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!
 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!!!

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!
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.

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.

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.

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?  :)