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!

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

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.

Dixie's Exploding Pineapple

Just thought I would share Dixie's quilt with you.  A beautiful purple and cream batik quilt.  The purple blocks are "Exploding Pineapple" blocks.  Dixie made this quilt in a class at the local quilt shop.  She brought it to me for quilting, wanting to display it on the back of her sofa.  Her custom quilting includes modern feathered wreaths designed especially for this quilt.  The borders are quilted with feathers and piano keys.