A quilt for Autumn

Barb had me quilt this leafy wallhanging for her.  She says she has a spot in her house where she hangs a quilt that she changes with the seasons.


(So many people have asked about the pattern:  it is from Judy Martin's book, Cookies and Quilts, which is on sale right now on her website.)

I used gold metallic thread in the darker parts of the quilt and it is very sparkly in person but doesn't show real well in the photos.

I was excited to hear that my miniature Itty Bitty Boutis won a 3rd place ribbon at Road to California.  The quilts are gorgeous - check out the winners at: http://www.road2ca.com/2012winners/road/winners.html

Rita's quilt and some big artichokes

This is Rita's quilt, made as a Christmas present for her Mother-in-law.  What a nice gift!  It's a big quilt and Rita did a nice job on the piecing.

It's a busy design, so it's a little hard to see the quilting.


We bought artichokes for dinner last night and they were so huge that Peter wanted to pose with them, just to prove his head is a little bigger than they are. 

Oklahoma City Winter Quilt Show

We had a great day for a trip to Oklahoma City yesterday, it was sunny and mild and we zipped down with little traffic - It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Wichita.  The Oklahoma City Winter Show has lots of vendors and a small judged show.  Although small, there were some really nice quilts entered.

This hand quilted beauty won Best of Show:

 This pretty quilt combines embroidery and  beautiful quilting, it won Best Traditional quilt:

 

My quilt, Tree of Life -  with Bugs, won Best Innovative Quilt.  Yippee!

Joe and Amy Hunter are our Innova dealers and Amy is also a very talented quilter.  Her quilt won Viewer's Choice:

 

I enjoyed seeing several of Charlotte Hickman's quilts including her Daylilies:

My friend Carol Elmore was at the show doing quilt appraisals and her husband Ron was helping.  Ron is a quilter and entered one of his quilts in the show.  He makes log cabin quilts and I'm amazed how much variety he creates with that one block.

If you have every shipped a quilt you know how nerve-wracking that experience can be.  Here is a post on Ann  Fahl's blog that I suggest you read:  http://www.annfahl.blogspot.com/.  She has a scary quilt-shipping story and some good tips on shipping your quilt.


And thanks to Mayleen, who is always impressed (not always favorably) by Peter's wienie recipes, here is a website to check out: http://www.hotdogprofits.com/blog/wierd-hot-dogs-woah/,

Quilts and wienies

I finished Julie's version of the Joy of Life wallhanging.  She used machine applique, and did a very neat job of it.

I tried to keep some puff in the quilt, rather than quilting it into submission which is my usual method!

Tomorrow we are headed to Oklahoma City for the OKC Winter Quilt Show, so I should have pictures to post soon.

In the meantime here is a photo that I know Mayleen especially will appreciate: Peter's latest wienie recipe!  He calls it " Wienie a la Pork-u-pine.  Bon appetit!

Folk Art Wedding for Karen

This is the last of Karen's tops that I have quilted for her.  This is an older pattern of Robyn Pandolph called Folk Art Wedding.  It has about a million itty bitty little  pieces which Karen has appliqued beautifully.

 

She had already marked it in pencil for hand quilting - that made it really handy for me to do the crosshatching.  I did quilt between her lines to make the crosshatching smaller.



It has been amazingly warm here in Kansas, up close to 70 degrees this week. 

What I did on my Christmas vacation

I finished Ann's quilt!  It took a long time to quilt, but that was my choice Ann, so don't feel guilty.   I used two cones of Superior Bottom Line thread - that's 6000 yards and a lot of that ended up in the garbage can.  I swear I ripped out more stitches than I put in. 
 

This is the first time I have used two batts, a thin cotton and Hobbs wool. I like the way it looks but it sure makes for a heavy quilt.

The cross hatching in the center took especially long.  I drew the design first and didn't have a ruler that exactly matched the curve I needed.  I had read about someone who made their own templates using three layers of kiddie craft foam that are glued together.  That sounded like a great idea so I bought some and cut a template - I could cut it with scissors and it was like cutting through butter.  Unfortunately, it was about as useful as a template made out of butter; it was so soft that the foot kept mooshing up against it making a wobbly line.


I was afraid I was going to have to do something different in the center and it was really my favorite part so I hated to change it.  Peter suggested trying 1/4 inch balsa wood so we tried that.  It also was soft and easy to cut with a craft knife but held up a little better when I used it to quilt.  Still, I killed a few but it was for a good cause.  (I named them too)  It's not a technique I recommend!

The quilt is so heavily quilted that from the back it looks like a wholecloth quilt.

Christmas Craziness

In the midst of Christmas Craziness I haven't had time to post.  Now the shopping is done, the presents are shipped and I'm back to trying to finish Ann's quilt.  I promised it to her before Christmas but I will be lucky to finish it by New Year's at this rate.  Here is a picture of it on my machine before I started the background quilting-  I always forget how long it takes to do heavy background quilting.


Ann invited me to join her group to do some dyeing at her house.  She had everything set up and totally organized (her Nurse genes were showing)  I tried to take pictures of the group and in them Ann was always blurred, always in motion!  I ended up with some nice fat quarters that I will use and a few real dogs that will make good rags.

Carol and Ann at work

Speaking of dyeing, I mentioned that Sheri's beautiful Storm at Sea quilt bled when she blocked it.  Many thanks to Vicki Welsh who responded to my request for suggestions. She referred us to one of her previous posts about hand-dyed fabrics bleeding; http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/field_trips_in_fiber/2011/08/color-fastness-of-hand-dyed-fabrics.html and as an experienced hand-dyer had some really helpful ideas.


Sheri ended up soaking the quilt in her whirlpool tub in hot water with Synthrapol.  It took several long soaks but the quilt came out 99 % clean with just a few very faint shadows from the blue fabric bleeding. 
Thanks again, Vicki!  Here's a happy Sheri with her finished quilt: