Spring has sprung..... It snowed today!

Well, like a good half of the country we're having crazy weather here in Idaho too.  Almost 70 degrees last week....snow flurries this morning.  My poor blooming plum trees are so confused.  So, I'm having my own burst of spring in my studio today preparing for this week's upcoming quilt show and thought I would share a couple of gorgeous springy quilts made by my favorite piecer Pat (you're all my favorites by the way).

First off is Pat's Wedding Ring Quilt which she made for herself.  A Judy Niemeyer pattern originally named "Flowers for my Wedding".  This quilt is paper pieced with a gorgeous applique vine loaded with flowers.
She has graciously allowed me to borrow it from her so that I may display it in my booth at the quilt show this weekend.  Be sure to drop by and see it in person.

I would love to wake up with this quilt on my bed every morning!

All of the vines and flowers were stitched in the ditch with clear thread.
The background fill was all freehand feathers and swirls.

Each melon and ring center had a custom feather motif quilted as a background fill.
The rings and center joints  and the sawtooth border were are stitched in the ditch with clear thread.

The 2nd quilt of Pat's that I wanted to share will be exhibited in the quilt show this weekend.  Hopefully you'll be able to come see it in person also!  

Pat's Garden Gate

The background hydrangea fabric is quilted with a digital round feather motif.....I thought it looked a bit like a flower.   I wanted the lattice to really look interlocking so freehand quilted a slat pattern in the lavender piecing and a feather in the blue piecing.  I was pretty happy with the results.

With a wide white border I had a lot of room to play!  I used several different digital feathered border patterns  then filled them in with freehand miniature bead board.  The overall look tied well with the lattice and gave the entire quilt a Victorian look that I was pleased with.  Pat was very pleased with the end result too!

Long view of the border

With a fairly plain back all of the quilting shows up nicely on the back!

Happy Easter and Spring has finally arrived!

First off, I want to wish everyone a Happy and Blessed Easter!  Spring seems to finally have arrived in Southern Idaho.  We have warm sunny weather (perhaps we'll hit 70 this weekend) and the wind is not blowing.  I've noticed that there are many new birds in the neighborhood and it won't be long before we have to fire up the lawn mower.  I even heard a rototiller the other day.  Hopefully it won't be snowing next week....you never know.

Nearby Shoshone Falls, First time I visited the falls was on an Easter weekend 5 years ago

  

Gay's Stars

I also want to share this delightful table quilt that my friend Gay made.  It was her first attempt at paper pieced stars.....and they are perfection!  This little piece was a delight to quilt.  It is quilted with both freehand quilting and a few CompuQuilter motifs in the cornerstones and borders.  The stars were all stitched-in-the-ditch with Fil-Tecs new clear thread (which is divine by the way).

I connected the flower motif with straight line quilting
 inside the sashing and then filled in freehand around the stars.

The borders and sashing were done using my CompuQuilter
 and added a nice coordinating touch don't you think?

All of the stars were stitched-in-the-ditch at each layer.  Whew!

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).

Tagged!

This lovely quilt was pieced by my customer Laura Grabow and will be hung in the Fabric Granary in Hailey, Idaho.  Its from the Fig Tree fabric line.  I quilted it with square wreaths, orange peel sashing and freehand feathers in the background blocks and border.  Very cozy!

Detail from Laura's Fig Tree - Marigold Quilt

Tagged! 

I've been tagged by Judy Warner of Explorations in Quilting! Be sure to visit her at:

http://www.explorationsinquilting.com/

The rules for participation:

1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.  

2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you  

3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate

4. Choose 11 blogs with less than 200 followers and link them in your post.

So here it goes:

Answer the Nominator's Questions:

My Questions from Judy:

1. What is your favorite color?  Purple (and green)
2. If you could live anywhere in the world, what would you live?  Hawaii
3. What was the last book you read?  The Hunger Games
4. What kind of music do you like?  Bluegrass
5. Why do you have a blog?  To keep me challenged
6. Would you rather travel by car, plane, train, or bus?  Plane of course!
7. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I would be 2 feet taller
8. If you had a day free of responsibilities, what would be the first thing you would do?   Make a quilt
9. Do you prefer warm or cold weather?  Warmish
10. How often to do you watch TV?  too often, I'm a news junkie
11. Have you any pets?  Bunnies, cats, dogs

Questions for my Nominees:

1. What is your favorite food?
2. Do you have any animals?
3. How long have you been a quilter/artist?
4. What latitude do you live at?
5. What is your favorite quilting style?
6. How many times have you moved in the last 10 years?
7. Do you work at your art full time?
8. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?
9. Do you like noisy or quiet?
10. Do you like to travel?
11. What gives you inspiration to your art?

And, here are my nominees. Please check out their blogs and consider following them:

http://sherriequilt.blogspot.com/

http://borderlinequilter.blogspot.com/

http://lindakittmer.blogspot.ca/

http://bethquilts.blogspot.com/

http://sewnsewquilting.blogspot.com/

http://rfvaldes.blogspot.com/

http://idahobeautyquilts.blogspot.com/

http://robertaranney.blogspot.com/

http://akquilter1.blogspot.com/

http://www.cheryllynchquilts.blogspot.com/

http://www.fibreinspirations.blogspot.com/

MIA.....

Yes, I've been missing in action.  For way longer than I thought.  My apologies to everyone but somehow life just seems to keep us pretty busy.  Thankfully, my customers have been keeping me busy too and I have many, many beautiful quilts to share with you.  I've been organizing quilt photos (after 2 computer crashes this has been quite a task) and will try to post new ones to share on a regular basis.  I'm also posting on Pinterest if you're in that neighborhood too.

This lovely "Union Jack" quilt was pieced by my friend and customer Cat Downs.  She made it to give as a wedding gift to a friend of hers.  I used Quilters Dream Wool batting and Glide thread.  The custom quilting is a combination of freehand and computerized quilting using my CompuQuilter (which I added to my A-1 Longarm last year).

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 big thanks to everyone....

Thank you everyone that has joined me this week.  The winner of my drawing for the Fat Eighth Bundle of my hand-dyed "Desert Dyes" fabric is Karen in Cincinnati.  Karen if you would send me an email with your mailing information I will pop this fabric in the mail to you.  Congratulations..... and welcome to my quilty journey!

And the winner is...........

If you stopped by my booth at the quilt show this weekend and signed up for the drawing you were eligible for a FREE Edge to Edge quilting and Quilters Dream Batting (up to a queen size).  Our drawing winner is Nancy Bond of Twin Falls.  I'll be contacting her today to let her know!  Congratulations Nancy.

one end of my booth at this weekend's quilt show

Stay tuned as I will be having another drawing soon....... if you leave a comment on my blog AND become a follower during the next 7 days you will be eligible for a bundle of 8 - FAT Eighth Hand-Dyed Fabrics. 

My new "Desert Dyes" hand-dyed fabric Fat 8th Bundle

A Blue Ribbon Day!

Well, today completed our guild show "Blooming in the Desert".  'Our' quilt "Botanical Bliss" took two 1st Place ribbons in the Guild Challenge Catagory.  Deana Steel pieced this beautiful dimensional applique quilt and I quilted it.  What a wonderful sense of accomplishment for both of us.  We sure make a great team - thanks Deana!

Deana added a few more dimensional touches prior to entered the quilt in this show.  Notice the butterfly?

Two of Evelyn Sprier's quilts also won blue ribbons.  Here she is with her Fuchsia Applique Quilt:

And here is Evelyn's McKenna Ryan quilt that she made for her youngest son.

Joan Anderson's Christmas Quilt that I quilted last year also won a ribbon!

Fatima Franco's Tablerunner won 2nd place in it's catagory.  I quilted this for her last year also; she made it as a wedding gift.

A great big  Thanks to all my wonderful customers!