I'm including my favorite quilt in the quilt festival; The Secret LIfe of Mrs. Meatloaf. Several years ago I made a quilt featuring my cat Sam, it was called My Cat Sam and What He Dreams About at Night. In it, Sam was surrounded by pictures of birds, mice, fish and his sister Mrs. Meatloaf (he loved to chase her around). Once I finished his quilt, I realized that to be fair I needed to make one for Mrs. Meatloaf.
Now, Mrs. Meatloaf was a very soft, affectionate kitty but she was definitely lacking in brains and personality. I figured that in her dreams, she had a personality and the name for her quilt came to me in a flash. Sometimes I struggle and struggle to come up with a name for a quilt but this one was easy. Once I had the name it inspired the quilt and I tried all kinds of things I had never tried before: embroidery with fat thread in the bobbin, Angelina fibers, glitter, beads, and three-dimensional flowers.
Here's a picture from the quilt label of the real Mrs. Meatloaf looking at her quilted self. Mrs. Meatloaf has gone on to Kitty Heaven, so I treasure her quilt.
Check out the rest of the quilts at Amy's blog: http://amyscreativeside.com/2011/10/28/bloggers-quilt-festival-fall-2011/
I just finished this cute quilt for Mary - she is teaching it as a BOM at Charlotte's Sew Natural in Newton. The pattern is Joy of Life by Australian designer Rosalie Quinlan.
It took me a while to figure out what to do with it - the background is sort of randomly organized and that made it tricky for me but I do like the way it turned out. Thanks Mary, for using wool batting - my favorite for making the quilting really stand out!
On our way into Newton the other day, Peter and I waited for a train loaded with wind turbine blades - well over 50 of them. They are probably each about 60 feet long; that was a slow moving train. If it's one thing we have plenty of in Kansas - it's wind! (and grasshoppers, and sunflowers, and quilters, and...)
Karen has been waiting so long for me to get to her quilts; here is the first one. Isn't it a wonderful quilt? Her workmanship is amazing - I can't imagine piecing those blocks with the circles. Her applique is also excellent.
She says she found the pattern in Quilters Newsletter Magazine in a 2003 issue and the block is known as Wagon Wheel, Rising Sun and Clog Wheel. The fabrics are from a collection of Cocheco 1880 reproduction fabrics - the colors are so wonderful. I'm not usually a big fan of reproduction fabrics but I do like these.
Karen sent me more detailed information about the pattern: It was in the November 2001
issue of Quilters Newsletter and the pattern is 'Ezekiel's Wheel' by Cindy Vermillion Hamilton.
I recently read the categories for MQS and discovered they have changed the Miniature category: wholecloths are no longer eligible. Well dang! That's all I have time to get finished between customer quilts - I don't know what I'll have to enter this year.
At last I can post a picture of the Prairie Quilt Guild Opportunity Quilt that I have been working on since last January! My committee tried to keep it under wraps until it could be presented to the guild, which we did this week. The drawing for the quilt will be at our quilt show this June.
The pattern is Applique Affair by Edyta Sitar which we made larger by doing different borders. I designed the borders but fortunately did not have to applique them because they have about a zillion pieces in them. My friend Siriporn Hollar did the quilting - and it is gorgeous! I keep the quilt on my guest room bed so it doesn't get creases from being folded. I must say, it looks REALLY nice there - I will have to buy some tickets!
I did make this quilted bag from the quilt scraps to use as a prize for the guild member that sells the most tickets. I found the pattern in an old issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. After starting the applique I realized it was a pattern by Edyta Sitar - how appropriate! I quilted it on my sewing machine and whined the whole time that I wished I had done it on my longarm. It's so much easier to see what you're doing on the longarm and much easier to get even stitch length. You'll notice I didn't include any close-ups of the quilting.
And finally...
Have you ever seen a pregnant grape?
Here is Carrie Nelson's Eventide again; this is Leslie's quilt. She says she got stuck in the middle of making this and got mad at it so she put it on her "hateful" shelf until she could face it again. It is a pretty quilt, I'm glad she finished it!
I was trying to bring out the big stars which kind of get lost in all the scrappy-ness.
This is Jackie's first quilt! I can't believe she decided to piece circles for her first effort as a
quilter.
The other day my friend Madeline came by in her old 1942 Chrysler so I could admire it. It's in primo condition inside and out. I'm not up on old cars but Peter said that not many were made during the war years, so this is probably very collectible.
