Recent Customer Quilt

I have several customers who do amazing applique work.  This quilt is from one of these customers.  I have another one of hers currently on my machine and I will post pictures when that one is done.  They are beautiful quilts and the applique work is done so well.  Working on their quilts gives me something to aspire to.  I don't know if I'll ever make quilts with this much applique on them -- but who knows -- maybe someday.

Two types of quilting

I wanted to post two pictures of very similar quilts.  The one is the raffle quilt for 4-H and the other is a customer quilt.  They are both the same fabric line and very similar in design.  The one with the small red sashing is the 4-H raffle quilt and took a lot of time to quilt.  The other quilt doesn't have the same blank space and the customer didn't want to spend a fortune on the quilting so I did an all-over pattern in the center.  Also on this quilt, instead of doing a double line half circle design in the plain border, I did a single line design.  So the cost was lower on this second quilt, yet I think it is still beautifully quilted.

Three Tablerunners

I did 3 table runners in the last two days.  They are fun to do because they go so fast (no rolling the quilt) and it's a chance to do some fun things.  These are my mom's table runners.  The one photo is the back side which could be used since it looks so great.

Raffle Quilt

It's done!  Took over a week, but the raffle quilt is done.  I'm so relieved -- I have other quilts to work on.  It turned out beautiful.  I hope it brings in a good amount of money for the 4-H program.  It will be at the Clackamas County Fair in August in the 4-H building.  I love the back of the quilt.  It almost looks like a wholecloth quilt.

Recent Customer Quilts

Here's a couple customer quilts just finished.  I love the chicken quilt, but probably most of you know why -- I have chickens and enjoy them immensely!  I have a couple chicken quilts already but I may have to make this one someday. 

Raffle Quilt

Remember the 4-H raffle quilt I started several months ago?  It's finally on the quilt machine.  I probably shouldn't put so much effort into it, but sometimes it's hard to stop.  There are so many design ideas in my head and when it's something like this, it just starts to flow.  I'm even having a few acrylic templates cut to do some of these circle designs.  I guess when it's done, I'll have to buy a few raffle tickets since this is one I would want to own.  I'll post more pictures when it's complete.

Recent Customer Quilt

This was such a cute quilt.  I guess I like the black, white and then the small red sashing strips.  It turned out nice. 
On another note, I finally have a new laptop.  It's a netbook.  So far I'm very happy with it.  It's nice to have something that doesn't take 5 minutes to bring up a page! 

I just finished my 3rd quilt this week.  The black and white one was my most difficult one this week.  The other two were simple all-over patterns.  It's been nice to take quilting at a slower pace.  There's too much to do in life to just spend it quilting all the time -- especially when it's not even your own quilts. 

Ripping out stitches

I started a quilt a couple days ago that I knew would be a little more work.  It was custom work and I decided to use 3 different colors of thread on the quilt.  When I rolled up to the bottom of the lone star, I put in two feather wreaths in each corner.  Then to my horror I realized I had forgotten to change threads.  All the wreaths on the top and sides of the quilts were done in a light variegated purple/pink thread and the bottom two wreaths were in a dark variegated purple thread.  I couldn't believe what a stupid mistake I had just made.  I wanted to throw a fit, kick something, yell, etc.  Not that it would do any good, there was nothing to do but to pick all those stitches out.  It took 5 hours to get them out!!!!  I was up at 5:00 a.m. the next day, cleaning up the area of any little thread bits and then restitching the design in the right color.  It was a lesson to be learned -- you can still make stupid mistakes even after 11 years of the machine quilting business.  And when you make those kind of mistakes, there's nothing to do but own up to it and spend the time (even if it takes 5 hours) fixing it.  I'm just glad it could be fixed.  I'm posting a picture of the ripping out of the stitches as well as the finished quilt.  Thankfully the quilt turned out very nice.

Changing Quilts Around

Sometimes even a little change can brighten a day. We have had one of the coolest, rainiest, springs I can remember. I am itching to get out in my garden. But there's no working the soil when it's this wet. So today I decided maybe some inside work would cheer things up around here. The first thing was to change some quilts on the wall. That almost makes it feel like a new room. I hung the award winning wholecloth quilt in my studio. It's way too big for the quilt hanger. Then I changed the quilt behind the couch in the living room and lastly hung my appliqued basket quilt in the front hall. I never got any further then doing those three, but it still felt sunnier inside.

Hawaii

We've been home from Hawaii for almost a week now. It takes about that long to readjust to life here :) We had a wonderful time. It was so restful and fun to be with friends, several of whom we had not seen in many years. One of the things I enjoyed most was the flowers and birds there. I've always been a bird watcher and seeing some that I had never seen before was special. We spent a couple days on Oahu at Waikiki and then 6 days in Kauai. I enjoyed Kauai more because of it being less crowded. We hiked, kayaked, walked the beaches, snorkeled, had some amazing food, etc. What a blessing to have a vacation like that. I hope someday we can return.