Quilt of Valor

Hey there! I hope you are all having a great holiday. We sure are. My parents came to visit and so did my sister. We have really ben having a blast...but with so much fun not mush quiting goes on. It makes me sad, but I am so full of ideas that after they return home and I do a good house cleaning I will be burning the midnight oil in the quilting studio. Lady June (my gammill) has been calling me...she is so lonely.

Anyway, lets chat about this quilt. It is the 4th or 5th Quilt of Valor I have quilted. Sadly I don't know who pieced it, but I picked up from Nickki at the KCMQG. I was going to quit it up really quick with a simple all over design, but I just couldn't do it! What is wrong with me?

I quilted more masculine vines and feathers on this quilt...or at least I think they are somewhat masculine.

The individual blocks are quilted different.

And here is a gratuitous back shot. It is all finished and ready to give back to Nikki.

Ghastlie Quilt for Julie

Good Morning! It is Ghastly early so we should look at this Ghastly quilt I quilted for Julie. The Ghastlies are characters in a fabric collection by Alexander Henry. I think they are really funny folks. As soon as I saw Julie's quilt top I thought it looked like a wall with portraits hung all over it. Julie wanted me to do whatever I wanted, but maybe work in some colored thread. I wanted all the log cabin blocks to be quilted like picture frames and the white background to be quilted like textured wallpaper.

I channeled my inner Krista and Angela and did doodle quilting all over the white background. I included several spiderwebs as well since I think spiderwebs go will with the Ghastlies...and they are supposed to be good luck.

These guys are in a garden behind some sort of trailing vine. She is not thrilled with his affection.

These ladies are behind invisible curtains. Such a serious lot of women don't you think?

I made that fellow be in jail, or maybe peeping in a window...he just looks like he is up to no good.

These two are out in the fog. I am quite pleased with how this quilt turned out. I want to quilt everything with doodle quilting...but not all quilts work with doodle quilting. I am quilting a Quilt of Valor right now that would not work with doodle quilting at all...so I am quilting it quite traditional. I think I am much faster with doodle quilting though. Anyway, pictures of the QOV soon as well as Julie's other wonderful top. I love quilting for Julie!

This is the pieced back.

OK, I have work to do. I hope you are all are having a lovely and peaceful holiday season.

Yours,
Tia

Emma the giver

I have to brag on my Emma for a quick second. Emma made this quilt all by herself. She even designed and did most of the quilting with my long arm. We finished it back when we lived in Texas. Well, it has been doing its thing on one of our shelves. We don't have any people in our family this size anymore so no real need for this size quilt. Well, Emma's 5th grade class adopted a family in need this Christmas. She was in charge of gifts for the 4 month old baby. She worked hard to earn money to go out and buy a couple outfits for the child and then she insisted on giving the family a quilt. No sweat. We can do that....on the morning that all the items were due at the school I noticed that Emma was ready much earlier than normal and was already out in the van looking might guilty. Whats up Emma? Nothing, lets go. Then I noticed all the bags around her feet. She had packed up 7 quilts to give away to this family. I asked her if she thought 7 quilts were a little much? Probably so. So, just this one went to live with the baby. She has really good taste in quilts I must say. She had all my favorites folded up ready to hand out. God Belss her.

A modern quilt?

Hey there! I wanted to take a moment away from pattern writing and Christmas sewing to go on a bit about this quilt. How many lives has it lead so far? Quite a few. It began as a pattern for quilt market. Windham wanted me to write up a pattern for a collection of fabric...but I have to play with fabric in order to whip up a quilt. Frankly I can design a quilt in no time, but I have to actually see how the fabrics work together and scale of the prints...that is part of the fun. Well...one thing led to another and this quilt got draped over the back of my sewing chair...quilt market came and went (several of my other quilts and bags were well represented there so I am not a bit sad). Since there was no haste any longer on this quilt I decided to make some appliqué boarders. Obviously all 4 are different, right? Well, that is something I am wild for with old quilts. I love that the boarders are sometimes different (Susan McCord quilts are the best in my opinion). 3 of the 4 boarders are needle turned appliqué. I really love the peace of hand appliqué. I watched most of the presidential debates while stitching away on this quilt....as I was stitching I was thinking about the freedom we have as Americans and how gloriously fortunate we are as a people. That led to the last boarder.

For some reason modern quilters shy away from boarders. I am not sure why that is. Boarders are awesome. I LOVE boarders.

Its second life was going to be as my entry quilt for Quiltcon. But frankly I don't know if it is really all that modern. At any rate I didn't finish it in time.

I stitched quite a bit at the dentist office while waiting for the kids to be looked after.

These flower were not needle turned. I did try with the first bloom, but I quickly decided that all the curves would be madness to hand appliqué...and I was in a hurry at this stage since I wanted to quilt it before the Quiltcon Deadline.

This side was dentist office and debate sewing. The kids and I chatted away about our electoral system and attributes for a great leader to have. Not a good leader...a GREAT one.

I quilted it in my version of Welsh quilting...and I went to look at new long arm quilt machines...oh what a wonderful selection is out there. When I tell people what I quilt with they look at me like I am a mad woman....My Gammill Supreme is what I know so until Santa leaves me a new Gammill in my stocking, it is what I shall carry on with.

I backed it with an old Ikea sheet. I have heard much drama about using sheets for the backs of quilts...but this one quilted up like a dream. So I am all for it.

So, for now this quilt really has no purpose, except to be bound. I really love this quilt and I love the conversations I had while I was stitching away on it.

A bit about process

Hi there. I am back....well I never really left, but here I am back on the blog. I have been working on this quilt for some time. It was going to be a pattern...it may still be, but I am just dipping my toes into the pattern realm. Patterns are funny for me. I almost never use a pattern but I love techniques. I will apply new techniques all day long...but to sit down and follow a pattern makes me crazy. Well, that makes things tricky when I try to write a pattern, right? I mean I never use a pattern why would anyone else? There must be a market for it out in the quilting world since I see so many of them.

As I was piecing this top I knew exactly how I wanted to quilt it. You see, I really wanted to quilt an appliqué quilt, but I didn't want to take the time to make and entire appliqué top...so I just made 4 appliqué boarders and stitched them around the quilt.

It has been a while since I have quilted in the Welsh style and I kew I wanted to give it a go in the solids portions of this quilt.

I began by trying to use my quilting templates, but that just grew frustrating. You see, my machine is an old one and the extended throat plate was not intended for use on my beast of a machine...so I just chalked in the out line of the design and went to town quilting.

I know it is not perfect like the computerized quilting but I really like the whimsy of it. I spent last week going to long arm dealers (Nolting, Gammill and a Viking machine) to check into upgrading my machine or just all out buying an additional one. I like my Gammill so very much and I don't NEED anther machine, but my husband brought it up and now the idea is buzzing around in my mind like mad.

I love the freedom of just quilting away on a top...whatever is in my mind, I can quilt it.

Do I even get enough tops to justify another machine or a better machine? Big thoughts around here....I guess time will tell. This machine fell into my life so fatefully, I have never regretted a second with it. At any rate I am accepting quilt tops for both custom quilting and all over quilting. Shoot ma an email if you would like a quote for one of your tops.

Yours,
Tia Curtis