both quilts look fabulous!  What a great time I had!


Thanks, Joanne, for letting me play with these two sweet quilts.  Good job piecing, both of you.  Makes my job soooooo much easier when the piecing is so good.


So here they are:

It's a Great Day {wide grin ...}

I'm posting two quilts that I finished this week.  

This one is what I call Pam's Wonky Triangle Quilt and it is just way too cute!  The colors are so bright and the triangles are so off-plum ... love the whole quilt.  I did an Edge-2-Edge on this because it is so fun.  And I used a Magna-Glide thread which added some sheen and shine.

 

And the next quilt is my friend Patsy Ruth's quilt for her son Michael, who is ... wait for it ... a GEORGIA fan!  Can you tell?  Patsy did the 1600 inch jelly roll quilt for him and it looks wonderful!  And I love how that Circle Lord swirls design just softens up the quilt.  And she added a paisley binding which is so cool!  And as Patsy says, "Hunker down, hairy Dawgs!"  Good job, Patsy!  On the last pic, I pulled the back over to the front to show that GA Bulldog backing!  Woo Woo!

Flannel and Minkee

 This is Kathy's cutie-pie child's quilt that she pieced for a soon-to-be granddaughter!  It is sooooo cuddly!  And quilting the Minkee was a breeze.  The flower design shows up great on the Minkee back.  I loved quilting this quilt! 




I used Fil-Tec Magna-Glide thread both top and bottom and it just sinks so much into that Minkee leaving a wonderful design.  The Magna-Glide thread and Delights pre-wound bobbins are great.  I have never had an issue using this thread.  It's not for every quilt, but for those quilts that just cry out for some "zing!" - give it the Magna-Glide touch and glisten!