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Fun, easy patterns for all seasons!
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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

2012 Quilt Show Entries

This is my latest original creation, Trinity. It is mainly hand embroidery! And yes, that is a first place ribbon on my little quilt, of which I am SO proud, because you just don't understand the talent in our wonderful guild. I was so honored to get a ribbon, and this one is very meaningful to me!

Honestly, I was compelled to make this quilt. I used to ask myself what my ideal job was. It had to be creative, I would be my own boss, work on my own schedule, and spread the Word of God. This fits the bill, and I hope to publish this as a pattern in the near future. If you hand embroider, or know someone that does, please share this with them. Don't hesitate to give me feedback as well.


This quilt is a fun fat quarter collection that I began a while ago. I simply collected about 20 fall-themed fat quarters. I then combined them with cream fat quarters, and voila! "Fancy Fall" was born. I was fortunate to be able to quilt this myself on a long-arm machine at Top Stitchery in Roberts Wisconsin. It was very interesting and challenging. If I had it to do over again, I'd put a border on this one, just to have even more fun quilting it! Special thanks to Jean Potter for all of her help and encouragement!
This is my new design called Diamond Twist. It is a table runner (with a 3rd place ribbon - very exciting,) and this one features hand appliqué and couching. If you scroll back to my last blog entry, you'll see it shows a red, white and blue quilt with close-ups of the machine quilting around embroidered flowers, and this is the same quilt pattern. How different they can be! Now, take a look at the photo below, and you will see a Christmas pillow, that is the same block, with appliqué and beads! I love the versatility of lights and darks and of varying color ways that give you multiple moods and purposes, just with fabric choices!  
It makes me want to revisit patterns and makes me feel like I'm getting more for my buck, and we all like that. 
 Next to the aforementioned pillow is the Madison Bag by Amy Butler. I just love this purse, and actually use it to carry around knitting: fits those long needles! I love, love, love the symmetrical design, and fussy cutting to match is the ultimate. Totally worth it in my opinion, and looks very professional.

Sorry, it must be "toot my own horn day" or something.
And last but definitely not least, I'll just show you the 2013 raffle quilt for next year's show! I think it is gorgeous!

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Fall!!!
Thursday, August 23, 2012

Here is a close-up of some free-motion quilting in progress on my new table runner pattern, Diamond Twist, coming out this fall! I am still continuing the hand embroidery, and machine quilting around it and within the flower petals was so much fun! I love the dimensionality it brings out - really makes that flower pop to life!
I do things a bit differently than most, I suspect: I first pieced the runner, then basted the batting in place, so I could hand-embroider the flowers with a bit of cushion behind them. Next, I machine quilted, then removed the basting stitches, and trimmed the quilt so it was ready for binding.
 

When this runner is constructed, you get these fun little bonus units, and with just a little extra patchwork, you can create these bonus blocks, also with a twisted look - aren't they cool? Totally worth a little extra work and make great coordinating pieces!
 
The blocks resemble a traditional pattern called Bethlehem Star.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Perfect Palette

Happy Spring! Hyacinths and rhododendron blooms are some of my favorite shades of purple. Color is one of those things by which people are baffled. I am often asked for advice on color sense and combinations. If you're stuck, take a look outside. There are no mistakes in nature - my dear mother taught me that when I was young. She was right, and it has always stuck with me.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Embroidery Bug

I have been bitten by the embroidery bug! Here is a teaser of an original embroidery design that I am stitching. It is an interesting experiment, and it is likely to endure some edits and changes before the final result, but it is a wonderful learning process! I have been cross stitching and embroidering for years and practically have every DMC floss color. But a renewed interest has me soaking up tips from books, magazines and other talented stitchers (Thank you Edye!) This is a new venture and it is an exciting challenge! I hope you will weigh in your thoughts and tips as well.

P.S. Are you wondering about those red lines all over my stitchery? They come
right out when you apply heat! Yet another reason I am thankful to live in
this age of technology and convenience.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Here is the faux piped binding that I learned about the other day on TLC's blogspot.
http://tlcstitches.blogspot.com/2010/07/faux-piped-binding-tutorial.html?spref=fb
Thank you TLC! I love how this turned out, and it was just the right touch to finish this wonderful quilt.

This project was a "Round Robin" amongst friends that are also members of my quilt guild. I constructed the center block which is a variation of the block called "Old Favorite" and by doing so, declared that this would be a 30's scrap quilt. I then passed it on to Linda, the next member of the group of 5. We pulled the name of a border technique out of a hat, and got sawtooth, so she added a sawtooth border and passed it on. Don't you love that little stripey fabric in there? It is the cutest. (See close-ups below.)

After having the restriction of doing a sawtooth border, we quickly decided that for the following rounds we could do whatever we wanted or thought the quilt needed.

Applique was expertly done by Nancy, and need I say more? Kay cleverly echoed the sawtooth border design and I really think this helps tie it all together. Lastly Jean added the border with the rounded corners - something extra fun and unique for this quilt! Love it!!!
I went to the quilt shop to find fabrics for binding, and came home with three. I also had a blue gingham which I did not use. I chose to do the yellow piped "look" because it separates the pink in the corner detail from the pink binding.

This technique is so easy, and even allows machine sewing for the final turning. I did NOT hand finish the binding. You gotta try this! I think I'm going to do all of my bindings this way now!

Don't you just love it when you get excited about a new technique that saves time, and looks great? I do!
I really put a lot of thought into quilting this quilt, and I am pleased with the results. God bless the makers of water soluble ink pens. They are marvelous and my little blue Clover pen is a cherished notion that obeys me well. Every time I say that prayer "Please let it really not stay blue" it listens every time. A few squirts with the spray bottle and we are back to pristine parchment! 

Sorry for being heavy on the pictures today. It is just a quilt that needs to be celebrated because it was so much fun and inspired learning and solidified friendships.


Thank you Linda, Nancy, Kay and Jean for this wonderful project! Wanna do it again?  :)
Monday, October 10, 2011
These two blocks will be a part of the center panel of the quilt.
Monday, September 26, 2011



Here are some motifs from the Meadowlark Panel by Benartex. This line is filled with creams, beiges, rich plums, lavendars and blacks! I love it! It is so elegant and being a purple girl it makes me way excited. I took these squares and framed four of them with cream colored strips to reoncile them to the proper size. They will become four sampler blocks. The first one is below. 

This block looks three-deimensional when you place the fabrics carefully!
Click above on "Connect with me on FaceBook" to see the overall layout picture!  


Please note that this block is sitting on top of a quilt with a green backing. I'm not putting green in this quilt, it just made a solid background for me to take the photo. :)