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!

BLOG-HOG and neglect

I have once again neglected my blog. NO, not from posting, just from posting my customer's work. I have been a BLOG-HOG... using it only for myself. Crazy you say, but I went back to check and I haven't posted about a customer quilt since July 2! WOW.... so very sorry!

So once again (apparently I'm a repeat offender), you're going to get the super-quick condensed version, with one exception. I will make a separate post about one of the quilts due to the before and after photos. Don't worry, I promise it will be amazingly interesting!

Here we go - it's going to be quick so keep your hands in the car at all times!

Super cute quilt by Donna - not her first quilt, but her first quilt made in Florida!

Lyla's super bright yellow brick road. Lyla thought this was really bright -- I on the other hand LOVE it, it screams happiness and sunshine!

Next we have Mary's sampler. This was a super-cute quilt before I quilted it, then it turned into WOW, one of those quilts I could just keep... oh Mary, you didn't really want that quilt back did you?? LOL NO really, after the pictures I did ship it back and Mary's loved it!

Now on to a darling beauty by Sally, entitled "Martha's Garden" -- an absolute stunner if I say so myself! Oh, and just want to mecntion -- see the beautiful things that happen when you bring me a solid/semi-solid backing! That is truly one of my favorite things, unloading the quilt and looking at the back -- it is like a different quilt!

And last, but certainly not least... one of my dear customers recently lost her son which is awful enough and my thoughts and prayers are with her and her family, but his two young children also lost their Dad -- much too early in life. I suggested to one of our mutual friends that maybe we could make a quilt or something from some of his clothing for the girls. She ran with it, made these two super adorable butterflies (the wings were cut from two of his shirts) and I threw in the quilting and two beautiful wall hangings were created. Hopefully when the girls look at these, they will be reminded of their dear Father.

I'm not going to promise to post more often, because it seems when I do that I totally neglect you... so I'll just leave it at HAPPY QUILTING!

PSLCQ 2012 Raffle Quilt

"Bed of Roses" our remake of the Moss Rose Quilt (1853 Susan Black Stayman). Hand applique by Marian M., Pat N., and Muriel K., trapunto and machine quilting by me, Karen Marchetti. The original quilt is part of the Spencer Collection at the Spencer Museum of Art (University of Kansas). There is also a wonderful write up on Barbara Brackman's blog. If you get a chance, check out these sites, both full of wonderful information!

Originally I had planned on quilting it very similar to the original... until, yep, you guessed, a 3 am wake up to an awesome idea. Apparently I was quilt dreaming - happens way more than I'd like to admit. But sometimes a great idea and a great quilt come together and voilà... beauty is born.

After two weeks of marking, snipping away trapunto batt, quilting, unmarking, aka *working*, this beauty, the PSLCQ Raffle Quilt is quilted! And, let me tell you, it is a beauty! The bad part, tickets are not yet available... I know, I know! As I've mentioned on facebook, I will let everyone know when tickets are available, and will provide all the information on how to go about purchasing them. Until then, here is a picture of the awesome quilt:

Here are some detail photos:

The raffle isn't until our next show, which is February 2012, for more information on PSLCQ and also information about the show, check out their website: http://www.pslcrazyquilters.com/

Catch up...

I have once again fallen behind on my posts, not far behind, but I forgot to post a few things, so this is going to be a super-quick show and tell (unless you read really slow)....

Mary's "Don't Look Now" (pattern by Lilly Pilly):

Donna's antique quilt -- it was her husbands grandmothers and she thinks it is from the 1920's:

Billy's "Home Tweet Home" (McKenna Ryan pattern), along with some extra blocks:

That sums it up, I think! Anyway, tomorrow is Mother's Day -- wishing you all a wonderful day!

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: