It was a fine day if you were a duck ...

Last week we had rain, rain, and more rain.  And during all that rain I had the opportunity to work on this sweet Ducky quilt!

The applique is fabulous and I didn't want to ruin that, so I did watery stuff around the duckies, some swirls in the ducky sashings, water splash in the blocks, and Terry Twists with another 'twist' in the 9-patch blocks.  I continues on with the water splash all along the border.

Cathy backed this one with a Minkee and the whole quilt is ... well, just Ducky!  Be sure to click on the pic to see it up close ...

Round 'em up!

It's been almost a year to the week ... I started this Cowboy quilt for Mr. Dancing Bear this time last year.  I attended the retreat at Quilting by the Bay in Panama City, and the guest lecturer/pattern designer was Pat Wys, and we were making quilts from her book Spotlight on Neutrals.  I chose the design Havenstone.  Geez, I always choose the ONE pattern that has a ga-zillion pieces; however, I had been collecting cowboy fabrics for a while, knowing that my cowboy needed his very own quilt.  So ... voila!!!  My quilt isn't quite as distinct in colors/patterns as Pat, but then again I used a boat-load of different cowboy prints ... and that turquoise blue just pops, doesn't it?

It is waaaayyyy too big to get an all-over picture (shall I tell you how I really really wish I could take decent pics?), but here are a couple to give you a sense of just how Yippie-Ki-Yay this quilt is!!  So a big thank you to Pat Wys and her tremendous book, Spotlight on Neutrals!  Hope to take another class with you soon!

Another one to drool over ...

Here's another beauty from Joanne ...  didn't she do a great job piecing?  Quilting it was like knife through soft butter ... so smooth!

You have to click on the pic to get a close-up view.  I used a beautiful pantograph that hopefully replicated those beautiful swirls in the fabric.  And I want to call this a Moda quilt ... it is Moda fabric, isn't it?

















So on to the next project!

Oh, I finally decided on what I'm going to do border-wise on my Easy Street quilt.  I absolutely LOVE living in this age of technology ... I went to my two fav fabric stores looking for a particular fabric and didn't find it, so came home and found in on the internet.  I like spending my fabric $$$ locally, but I also knew that I really really wanted this particular fabric.  So glad I finally found it!   So I'm waiting for this fabric to be delivered, and then I'll finish up the borders, and maybe in February I'll be able to get it on Max for quilting.  "The cobbler's children have no shoes ..."  and "The quilters quilts seldom get quilted ..."  LOL!  But we'll work it in somehow.  

And next up is the Cowboy quilt that I finished piecing this past fall, while Max was off for his spa treatment.  So maybe the quilter does get some quilts quilted after all!  This one is about 1 year old.  It's a big ol' cowboy quilt and I started it in Panama City in January 2012 ... I'm slow ... reaaaaaallll slow ...

Easy Street Mystery Quilt

I'm addicted to Mystery Quilts ... and this one by Bonnie K. Hunter is to-die-for!

Easy Street with Bonnie K. Hunter

Let's just pretend that September was yesterday ...

I've been blogging in my head for a couple of weeks now ... trying to figure out how to span an empty space of 4 months.  Do I try to catch up and fill in with everything that has happened?  Crikey!  No way!  Too much has happened and there is no chance in H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS that I can stay focused enough to fill you in.  Shoot, I can barely relate what has happened in the past hour ...

Ok, so here's the plan.  Let's just pretend that yesterday was September and that today just happens to be the Day After September ... or some day that resembles the Day After September.

So here's a picture for you.  I worked my fingers to the bone quilting customer quilts right before Christmas and then gave myself permission to spend some time on doing some sewing/piecing for me.  So I love mystery quilts ... I've had some good ones and some OH MY GOD WHAT WAS I THINKING ones ... but I fell into the Bonnie K. Hunter Easy Street mystery right at Thanksgiving and I have had a ball with it.  This pic is of the top without borders.  I plan to add a 2" black border and then a wider something-something border.  Sounds like I need a trip to a quilt store, doesn't it?  And I have a plan for the backing, but that's for later.  How fun can this be????

The famous Ms. Hunter used Lime Green, Turquoise, and Purple in her quilt.  Well, I came across a tangerine piece of fabric that had fushia (or is it magenta?) and a blue-green in it and I went for those colors.  I love the black/white pieces.   So tomorrow I'll see if I can find an outer border piece.  Any suggestions?

And today I finished up this wall-hanging for Patsy Ruth.  It is so beautiful.  The colors are so soft but the way she put them together makes a statement.

This is BEFORE Santa arrived ...

This is AFTER Santa arrived:

Oh oh oh!!!!  Can you see the white wire baskets to the right and to the left of Patsy's wall-hanging?   I added the two pics above, the BEFORE and the AFTER.  I am a brave soul, aren't I?  Santa bought me these beautiful storage units for Christmas!  I've given up the jewelry-as-a-present thing ... now I want (and dare I say NEED) things that make my quilting life productive!  And these units are just too great.  Everything is put up ... most of my fabric (at least fabric in this room) is folded, measured, and put in its proper place.  I finally know what it means to feel a 'lightness of being'.  When I walk into this room, I automatically relax knowing that I can work without stress, worrying about the mess that litters my area.  It's all GOOD!

You know it's happened ...

Second post for the day ....

So you've quilted some quilts, they get delivered to their owners and then what?  Have you ever wondered where those beautiful quilts are and how they are doing? 

I'm lucky to have customers who don't mind sending me some pictures of their quilts 'at home' ... or wherever they are.

Anne sent me a picture of her Monkey Baby Quilt.  This is just the cutest quilt in America and I love the pieced backing.  I'm getting to where I really really like a pieced backing!  Those little monkeys are too too cute!

This is Carrie's Blue and Yellow quilt.  I think the story is that this quilt was suppose to go to a family member (I won't mention who...) but Carrie saw the finished products (quilt plus 2 shams) and decided .... nah, this is MINE!  LOL!  I think she said that this quilt is now on the guest bedroom bed.  Yummy!  Isn't that a great picture?

She did a great job piecing these and it was so nice to quilt.  Love those projects that turn out wonderfully!

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!

Did you think I'd fallen off the ends of the earth?

It's been a while, but I'm here.  It's been a busy time around here.  I had my Spanish daughter here visiting for about a week and a half and when she makes it home once a year, I'm all hers!  We didn't plan any big outings ... she mainly just wanted to be at home, chilling out ... but we managed a few shopping sprees ... wheee!!!  She caught the shoe-bug from me ... we both LOVE shoes!   And off point here, but we both believe that the shoe makers have changed their shoe sizes.  Both of us had to go up 1/2 size in ALL shoes that we purchased.  And I purchased the same brand that I've got in my closet and still had to go up that 1/2 size.  What is this all about?!!  And of course the cutest shoes we bought were ... do you remember the late 80's ... JELLIES!  Yes, I'm telling you!  JELLIES!  Cutest little shoe in America!  Maybe I'll get a picture of them and post here soon ... believe me, cute cute cute cute cute!  

I did manage to get a couple of quilts done while she was here, and here's the pictures of Elisa's Memory Wall-Hanging that she made to celebrate a friends 80th birthday.  The woman is gorgeous and the pictures are absolutely charming.  

She wanted feathers incorporated in the wall-hanging and then I added some hearts to carry out the Heart theme she had going on.  

Because this is a wall-hanging I used two layers of batting ... QD 70/30 blend on the bottom and QD Wool on the top.  It really makes those pictures pop and the quilting is accentuated.  I used cream Magna-Glide thread on the light portion and changed to red Magna-Glide on the red squares ... cream in the bobbin on both.  

Happy 80th birthday!

Hand me a fan ... it's done!

Whew ... it's hotter than fried pies down here and I've been feeling the heat ... but I got lucky because I had me a studio full of "fans" ... with a peacock or two thrown in!


It's done it's done it's done!  I'm posting pictures but you need to know that this quilt is 96" x 96" and there is no way I can get a good picture of this big ol' bad boy ... so I'm just posting some shots of the different aspects of this quilt.    This is Robbie's quilt and she told me it's going on her bed.  It's going to be beautiful draped across her bed....

If you click on the peacock picture you might be able to see where I used the light gold thread and outlined or enhanced the flowers, peacock feathers, etc.


The light blue 'sky' area has a floral motif, while the fans with the gold centers has a modified feather in each fan segment.  The smaller peacock squares has a feathered wreath in them.