Thursday, March 24, 2016

Take your pick






Jan Z. saw this pattern in Paducah last year and had to have it - she loves handwork and knew she would enjoy all the embroidery.








Not a lot of room for big quilting designs but I managed to fit in some feathers.




Tammy started these feathered star blocks when I asked her to help me with piecing one for myself.  I never even finished one block and she ended up with a quilt.









I designed the border for her and love how this quilt turned out!  Quilting it was fun.

     After receiving several questions about this quilt I decided I had better include a few more details about the quilting.  I wanted to use trapunto on this quilt, the cut-away kind of trapunto, not just stacking two batts.  Because it is extremely time-consuming it's not a technique I usually do on customer quilts.  Tammy agreed to be the oneto do all the trimming away of excess batting - a process that takes many,many hours of careful snipping.  To me, it is well worth the effort because you end up with well defined quilting and a quilt that is still soft and drapes well.  I do use double batts for show quilts but you end up with a stiff, heavy quilt that works better on a wall than on a bed. 

     I marked this quilt with a blue washable marker, tracing the stems, curvy things and dots so that they would be exact.  To remove the marker and the soluble thread, this quilt had to be washed and blocked.










Typical wacky Kansas weather.  It's been dry and very windy so there are fire warnings all around the state.  Yesterday afternoon there were major grass fires in south central Kansas, tornado risk in eastern and northeastern Kansas, a blizzard in northwest Kansas and 80 degree temperatures in northeast Kansas.  Take your pick.

13 comments:

  1. Incredible! Do you draw the spines on the feathers and then quilt from there?
    On the feathered star quilt--how much of the quilting did you mark before you launched into it?
    Sorry to ask so many questions. Just love what I see and am curious about your process.

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  2. P.S I'm with Janet O on the same questions?

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  3. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

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  4. oh boy, the quilting on those are such an inspiration! wow, love it

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  5. This is just gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!!
    P.S. I'm also wondering the same thing as Leeann and Janet O??

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    1. Thanks Tina. I added the answer to their questions to the blogpost.

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  6. Congratulations on your Paducah win 2016!!!

    Jane Anderson

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  7. Your work is amazing. Saw your winner in Paxucah this year. Stunning work. Colleen Eskridge, Jens mom in law

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  8. Feathered star quilts are always amazing but Tammy's is a real standout! Hats off to both of you!

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  9. Your quilting is exquisite as always.

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