On/Off the frame

Lovely applique and lovely quilt. Just pulled it off and have to check it for threads and missed spots. This is a Cathy Van Bruggen quilt pattern www.cathyvb.com. Pattern is Garden Walk. Cathy"s patterns have such fun elements. The bugs, butterflies, animals and flowers  are unique and work up to a beautiful quilt. My client Mary, did a wonderful job on this and the animals are darling! Very fun to quilt . I used a White Glide , brown invisible, and a variegated blue Glide thread.

Quilt Show ! Quilt Show!

 

KALEIDOSCOPE  OF QUILTS

Come see this beauty and lots more at the Orange Grove Quilters Guild show.
Nov 2 & 3
Friday 12:00--6:00
Sat      9:00-4:00
Lots of quilts, vendors, opportunity baskets, door prizes, & quilt appraiser.
Featured Quilter Mary O'Driscoll and her fabulous quilts!

Acker Hall , Garden Grove Methodist Church
12741 Main Street, Garden Grove, CA

Food, FREE PARKING
Admission $ 7.00


info : www.orangegrovequiltersguild.com

MQX 2012

I recently attended the Machine Quilters Expo in Portland Oregon. It is a show and classes for all machine quilters. Domestic & LongArm. Here are a few of the absolutly fabulous quilts. The quilting is over the top exquisite!

Gina Perkes

close up of the quilting

Deb Levy

quilting is fabulous on these hand dyed & painted pieces

Carnival Stampede by Cathy Wiggins

look at the detail in the quilting!

If you get a chance to attend this show, run and be first in line!

Page Johnson, lots of thread work

Close up detail

Page Johnson

the beautiful blue is added after stitching with paint

 

These are just a small sample of the wonderful eye candy on display. In addition there were vendors,every model of machine to try out and play on, and great classes. I'll be back next year!

Double Wedding Ring -Awesome!

Just had to share this quilt from one of my favorite clients. Merci did a great job on this quilt and it quilted up so pretty. Her fabric choices to create the shading in the rings are perfect. .

We used  So Fine White in the body of the quilt and So Fine 713 variegated green in the border.

 The multicolored green ranged from light, leafy, medium to dark, no white, all shades of green. It was Merci's idea and really sets off the quilt.

The quilt patterns are feathers in the centers and melons and a curved crosshatch in the setting triangle blocks.  I find the straight lines of the crosshatch pair well with the feather motifs. They compliment each other so nicely.

 The border is a small feather with some little curly sprays. it looked super stitched out.

I recently gave a talk to my local Longarm Guild and showed this quilt. It got lots of " oohs & ahs".

 

Double wedding ring and Dresden Plate are some of my favorite quilt styles and look so good when quilted. They really come alive.As you know, this is not an easy pattern to piece. You will find a lot of these tops in trunks uncompleted. So give yourself a high five Merci. This one is gorgeous!

Out Of The Darkness----finished !

Before

 

 

 

After

 

And a lot of in between! This is a beautiful all pieced design . The quilt pattern is by Pam Bono and My client told me for the border alone she cut 110  1 inch squares!! How is that for dedication. This would have taken me forever to piece.
Lots of thread and fills in both black and a variegated thread in the outer border. Butterflies flitting all over and a hummingbird in the center. Variegated thread was also used in the flowers and a green in the leaves.

Diana did an excellent job on this quilt and it was way fun quilting. It is home being bound now and she is working on another Bono design!

Ohio Rose-Finally Finished!

I finished this quilt today. It has been hanging around for about 2 years in various stages of doneness.
I purchased this antique top when I first started longarming as a practice piece. It had several issues..fullness, uneven border, age spots and discoloration in the background fabric. After looking at it for awhile I decided I wasn't expert enough to tackle it and put it away. I pulled it out a couple years ago and started on it. Then life got in the way and it sat for a while. I took a look at it last week and realized it just needed the final 3 borders bottom & sides and it would be done!!!
 Loaded it up in a lull when I was waiting for an order of black batting for the next client quilt.  Did the borders! DONE!!!
 Next was the dreaded  washing and blocking. Knowing nothing about the origin of the top, I assumed it was unwashed. Soaked it with color catchers and it came out perfect. No bleeding! Still a few age spots but is cleaner and fresher. When it dries completely I will bind it. Hmmm pink or green binding? Haven't decided.
    I have been busy quilting and catching up on my orders since being sidetracked by illness in the family. Everyone is fine now and I will be posting a quilt show later.

Feels good to get one done for ME! This is going on my bed this fall/winter.
Glide thread Linen, Wool batt. (loved the batt!)

Back to Quilting !!

It seems like forever since I had a chance to blog. Had a very serious health issue with my youngest that required 20 days in the hospital. He is much better now and life is back to normal. Here are a few on/off the frame.

This is one of the log cabin blocks on the current quilt. Very pretty pastel with alternating applique blocks. Using a light sea foam blue color thread and it's looking very nice. More photos as I finish up.

Next are two more Fast 1600 Strip quilts. Both ladies chose purples but they are nothing alike!

French Ferns

Tangled

The fern quilted design is a variegated King Tut thread and the Tangled version I tried the new So Fine variegated in purples and it worked very well. No issues with either except they are both linty thread and required more diligence in cleaning out the fuzz with each bobbin change.

Glad to be back at the frame and a good start to my summer. Now if the sun would break thru the June gloom...

Gorgeous Applique

Working on this gorgeous quilt made by Madeline. The colors are so pretty and really pop against the black.

Affairs of the Heart

This quilt is expertly appliqued and with the added embroidery , it is a stunner!!

I will be changing from black thread to invisible and doing a little quilting in some of the squares that need it.

The client chose an easy , more open background fill and stitching in the ditch only where needed. This is to be a gift to some lucky person. (wish it was me!)
Freehand design, Omni Black and Whisper Touch Invisible thread. Hobbs 80/20 batt.

Finishing Up

Just completed my Urban Cabin quilt using Kaffee Fassett fabric. This is the first time using these fabrics and what fun. The colors are glorious and are beautifully set off by the black fabric. This was done using a jelly roll, but can also be made with fat quarters or yardage. 

Urban Cabin

Modern Squares pattern

I used a modern look quilting design in So Fine415 (dark maroon ). This color shows up a tad better on  on the black than black or charcoal thread.  Not that it was that critical here, but I wanted to test this color/thread out for future quilts. I often quilt on black backgrounds with lots of specialty quilting and this color makes it easier to see the quilting and photograph better. This is something to consider if you are submitting a photo of your quilt for a show and it is being chosen based on that photo....the quilting needs to show up.

Next a cute fun little quilt called Lime Pizazz...I'm sure you can see that the name fits the quilt!

Star Swirl pattern

And a few more that have been finshed for customers lately. Enjoy..

Next in line are several custom quilts and baby quilts. Lots of babies this year!

Thanks for looking!

Happy Easter

Here is a little wall hanging I did for a client last year. Searching through my pictures for an Easter related quilt. This is it. I did a lot of freehand quilting on this and it was so much fun to quilt those chicks.

Lately , I have been busy with all kinds of quilts and several king size that I will also be doing the binding on. I am trying a new approach to binding. I'm using a special 1/4 binding foot to make sure I keep the stitch width even and then flipping it to the back and sewing it down with invisible thread. We'll see how it all works out.

Here is a quilt show of some of the projects through my studio lately:

Spring Flowers

Baptist Fan quilting

Roses for Dorothy

Today is Easter, family and food.

 Wishing you all a Happy Easter !