Pattern with no name...

I had been working on some "smaller" patterns to offer for sale and doodled this up...

Well really I doodled it on paper first, then mirror imaged it, then put it on fabric, but you get the idea!

Super cute huh? So better than to keep it as a sample, I decided that I would use this as the Raffle table runner for MCQG since I had signed up as the raffle-maker for August. Pretty cool, but, it turned out so nicely and so many people liked it that I will definitely use it as a pattern and will have to make up another one for myself/sample.

So, I loaded it stitched my trapunto areas and spent the afternoon snipping away (thank goodness it was only a table runner). Then I got the bright idea to do shadow trapunto... hmmm, lime green or purple?

Purple wins, mainly because Vicki YELLED - lol (joke, FB followers will understand).

Started on the background quilting, and no, you really can't tell that there is purple back there. It kinda looks like a dull blah gray, which is okay, it is still beautiful and only we know it was purple, and we don't have to tell anyone!

Finished the quilting, cut to a beautiful shape, and binding is on (hand stitched, of course)... Happy August Raffle to the members of MCQG -- hope I (oops) you win! So to all you MCQG Members -- make sure you're at the August meeting!!

the name... FINALLY!

Quilt with no name has been quilted and finally has a name! Yes, those that follow on facebook already know all about it, but for all my wonderful blogger fans -- quilt with no name is now "Clouds in My Latte".

It was sort of an aha moment. I had been going back and forth with all the suggestions you guys came up with. I had it narrowed down to a strange combination of a few of them, but it was working for me (in case you don't know, I'm sort of strange too). Well, I was standing there cutting my binding, ipod playing in my ears, when Carly Simon's "You're so Vain" came on. I'm cutting away, singing along and BAM... it hit me. Yep, just like that! The fabrics were called Vanilla Latte and as I was singing "...clouds in my coffee" it just seemed to fit; and no, I do not sing nearly as well as I quilt so don't ever ask me to reenact the moment!

Here she is, in all her beauty:

I would once again like to thank everyone for all the name suggestions -- you are some really good namers! I am sure I'll be tapping into those naming abilities again one day - THANKS!

Quilt with no name...

hmm... this is a somewhat ADD prone story (just warning you ahead of time) - it all goes back to September. I quilted a quilt for Margy of the JaM Patch. It was made up of the most beautiful neutral batiks ever, okay, maybe not ever, but the most beautiful neutrals that I had seen in a very long time. Margy's quilt turned out beautiful (see the detail pic) and had me thinking about all those beautiful batiks... and thinking, and thinking, and then WHAM it hit me... a JaM Patch field trip!

So now it is October. I ran to the patch for a somewhat planned field trip... purchased a lovely "Vanilla Latte" Strip-tease bun by Island Batiks. Yes, I now had my fingers wrapped around these neutral beauties. Then, I decided on the border fabric... Khaki in the Gee's Bend fabric line by Windham Fabrics. Now they call it khaki, I call it the most wonderful light grey. It looks almost like suede. I can add in that since then I have purchased this same grey fabric two more times (three in total) -- at this point I should have just purchased an entire bolt. So I spent the day piecing away... the result - a finished quilt made from the strip bun and Gee's Bend solid. Looks like a simple, every-day quilt -- which is what I had intended for its use. Well, this quilt hung in my studio for a little over a month. In that time I had numerous compliments on it, so a little voice started humming in the back of my mind that perhaps this quilt should go on to bigger and better things. Yep, it did, it got folded up and put on the notorious back burner.

Well, last week rolled around -- I pulled it out and marked it up in preparation for quilting at the end of the month. I posted pictures of it on my facebook account hoping for some help with names, because as of right now this is the quilt with no name. So, it is all marked up and ready to be quilted as soon as I'm ready -- well, we all know the best laid plans often go awry, and they did! My favorite thread company, Fil-Tec, emailed me and asked if I had any quilts showcasing their threads that they could possibly use in their booth during shows. I told them they were more than welcome to use the same quilt from last year, and I was scheduling myself for quilting at the end of the month so I might be able to squeeze another quilt in there. Well, it just happened I had also left Friday, Saturday, and Sunday open for my own quilting. Now remember, I have already marked the no-name quilt up, and I already had a name request thrown out there on facebook. So what do I do... grab a piece of fabric and mark it up using a modified version of the mark-up on the no-name quilt. So I spent the weekend quilting what is now know as Fil-Tecian Feathers, a beautiful wholecloth for Fil-Tec to use for this years show season. Here are the front and back views of this awesome quilt (Glide Thread with magna-glide bobbins):

So... instead of loading my no-name quilt on the 24th, it went up yesterday. If it turns out as well as I see it in my head, life will be good and it will go on to show land. If not, it was an interesting story and will go on to live as an amazing every-day quilt! Oh, any and all name suggestions are more than welcome because quilt with no name just doesn't sound so great (hint hint)!

Store front...

Okay, I have spent almost my entire Sunday setting up the store front page on my website. Sometimes I am so computer savvy and other times not so much... yep, today was a not so much kind of day! It is just a basic store front with only 6 items so I figured -- how hard could this be -- only as hard as paypal was going to make it! I really think it was more my brain's attention deficit problem but we're going to keep blaming it on paypal and the fact that they didn't want to make the shipping calculations work correctly. As far as I can tell it is now working, but I really won't be sure until an order comes through and goes completely haywire -- wow, I have all the faith in the world today!

If you get a chance, click the link and check it out -- let me know what you think -- better yet, order something and tell me how it works! LOL... or cry.... either way works today! Needless to say, I'm a little leery of putting the paypal links here on the blog -- but I will try... perhaps after yet another cup of coffee!

Happy Sunday and Keep Stitching!!!

MCQ Guild Pillow Raffle

Here is my pillow for the MCQ Guild Pillow Raffle. My pillow will be raffled in April.

Detail of the quilting

I just realized that I neglected to share with all my wonderful blog-followers, the pictures of my booth from the PSL Crazy Quilter show. Okay... there are only a few



So that was my booth for those of you that didn't get the opportunity to visit the show... as I mentioned before it was an absolutely fantastic show-- can't wait for 2012...

Karen Marchetti Designs

Take a peek at my patterns... here are the first three, which debuted at the PSL Crazy Quilters Show...

I'm still in the process of setting up the shopping cart on the website. As soon as its up and running I'll let you all know with an updated link!