Alaska Flag Quilt

 Hey there. I sure hope you are doing well. It has been pretty busy around here with my family visiting, but I wanted to pop in to show you one of my latest finishes. I designed this quilt around the Alaskan Flag. I decided to make the stars a bit more liberated than the 5 pointed stars that are actually on the flag. As I finished this quilt top, I knew just how I wanted to quilt it.

 I bet most everyone is familiar with Vincent van Gogh's Stary Night painting, right? I love the swirls that he painted into it and I have always loved taking that to my quilting. So I did it again here on this quilt.

 I also quilted the names of each star. Don't you think star names are funny?

 The second star of the big dipper is actually 2 stars. Did you know that? Well, you do now. And the stars are named Alcor and Mizar.

 Polaris is up in the top corner of the Alaskan flag. I love this quilt and I can't wait to wash it. I am giving it as a gift (late Christmas) / swap with my friend Sharon. She has been making me some wonderful paintings. She misses Alaska terribly, so now she has a quilt to remind her.

 

The smaller stars have circles around them...I think it looks a bit like star dust. I used some more of my favorite Presencia cotton thread for this quilt. I will be sad when I run out of it that is for sure. 

I hope Sharon likes this quilt!

xo,

Tia

Another Quilt For John

 Hey there! I have finished another quilt for John. He wanted very simple quiting for this quilt. So...this is me doing very simple quilting.

 Some simple zig zags in the bars, and the rest with my favorite determined meandering. This is really fun fabric too. Stanley certainly approved. Again, John is a great piecer. Not a block out of line on this quilt.

Here is a bit of the back, with a print back the quilting is hard to see, but I think it is wonderful.

I have a massive Dresden plate quilt to load up onto the frame next for Katy.

Have  great day and keep warm if you are in the Northern hemisphere!

xo,
Tia

My Bee FF quilt

 I took my BeeFF project out to work on a bit during a quiet moment this morning. I have really enjoyed the slow thoughtful time I have been able to spend with this quilt. I am hand quilting it in a quilt as you go method. As you can probably see many of the blocks are different sizes. I am adding boarders to the smaller ones because in the end they will all need to be the same size. I have big plans for the final boarder of this quilt. My wonderful BeeFF group helped me out with these blocks. I sure hope we stick together for another great year of quilting. SOme of our members are onto bigger and better things or at least cutting back on all their swaps. I totally understand that. I did the big cut back a couple years ago and I am very happy I made that decision. It is hard to never take time to sew for your self or just for your family.

So, I am loving this applique. All the wonderful little stitches made by friends are each a treasure. When you see something so obviously hand made, do you ever wonder about what was being thought about while it was being made. I do. I love holding old hand made items and imagining all the lives that have touched and have been touched by them. This quilt is going to be one of my magnum opuses when it is finished. Maybe I will try to find a show to enter it into?

OK, I am off to bed. This has been a very busy and wonderful weekend.

xo,
Tia

Some art for Lady June

I am having this made into a bumper sticker for my Long Arm. Her Name is Lady June. As soon as Sharon first saw my Gammill Supreme she said it needed some nose art. I agreed! Sharon had this whipped out in no time. I wish I was as fast as she is.

A quilt for John

 I finished quilting this quilt for John (aka Quilt Dad) on Friday. The temperature finally dropped below 80 (to 34F that is how it is in Texas. Nice and warm one day and mighty cold the next...no time to prepare), so it actually felt like fall in my quilting studio. I will need to find some sort of heater for winter use for sure. I was decked out in gloves, a wool toboggan, one on my Dale of Norway sweaters and long Johns...oh and my daughters furry house shoes. Quite a sight to behold.

 John made this quilt for Quiltmaker Magazine out of the block he did for Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Magazine.

 John wanted it quilted fairly simple. I find circles so soothing and I wanted the chevrons to be quit simple as well so the focus was on the blocks and not the quilting. I am very happy with how this one turned out. Sharon came over and we were admiring the fabric as I was loading it up onto the frame. I was thinking about how to quilt it and Sharon suggested modernized poppies (basically 3 circles inside one another), so I took that and made this design. It has a bit of a flow to it. It is so nice to have an artist across the street. Sharon is brilliant.

I have 3 more to quilt for John, he is a great piecer. I will show them as soon as I have them finished.

I have ordered some Spare parts for my Lady June (my massive Gammill) and I hope that they will come in Handy eventually. I was having some tension issues with her, but the folks at Gammill were so very helpful. I have had to become somewhat of a sewing machine mechanic. My husband wanted to have that job, but most of the time I have issues I can't wait for him to come home from work, so I just grab my screwdriver and go to town. It is so satisfying to take it apart and fix the problem (in the last case it was a thread jam in the rocking finger) and then go back to awesome tension. I love my long arm.

Anytime I get a new machine I have tension issues at some point. They drive me crazy, but it is so wonderful to figure what the problem is and be able to fix it. Speaking of sewing machines, my Bernina 820 is STILL in the shop. It is making some sort of alarm sound that no one can figure out what it means. That is something I love about my older machines. When they develop bad tension I can sort them out fairly easy. But when my fancy computer ones mess up there is nothing I can do but go to a professional.

OK, have a happy weekend and I will talk to you soon.