A Quick Break

Wow, this week has just flown by! I was only going to take last weekend off from blogging but that quickly turned into the entire week. Oops! Hopefully I will be able to get back on track on Monday (I'm taking this weekend off again, too!).

Anyway, I've been super busy working on quilts to list in the Etsy shop. I just finished binding 17 quilts this month (not all of them for the shop though). Guys, these quilts are so cute I'm half tempted to just keep them all. But my husband says our baby already has plenty of quilts (she doesn't, she only has 5). So, hop on over to the Designs by Laura Jo Etsy shop and check out all of the new listings! And if there's something you want to see in the shop but I don't have it, please message, Facebook, email, or comment to me here with what you'd like to see! I'm working on getting some fun new baby things posted in the near future.

And, because I think every post should have a picture (and I'm seriously working toward being better about this!) I'll leave you with a photo of my darling kiddos actually playing nicely together. It was a rare moment. haha. :)

Flowers on a Lattice

 On this pretty quilt I quilted a flower in the red flower bits. I quilted fern leaves in the white backgrounds. And then on the lattice pieces I quilted  a back and forth design to give it a little texture.

Charity Quilt

 A friend and client of mine organized a charity auction for a little girl who needed one of those diabetic alert dogs. She brought me this quilt to quilt for the auction. Since the auction was for a diabetic alert dog, and the quilt was made out of dog fabric, I decided to quilt an all-over dog bone pattern.

The quilt pattern is a pantograph by Deb Geissler.

And as if I haven't said it enough, I LOVE how it ended up looking on the minkee back.

Halloween BOM

 Here's another photo-heavy post, but I just couldn't help it! Look how darling this quilt is! My mother-in-law made it as part of a block of the month she participated in last year.

 I quilted feathers in the triangles around these cute blocks, and stars in the center of the blocks.

In the sashing I quilted pumpkins and loops.

In the outer border I quilted leaves and loops.

 I absolutely adore these appliques! Aren't they so adorable?!

I quilted a lot of pumpkins and leaves in the blocks. I quilted around the stars and the circle appliques, and then meandered around the background.

Dr. Seuss

Isn't this such a fun quilt? I love the Dr. Seuss fabrics. They're so fun and bright.

On this quilt I quilted pebbles in the outer border in white thread.

In the center I quilted a geometric meander in a bright yellow thread.










She backed the quilt in this fun orange minkee. Have I said it before? I LOVE how quilting shows on minkee!

4th of July

 Remember the large quilt I quilted for the 4th of July last year? This is a darling table topper that the same client made out of the remnants from that quilt. She had me quilt it the same way as I did the larger version.

Hunter's Star

 This post is kind of photo heavy, but the quilt was so beautiful before it even got quilted that I just couldn't help myself but take a ton of photos.

 I love the color combination between the teal and the browns. It's one of my favorite combos.

In the background diamonds I quilted feather wreaths, and in the background squares I quilted a meander.

 I quilted feathers in the brown/teal stars.
 I love how the back looks. It's so beautiful on the back with the small brown print.

In the outer border I quilted feathers and in the teal inner border I quilted a squiggly line.

Mystery Block of the Month

 Several clients of mine participated in a local mystery quilt of the month. I had a blast quilting them up for them. Here is how I quilted one of them.

 

 In the center block I quilted a large flower. Then, in the small border around the block I quilted loops. I quilted fern-like leaves in the sashings and the outer border.

This client backed her quilt in minkee. I love how the pattern of the quilting shows up on the back.

Pops of Color

This baby quilt is so fun. I love the pops of color from the fabric, offset by the white sashing.

On this quilt I quilted an all over loop with stars design.

A Strip Quilt with a Twist

Have you made a strip quilt before? They are super easy. You take 8 quarter yard cuts of fabric, cut them into 3 different size strips, and then arrange and sew them together. Strip quilts are darling. And quick. And easy.

I love them. LOVE them.

Well this quilt is kind of the same, only different. It's got a darling appliqued flower at the bottom (or the top, whatever) and a border.

I quilted this one for Gracie Lou's, my local quilt shop up the street. Isn't it so fun!?!  And it's flannel! I did something different in each of the strips in the center. Then I swirled the flower center and stitched around the edges of the applique.

It turned out so great. If you'd like to see it in person, it's still hanging up in Gracie Lou's, so head on up there to check it out and get you some really cute flannels!

Goofing Off

This is my Marshall. He loves to goof off. Put a camera in front of him, and he'll goof off for hours. And he'll cheese it up. These are from when my husband took my photo shoot photos.

 This kid does some serious crazy acrobatics. We have to keep reminding him to be careful and not do anything too dangerous or he might rebreak his elbow! (He broke his elbow in June when he jumped off of a floor exercise trampoline and onto a yoga ball, missed and hit my parents' carpet-covered concrete basement floor - yeah, not the brightest idea, but he is a boy!)

Silly boy. I sure do love this kid. And you should see him in his glasses. A-DOR-A-BLE. He is so handsome. And he looks just like his dad, only lighter haired.

More Quilt Retreat

 Remember how I said I couldn't find the photos I took of Retreat in August last year? Well I found them! They were on my camera, of all places. Gosh, who'd have thought they'd actually be where they were supposed to be? ;)

So, here are some more photos from the retreat!

We put together fun little goodie bags for everyone who attended. I love how the black and white polka dot bags stand out against the hot pink table cloths. So fun!

Brookie got to come with me. She was such a good baby. I was worried she would be screamy and loud but she was really good. I snapped these cute pics of her before retreat started.

 She's such a happy 7 month old! And of course she wasn't really crawling much yet, so it was easy to keep her where I wanted her.

 The whole group. We had almost 50 people in attendance, up from the previous year. We will be doing it again in 2013, and hopefully we'll get even more people!

Shari Butler showing off some of her cute stuff. Her awesome husband drove her down from Davis County to come speak to us. What a trooper!


We really had a lot of fun. We did lots of make and takes and other things, but I was so busy having a good time that I kind of forgot to take pictures of that. Oops! Next time, I promise :)

Baby Gifts and a family photo

 I recently decided to throw my hat into the ring with some baby gifts. One of the things I've been working on are these darling button monograms. I have several ready-to-ship, or you can convo me to order a custom one from my Etsy shop.

And because I think this post deserves more than one photo, here's our cute little family in August. Marshall needed a family picture for his first day of school packet for Kindergarten. I'm kind of glad, because it was just the excuse I needed to get a family photo. We haven't had one taken since Marshall was 14 months old! Yeah, I know, we are totally slacking. But we are planning on getting a nice one done this spring/summer. :)

Young Women Values Quilt

 This is one of the first Young Women Values quilts I have quilted for clients.

This particular client made several different quilt tops. This was one of the first.

In the blocks in the center of the quilt I quilted flowers. In the sashing between the blocks I quilted an all-over loop with flowers.

 In the border I quilted the Young Woman Value in the color representing the value. So, Faith was White (So Fine! Snow). Divine Nature, blue (So Fine! Out of the Blue); Individual Worth, red (So Fine! Hot Chilies); Knowledge, green (So Fine! Ferarri); Choice & Accountability, orange (YLI California Poppy); Good Works, yellow (So Fine! Daffodil); Integrity, purple (So Fine! Rodeo Queen); and Virtue, gold (So Fine! Yellowstone).


She had also brought over some cute little flowers that she wanted me to stitch down in between the words. I used the corresponding color with the value and the flower to stitch each of them.

This is such a cute idea, and now that I have a daughter of my own, I figure I have 11 years to get one made for her. (Girls in our church go into the Young Women program when they turn 12.)

Mother's Day

 So remember how I said a few days ago how behind I was at posting things this year?  Well, I did this one for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day.

Yep.

Mother's Day.

She had a pile of quilts waiting to be quilted at the shop, and I decided to surprise her and get them all done. I almost did. I still have 1 or 2 left over from this year.

On this one, the fabric and pattern was so busy that I didn't really want to add to the business with an in-your-face quilt design. Instead I used a really light colored thread (I think I used So Fine! Putty, which is kind of like an ecru-colored thread). I quilted an all-over feather, going edge to edge and meandering the spine across the quilt top before filling in with the feathers.


It turned out looking great. And guess what? Mom was so surprised to find 3 of her quilts in a ginormous box on Mother's Day. She had quite the surprising holiday, especially since we had stolen her cell phone and replaced it with an iPhone 4S. heh heh heh. She wasn't too happy about having her phone stolen, but now that she knows how to use it, she totally loves it.

When I find the rest of the pictures I took of the other quilts, I will post them on here, because she did some beautiful quilt tops.

Quilt Retreat, and a Quilt

 We had our 2nd Annual Salem Days Quilt Retreat in August. And the only photo I took was this cute one of my sister-in-law Jana Nielson showing off my darling baby in one of Izzy & Ivy's patterns (the Ruthie's Romper).

Quilt Retreat was a blast though! We had Shari Butler from Doohikey Designs come down and show off her new fabric lines and patterns, and she did a cute make & take pincushion.

Jana from Izzy & Ivy showed us her new fabric line, Delicious Wishes and a few of their new patterns: Marshall's Favorite Fishin' Hole, Brooklyn's Boho Beach Wear, and Monster Mash. They are super cute, and if you haven't seen them yet, ask your local quilt shop if they have them and check them out, because they are DARLING.

We also had a few local ladies come show us some things that they do. One lady brought all of the quilts she had ever made and showed them off. She quilts them on her home sewing machine, which in my opinion is amazing. She showed us some of the different things she does to give her quilts that little extra Oomph! and I was really inspired to go home and try some of them out.

We also had a knit demo, where we showed different things you could do with old t-shirts. I demonstrated how to make a t-shirt quilt, and brought a few samples. Jana showed off some fun projects you can do with t-shirts, including super hero capes and refashioning boring basic tees into fun and fancy shirts for little girls.

We had a blast, and I really wish I had taken more photos. Maybe I did and they just didn't make it over to my computer. If that is the case, I'll be really sad.


 So, now onto the quilt I mention in this post title. :)

I had a new client come in and bring me this darling quilt top. She had never really quilted before and it was one of her first quilts.

I quilted an all-over interlocking floral design. I love this design because it gives texture and movement to the quilt top without detracting from the quilt top itself. And, it's a quick all-over. It's my new go-to design. It's so much more fun to look at than a meander, and it looks custom, when it's really just an all-over design.

Here's a close up shot of the quilting. The rings of the flowers are about 3/4 to 1 inch apart.

I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure that I used So Fine! It's a Girl! for the thread. It's a really pretty light pink color.