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!

A couple weeks late and several brain cells shy!

Wow, I thought I had only missed a week of quilts to post... wrong!  I have almost three weeks of work to catch up on.  Yep, guess I'm a slacker or lacking brain cells - not sure, either way gotta take the good with the bad!

So, lets go back in time to Pat's applique quilt.  Super, super, cute.  I don't know the name/maker of the pattern, sorry guys.

Then I worked on this enormous t-shirt quilt with huge borders, but it sure turned out cute!

Then on to Joan's ironwork quilt -- again, I am lacking for the pattern name/maker, sorry.

Betty made a fantastic rail fence - great colors!

And then Jan (one of my favorite snowbirds) had left me three of her quilts before she heard up North.
The scarecrow quilt (I just love this one):

She had inherited some antique stars.  She appliqued them to muslin and added some borders.  All I had to do was keep it somewhat traditional:

And then, one of her super cute Peter Rabbit quilts:

 And that's it until next time!  Happy Quilting peeps!

the Cowboy Quilt

I do believe this is one of those quilts that has been forever in the making!

Jan has been one of my customers for many years. Every year she tells me she's found more cowboy fabrics and she's "working" on the quilt. I'm sure she has been collecting for at least all of those years, if not more because I've been hearing about this famous cowboy quilt since the day I met her. She finally finished it, and I had a great time quilting it.

Jan is just so talented and she never ceases to amaze me with her layouts, here are some pictures:

The quilt turned out super cute, and guess what?... Jan had enough fabric that she made a second cowboy quilt! It's amazing what you can make when you stop collecting fabric long enough to sew some of it together! LOL

Cold, Comfort, Dolls, and African Women ???

What a week (um, or more like week-and-a-half)-- still trying to conquer this lingering cold which won't give up - my voice is stuck in scratchy-crackle world, but I'm managing and shouldn't be complaining. On top of the never-ending cold, I finished a quick but super special appliqued quilt. My sister called me and told me that her best friend was just diagnosed with breast cancer and would need chemo. I immediately thought she would need a comfort quilt and got busy...

Needless to say, Linda was thrilled, crying, wordless, but full of heartfelt thanks. Here is Linda opening her quilt...

Okay, now back to work (the customer/bill-paying kind). I managed to finish up two quilts for Jan -- first her super-adorable paper dolls quilt:

And also, her African women quilt:

Oliver's travels...

Oliver is once again going to be travelling. For those of you who will be attending MQX (Machine Quilters Expo) in Providence, Rhode Island, make sure you take a peek at the Special Exhibit entitled Pretty as a Picture, Quilts Inspired by Photographs. Because while you're walking around and looking you'll be able to see Oliver, along with his classmate Park Ling. Park Ling is owned by Pat Parker, a very dear friend who was also in the week-long retreat with Sharon Schamber, he was painted and appliqued in the same manner as Oliver. It was my honor to do the thread play and quilting on Park Ling.

OLIVER - inspiration photo and quilt:

PARK LING - inspiration photo and quilt:

So make sure you visit MQX in April and send pics if you can as I will be unable to attend {pouting}. You can visit the MQX website here, the show is April 11-16, 2011. Hopefully the boys (Oliver & Park Ling) won't be getting into too much trouble while they're away!

Ribbons... Dianne's got ribbons!

Wow... I am so bad at updating the blog lately. And things I thought I had added aren't here - know what that means? Yep, I didn't do it. So, without further delay...

One of my customers took two First Place ribbons back in October at the Alabama National Fair.
Here is her winning quilt - 1st Place - Patchwork-Machine Quilted


and here is her winning quilt - 1st Place Wall Hanging-Machine Quilted


I love that they hang the quilts overhead. It does help in deterring thieves.
Both of these quilts were fun to work on and turned out great. Congratulations Dianne!

Judy's "Flowers for Our Lady of the Rosary"

It all started with a class...

a class that Judy signed up for. The class was for the "Passion Flowers" quilt in the book Applique Outside the Lines by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins of Piece-o-Cake Designs. Judy took this class. This red quilt is the quilt in the book. Very pretty if I say so myself. Judy marches to the beat of her own drummer, very similar to myself. And she decided to uses deep blues, turquoises, and aquas for her background. WOW... a simple color change can make such a dramatic difference.

Here is Judy's finished quilt:

And here are some detail photos:

Okay, I bet by now you are wondering where Judy's title for her quilt comes in...

Judy was working on this quilt, and working on it, and working on it some more... she finally finished it on October 7 - which just happens to be Our Lady of the Rosary Day. Cool huh... it gets better! Judy had no idea what she was going to use for a backing for this quilt. Then the fabric found her... it is a rose print. Even though it is multiple levels of pinks and whites it works with this quilt -- so neat, I just love things like this!

So... Judy wanted this quilted special! I decided to take her title and attempt to interpret her thoughts and how the title came about and translate all of that into stitches on the quilt. In the center I stitched a mod-cross and placed circles all around to resemble the rosary and filled them with feathers and little pebbles or beads... so while you were looking at the quilt you wouldn't actually think cross and rosary, but knowing the entire story the quilting shows the meaning and is perfect. Or at least I think so!

Feathered Floral Fun

It's all finished - even the binding! This was a super quick quilt I made for Fil-Tec using Glide Thread and Magna-Glide bobbins. I made it for use in their booth at shows to let people see how beautiful the thread is and how it helps quilting to pop. I had a great time with this quilt -- its about 51x54. I just wish I could have spent just a little more time on it! All these amazing ideas popped up into my brain after I've started quilting it. It's like oh, I should have done this and I should have added this here... oh well, they will have to wait until the next quilt!

I got my inspiration for this quilt from Mary's wall hanging -- Thanks Mary! I just changed the flower style and added some additional flowers in smaller sizes and then quilted away -- exactly the same, just different!