Custom Longarm Machine Quilting

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Celebrate America!


I'll be having a special discount in May and June to celebrate America!
Keep checking back as it gets closer to May to find out what kind of a special deal I'll be running!
I'm so excited about it, I'm having trouble keeping it a secret, but I'm determined to make it a surprise!


April Holiday

I am taking a vacation at the end of April. My husband, sweetheart that he is, booked us a fabulous getaway to Las Vegas, and we are taking our 2 year old with us. I know, we are crazy, but we will have so much fun I am sure!
Anyway, this means that I will be out of the office for a whole week.
I am leaving April 27th, and will be back to work on May 4th.
Of course, this is just a heads up! I will post a reminder the weekend before I leave. :)

Playmat

This cute quilt is for Gracie Lou's shop grandma to use with the kids who come to the shop.
Shasta wanted me to quilt a design in the grassy areas so that the farm animals they have for the kids to play with will be able to stand up, so I quilted a meander with green cotton Signature thread.

I also outlined the roads and the buildings.

In the outer border I quilted a loop with stars in a maroon colored thread. It turned out so cute! The kids will love playing on it at Gracie Lou's with shop grandma!


Duckies

I made one of my friends a duckie blanket when she had her baby. She contacted me about a month ago, asking me to make her 2 more, only in girl colors (hers was blue, yellow and white for her little boy).
I bought some really cute fabrics at Gracie Lou's, and several other large, chain fabric stores.


In the outer border I quilted loops, kind of like bubbles. In the inner border I quilted flowers.
I love the border fabric! It is pink and purple flannel with ducks and bubbles. I wasn't sure I'd be able to find anything pink with ducks and bubbles, but I sure lucked out with some cute fabric!
In the center of the quilt I stitched around the duck appliques and did a meander across the rest.

This is my favorite duckie block. I had some leftover fabric from the original duck quilt, and was able to use it for the white contrast blocks in both quilts.

I bought this cute fabric at Gracie's. I love the minkee fabric, but I especially love it with the paisley design.







Going Bananas

This cute rag quilt for Gracie Lou's uses the cutest fabric! It has sock monkeys on it!
They fussy-cut the smallest squares to show off the cute face on the sock monkeys. I quilted approximately 1/4 inch from the seam, puffing up the center of the squares, and, for the most part, not cutting off the faces of the monkeys.


In the sashing I did a squiggley line with bunches of bananas.


I used an eggshell colored thread.
Isn't the back so cute? I love the monkeys hanging off the numbers.



Stars in a square

This quilt was brought to me by a client.
She wanted stars quilted in the smallest blocks.

And a meander with stars quilted in the background/border sections.

I used a light green thread.




Baskets of Flowers

This quilt was from my client "Joy" for Gracie Lou's. It is the Baskets of Flowers by Mary Engelbreit for moda.

I quilted a large spiral in the center of each flower, and exaggerated the petals on the flowers. In the background I did a ribbon-like meander.

In the border I did a vine with leaves.


I used an eggshell colored thread for the flower blocks....




....and a red colored thread for the border.





Astrophysics

One of my clients has a family member studying astrophysics, so she made him a quilt.
I quilted stars and loops in the border.


And wavy lines across the center of the quilt.
I used a light yellow thread.

Flames and Trains

These two cute quilts are for a lady who works up at Gracie Lou's.

I quilted flames.....


.....across both quilts.

She provided a hi-loft poly batting, which looked really great after the flames had been quilted.





I used a light blue thread.








Gypsy Rose

This quilt, made out of the Gypsy Rose line for Fig Tree, is for Gracie Lou's Quilt Shoppe.
I did an all-over loop with flowers in a peach colored thread.

The back was pieced out of squares from the fabric line.




Thursday, March 26, 2009

SORRY!

I know I've been slacking with my uploading of pictures. I have so many cute quilts that I need to upload pictures of.

I'm hoping to be able to take a day later this week and work on that.

I feel really bad I've been neglecting my blog. :(

I really have been so busy lately. Not that that is an excuse or anything. I have been going to school online in my "spare" time (when do you even have spare time as a small business owning mom, I ask you? haha), and I have been trying to get the first part of my class finished. I am almost done (hopefully in the next few weeks), so then I will be able to keep up with the uploading of pictures.

Please keep checking back for updates! And leave comments, because I like to see who's visiting us, and where ya'all are from. :D

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, March 13, 2009

T-shirts full of memories

On March 12, 2008, my sister-in-law, Angel, lost her youngest son Colton (15 at the time, 1 month shy of his 16th birthday) to complications from pneumonia and ARDS. A few weeks ago she had gone through some of his clothes and picked out a stack of t-shirts she wanted to make quilts out of for herself, and her other 3 children. She asked me to apply the fusible interfacing and cut out the t-shirts for her. She had also pieced blocks from this great guitar fabric she bought at Gracie Lou's. She wanted to have the quilts for her kids done by the 1-year anniversary, but was afraid she wouldn't make the deadline. A group of family and close friends banded together and had a sewing night to help her out.



Jenny and Angel deciding which fabrics to border the blocks with.

Carrie and Vicki (my mother-in-law) sewing the blocks and borders.


Lola chatting with the rest of us after using the iron.



Vicki making borders and blocks.


Carrie ironing.


Jase's Quilt:



The initial layout of Jase's quilt. Each quilt had 5 pieced blocks and 4 t-shirt blocks. They hurried and finished this quilt top first so that I could get it loaded onto the machine. Unfortunately, by the time it was done it was 10:30 PM, my little boy was tired and ready for bed, and my DH had just come to pick me up! I found out later that the rest of the gals stayed until around 11:30, but got the rest of the tops and backs pieced.



The finished quilt: (sans binding)


Several summers ago Colton was bit by a black bear while working at a scout camp. The center of this block was made from the shirt he wore from that camp. Above it I quilted "Bear Bait" in the bear paw print, in red thread.


This picture came in a little fuzzy, but it says "Jerry Finn", which is a nickname for Jase.

Underneath the Flogging Molly graphic I quilted "Honkey the Hooligan", which was one of Colton's nicknames.


And under the Playdead Movement graphic I quilted "Dirty Harold", which was how Colton signed all of his text messages.

The back of Jase's quilt is this really great red minkee.



Lynsey's Quilt

This quilt was for Lynsey, Angel's oldest.


Her nickname for Colton was Dody, quilted here in a tan colored thread so it would show up on the black fabric.



Dirty Harold

Honkey the Hooligan.


The back for her quilt was this beautiful black minkee with the paisley pattern in it.


Zack's Quilt



Honkey the Hooligan.

Dirty Harold, again quilted in tan.

Bear Bait, also quilted in tan.


The back of his quilt was this black minkee with the diamond design in it.

I finished quilting all three quilts on March 11th, and was surprised at how difficult it was for me. Angel, Lola, and Gayle bound the quilts. Between all of us helping, Angel was able to get all three quilts done for her kids in time.

Thursday was a rough day, and needless to say I didn't get much done. That night, those of us who were available, went to dinner at Los 4 Amigos, a local Mexican restaurant, in memory of Colton. We are having a bonfire at the lake on Saturday for the whole family.

We love you Colton, and miss you very much! I think Lola's post says it all. The song she posted is so beautiful, and if you get the chance, go to rhapsody.com and listen to it there (you can find it on the Weeds Season 1 Soundtrack).