Gail's Charleston Carriage

This is Gail's version of Lee Monroe's Charleston Carriage pattern. So fun and modern, I love it! The Charley Harper birds are adorable too:)

Loving the dark blue solid. It is Weave, by Moda and Fabric.com still has it in stock. It acts like a solid, but has a bit of texture. The dark blue has a denim look without the thickness.

Couldn't resist, had to throw some birds in the solid blocks.

Eve's Improv Color Blocks

Goodness sakes! Has it really been since February that I've blogged?! Well, I've got some good stuff coming:)

Here is Eve's beautiful modern quilt. It was inspired by Improv Color Blocks by Kati Spencer in Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe.

There was loads of fun blank space for me to work with. When she sent me a picture, I knew I had to try some quilting a la Krista Withers. She does some beautiful modern quilting that I have seen on Pinterest and other places and have been just waiting for a chance to try it out myself. You can find her work on her blog.

My first step was to mark the whole quilt (yes, every single line) with a blue water soluble marker. I think I must have the worst luck in the world with these. I spent half a day marking everything and loaded it onto the frame. By the end of the day, the marks were edging toward invisibility. By the next day, I had a dot left here or there. Arghhh! This is the lovely time of year when we keep our windows open. Unfortunately, humidity is NOT my friend.

The good news is that this style works perfectly well impromptu. I still used my blue pen, but just to mark the main lines as I went along. Then I just filled in the gaps.

Did I mention how much fun this is? I tried to keep my swirly motif moving along around the whole quilt and used the straight lines as filler.

It is kind of hard to tell just how well things are going as you work on each section, but when I hung it up to take a picture, I was floored. Wow! You really have to stand back and take it all in to get the full effect. I was so excited that I ran next door to drag my retired neighbor lady over for a viewing:)

I will definitely be quilting like this again. Send me your quilts! Bring on the blank space! Thanks Krista, for your inspiration, and Eve, for your beautiful work!

Debbie's double Irish chain

Debbie asked for custom quilting on this double Irish chain. Tight and lots of pebbles! She found a pin on Pinterest that she loved and asked if I could quilt that. 

Karen from Quilts on Bastings in Australia had quilted this and Debbie loved the design. I broke it up a little, alternating the pebble fill with stippling. 

If you want to know how I filled each grid with orange peels without stopping and starting, here you go. I would SID around the large blocks, starting at the top of the block, When I got to the bottom, I would start quilting in one direction and then bounce off the wall of the next large block. Then I would come back down.

When I reached my starting point, I would stitch up one block (the SID for the large block) and then go again. So by the time I reached the top, all the peels were done and the SID for the left side of the block was finished.

Thanks Debbie!

Forsyth Quilters and Piecers Raffle Quilt

This year the Forsyth Piecers and Quilters Guild asked me to quilt their raffle quilt! What an honor! I was very excited. It was a beautiful quilt with sort of fractured blocks and an applique border. The fractured blocks were a challenge. Hm, normally I would quilt some motif on the blocks and then move on to the border, but these blocks weren't well defined. Edge to edge would be no problem, but custom? What to do?! I  hung it up on my washing line to get a better look from far away.

I decided to go with concentric circles with a swirly pebbled filling. Doesn't it look like stained glass from underneath the frame?

The quilt show is coming up in May and this quilt is up for grabs. Come out to the show for a great time and a chance to win this beautiful quilt! Here's the details:

Friday & Saturday,
May 20 & 21, 2016
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Old Clemmons Gym
6031 Stadium Dr, Clemmons, NC
Admission: $5

Knit One Smock Too's Birdie Quilt

Hi all, I'm back! Guess you all thought I'd just dropped off the face of the earth. Not so. Business has picked up and you know that when you get out of the habit of blogging, it is super easy to wake up one day and think, hey, I've haven't blogged in 6 months! It has been all I can do just to keep up with all the beautiful quilts that come my way, 3 kids, 3 dogs, chickens......lol. I think I'm going to keep things simple by highlighting a few quilts here and there, rather than trying to get blog time for every one.

I wanted to show you all this adorable wool applique that Knit One Smock Too has put together.

This quilt, Bertie's Spring by Bonnie Sullivan, is a collaborative effort. Shirley and Jandell from the Knit One designed this version of the pattern. It was stitched by Susann and pieced by Shirley. They have kits available at the shop and they also offer classes.

I love the baby birds and the mama bird's apron. Too cute! There is going to be some additional embroidery to liven up the applique, so swing by the shop or the Statesville show to see it in person.