The final countdown

It took Barb five years to finish the applique on this beautiful quilt and she wanted it quilted with a traditional custom design.  She wanted trapunto but didn't want to use two layers of batting, which makes for a stiff, heavy quilt. We did cut-away trapunto which leaves the quilt with a wonderful soft drape so it still works as a bed quilt.  I sewed the trapunto with soluble thread and then gave the quilt back to Barb to trim.  She did a great job and managed to avoid snipping a hole in the top - that's the danger with this kind of machine trapunto. It was worth it in the end although it meant the quilt had to be washed and blocked to remove the soluble thread and blue marker.  That caused some worry for Barb because despite prewashing her fabrics three times and going to great lengths to prepare them, she had some bleeding from the pink and red fabrics.  Luckily, washing with Synthrapol took care of it.

Barb has a collection of patterns which came to her through her family.  This quilt was designed by a woman that lived in Kansas City  in the 1930's  at the same time that quilters like Rose Kretsinger and Charlotte Whitehill  in Emporia, KS were famous for their applique designs. The patterns are hand drafted and hand colored - a real treasure for Barb, who does wonderful applique.

 

 

 

This took serious marking and SID but it was worth it in the end - it's a gorgeous quilt.

Leslie has beautiful workmanship which made this a pleasure to quilt.

 

 

 

Beautiful choice of batiks for the top. 

 

 

 

 

I'm doing a countdown of quilts for customers - this leaves ten to go before I 'retire' from customer quilting.


My guild, Prairie Quilt Guild in Wichita had a wonderful program yesterday.  I'm the program chair this year but traditionally the January program is planned by the workshop chair and has always been mini workshops.  Tammy, the workshops chair and I both thought the mini workshop idea had gotten old and stale.  It's awkward to present to our large guild of around 700 members and hard to find presenters from within the guild year after year.  Tammy had the great idea of asking guild members to bring their own vintage and antique quilts that had a story - quilts that had been handed down in their family or made by friends and relatives. 


It turned out to be a wonderful program with beautiful quilts and heartwarming stories.  I hope our guild repeats the program in the future.  Here are a few of the quilts that especially appealed to me.

 I twisted Cathy's arm so she would bring this quilt which I had seen in her home.  This is a family heirloom from around 1850 and is in beautiful condition.  She also brought several embroidered samplers from around 1840 made by the same family member.  She is so lucky to have these treasures and I know she appreciates them.

There were many quilts from the 30's and I especially liked this one that Debbie brought, made by a family
friend.

Donna brought this one and the pattern looks like a lot of quilts being made today, but it is an old quilt.



I got a new roof right before Christmas.  The weather co-operated and it was finished before more typical
winter weather set in. 

 

 

They found three layers of shingles that had to be removed.

What a relief to have a new, un-leaky roof!

Well, it's been a while

Well, it's been a while.  I started my blog so I could post my customer's quilts for them to see.  I'm now trying to stop my customer quilting to have more time for my own quilts.  Also, I am co-chair of Prairie Quilt Guild's  huge biennial quilt show, Common Threads Regional Quilt Show, to be held next June 16 - 18 and  I know that will suck up more and more of my time as the show gets closer. My plan is to finish the quilts I have committed to and will then stop doing customer quilting altogether.  I read that many longarmers burn out after ten years of quilting so I am right on schedule.  I'll miss working with all my wonderful customers but I'm really looking forward to having time for my own quilts!

I went to  Houston for Quilt Festival planning to see my quilting partner Gail Stepanek but she had to cancel her plans at the last minute - darn!  My sister Kathy made it to the show so I had  company after all.  Gail and I had two quilts there and we are happy that My Brunette Whig won a third place ribbon.  Shopping is always fun there and I made a big purchase - a pair of CraftOptics glasses which are amazing!  Since I love lots of close quilting and detail they are going to be very useful.

My Brunette Whig

Catch-up photos:


It's heartwarming to be at the show and see quilting friends do well:

     Kris Vierra won the Pfaff Master Award for Machine Artistry

My fellow Kansans did well:

     Susan Stewart won The Superior Threads Master Award for Machine Artistry:  

 

 

 

 

And Janet Stone won Best of Show!

In November and December I took time off from quilting to do some painting and re-arranging in my house.

New paint, new rug:

 

 

New furniture:

New Kitty Shoes:

 

 

 

New antique clock.  I love old clocks.

I ordered a book from Amazon and it came from England in this Royal Mail bag:

 

 

 

 

I worked on some Christmas gifts but can't post pictures of most of them before Christmas.

This little pincushion I made for my bee's Christmas party gift exchange.  How did we ever get by before they invented glue guns?

I made a little, really little wholecloth quilt.  It's less than 12 inches square, I plan to enter it in my guild show this June. 

Better luck next time...

Malerie made this quilt for her husband and requested 'manly' quilting - not a lot of feathers and frills.

I ended up doing all ruler work which is slow-going but she was happy with the result.
I had to put a few feathers in, just in the center Mariner's Compass block.

Years ago I made this quilt, Red Deco, and still had many ideas for another quilt inspired by Art Deco.  This quilt was purchased for the IQA Corporate Collection by Karey Bresenhan which is a real honor but ... I miss my quilt!

 

 

 

 

 

I raided my stash of metallic fabrics and threads to make a new Art Deco style quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my new little quilt  Sunflower Deco.  It just went to it's first show, Pacific International Quilt Festival and received no recognition from the judges.  I'm disappointed but will just have to send it on to the next show and hope for better news next time!

 

 

 

Quilts and a tour

 

 

This is Charlette's sampler quilt - it is very striking in black, red and white.

 

 

 

I attempted to added some curves by quilting arcs in the sashing.
This is quilted with So Fine and the batting is Hobb's bleached 80/20.

Nancy started this quilt a few years back in a workshop with Terry Thompson.  She started handquilting it and then set it aside.  This year, in the spirit of finishing some UFO's she picked out the handquilting and gave it to me to machine quilt.

 

 

She added borders to the top and bottom of this traditional four block applique quilt.
This is quilted with So Fine and uses Hobb's wool batting.

 

 

 

Every two years my guild, Prairie Quilt Guild holds a quilt room tour, featuring 5 or 6 quilt rooms or studios belonging to guild members.  It's always fun to be nosy and see their homes all decorated with quilts and admire what they have done to organize their own quilting space. 


Leslie has a real dream studio.

Everything is beautifully designed and built in.  See the rectangle of light on the right side of this counter?

It's a built in light box!  I love it.

Her sewing machine also has a customized built in spot.

Kathy, who I neglected to get a picture of, loves antiques and vintage decorating.  I like her little milk bottles for sorting and displaying buttons.

 

 

 

This metal display board has all kinds of little magnetic boxes - very cool.  Kathy says she bought it at IKEA.

Vera had just finished making new curtains for her sewing room.  Very cute with the button trim.  She says she used a Simplicity pattern.

 

 

 

 

The most impressive part of all the sewing spaces I saw was how CLEAN they all are.  That takes a lot of work and I appreciate all of the hostesses opening their homes to the guild.

This and that

Gail Stepanek and I were asked to make a contribution to the IQA Celebrity Auction which will be held during Quilt Festival this fall.  Gail made a block using her own pattern from our quilt Stars on Mars and I tried to quilt it in the same style. 



I quilted another wallhanging for Margo, it's from Eleanor Burns' book Quilts from El's Kitchen.  I have quilted the large version of this as well but I think the small version is my favorite - it's really cute!

 

 

It will have a curved edge to the border.  Margo says it will be used as a table cover.

 

 

The  current Prairie Quilt Guild board finished their term this month and traditionally, the board members make a quilt for the outgoing president.  This is the quilt that was presented to Mayleen Vinson at our last meeting.  It's a signature quilt and  it uses many different Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

 

 

In return, the outgoing president makes a small gift for each board member.  Mayleen made us all this beautiful pincushion.  The squares are tiny, made from one inch pieces and in typically perfectionist Mayleen fashion, are perfectly pieced.

 

 

 

I am serving as our guild quilt show co-chair along with fellow guild member Cheryl Nordstedt.  We have had several planning meetings together and I always request that we meet at her house, for two reasons.  Her house is always clean and I get to see her cat Toby.  I have written about him before in my blog but just have to include this picture of  Cheryl holding him.  It's hard to describe how huge and wonderful he is and this picture shows it so well.  He is so big he looks like this picture has been photoshopped!