Quilty Update... overdue like always!

Wow... long time no post!

I've been working on a few customer quilts as well as some of my own quilts.  Here come the customer beauties:

First we have Donna's quilt - what a happy fun quilt!

Then Carol's Deck the Halls quilt - Christmas early!

Then Gail had two beauties -- a kaleidoscope and also some circles:

Then Jan had an adorable sampler and yet another of her African fabric quilts:

And that leaves us with Dana's pickledish -- super super cute!

 Lots of wonderful things happening in my little world... you can read about them on my other blog.

Lost in quilty land...

Yes, my last post was November 11, 2012.  I couldn't believe it myself... I knew I was overdue, but wow, that is like way overdue!  Here it is, in a super quick version!

Fran's super cute red and white quilt -

Judy's whimsical butterfly quilt -

Cathy's Sweet Sixteen quilt -

Betty's feathered star -

If you want to catch up on everything else I've been working on, you'll need to click on over to my other blog where I share all my personal work.

Goings on...

By the looks of my blog you'd think I fell off the earth.  No, still here, still breathing, just ignoring my responsibilities and not posting pictures!

Rita's Lovers Knot quilt - super cuteness!  Rita wanted lots of feathers... one of my favorite things to quilt!

Marilyn's baby quilt - more cuteness!  Just a simple whimsy feather really set off the quilt pattern.

Dianne's Bali Wedding Star  - beautiful!  Dianne also requested a feather or two - she used some fantastic fabrics.

Sally's "Stayin' Alive" quilt - a special quilt for Sally and lots of fun to stitch on!

Mary's Castle Quilt - super cute and loads of fun!

Overdue once again!

I feel like that is my norm anymore -- the day late-dollar short, continual catch-up routine.
Anyway, here is what's been happening in my world...

Carol V. had a couple of beauties that needed some quilting.  The first one is a super cute, super bright dresden:

Then a beautiful double wedding ring:

 

Then on to Carol G. -- she also had two quilts.

First a super cute hearts, hugs, and kisses quilt:

And then she had some fused applique flowers that needed some edging:

 

And then Lynn needed some thread play on a super cute panel:

And last, but certainly not least, another cutie by Ellen  for her grand daughter:

Don't forget to check my other blog for updates and posts about my personal stuff -- loads of things happening over there!

Celtic Knots and Autumn Leaves

Sometimes things happen for a reason...
well, more times than not!

A while back my friend and fellow longarmer, Natalie, called me telling me she had a quilt that I needed to do!  Okay, intrigued.... she texted me a picture.  Wow... my brain was already buzzing with ideas.  Then... it hit me, the due date.  Oh, I will squeeze it in, it was much too beautiful of a quilt to let slip through my fingers.  I don't have the original texted picture, but here's the first one I took of this beautiful quilt.  Oh, and it belongs to Kathy.  That's all her hand applique work, and it was stunning to say the least!

So real quick, before any ditch work and stabilizing stitching, let me play with at least one of these big open borders.

FUN, this quilt is going to be FUN!
Okay, getting ready to share a secret.  Here is my super-duper, fool-proof, you'd think I'm a rocket scientist border layout.  Mark the center of the quilt, then mark the center of each half, then mark the center of each quarter, and so on, and so on, until you have divided up the border space into however many sections you need.  Because no matter how good I am, I can't guess it to fit!

So then the stabilizing and ditch work begins... around every leaf, in all those ditches, and around all that beautiful celtic knot work -- and days went by.

 

Oh, and the best part of all this stabilizing... being able to see what's going on in the quilt and correct any wonkiness in borders before any quilting -- because no matter how well you piece, every now and then a wonky sneaks in and tries to ruffle your borders!

a little wonkiness

a pin or two to suck it up and balance it out

and voila, fixed that border!

And that's the magic of a good longarm quilter!  Yes, I know, tooting my own horn, but hey, it's my horn!

Okay, back to the beauty that is Kathy's quilt.

outer green border

inner green border

large yellow border

 center knot work

back detail

full photo of finished quilt

Well, I was thrilled with how this quilt turned out.  Kathy really seemed quite pleased as well when she picked it up.  I'm glad that Natalie thought this quilt was better suited toward my style of quilting.  Thanks Nat!  Thanks Kathy!