Archive for the ‘Quilted’ Category

Freehand Baptist Fans – I think they’re my favorite thing to quilt. This is a HeartStrings top I pieced during our last project.

And while I was downstairs quilting, Chesty found a spot with some morning sun.

Well, all quilting is about texture but with String quilts I think texture is even more important because the tops are so busy.

This HeartStrings top was pieced by Melva.

Quilted with one of my favorite pantographs for string quilts – Seaweed.

And backed with one of my Off Center 4 Patch backings.

Or as I like to call it – Blob quilting – from the new Pajama Quilter DVD.

A HeartStrings top pieced by Sandy that I’d intended to tie at the PA sew-in back in April but we had so many tops I didn’t get them all done. You’ll see the entire quilt once it’s bound but for now you can inspect my quilting.

I don’t have this nearly as consistent as I’d like yet but I’m OK with the learning process on this one because it’s fun to quilt and I know I’ll improve over time.

Another part of the quilt….

And a view of a small section of the back of the quilt.

I didn’t intend to quilt tonight but I wandered downstairs for some reason that I can’t remember now and ended up loading and quilting this HeartStrings top from Tish. I love the colors in this one!

As I was loading it I was thinking about doing my Baptist Fans on it but decided I was ready to try the Fern Ziggles design from the new Pajama Quilter DVD. I’m such a CHICKEN when it comes to trying out new quilting designs, I’ll draw them out for months and keep chickening out when it comes time to actually put them on a quilt but after seeing Kathie’s quilt earlier today I bit the bullet.

Is it perfect? NO. Is it kind of wonky looking? YES. Do I need more practice? YES. Was it fun to quilt? HECK YES!

I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to create the right amount of space between my spines because I only have 12 inches of quilting space on my Premier but it worked out OK. I found that if I quilted the line and then the top half of the wiggle, I could advance the quilt to give myself room before quilting the bottom half.

It was one of those days I didn’t do much other than sleep and read but it must have helped because I woke up early this morning and was ready to work.

Today’s accomplishments included binding, making backings, and loading and quilting this top of Tamera’s.

Quilted with the pantograph Blowing Leaves. It’s simple but one of my favorites.

And now, I have a stack of bindings to hand stitch – I’ll start tonight but now I’m going to read for a little while until Keith gets home.

Pieced by Sharon and quilted with a new pantograph called Herbology.

Because of the plain blocks, I wanted a pantograph that would fill in the space with a nice motif and although they aren’t placed precisely like a custom motif would be – I think it works.

In addition to finishing up the quilting on this one, I also walked downtown. I’m still trying to walk or bike most days in an effort to be more active and to GET OUT of the house some!

Thursday’s farmer’s market was in progress but with Keith gone, all I brought home were some flowers.

A little knitting – working on  my 5th pair of socks.

A little piecing – the rest of the Homespun HeartStrings blocks are completed and I’ve started assembling the top.

A little quilting – the first of 3 Quilt of Valor tops I want to get quilted this month. Pieced by Vicki and quilted with the pantograph Ebb and Flow.

This top from Sue in FL is bright and happy and the small size determined that it would need to be a donation quilt for a child so I though more freehand butterflies would be perfect.

This time I didn’t quilt loops but just let one butterfly flow into the next with a curved line. I think Dawn shows them both ways on the DVD. The backing fabric was pulled from stash because it was the right color for the top – how appropriate that it had butterflies on it too.

Take a look if you haven’t seen the trailer yet for Dawn’s new Pajama Quilter DVD.

You all should be proud of me too … I’m still binding and will finish up hand-stitching one this evening and earlier this afternoon I made and machine stitched another one so all it needs is the hand-stitching too.

I’d loaded the backing for this quilt and pieced the batting last night so it was all ready for me to quilt this evening.

The HeartStrings top was pieced by Sue in FL and it’s quilted with the Halcyon Pantograph by Lorien Quilting.

You can’t tell from the photo but I’ve used a pretty variegated thread on this top (Polyquilter by Superior). It’s the same thread I used on the last quilt and I’ll use it on the next too….both of those have/will have freehand butterflies quilted on them. I try to pull at least 2-3 tops at a time that I can use the same thread on rather than changing thread each time.

Funny but when I got my new Pajama Quilter DVD and workbook, this wasn’t the design I thought I’d be quilting first but Dawn made them look so fun in the DVD I just had to try them.

My spacing could be a little better but that’s pretty typical of my trying out a new pattern. This is a little HeartStrings top I pieced during our last project.

Do you know what makes Dawn a GOOD teacher? She encourages you to have fun and to not stress, she tells you that you can’t mess up. So when I quilt a butterfly like this where I didn’t do a very good job of retracing my center, I don’t give myself a hard time.

And when I do one like this ….

and this….I tell myself what a WONDERFUL quilter I am.

I also found that I could space the wings out a little and have less of a line to retrace.

Dawn is such an inspiring quilter and a nice person … she even laughed when I called her Fern Ziggle design BLOB quilting when I posted my drawing the other night. That’s the next one on my list to try out but first I might see if I can find another top here to do this one again to help embed it in my brain.

I’m working in slow motion again but I did make some more HeartStrings blocks last night and today I quilted this top pieced during our last HeartStrings project by May in NJ.

I was tempted to do one of the flower variations from the new Pajama Quilter DVD but decided I hadn’t practiced it enough and did Wonky Flowers from Dawn’s last DVD instead.

Someone else is moving in slow motion these days. I came up from quilting and found him curled up in his bed.

This HeartStrings top was pieced by Sue in FL and quilted with my freehand Baptist Fans. They’re a bit wonkier than usual – I must be out of practice. Luckily they add great texture to string quilts and the wonkiness doesn’t seem to matter.

My intention to work on string blocks every Tuesday seems to have fallen by the wayside but that’s OK, it suited my purpose for the beginning of the year.

After NO quilting in June, I’m in the mood to work in the longarm room so here’s the 3rd top finished this week. They’re all small but I’ve had other things to do so I’ve been able to load and quilt them all in one sitting which was good.

This is a soft, pastel baby quilt pieced by Tish and I used the same pantograph from yesterday, Curly Hearts. The quilting as you can see shows up much better on this top.

We’ve been meaning to replace the shower in our bathroom since we bought the townhouse 2 years ago. It’s an UGLY shower surround and we want to tile it so today for the 2nd time, we picked tile and scheduled the contractor to come out and get measurements. Hopefully we can get it done before I travel again in August.

Other than that, we had a quiet day at home. I loaded and quilted this top which I think is by Sue in FL. I try to keep all the donation quilts straight but sometimes they get separated from their piles when I’m searching for one to quilt. You can’t see the quilting very well but it’s a pantograph from Willow Leaf Studio called Curly Hearts.

After we cooked and ate dinner, I worked a while on my socks, I just love this yarn!

Now, I’m going up to bed to start a new book – the new one by Gerristen – Ice Cold. Has anyone else seen the TNT previews about the new show featuring the characters from Gerristen’s books?

I had a pretty bad allergy attack today so I was kind of a slug but we did have a nice 4th in spite of it.

I quilted a top donated by Tish, worked on my socks, and we watched the fireworks from our deck with a glass of wine. Can you believe how good my flowers look in spite of our being gone 2 weeks?

This is the 2nd top I wanted to get quilted today. Pieced by Ann.

Quilted with the pantograph Seaweed – doesn’t it give this string quilt great texture?

I thought I’d try something new today on Ann’s blue HeartStrings top. I like freehand, no marking type designs that I can easily work edge to edge so I decided I’d try a swirly version of Line Dancing.

It quilted up easily and overall I think I like it.

But I think it looks better on the front where you tend to see the swirls….

….than the back where the lines stand out more. In case you were wondering, the blocks are 9 inches.

It seems like baby Caleb is going to come a little early – good thing today was the day I had planned to work on his quilt.

This is Cindy’s 2nd HeartStrings top she pieced for our current project.

Quilted with Feather Me by Mereth, one of my favorite pantographs.

And Sheree, the backing you sent on Saturday by AnnG was just perfect for it.

I debated whether to include the Pampas grass and decided that the string quilts are busy enough on their own and I like the simple clamshell on them best.

This HeartStrings top was pieced by Sue in FL. This is a pretty quilt with floral strings but you may not be able to tell because I always take the photos without flash so the quilting texture will show. Once it’s quilted and bound, I’ll share a photo of the quilt that shows off the fabrics.

I always feel good when I’m quickly working my way through my list. This week I wanted to assemble 1 top, quilt 3, and bind 2 and all that’s left on that list is one more to quilt.

I think I’ll add making a Quick Strippie for Adam’s baby that’s due on the 23rd of May to this week’s list. I think I’ve put that off long enough although I do have all fabric set aside.