Currently on the longarm...

Here's a pic of what I'm working on at the moment.  I'm quilting a quilt for a friend in my quilt guild.  It has a lot of different things in the top, sort of like a sampler, so it's a lot of fun to quilt.  Many different types of blocks and piecing, some applique, etc.  So it's fun to decide what to do where and try out some new things on it.

Who says ironing pads have to be ugly?

I have quite a few ironing pads, in different sizes - 2' x 4' is the biggest, and then there's 2' x 2', 1' x 1', 12" x 18", 13" x 13", and 18" x 18".  I just like having a lot of different size ironing pads for whatever I'm working on.  When I originally made them, I used a bland, solid beige duckcloth on them.  That was before I realized that duckcloth comes in a LOT of great looking patterns.  So I decided to recover them and jazz them up some.  Melissa picked out the green and I picked out the blue.  I really like how they turned out.  No more boring ironing pads!

Remembering Ted Wade

A couple of months ago, a fellow history and genealogy friend, Deb Wade, asked me if I could make her a memory quilt from her husband's shirts.  Her husband, Ted Wade, had recently passed away on March 10, 2012.  I was honored to be asked to do something like this that was so deeply personal for her.  She brought me a large box of Ted's shirts which were mostly western style with the shell button snaps.  She also brought me a vest and tie that Ted liked to wear when they went out somewhere special together.  She asked if I could applique that into the center of the quilt, since it was such a signature memory about Ted.  I thought it was a great idea. 

So below is a picture of the finished quilt.  It's king sized, measuring 102" x 102" and features fabrics from every single shirt she brought me.  I used the shell button snap strips from the fronts of the shirts to outline the border areas as well.  After I was finished quilting it, I appliqued the vest, white shirt, and the black tie to the top of the quilt center. 

Thank you, Deb, for letting me have a special role in creating this wonderful memory of Ted for you.

(click on picture for a larger view)

 

Ted Wade

William Morris pillow

I was in the mood to make something "William Morris'y" so I pulled out one of my Michele Hill books on "William Morris in Applique" and found a block pattern to do a pillow with.  This was my first attempt at doing piping on the edging, and I like how it turned out.

Wall hanging, done!

I finished quilting the wall hanging that I was working on from the Mickey Depre workshop that we (Arkansas Quilters Guild) had back in February.  I changed up the flower heads from the ones she had, added borders, etc.  The main fabric line in this is called "Luna Notte" by 3 Sisters.  The blacks were ones that I pulled from my collection to supplement the line.  Quilted on my Gammill longarm.

Currently on the longarm....

It's been a while since I've posted at my blog, so I thought I would show what I currently have on the longarm.  It's a wall hanging that I made back in February at a workshop sponsored by the Arkansas Quilters Guild.  The guild brought in nationally known quilter and teacher Mickey Depre who gave a workshop on making the wall hanging.  It was a lot of fun.  I changed my flower heads up from the ones in her pattern, though, hers were more "whimsical" and I'm not really into whimsy.  These flower heads are based on ones that I saw in a book by Blackbird Designs.  The fabrics are from the "Luna Notte" line (except for the blacks) by 3 Sisters.  I decided to use blacks in the flower stems, petals, and borders since it's such a  dramatic color when used in a quilt work.  Hopefully I'll get this finished in the next day or so and will post a pic of it hanging on the wall!

Judy's round robin quilt

A good friend, Judy, from a quilt guild that I'm in asked if I could quilt a quilt top that she had made a while back.  It's a "round robin" quilt, meaning that she and others in her small quilting group each contributed blocks to the making of the top.  And the blocks are all spectacularly beautiful.  The center stars were pieced by Sarah Ziegenbien, a fellow guild member and quilter extraordinaire, who passed away back in 2010.  Although we discussed some possibilities for quilting it, Judy basically gave me carte blanche with the quilt, telling me to quilt it however I wanted.  So here I had before me a blank canvas of sorts, and I was ready to have some fun with the needle on it.  Below are pics of the end result (click on one for a closer view). This was a pleasure to quilt given the piecing perfection by those who made the blocks.