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 Raffle Pillow for April...

Some of you will remember I designed and quilted a pillow for Martin County Quilters to be raffled in April - if not, click here. For the rest of you, continue on... well, truth be told - I am a fantastic quilter and not so bad at designing, BUT (oh no, that dreaded BUT) -- I stink at pillow construction! Not just a little stink, we're talking down right nasty reeking gut-tugging stink! Put it this way, it would look nothing like a pillow when I was done with it! So knowing this, I asked Pat P. to take my quilted fabric and make the pillow -- she did, and here it is...

I think Pat did a fabulous job -- now it is an awesome pillow - it even has piping! THANKS PAT! Hopefully April's pillow raffle will have record sales... keeping my fingers crossed!

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!

Bella Fiore... D O N E

Can you believe it! Like I said I have been a crazy woman trying to finish this quilt and it is done! Its still wrinkly from the dryer (ahhhh) and I haven't blocked it yet, but here's a peek at the finished quilt...

And for some strange reason it appears off-white -- must be the lighting. Once I have all the wrinkles out and the binding is on I will take it outside for some good pictures. Until then... goodnight!

Bella Fiore... halfway there!

I was quilting like a crazy woman and managed to reach the halfway point today. Woohoo! Anyway, I'm very tired so here's a quick pic -- now its time for pizza!

Bella Fiore... Day 2

Okay, I'm sure by Day 3 or 4 I'll stop counting but for now it sounded good. Okay, I've been quilting for the majority of the day and here's what I have to show you...

and I'm starting to like it better -- still not loving it, but getting there. It always starts to look better once you get rid of some of those pesky blue lines!


There's still about 2-3 hours left of work in this day... but no promises. These poor arms are tired!

Bella Fiore...

Well here it is... my latest wholecloth pattern named "Bella Fiore". Its on the frame and the background fill is started, BUT (that dreaded but)... I am not happy with how the main design is looking. We'll see, sometimes I get this "trauma" while still early in the quilting process... it may start to grow on me -- or not?



Of course, part of the "trauma" is because this is one of my entries for the PSL Crazy Quilters 2010 Show -- yep, entered on paper, but just started quilting (ahhhhh). Apparently I am just a little bit nuts.


Okay, on another note -- I hope that you all have a wonderful New Year filled with everything that is good because 2010 is going to be a fantastic year! Have fun and stay safe!

Shopping...

Here is some fabric I purchased at a cute little shop in Mount Holly, the Village Quilter, not a real big store, but some really nice stuff. Anyway, I think this fabric will become another Onion quilt, since I "lost" that one to my sister. You can read more about the original onion quilt here, here, or here.

Here is some beautiful silk dupioni that I found at the Little Sewing Shoppe, also in Mount Holly. The photo does not do it justice (as usual), it is a beautiful lavender purple and the other piece is a crisp snowy white. I am planning a "modified" wholecloth using both pieces, yes I know, it won't really be a wholecloth if I piece them, but it will be awesome. I'll have to figure this one out... 1 1/3 yard of the purple (that's all that was left) and a 1 1/2 of the white. Apparently these were pretty popular colors.

Both of these stores are part of Mill Race Village, an eclectic little village of artisan shops and hand-made goods. It is part of a restoration project of a very old neighborhood in an attempt to preserve the history of Mount Holly.