Welcome!

I had so much fun quilting this fun little wall hanging.  I used multiple thread colors and a few modern designs to achieve the quilting look I was going for.

 I quilted a meander over the WELCOME panel to the side of the sunflowers. In the sunflowers themselves, I started in the center and spiraled my way out to the outer edge, stitching down the edges of the applique.

In the stems and the background of the sunflower portion I quilted wavy lines.

I believe I used 2 thread colors, but it's been so long (I quilted this earlier this summer), so I might be mistaken. I know for sure that I used So Fine! Daffodil (yellow) and So Fine! Out of the Blue (the blue in the background).

July Quilts

I feel bad that here it is the end of December and I'm just barely getting around to posting quilts from July. But, it will give you all some ideas for next year, right? Right. :)

So, first up we have this awesome wall hanging. A client of mine made like 5 or 6 of these for gifts. This is the one she kept for herself. Usually she likes just a big, loose, all-over quilting design, but I talked her into letting me do some more custom quilting on it. I still kept it looser than I normally would've quilted something like this, and she ended up loving it!

In the background of the applique I quilted a larger meander. I outlined all of the applique pieces, and did some fun details on the watermelon, the sunflower, and the cake. In the flag I did different designs in the stripes, and I outlined the star. I did a wavy line in the inner border and a large loop with stars design in the outer border. In the filler block (between the Sweet Land of Liberty and the apple pie) I quilted a wish bone design.

This next quilt is one of those quilts where you sew the blocks together with a border, then using a template you chop it up, rotate it, and sew it back together. My client used red, white, and blue fabrics, so we decided a 4th of July themed design was what we needed to do.

 In each of the X's I quilted curvy lines, mimicking fireworks. In the blue background around the center of the quilt I quilted a meander. And in the outer border  I quilted a large star with loops in between them.

Here's a shot of the back. I love how the design shows up so nicely in the red thread (So Fine! Hot Chilies). It really makes it look like fireworks bursting all over the quilt!

I'm Back! Recap, News, & More.

Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's been almost 4 months since my last post! I seriously thought it had only been a few weeks. Of course, I've also thought that every day this week was Saturday, which definitely screwed my internal clock up.

The holidays are almost over. Mine have been almost perfect. I hope you all had a great Christmas/Hanukkah/Festivus/whatever you celebrate, and that you all have a fantastic New Year!

Just a quick catch up on things, and then I'll post some fun pictures of a quilt I did in the summer (Seriously! I still can't believe it's been that long! I'm totally dying of embarrassment as I write this!)

Life has been crazy hectic this fall. I stupidly  kindly volunteered to help out in my son's kindergarten class for an hour and a half every Thursday afternoon. I teach healthy lifestyles. This makes me laugh. Mostly because I do not have a healthy lifestyle. We eat fast food a lot, and if my kids have their seat belts on before I'm backing out of the driveway then our day is fantastic! Have a cold? Here's some Dimetapp! haha. But seriously, the kids are learning a lot - when they manage to pay attention - and I really am enjoying it....most days.

The baby turns 1 in about 8 days. Seriously, who's idea was it to have a baby this close to Christmas? Surely it couldn't have been mine? I didn't realize how stressful shopping for Christmas and her birthday would be. Luckily, we found some really great things for both, and hopefully she likes them all.

The boy turned 6 in September, and just lost his first tooth. He was so excited. And I am encouraging all tooth-related happiness, especially since we have been to the dentist 6 times in the last 2 months for that kid. Luckily he is getting over his completely rational fear of the dentist, and doesn't actually mind going...until they stick the anesthesia needle in.

As far as work goes, I have been getting busier with pre-books, which I am grateful for. I've developed a new system for the pre-books, too, and it seems to be working much better than "I'll write you down on the list and hope I don't lose the paper like I have in the past." I am so grateful for all of my clients. Without them, I wouldn't be able to continue to do this. And I really love it.

Now for some quick news, for all of you who have been patient enough to stick with me through the giant wall of text above. ;) I am working on some quilt patterns. I am so excited about these! I have several in the works, and I can't wait to release them! Two of them are so close to being ready to release, so hopefully I will have those done shortly after the new year starts. Keep checking back as I post updates and news regarding their releases! I'm also working on some baby items: gifts, baby quilts, etc. for my Etsy shop. I will post more about those when they are closer to being finished, as well.

So, lots of work to be done around here in the next few weeks. :)

And now, as promised, some pictures of an awesome Round Robin quilt I quilted for a client earlier this summer!

 This quilt was so fun, bright, and vibrant. I had a blast quilting it! In the center panel I outlined the tree and all the leaves, then did a small pebble design in the background to give the applique a little more POP. I quilted leaves in the inner blue border. In the triangle border I quilted curvy triangles in the white pieces, and flowers in the corners. The pink border is also a leaf design.

 In the pieced nine patch border I quilted swirly flowers. The smaller borders all have a small back-and-forth design in them. I meandered tightly around the appliqued hexagons. And in the border with the appliqued rectangles I quilted a fern-type vine.

 In the half-circles I quilted flowers. I then stitched around the half circles and echoed out 3 times into the background of the border. In the yellow solid border I quilted more leaves. Another fern-type vine fills the pieced border. And in the outermost border I quilted a back and forth design to mimic the grain of wood or tree bark, keeping with the tree theme from the center of the quilt.

 The back was so fun! I love when people do scrappy backs. In fact, most of my quilts have scrappy backs on them now. It's a great way to use up fabric you have from your stash, or leftovers from a single line.

 Another shot of the scrappy back.

 

And here is the whole quilt top. I absolutely loved quilting this quilt! It was so fun and different. As far as thread goes, I used Superior Thread So Fine! in Snow (white) and Gerbera (hot pink). 

Photo Shoot Bloopers

This is me. Those of you who know me personally know that I hate having my picture taken. When Angela Walters (follow her on twitter as @AngelaFMQ, or find her blog here) asked me to be a part of her Business of Quilting series, I was more than happy, until I read that she needed a picture of me, too. Oh joy! Fortunately, my husband is really smart when it comes to figuring out how to use my Nikon D60. He took a great shot of me for the blog series (see above) along with a few bloopers, which I thought I should share, just to keep it real! :)  Be sure to hop on over to Angela's blog and read her Business of Quilting series. It's pretty great, and I am honored to be a part of it.

 

High School Reunion Quilt

 I was asked to help with a quilt for a raffle-type auction at my ten year high school reunion. The gal who pieced the quilt got it to me in May. Isn't it cute? I love the colors together.

I quilted an all-over, free hand floral design. I sewed the label onto the back of the quilt before I quilted it (stay tuned for a post on that later in the week!).

Here's the deets:
Piecer: class officer for the CHS Class of 2002
Quilter: me
Pattern: floral design, E2E, freehand
Thread: So Fine! Daffodil
Batting: Hobbs 80/20

Lone Star Quilt

I have a client who has these beautiful Lone Star quilts made whenever a member of her family gets married. This is the 4th one I've quilted for her.

During the whole quilting process I posted photos of my progress to Twitter. First there was the upper border, where I quilted a meandering feather to fill the 12+ inches.

Then there was the first third of the quilt, where I again used a meandering feather to fill the setting squares and triangles behind the lone star.

If you look closely (and if you click on the image to blow it up, I apologize for the quality....these pictures were all taken at night using my iPhone), you'll see that I did a cathedral window-style quilting in the diamonds.

And, due to popular demand, here's a quick shot of the quilting on the back side of the quilt. I love the contrast the light yellow thread has with the solid black fabric. You can see here that in the inner border I quilted a paisley echo design.













And here's a partial view of the quilt front. I wish I had more space to lay the quilt out so you can see the whole thing.

Here's the deets:
Batting: Hobbs 80/20
Thread: So Fine! Daffodil
Quilting Pattern: free hand: meandering feather in outer border and background/setting squares/triangles; cathedral window in star diamonds; echoed paisley design in inner border.

Keeping it Real

I've taken the bulk of the week off from blogging. Normally I spend all day Monday writing my blog posts for the week and schedule them out so that they'll automatically post for me. This week, though, I took the entire day Monday to work on my books. I was sooo behind! I had to do books from March, April, and May. I say this every time, but I swear I am never going to get that far behind again! (until September hits and I'm doing three months worth of books again!)

So, in case you think that my whole life is sunshine, roses, and quilting (oh I wish!) here is a quick keeping it real post. Don't worry, I will post more detail and info about the quilt shown here next week, with a better (read: up close) photo.

First up, last Saturday was my 10 year high school reunion. I was approached back in January about donating some fabric for a quilt, and donating the quilting for it. I agreed, and in May the gal who made the quilt dropped it off to me. It's a really cute quilt, inspired by the Surprisingly Super Simple quilt pattern I was using to make a quilt for B when she came over for the initial quilt consultation in March. Early last week I got it finished and bound and sent off, just in time for the reunion.

My life has been pretty hectic with this little one around now. She definitely keeps me on my toes! There is no such thing as "stick her in her high chair and let her eat finger foods" because the finger foods inevitably end up scattered across my not-so-clean kitchen floor. Sadly my house is in desperate need of cleaning, but that is so far down my list of things to do that mopping the floor on my hands and knees will probably get done on the 12th of NeverBut she's such a cutie, isn't she? We just bought this fun play center for the shop, so she can play while I work. She loves it, except for the fact that she's so little that she can't reach the hanging toys. Other than that, she loves it. :)

She's also obsessed with plastic water bottles. We've been trying to be healthier at our house this summer, and one was is to drink a TON of water. We bought cases of water on sale at our local market and have slammed through them. She gets to play with the empty bottles, and it is definitely one of her favorite things.

To add a little stress to my life, my 5 1/2 year old has decided that he (finally) likes to color, just not on paper. I caught him the other day coloring on my husband's white XBOX controller with orange marker. Ugh! We had the "only color on paper" talk, and I was sure that would be the end of it for a while.

Of course, I was wrong! Two days later, I was sitting on my couch and I looked over at the stairs. There was a nice little smiley face smiling back at me. I smiled and turned away before doing a double-take. What the heck?! There was a smiley face looking at me! I walked up the stairs to find this -> colored in brown crayon on the wall above the stairs. He was so proud of himself, too, when I called him over to talk to him about it, that he took my free hand (I was carrying B) and dragged me down the hall to see what he had done to his door.

Yep, that's right. His door. He wrote his name, quite nicely, across the front of his door.

Then he pointed to his wall. By this time my husband and I were trying so hard not to burst out laughing. It was so funny. But the last thing we wanted to do was laugh at his naughty behavior. So instead, we laugh at his naughty behavior behind his back. :)

Anyway, back to his wall.... He drew a lovely picture of him and his sister. I mean, it really was sweet that he wanted to draw a picture of him and B, but not on the wall.  We had to explain, again, that we "only color on paper" and that since we are currently renting, we can't color on any of the walls. He looked sad for a moment, then said "Can I help you clean it up?" Yep folks, he was eager to clean up his wall art. I got out the Magic Eraser (thank goodness for Mr Clean!) and he scrubbed both walls and the door until the crayon came off.

Seriously, that child can be quite a handful, but then again, what boy isn't? But I love that kiddo so much. And he makes me laugh. So it's all worth it :) (Plus, he's pretty dang cute)

Surprisingly Super Simple

I just finished this quilt for my cousin's new baby girl. I used the Surprisingly Super Simple pattern and quilted it with a more modern design.

I quilted the background with straight lines, and did a different design in each block. (Sorry this post is so photo heavy, but I wanted to show each block design).

I forgot to attach a quilt label to the back of the quilt before I started quilting, so I left the last block unquilted and turned it into the quilt label.

Here's a view of the quilt back. It looks really cool with the yellow minkee back.

I liked the way that the lines went around the blocks, setting them off.

Ballerina Baby Quilt

A few weeks ago I quilted this darling baby quilt for a client of mine. It had a large upper and lower border, so I split them into two different sections.

I quilted two straight lines, one inch apart, down the center of the large border and then filled the space with a string of circles. In the upper and lower sections I quilted a concentric paisley design.

In each of the appliqued circles I quilted a flower. I left the block background empty and quilted ribbons and flowers in the block sashing.