Fall is just around the corner....

Yikes, I don't know where the time goes!  It seems like it was just late spring and we were ready for summer vacation.  I've been busy, busy this summer with all the vacationy, summery things that go on in our lives....add a family wedding and a trip to the coast (oh, and quilting) and time has just flown by!

Just wanted to share the darling wall quilt that was machine embroidered and pieced by Glenda Barlow. This quilt is made of Dupoini Silk and was like quilting on butter...very hard to give back to her. I quilted it with various freehand feathers and fills. Used Quilters Dream Blend batting and YUMMY Glide thread along with a few colors of Isacord thread. Twin Falls Sewing-Center had this quilt hanging in their booth at the fair this year.  I think if you check with them they still have the embroidery module available for the hearts!

"Infinity" is a winner!

The last few weeks have been busy, busy, busy!  With our local guild quilt show and then HMQS in Salt Lake City I have been smokin' at the heels!  I wanted to share a quilt that I quilted for my customer Joan Anderson that won ribbons at both of these quilt shows.

"Infinity" won 3rd place in Applique at HMQS, Salt Lake City and Best of Show at the Desert Sage Quilt Show!

Beautifully hand appliqued by Joan Anderson, she used batik fabrics along with ultra suede and wool.  I quilted her quilt with all free-hand quilting for the feathers,  McTavishing and pebble fill.  I used a stencil for the double cross-hatching. Yummy Glide thread made everything just shimmer and Quilters Dream Wool batting gave it the perfect loft!  The outer border swag was all hand guided and the mini-piano key was done with a ruler.  After quilting, Joan added her gorgeous hand-done dimensional flowers and beading.  A lovely sparkle runs through the entire quilt with over 1000 Swarovski crystals that Joan applied, and I have a feeling that she'll be adding more!

Joan's Beauty......

Well, I promised you more pictures of Joan's beautiful show quilt so here are a few more sneak peaks!  This gorgeous quilt was definetely a labor of love for Joan (along with a piece of my soul added to it).  She completely hand appliqued all of of the blocks, borders, flowers and stems and as you can see in the pictures there are many places where additional dimensional flowers will be added.  The quilt has been delivered to Joan; she is now blocking and binding her quilt and will be adding her final touches before the show.

 Dimensional flowers will be added to the stems in the inner border and blocks.  The outer swag border was hand-appliqued on....amazing work!  I quilted it with a swag shape and tiny fillegree fill.  The outside cream border has been quilted with piano keys.

 The inner border has a beautiful vine climbing up two corners of the quilt .  With feathers connecting each section, the background behind the vines were filled with double crosshatching, McTavishing and Pebbling for variety and depth.

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 Each of the 9 blocks that surround the center focus block had a background fill of double cross-hatching....whew!  I was seeing double after a while.  This frog and bird with the basket turned out to be my favorite!

The entire quilt was done in batiks with the exception of these
 yummy berries, which were wool.

Freehand feathers filled all of the inner borders.

This quilt can be seen at our upcoming local quilt show (along with many other gorgeous quilts) next month. If you're in the area I hope you can join us.   If you are unable to attend I will be posting more pictures after Joan has added her final touches to her quilt.

Happy Wordwide Quilting Day!

Well, as the post says.....Happy Wordwide Quilting Day.  I'm home doing as I'm told (for once..) and quilting, quilting, quilting.  I know you haven't seen much of me lately.  That's because I'm working on a drop-dead gorgeous show quilt which should be done TONIGHT!!!  I'm so excited, and so is Joan who has been patiently waiting for it.  Soooo..........  stay tuned and we'll have more to share soon.

Joan's Sneek Peek

A Day In Giverny

Another lovely quilt pieced by my customer and friend Laura Grabow;  "A Day in Giverny" is a block of the month pattern from This and That patterns using the new Chateau Rouge fabric line from French General.  What a perfect quilt to work on around Valentine's Day.  The fabric is so warm and happy.....it turned out warm and cozy too with Quilters Dream Wool batting and Glide thread.   All of the quilting was done freehand with some ruler work to compliment Laura's piecing.

All of the setting triangles were quilted with double feathers, then outlined with a half-feather
 in the red sash.

I was really happy with how the corners turned out.

Each of the pieced blocks were quilted with a variety of designs with  a double loop filler in the red fabric to tie everything together.  This also allowed the piecing to 'pop' and show more prominently.

 

The  cream, red & grey center applique blocks were centered with a fussy cut flower which I  pebbled around to create a 'faux trapunto look.  The appliqued blossom also appear to be trapunto because of the wool batting and the McTavishing in the background of the block.

I hope you've enjoyed today's quilt.  If you'd like to see it in person I've been told that it will be hanging in the Fabric Granary in Hailey.  (I believe that they have the block of the month kits available too).

Home from HMQS!

Hi all!  Well, now that the dust is starting to settle I thought I would share a bit from my trip to the Home Machine Quilters Show (HMQS) in Salt Lake City last week.  It is a wonderful, vibrant growing regional show that is starting to attract a lot of competition from around the world.  Needless to say, competition is pretty stiff.  The Best of Show winner was "Harmony Within" by Sue McCarty.  This quilt is absolutely amazing.  It was done on a whole-cloth background with thread and a small amount of painting. 

"Harmony Within" HMQS Best of Show by Sue McCarty

There were many, many beautiful quilts and a large number of ribbons were given out.  You can see a list of the quilt award winners on the HMQS website

Imagine my delight to find that the 2 quilts I entered in the quilt competion both won "Teacher Award" Ribbons.  "Botanical Bliss" was pieced by Deana Steel and custom quilted by me.  Karen McTavish awarded us her "Teacher Award" ribbon.

"Botanical Bliss"

"Dancing Batiks" was a pieced and quilted by me.  It was made from a Judy Neimeyer paper pieced pattern and took me 2 years to complete.  I used some of my hand-dyed fabrics along with commercial batiks.  Superior Metallics and Rainbow threads were used in the main points and SoFine threads were used in the background fills.  Kimmy Brunner awarded her "Teachers Ribbon" to me.  This was very exciting, because just the night before she was awarded "Teacher of the Year".



"Dancing Batiks"



Detail of "Dancing Batiks"

McTavishing detail on "Dancing Batiks"

Detail of back of "Dancing Batiks" showing SoFine threads on sold black background.

I have to share another award winning quilt with you.  This beautiful "Lone Star" quilt was pieced and quilted by Joyce Carson.  Joyce pieced this at our last "Sew Much Fun" quilters retreat in Jerome here last February during Carmen Geddes Lone Star class!  She also embellished her quilt with Ricky Tims' applique using our GoCutter!  Joyce won 2nd place in the "Off The Bed" catagory.

Joyce Carson's Quiltsmart "Lone Star"

I love going to this particular quilt show in Salt Lake every year.  In addition to immersing yourself in the quilt world, I am able to challenge myself to actually finish something and get it entered into the show (usually).  But the best part is getting to work and visit with friends that you only see occasionally.  I worked in the A-1 Longarm Machine booth during the show for my friend Jen Alexander (she's my longarm dealer).

Jen demonstrating the A-1 Elite

Cara and Megan during a planning session

Megan answering questions

A sweet quilt to share on Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all.  I just finished quilting Evelyn's sweet Pink Fuchsia quilt last week and wanted to share it with you today.  She hand appliqued everything on the quilt and hand beaded it with tiny seed beads.  She'll be entering this darling quilt in the local quilt show in May.