New Design!

Okay, so this isn't the best picture, but I was so excited that I actually finished this (mostly) that I wanted to share!

About a week or so ago I had this fabulous idea (or at least I think it's fabulous!) to make wallhangings for each month of the year. I drew out all my designs and picked the colors I wanted to use. I was so excited! February's wallhanging ended up being one of the easiest, so I decided to do it first. I picked my fabrics out of my stash and got to work.

I know I've said in the past that it's been hard for me to sew at home because I don't have a table, but I have finally figured something out. YAY! I put my sewing machine on my piano bench and sit in a low folding chair and sew that way in my kitchen, leaving my table open for cutting and such.

I ended up cutting my fabric out wrong, oops, so this is a little squattier than I had wanted it to be originally. It technically should have another 2-2 1/2 inches at the top, but oh well! Also, along the bottom is going to be a 6 inch strip with "FEBRUARY" appliqued onto it. Still working out the font and lettering size for that, so that is why this isn't totally finished yet.

However, I am so excited that it turned out close to how I wanted! I can't wait to finish some of the other months now!! :) I will definitely post more pictures when I get them done.

Colton's Angels donation quilt

As some of you may know, I belong to a local charitable group of women called Colton's Angels. We get together monthly and work on humanitarian projects, among other things. Well, one of the local church groups decided to make some donation quilts for us to give to the hospital (among some other things we already had put together). This is one of them. My mother-in-law started to quilt this one on her domestic machine and decided it wasn't worth the hassel, so she had me finish it.

She had quilted around each block in the ditch, and started to quilt along the small squares in the center. I continued with that and finished it up for her.

Happy Graduation Keisha!

Niece Keisha graduated from high school on Wednesday. Angel made her a quilt and had me quilt it. I love the fabrics she used! Some of it is Soiree by Lila Tueller. Some of it is John Deer. And some of it is dots.

She sewed on this really cute flower, too. I LOVE this quilt. It's a Suprisingly Super Simple, with sashing in between the blocks.

In each block I quilted a large flower with a spiral center.

In the border at the bottom of the quilt I quilted "Cowgirl Up"

In the borders at the top of the quilt I quilted "Redneck Emo" because that is what she calls the style of clothes she wears. haha

Throughout the rest of the borders I did a spiral-y flower design.

I used eggshell colored thread. The back of the quilt was out of Soiree (this fabric, which you can buy at Gracie Lou's either online or in their store.)

Happy Graduation Alex!

At the family-owned floral shop I work out of we have what we call "afternoon girls". I used to be one, in fact, before I started quilting full time. Now niece Keisha and nephew Jase, and his friend Alex, work there. We used to call Alex the afternoon girl when he first started. He is a really good friend of the family, and actually practically is family! Anyway, all 3 of our afternoon workers are graduating from high school this week. CRAZY!

Angel, my SIL and Jase's mom, decided to make Alex a quilt. She used the same fabrics and the same pattern that she used to make the t-shirt quilts for her kids earlier this year.

I used black thread and quilted flames across the quilt. The back, as you can see in the picture above, is black minkee with red minkee pieces down each side.

Congratulations on your graduation, Alex!

Hearts Galore

A client dropped this one off at Gracie Lou's for me. It is so cute! She embroidered some desireable personality traits along the center, and hearts across the quilt top.
In keeping with the heart theme, I chose to quilt an all-over heart design.

I used a light pink thread. Below is a picture of the back of the quilt. She pieced fabrics together to make the back and it looks so cute! You can't see it in the picture, but she had pieced borders of different fabrics from the quilt top along each of the sides of the quilt back.

Meandering for M

My client "M" brought me this one, and I finally finished it! It was huge!!
I did a simple, smaller meander in a wheat colored thread.

The back was a beige color, making the quilting show up so nicely.

Cousin's School Project

I have a little cousin who is in 9th grade....I guess that doesn't really make her little, does it? Anyway, I still think of her as little. Does anyone else do that? I have another cousin who I still remember as a cute little girl but is apparently old enough to graduate from high school. What the? Where did the time go?! How old am I anyways?!

Well, back to my cousin in 9th grade.... She had a school project to make a quilt and complete it by the end of the school year, June 4th or so. Her mom emailed me and asked me if I could squeeze them in. Fortunately I have not had a long wait, so I was able to get it done for them.

My cousin, 9th grader's sister who is my age, came down with the quilt to visit. It was so much fun to see her! She was shocked to see how fast the process goes once the quilting starts, and was very surprised when I told her I'd have it done in a few hours.

Isn't it such a fun and bright quilt? It was so cute! The back was the bright blue, so I used a blue thread.


She already had polyester batting, so I quilted a looser loop with flowers across the entire quilt. It turned out really great, and from what I hear via email, my little cousin loved it. Now she just needs to bind it and she'll have her school project done!

I think it is so cool that kids can quilt in Jr High and High School now. I'm sure that they might have done something like that at my high school, but the home ec classes weren't really recommended by many people, sadly. (I did take Foods, which was awful, and Interior Design, which was okay, and I agree with what the people said: home ec suffered greatly at my school.)

Cowboys

A client brought this cute quilt to me, and wanted it quilted similarly to the one I quilted for Gracie Lou's.
She wanted polyester batting, so I quilted the center a little looser than I normally would have. I did a meander with stars, and it looked super cute with the batting making it puffy in the unquilted areas.

In the borders I did lassos and cowboy boots.

The back was a tan minkee, so I used a tan colored thread.

Minkee and Chenille

This quilt is a shop sample for Gracie Lou's. It is made out of a mixture of minkee, chenille, and regular fabric.
I quilted a small meander in the sashing around the minkee/chenille squares, leaving the squares to puff up.

Flowers for a wedding

A client brought me these two quilts. She needed them done in time for a wedding a family member of hers is having.

On the pink quilt I quilted a large flower in each of the nine patch blocks. I quilted a vine in the sashing. I used an eggshell colored thread.
( I took the pictures from the back of the quilt because the quilting showed up better that way.)

On the blue quilt I quilted a different flower in each of the blocks. I quilted a vine in the sashing.

Again, took the picutre from the backing side because the quilting showed up better.

On this quilt I used the cotton wrapped polyester Ocean Mist colored thread for the top of the quilt, and eggshell for the back.

"Joy" brought me this quilt she made as a shop sample for Gracie Lou's. She wanted me to quilt it in a way that made it look like it had movement.
In the center I quilted swirls. I alternated directions of the swirls.

I filled in the block junctions with a swirling diamond pattern.

"Joy" didn't want any of the seams to pop up, so I quilted squiggles along the seam lines, even over the seam between the blue border and the blue rick rack.

In the orange outer border I quilted cloud clusters with wind.

I used two different colors of thread for this quilt. On the top I used a cotton wrapped polyester thread called Ocean Mist. It's kind of like a mixture of light blue and cream. It is really pretty! In the bobbin I used eggshell colored thread, so it would blend in with the backing fabric and not detract any attention from the fun and funky pattern.

Baskets

This is one of my mother-in-law's quilts. She has so many quilt tops! She is such a gifted quilter, and she does the funnest quilts.
I stitched in the ditch around each basket, did a vine in the green border, a squiggle in the rust border, and flowers in the outer border. I used a rust colored thread for all of this.

In the center of each basket I quilted a different type of flower, also in rust.

Using an eggshell colored thread I did a meander in the background of the basket blocks.

Pinwheels Revisited

My client, "M," brought me this fun quilt.
She had me quilt a meander just in the white area around the pinwheels so that the colors would pop. I did a vine in the outer border.

I used an eggshell colored thread. I love how the white backing shows off all the quilting.

Swirls

This adorable child's quilt was for Gracie Lou's.
I did an all-over swirl pattern.

I used an olive-colored thread to match the olive minkee on the backing. I know it doesn't really look olive in the picture, but trust me. It is the prettiest olive color! And it looked so good with the browns and yellows and blues on the quilt top.