A new quilt

I haven't had anything to post for a while because I have been busy working on a large wholecloth of my own.  I won't post pictures of it just yet, but this is some of the thread I'm using.  You can see from this that it's not going to be a traditional whitework quilt!

 

 

Since the quilt I worked on with Gail Stepanek is now in Houston all judged and ready to hang in the show, Gail told me I could go ahead and post pictures.  This is Mistaken Identity and I think it's a beauty!  Gail's workmanship is impeccable and I loved working on it with her. 

When I asked her if she had any suggestions for the quilting she thought a radiating design might be appropriate.  That seemed like a good idea to me so I went with that.

Working on the dark fabric was a challenge and I was very thankful to have my little light from IKEA.  But it was still hard to see when I did the tiny stipple around the feathers.  I ended up drawing over that area with white chalk and I could then see my stitches as I
quilted.

 

 

 

The chalk wipes off easily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are having beautiful fall weather here in Kansas.  This is a neighborhood cat enjoying the sun in my bag of weeds. He looks very Halloween-y.

 

 

 

 

 

Fall and yarn bombing

This sculpture by Tom Otterness appeared in the Wichita paper last week after being 'yarn bombed'.  I really like the sculpture unclothed, but with all the little ankle warmers it is too cute!

It feels like fall now in Kansas; the days are still warm but the nights cool down comfortably.  I'm sure the farmers see these as a pest, but they sure are pretty along the roads.

Thank you to all my blog friends for your condolences .  Every comment meant a lot to me - thank you so much!

He's gone

I lost my sweetie.

 

 

Peter Hutchison

May 12, 1938 - September 17, 2012

Thank you Madame President

i

 

In Prairie Quilt Guild, my guild in Wichita, traditionally the past president is in charge of making a quilt for the outgoing president with the help of the rest of the Board.  It was my job this year to come up with a quilt for Gail.  Because she loves old quilts and studies their history, I chose to make an antique-style signature quilt. 

 

 

 

 

The Board members made the star signature blocks and I did the rest.  Most of the fabric comes from Barbara Brackman's Lately Arrived from London fabric line.  The center medallion I found at Reproduction Fabrics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted the look of trapunto without the hassle of cut - away trupunto or the heft of two batts.  So I cheated and just cut strips of wool batting which I then glued with Elmer's purple school glue stick to the back of the quilt in the borders where I wanted the feathers to stand out.   I quilted heavily around the feathers and since I only used wool batting, it doesn't feel stiff.  Some times cheating pays off!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was not able to be at the meeting yesterday when she received the quilt - I hope she likes it!

 

 

 

 

 

Critters

 

 

 

 

This is Trudy's quilt, the very last of my customer quilts, and she has been patiently waiting for me to finish it.  Trudy does gorgeous needleturn applique, but was inspired by Susan Carlson's book Serendipity Quilts to make this raw edge applique quilt.  I think she did a fabulous job!  One of the best parts of this quilt is it's name - Frankly Scarlet.

 

 

 

 

To continue with the animal theme, this is Ollie.  He wants so badly to adopt me!  He showed up about a month ago and I just hate to take him to the Humane Society - he obviously was somebody's cat.  I don't know if he was dumped or is lost but he is the friendliest cat.  To me, anyway.  He scares my cats away and won't let them in the house which is why I need to find a home for him. He has tried to make friends with them but they won't have any of it.  Any takers?

 

 

 

 

 

Just look at that face!  He loves quilts too.

No traditional feathers here!

 

 

 

 

This is Susan's quilt which has taken me weeks to finish since I only have a few hours each day to quilt.  Peter is now off of chemo and we have called in Hospice - they are such a help.

 

The border fabric on this quilt is wild!  Susan has done a wonderful job of finding fabrics to go with it.  At first I was stumped trying to come up with ideas for quilting  - my old standby of traditional feathers just didn't seem right here.  I ended up using the leaves in the fabric for inspiration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My sister Kathy and BIL Don came to visit last week.  We had a wonderful  visit and celebrated both Kathy and my birthdays.  Here is a picture of me opening my birthday card which had flying pigs on it.  Fortunately I had my pig nose handy.  For some reason I can't make this photo any larger.  Maybe that's a blessing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the way I saw Don much of the time - gazing into his iPod.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a great video of my sister cutting open this watermelon but couldn't get it to download properly from my phone.

 

 

 

 

 

One more customer quilt to finish and I can work on my own quilts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joy of Life

Another Joy of Life quilt, this one by Katherine.  This is the third one of these that I have quilted and they all turn out a little different.  I still like this design and enjoy quilting it.

 

This is the first year in a long time that I haven't had a quilt of my own to enter in Houston.  However, I did collaborate on a quilt with Gail Stepanek and we heard recently that it was accepted into the show. I'll post pictures once the show opens in November.