Lovely Applique Quilts

Look at these gorgeous appliqué quilts by Jennifer. I had the pleasure of custom quilting these three  wonderful baby quilts and one wall hanging.

Prepare yourself for adorableness...a duck holding a tulip!

In the squares, I added more quilty goodness like a butterfly, ladybug, bumble bee, and flowers.

Oh, I love that sweet baby animal pyramid. 

It does-not-get-any-cuter-than-this!

Maybe it does with a toad sitting on a toadstool. So cute. I had a ton of fun quilting these for Jennifer. She did fabulous appliqué work.

A minky backing always makes custom quilting pop.

The next quilt isn't appliqué, but it is a beautiful Asian-inspired panel. I love how this one turned out too.

Thank you so much for letting me quilt for you, Jennifer. It was such a pleasure.

Keep On Quilting,

Quilting

Kay made some wonderful tops for me to quilt! This bright butterfly quilt has touches of gold in the border. So, we decided that it needed to be quilted in gold thread.

A simple all-over leaf pattern works beautifully with the flowers and butterflies.

I loved this baby quilt she brought to me. I custom quilted this one, and I especially adore the daisy border.

Kay used fantastic batik colors in her next quilt. I decided to use an ocean quilting design with all-over spirals and tendrils that remind me of seaweed.

Her last quilt she brought to me was this spectacular Hawaiian quilt.

I quilted this on with an all-over hibiscus design in taupe thread.

Thank you so much for letting me quilt for you, Kay! It's always a pleasure!

Keep On Quilting,

Quilts of Gratitude

Last Fall, my local quilt guild began making Quilts of Gratitude for our brave wounded soldiers.  These quilts were donated to men and women at our local Air Force Base hospital as they received treatment for injuries. I am proud that our guild donated these quilts, and I quilted all of them.
The first gorgeous patriotic quilt was pieced by Carol. I custom quilted each block with modern stars, wavy stripes, or a single star. I loved the pieced backing too.

The following quilt was pieced by all the members of the guild. JoAnn put it all together, and I quilted this one with navy thread and a graffiti style pantograph in swirls and stars to echo the firework fabric.

This quilt was also pieced by the entire guild, and Meda put this one all together. I quilted this quilt with an all-over stars and stripes design.

Jennifer made this beauty. I'm sorry now that I did not take a picture of the full quilt. I custom quilted this quilt with feather and rose block designs and three separate borders.

This quilt is the same pattern that the guild used for two quilts, but JoAnn pieced this red and cheery quilt herself. I'm a big fan of red. I quilted it with an all-over stars and stripes motif.

JoAnn also made this wonderful log cabin quilt. I found a great log cabin pattern to use that was a feather with a swirl in the center square. The border was quilted with a patriotic swag.

JoAnn also made this beautiful quilt with petal blocks that form large circles without curved piecing. I love that! I quilted it with an all-over modern star pattern.

JoAnn and Meda started their own competition to see who could quilt the most. Meda beat JoAnn five quilts to four quilts. Very impressive ladies! The next five dazzling quilts were pieced by Meda. The first quilt, I quilted with an all-over maple leaf design with burnt orange thread. I love the batiks and secondary patterns in this lovely quilt.

I never would have guessed how wonderful these colors are together, never in a million years! This quilt was quilted with an all-over paisley design with nutmeg color thread.

This sweet friendship star quilt was quilted with an all-over clover pattern, echoing the purple clovers in the border. Are they clovers or some other flower? I don't know. I make a terrible gardener. I used lavender color thread.

Finally, Meda made this patriotic pinwheel beauty. This quilt was quilted with an all-over scallop and rose design.

JoAnn made this enjoyable quilt in red, white, and blue. Unfortunately, this photo turned out more yellow than the finished quilt. The all-over pattern I used was called gushing star which was perfect for this cheery quilt.

The last Quilt of Gratitude was finished by dearest Connie. I custom quilted this striking quilt with a traditional flower in the star blocks, rope for the sash, and a patriotic star in the square blocks.

It was a pleasure quilting all of these wonderful Quilts of Gratitude. My deepest gratitude to all servicemen and women who have risked their lives for our freedom. I am even more cognizant of the sacrifices made by so many as we approach the anniversary of 9-11. 

These quilts were displayed in two shows before they were sent to their forever homes. This next photograph is the display at the Winters Outdoor Quilt Festival.

Keep On Quilting,

Modern Geese

Over a year ago, I finished quilting this project for my husbands' lovely cousins, Anne and Shannon.  I can't believe I have to dig that far back through my quilting photos!  I promise to find all of my customers' quilts and update my blog.

Anne and Shannon did this great modern take on flying geese.  I love how they weren't afraid to mix in some vibrant purples.  The color adds just the right amount of visual interest.

I free motion quilted all-over swirls in the background.  The swirls are denser where the geese are clustered, and they get larger in the open space.  It looks just like the wind.  The triangles are kept simple with some ruler work.

Thank you, Anne and Shannon, for letting me work on another one of your beautiful quilts.  I'm sure Jack is still loving this.

Keep On Quilting,

The Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt

Well, hello! I haven't blogged for seven months now, but I have not stopped quilting! Life got busy at the beginning of this year, and I needed to make more time for my kids and taxi them around where they needed to be. Now the kids are back in school, and I can share all that I have worked on in 2016.
I'll start with my finished Farmer's Wife quilt. Whew! This was a challenge. I began by following Gnome Angels' wonderful tutorials, and then I finished at my own pace. Rather, I got tired working on this quilt, and I spent the month of April feverishly getting it done.

I did 63 of the blocks in Laurie Aaron Hird's book. Instead of using the templates in the book, I redrew almost every block in EQ7 so I could have the rotary cutting instructions or the patterns for foundation paper piecing. This worked really well for me.

Over the years of fabric collecting, I have accrued some gorgeous Liberty of London fabric. I saved every piece waiting for just the right project. This quilt was it!

There are 84 pieces in that 6-inch block! After this block, I decided I was not going to do all 99 blocks. I admire those quilters that have done all of them.

The background fabric within the blocks is Moda Fabrics Gardenvale Black Swan Dots by Jen Kingwell. The gray background fabric is Robert Kaufman Essex Yarn Dyed Linen Cotton in Steel. The outer border is Liberty of London Dynasty Yellow.

Look at that backing! I spent one and a half weeks quilting this thing to death!

Here is an overall view...

Can you tell how in love I am with the quilt backing?! For the quilting, I used Isacord thread in Fog. It blends beautifully with all of the fabrics. Here is the quilt view from on top of the ladder in its full glory.

I'm so glad to share my projects with you again. I have done a lot of quilting for customers too over the past months that I have been missing from my blog. I will be sharing those soon.

Linking up: myquiltinfatuation // crazymomquilts // quiltstory // freemotionbytheriver // youngtexanmama // sewfreshquilts // confessionsofafabricaddict

Happy Stitching,