Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Lots of feathers




This is another of Karen's well-made quilts.  It is really square, although in my photo it looks a little goofy.  Her colors seem wonderfully adventuresome for a reproduction quilt: the green in the border is a bit muckier in person and the pink is brighter. 




She asked for lots of feathers and I was happy to comply.
I have one more of Karen's quilts to do but  it will have to wait until January.


Saturday, November 26, 2011

A funky Karen Stone New York Beauty




Susan says she started this quilt 15 years ago in a class with Karen Stone, in fact, one of her border fabrics is autographed by Karen Stone! (I tried to quilt around it). Usually when I quilt a scrappy quilt for someone I will see lots of familar fabrics, some that I have in my own stash. But not in this quilt! It was made about 5 years before I started quilting.  The fabrics are almost vintage according to Susan, and definitely funky, but somehow they all work together.

Susan didn't want everything SID, so it was a challenge to find other things to do with all those scary little points.








Here is Rohrschach, the wildest and craziest of our four rescued feral cats. He loves to have access to his crunchy bowl all day long. but freaks out if while I hold the door for him I happen to be holding my purse. Oooh - so scary!









Sunday, November 20, 2011

Storm at Sea - finished!





Sheri's quilt took longer than planned: I always forget how long it takes to do lots of SID and background quilting.  (Picking out stitches added time too)  Sheri spent a lot of time on it too, and said she put in plenty of time ripping out seams and resewing. Her top was nice and square and she took the time to serge the edge which I really appreciate.










It turned out pretty, front and back.








Monday, November 14, 2011

Storm at Sea





Here are my friends Jackie and Sheri in front of my quilt Wild Child at the AQS show in Des Moines last month. My quilt didn't win a ribbon but something interesting has developed because of it being exhibited there.  I can't say more just yet...






Sheri brought me her beautiful pieced Storm at Sea top to quilt for her.  It's a challenging pattern to piece and also it is challenging to come up with an idea how to quilt!  I did what I usually do when I'm trying to come up with ideas; I hung the top on my design wall and took a picture. 







Once it is printed out on regular computer paper I can easily draw and erase on it.  I made templates out of two thicknesses of freezer paper and I was ready to quilt!  I should have paid more attention to my drawing - I quilted an entire row wrong and spent about four hours this morning picking thread out. If I can manage to follow the pattern it will be pretty - here is the back of the quilt. (There is a mirror on the table beneath the rollers)





This is Miss Rosie curled around the frost-blackened basil bush - it sure looks uncomfortable to me!







Sunday, November 6, 2011

Aunt Grace's Garden Party











This is Ruth's quilt that she has been waiting for me to finish for her.  It has been hanging at Charlotte's Sew Natural as a shop sample where Ruth has been teaching the class with this as a BOM.  It was a pleasure to quilt because she is a careful piecer plus she decided to use a wool batt - my favorite!  This is Aunt Grace's Garden Party by Judy Rothermel.














I also finished up a little wallhanging for Marsha the Thimbleberries lady.