One Done, Many to Go!

This is a quilt made by Kathy Russie . I just finished quilting it for her on my Sunshine 16 Midarm Quilting Machine. The blocks were quilted using continuous line free motion quilting. It was lots of fun to make the plan and map out the stitches. Makes me want to get on to quilting the next one on my list!

 

Here is the sketch with the plan for quilting. The quilted rope in the borders was marked with a stencil and chalk pencil. She wanted to keep the quilting simple.

Kathie did a great job using a multitude of fabrics. It was great fun moving from block to block as no two were alike! There were so many black and white fabrics I'd never seen before! I wish I had her scraps!! These black and whites have a nice country or reproduction feel and are not stark white. I am definately an off white gal when it comes to choosing whites.

Have a great day!

 

Woolie Mammoth Give Away!

. Looks like some neat clips to try to win at Wooly Mammoth's Blog...check it out!

I am thankful today to end a very long weekend! While visiting my folks last weekend, my Dad had another heart attack...his third. He is a miracle as he is returning home today with no significant new damage, thank goodness! It's another blessing for my family, although I'm sure he does not think of it that way!! We are just so thankful, that is what I'm trying to put into words...

Here is a bit of show and tell again. This quilt is from my Secret Pal from last year, Kris, in my small group, The Rather Bees. This group has been around for about 25 years. It originally was named I'd Rather Be Quilting, then shortened to Rather Bees, and now most of us call it Bees. There are about 21 members who come throughout the year, with most meetings having anywhere from 6 to 15 gather to sew. We meet once a week and it is great fun! I am so glad to be a part of this group. This quilt was my Christmas gift at the end of last year, when my Secret Pal was revealed! Thanks Kris! I have this quilt in my front living room now, hanging over a rocking chair to show it off nicely. I love to set quilts out so I can see them as I pass by. And I do mean pass by...you know how it is when you don't have time to sit down and enjoy!! LOL

Take care ladies. Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

A Blessing we are so Grateful for...

My youngest daughter is 16 and has had a severe allegy to milk all her life. She has gotten better over the years, but still had terrible reactions if she had any milk products of any kind. Knowing she would be off to college and on her own in a few years was cause for many sleepless nights for me...what would she eat at college? How careful would the cafeteria employees be? Would her roommate be able to tell if she was in need of help, etc... Recently, we learned about a doctor in town who does allergy desensitization for milk, peanuts, wheat and eggs. We looked into it and low and behold, Katie was a perfect candidate! We have been at this very diligently for 6 months and this week she has a new life...she is able to eat any and all foods, even if they have milk in them! And, she is drinking milk! In fact, for the rest of her life she will have to drink milk every day like medicine to keep the immunity up. this program has been a miracle for her! She had M&M's for the first time and said she couldn't believe they were so good...then a Snickers bar, and tonight Doritos! She's going to be tasting lots of goodies for a while to see what she's been missing out on! If I never had those goodies and I could try them, you better believe I would pig out! She is such a healthy kid, she is having bite size and only one a day...can you imagine being so restrained? There is a reason I am a chubby mama! LOL

Here she is on her Graduation Day from the milk food challenges! It's been hard work, but SO worth it!!

A new quilting project...

Here is a quick pic of a new quilt on my To Do list. It is a Lori Smith Pattern called Mary Katherine's Pride. It was made by our local TAG ( The Appliqué Group) for the Des Moine Area Quilt Guild's charity auction in August. Many ladies in TAG made the blocks and several others put the top together. I will quilt it and someone else will put on the binding. A great group effort for a great cause. Our guild has a huge charity auction each year. We auction off baskets of goodies and beautiful quilts, along with a "Mall in the Hall" to sell smaller items, all donated by our many members. When someone purchases an item or wins the auction, she may choose from several local charities. It's a great cause and a fun way to raise money! Check out the Des Moines Area Quilt Guild at www.dmaqg.org. It is a great guild!

 

While I was in Kansas City last weekend I went to the International Machine Quilters Showcase. I saw some really beautiful quilts there and of course found a few new toys! Pictured above is the pounce chalk marking tool I have had for a while now. My new toy is the stencil from the same company that makes the Perfect Pounce Pad. These stencils are very flexible and are basically a screen print to use with the Pounce Pad. Worked pretty well as you can see! Now I can quilt it easily and use free motion quilting on the flower blocks and borders. Can't wait to get started, but must finish my current quilt before I start another...won't take long!

 

Quilt Market Mania!

Here is Charmed Beginnings, my wool quilt design at the Blackberry Primitives Booth at the KC Quilt Market. Sorry the colors aren't too good, but I think you can get the idea...

And here it is shown from the aisle...It's about 45" square and next I'll post a few close up pics so you can see it better...

The color is much better in these pictures...the wools are such beautiful colors.  Cindy and Tonja really do a nice job getting the perfect colors.  It was lots of fun to work on this one!  You can see their offerings of all these beautiful colors at www.blackberryprimitives.com .  Lucious!

This is a picture of what I'm calling Market Mania...the way it felt while waiting to get into Sample Spree.  This convention center stretches over 3 city blocks and this hallway runs the entire length of the 3 blocks.  Many of these women arrived a few hours early in order to be first in line to get into the "sale" event of the week.  Many of the vendors will show a "sample" of what they will be offering at market.  A new line of fabric, a new way of presenting, a new product, etc.  It was great fun to see all the store owners so excited to see what was going to be available for ordering the next day!  It was a bit like this again the next morning upon arriving at the time the market opened, only everyone was globbed up in a bunch around the escelators we used to enter the event.  The first few ladies on the escelators cheered and waved to all of us below!  It was cute... It's nice to see folks so interested in the passion so many of us share!

While there I visited with many very talented designers and store owners who came from near and far, from Oregon to Florida, Canada to Texas, and many places in between.  Everyone was so nice and helpfull.  I came home inspired and excited to get busy once again.  Such beautiful fabrics and colors to create with! I got a few new products to try out...I'll let you know how I like them once I give them a whirl...   See you in a few days!

To Market, To Market... And a Sneak Peek!

Well, I'm getting ready to head off to KC for Quilt Market tomorrow!  As my pattern business has begun to grow a bit more, I am going to investigate what market is all about.  I've got my new business cards ready to go...now I just need to get myself packed up and ready!  I had fun designing my cards...hmmm I see a little inspiration in that top border...

One of my latest designs will be published by Cindy and Tonja at Blackberry Primitives and I will be spending a little time in thier booth as a guest designer.  I am looking forward to meeting many new people and know I will enjoy the day!  Here is a sneak peek at Charmed Beginnings... a little bit of sunshine, charm blocks and... is that a bird tail?  What else will you find in this quilt?

Charmed Beginnings is 100% wool, so it was wonderful to work with and finished so quickly!  Cindy and Tanja do a great job at dying many beautiful colors.  Their wool feels great and has beautiful texture.  Find thier goodies at www.blackberryprimitives.com .  This pattern and kit should be showing up soon on their website. 

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Hello Beautiful Moms out there!  Happy Mother's Day to you!  I've had a wonderful Mother's Day Weekend since my parents came here for a visit to be with my family and I.  As my three girls get older we find it is hard to have those "everyone included" weekends since everyone is always going in a different direction.  We've had a good time together and have had a very lazy Mother's Day...Church followed by a good steak dinner!  Just woke up from a little snooze...Talk about LAZY!  LOL  I hope your Mother's Day has been just as wonderful as mine!

Mother's day is always the day we plant our garden or get our flowering pots ready to enjoy.  When the kids were little, they enjoyed helping and getting dirty...the last few years my hubs and I have done it on our own...we'll see if we can get it done today.  I'll have to take advantage of all the help I have while they are all here at once!  Above is my favorite little gardening quilt.  I made it long ago and no longer have the pattern to give the designer credit...but it's such a cute saying.  It says "Tickle theEarth With a Hoe and she Laughs a Harvest!"  So true, so true!

Show and Tell...

 

This quilt was so much fun to make. The sampler blocks were done using Penny Harren's method of piecing. I love Appliqué and was in the process of finding a good way to make a sampler by hand, when Penny came to teach at our guild.

I tried traditional piecing by hand where you draw the lines with a template. I learned to make quilts using this technique, but found I was not enjoying it this time around! Then I made my own templates for each block using the English Paper Piecing method. I liked this way since I do enjoy English Paper Piecing. BUT once I learned to Piece the way Penny taught us, I really enjoyed making all of these blocks. They are 6" in size.

My quilting friends know that I always say I am NOT a "Piecer" since Appliqué is my favorite. Now that I have made all of these blocks and set them in a midst of pieced stars, I can't really say that any longer! The center is adapted from a book called "Folk Art Flowers" by The Buggy Barn, the blocks are from Penny Harrin's 1st and 2nd "Pieced Appliqué" books. I designed the setting with the pieced stars and the applique borders(which went a lot quicker than the setting strips! After all, I am NOT a Piecer... LOL ). The name of the quilt is "One Star Too Many" because I thought I'd NEVER finish all those sashing stars!!

One more "tell" about his quilt...I ran out of the background fabric with a few sashing strips left to make. Talk about panic..oh my! I went online and did a search from the selvage by name and numbers and finally found a piece 5/8th of a yard! If I had not found that background available I may still have a pile of blocks and sashing in my sewing room! Three cheers for keeping the salvages with numbers!

Have any of you run out of a major fabric in the middle of a project? If so, how did you handle it?? Tell me the story!!

 

Spring has Sprung and so has my Blog!

Good Day and welcome to my new blog! I hope to bring you inspiration to get some fun quilts and projects done! I am a a wife and mother of three daughters. There is no one better to make a quilt for than those you love! To introduce myself, today I'll share a few quilts and other projects that I have designed.

This quilt is called In the Orange Grove. It started off with a new obsession with wool applique and moved on to mixing cotton with the wool. I've included reproductions along with Kaffe fabrics to add a whimsy to this traditional looking pattern. I really got out of the box on this one...my usual colors are reds, blues, greens, browns and tans. I love the mix of fabric styles and colors in this one. It was so much fun to work on!

These are the window treatments I made for our family room. The windows are facing east and the sun is blinding bright in the morning so I had to cover them very soon after moving into the house seven years ago. These add a personal touch to our home and keep us comfortable in the mornings since they prevent the sun from shining right into our eyes during our morning coffee.

Once the window treatments were finished, I had to try something new on our table! Our oak table was damaged in the move, and this was my old crafting table. It had paint globs and scratch marks and was very used and abused. It is over 50 years old and was my parents' first table. I gave it a stripping, then drew and painted the pattern from the window treatments on top, carved around the borders of the shapes, stained and varnished it and covered it with glass so it would not get damaged again! This is sitting just outside our family room. It is an old heirloom made new again.

This quilt is called Brookshire Star and is one of my favorites. This quilt matches my window treatments and kitchen table. Once the window treatments and table were finished, I had to make a quilt to go along with them! I'm not usually this matchy matchy, but it all coordinates well without being too much. The long room consists of the kitchen, dining and family rooms so all these items are spread out. This quilt is done all by machine; machine applique and machine quilting. I would like to make another someday with needleturn and hand quilt it for a more rustic look. Maybe I'll use some of the wools that I'm so in love with now!

~~ Happy May Day by the way!! This is my garden at the front door and my grand-dog Jersey on the left and my dog Ginger on the right!

That's all I'll post for now...I'll post more pics soon so we can get to know each other!