Jackie's Southern Album

Here is another of Jackie's amazing quilts. I'm continually impressed by her mad applique skills. She took Kathleen Baden's Southern Album class to make this one.

Just realizing I didn't get a picture of her miters. If you look in the top left corner, you can see that the stripes line up!!! Her miters were perfect. I smoothed the quilt out and all 4 corners lay perfectly. No adjusting required!

Here's the back.

Petra's baby quilt

Check it out! I actually got to make a quilt from start to finish. And I had a great excuse. My friend Petra is having a little girl at the end of December. I had been thinking I would work on this gift over Christmas break, but I got a text about a baby shower this month!

Panic! Two weeks to get this quilt done! In between quilting and kids and housework (who needs that). I got some inside info from her older daughter about colors. Gray and yellow are the colors she really likes. I was inspired by Talk of the Town's Sea Glass pattern.

So I got to go fabric shopping AND give hand applique a go. I had a Downtown Abbey marathon and sewed these leaves on. It took me the whole of season 4! Now you know why I'm a quilter and not an appliquer, lol.

My original idea was fancy quilting, but since it was a baby quilt, I didn't want it to be too stiff. I decided to go with wavy lines. Simple, modern, fun!

Jackie's quilts

Here is Jackie's Feather Fancy quilt. I just love this one. It is so fun and cheerful!

This quilt was made from the pattern called Boo Hollow. The hand applique on this is amazing! I tried my hand at applique this weekend, and I have a much better appreciation for the skill and time that goes into these projects.

I filled in this yellow empty space with a boiling cauldron.

Hey, check it out! Flying geese bats! So fun! Some are facing up.

And the others are hanging upside down.

I like the way the quilting on the hat looks like folds in the fabric.

Thanks Jackie!

Go Patriots!

A few months ago, I was at the Clemmons Veterinary clinic with my little chihuahua, and it came out that I am a longarm quilter. I was commenting on how I had to put a gate up to keep the dogs (and fur) out of my studio. Dr. Gilyard asked if I make quilts too. Sure, I said! Well, not generally, but Dr. Gilyard had been amazing with all of our dogs and I wouldn't mind a bit. His daughter was going away to college and all she wanted for Christmas was a New England Patriots quilt. No prob, I said.

I found some Patriots fabric and set to work. I didn't want the quilt to look too old fashioned, so I decided on a simple checkerboard layout. I wanted to throw in something a little more interesting, so I sketched out the Patriot head and fused the fabric onto the center block.

The fusing was a challenge. The blue fabric is all one piece and my Steam-a-Seam 2 is losing its stickiness. It didn't want to stay on the back of the blue. So I had to peel the paper backing off VERY carefully. It was a close call, but I got it all lined up and fused it on. Everything got an extra zig zag stitch all the way around for added stability.

Then I quilted this panto all over the rest of the quilt. I had bought a football pantograph, but the scale was larger than I thought, with big 1" spaces in between lines. That would have been ok if I wasn't planning on quilting a little more densely in the middle. So I found this Widget panto, which looks like footballs, but is a little denser.

By the way, I used Dream Puff batting for the first time and I love it! Should be nice and comfy to nestle under when the cold kicks in.

Thanks Dr. Gilyard!

Laurie's To the Point

Laurie asked for pebbles all over on this Cluck, Cluck, Sew quilt called To the Point.

They are a bit bigger than the average 'pebble'. I didn't want the quilt to be too stiff. Turns out they are surprisingly easy and fast too!

Thanks Laurie!