Hey there!

Hey folks! I hope you are all well. I sure have been crazy busy. I am coming up for a quick blog post to show you some of what I have been working on lately. SO many quilts have been picked up or mailed out and I didn't get a chance to take their pictures….it was  like it never happened, right? Thank goodness my phone is filled with their pretty pictures. Ha.

This beauty was for my fiend Leia. It is one of several old quilts tops made by a great aunt that her mom had stored away in a box in the attic. My ultimate fantasy (yeah…I'm predictable aren't I?)

I had a blast quilting this one!I love straight lines and the border was really wonky so I had to get rather creative with how to quilt it. In the end I decided on wonky arcs.

This one is for Lynn. It was enormous. The quilting is hard to see, but every stitch is hand guided.

Swirls and pebbles on this fabric in a blue thread named Galileo. 

And wood grain in the center bit…but it almost looks like water and that is fine too I think.

I made a Camp Follower Bag and wallet. I haven't done one of these for ages, but I was asked very sweetly by a fellow in Afghanistan to make on for his wife for Christmas. I made her a bag a couple years ago and she loved it so much….oh what the heck!

I forgot how much I love making these bags, but I just don't have enough time to do both the bags and quilting. I need a clone.

This is my newest wallet design. 

I carry the red one everywhere. It fits my big phone, so I can have everything at my fingertips but….it is slim so I can't jam it full of nonsense.

I will have this tshirt quilt up on the frame later today. Only one more before the Christmas rush of quilt making is over….well and 2 more Christmas quilts. Whew!

And my very favorite hen became a rooster. Isn't that sad? He is a good rooster though. He keeps all his ladies together and finds them the best spots to graze. And he is still sweet enough that we can carry him around if we feel the need (which the kids often do.) And the best chicken news??? They are finally laying perfect brown eggs! I am so proud of these birds.

Happy quilting folks!

Tia

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving folks! I hope you all got lots of great food to enjoy with wonderful folks. I know we sure did. I have not even been down into my studio all day! I may rectify that in a second as I have a lovely lone star quilt I am working on and it is calling to me…but time with my little family is so sweet.

If you have the time and energy I hope you all have a wonderfully crafty long weekend!

xo,
Tia Curtis

Book Winner

The Winner Is!!!!!

CeciliaNovember 22, 2013 at 5:38 PM

I like to use a clear paper where I can draw different designs to see how they will look on my quilt. So, I ask quite a few questions about how much I want the quilting to show or the piecing to show. Thanks for the chance to win a copy of the book. I really like the quilting designs you used on the quilt.

Thanks so much everyone for playing along! What a great bunch of questions. 

Blog Book Tour!

Good Morning and welcome to my blog for the Book tour of Classic Modern Quilts! If you are new here let me introduce myself. I am Tia Curtis. I am a long arm quilter. If my name sounds familiar I have another blog and business making bags (Camp Follower Bags and Quilts) but I am focusing more on long arm quilting instead of bag making. At any rate Welcome!!!!! I am so excited you are here and I am thrilled to participate in this book tour.

I quilted Tammie's Diamonds in the Rough quilt this summer right before taking off for the beach. I had such a great time quilting it. I love the combination of traditional strip pieced diamonds in various sizes but with lots of open background and sunny modern tones.

Before quilting for someone I always ask 3 questions. The first one to the client "How do you want it quilted?" Typically they tell me to do whatever I want. That is a great answer, but it takes me onto my next 2 questions….

"How would I quilt this quilt if I was going to hand quilt it?" 

I really look at the structure of the quilt and what was important to the quilt maker. Some quilts really sing with an edge to edge design, but others need special treatment. How can I add strength to the quilt with my stitching but both reinforcing the piecing and defining the design elements?

my third question is….

"If I lived back in the early 1900s and was a quilter…but magically I had access to a modern long arm as well as the knowledge to operate it…how would I quilt this quilt?

Obviously I decided to quilt this quilt with swirls and straight lines the cherries on top are the tiny pebbles that are mixed into the swirls. Pebbles go with just about any type of modern quilting.

OK, that is enough of my babbling. Next time when you are stuck on how to quilt a quilt ask yourself my 3 questions and see if you gain any perspective.

Soooo who wants a book? The good folks from Kansas City Star quilts and My Stars blog are giving away copies of Classic Modern Quilts! I would love to choose you. To win tell me another question you ask yourself (or your quilter) before quilting your quilts. Let me know down in the comments and I will choose the winner on Sunday the 24th of november by random selection.

If you don't win you can order the book from the Pickledish Store. It is a great little book with some lovely quilts inside.

Have a great day and good luck!

Tia Curtis

Be sure to check out Tammie's Blog today and Amy's blog tomorrow for another chance to win

Nov. 11: Lisa Calle, www.vintagemodernquilts.com
Nov. 12: Lynne Goldsworthy, www.lilysquilts.blogspot.com
Nov. 13: Lauren Hunt, www.myauntjune.blogspot.com
Nov. 14: Heather Kojan, www.heatherkojan.blogspot.com
Nov. 15: John Kubiniec, www.bigrigquilting.blogspot.com
Nov. 18: Adrianne Ove, www.littlebluebell.com
Nov. 19: Trisch Price, www.hadleystreetquilts.com
Nov. 20: Tammie Schaffer, www.craftytammie.com and Tia Curtis, tiacurtisquilts.blogspot.com
Nov. 21: Amy Smart, www.diaryofaquilter.com
Nov. 22: Susan Strong, www.strongstitches.wordpress.com

 Thanks so much for participating in the blog tour!

Some WIPs

I am busy as usual down here in my quilt lair. Let me show you a bit of what I have been up to. In this shot you can see that I was working on a bag when I got up and wondered off to do something else. There are several small projects tossed over my standing lamp that I will get to someday.

Here is one of 2 T-shirt quilts I need to finish by Christmas. I just wanted to play a bit with what I have so far. There is still a stack of T-shirts to cut up and make play their part in this story.

I have been playing around with some of my orphan blocks. This may be a quilt, several quilts or just some inspiration for an entirely different quilt. Who really knows? All I know is that one should never have an empty design wall.

 
My old rocker filled with quilts that either need to be picked up, are waiting for backing or are ready to ship out. My very techno savvy black board of quilts that need to be quilted. pretty flash right?

Some of my favorite fabric waiting to become something magical and one of my favorite kids on the planet playing with my lint roller. I have about 6 of them scattered around the sewing room but they tend to run off with my seam rippers.

more quilts on herb racks waiting to be quilted. Thankfully I am a pretty quick quilter so they don't have to stay there very long. I am waiting to get my other Long arm back from a refurbishing so I can have 2 quilts going at once, or rent one of them out to those who want to quilt with me. 

This is a stack of fabric waiting to become a grand quilt. Nothing like a stack of Kaffe Fassett to brighten your day!

I did go ahead and sew up the sides of this bag while I was down taking pictures. First I dig the new BDUs to Afghanistan, second I love how this bag turned out! It is a big surprise for a lady whose very sweet husband contacted me from the war in Afghanistan asking me to make his wife a bag for Christmas. How could I say no? It has been a pretty long time since I made one of my Camp Follower Bags. Frankly I want to either write them all into patterns for who ever wants to make their own , or write a book with instructions. I have been making them for 10 years and I am ready to take the next step whatever that is.

And I love these little fellas. Sam with his crazy winter hair and Ethan with his heart of gold. 2 of the best things I have ever made!

Have a great day and come back tomorrow for a book give away!!!!!

xo,
Tia

I have been featured in some books and magazines lately.

I have patterns in all these magazines! My quilting is in the book on top and in 1,2,3 Quilt (but I think I left it at work or in the van so it missed out on the picture) Hard for me to believe, but I do. All from just this year too. What will next year bring? I hope it brings a book deal so I can finally have closure with my Camp Follower Bags. The top 4 are on shelves now.

xo,
Tia Curtis

Cross and Crown and Maple leaves KC Star BOM

OK here we are for month 2 of the KC Star BOM. I know I have been tardy in posting and If you missed the get together over at my house I was very sad to not get to sew with you. I am working a tiny bit these days, but it is stunning to me how just a little bit of work (2 days a week and 2 saturdays a month) cut into my sewing/quilting/blogging/cleaning/grocery shopping/helping with homework…time). This month I decided to tackle the Cross and Crown as well as the Maple Leaf. They were fairly tricky to do at the same time, I should have put them with a more simple block, but hind site is 50/50 right?

For this version of the Maple Leaf I used Jenny Doan's tutorial over at Missouri Star Quilt COmpany. It is fabulous and much better than anything I could do and the instructions are actually correct as opposed to the book that I originally used.

Jenny is a quilting Rock Star.

Basically you will be making 4 of these leaf blocks.

Next up is the cross and crown. This is my all time favorite quilt block. I painted the barn quilt on my chicken coop to be a cross and crown.

The instructions in the book were weird…so I GOOGLED!!!! the pattern. Here…use this one!

Cross and Crown PDF

You will be making 4 of this segment and putting them together. Too easy!

I love cross and Crown so much that I made a massive one. It will be quilted as soon as I finish all the Christmas quilts I have from clients…so probably not until January….or earlier if I really find the energy to burn the midnight oil. I am up every morning at 0333, so I may as well truck on down to the studio and do some quilting right?

This is all linen hand dyes from back when I had time for that sort of thing. I know just how I want to quilt it!

Let me know if you have any questions about the blocks so far.

xo,

Tia

a space quilt or hexagons 3 ways

This is a quilt I made recently for the quilt shop I work at. It is a shop sample, but I am not sure what will really become of it. I (or Jerry) need to write up a pattern and make some kits…but we don't have enough of the back ground fabric to do so…so it is folded up on a shelf. I think it is quite striking so I wanted to share it with you all here on my blog.

The piecing was rather simple, mostly applique but what really makes it shine is the quilting and the use of ombre fabric. I used 2 layers of batting. Quilters dream cotton on the bottom and quilters dream Puff batting on the top which makes for really nice lofty quilting. Very dimensional quilting.

 I wanted it to look like wind or space gas? moving through the void of the great abyss.

I love a back as much as the front.

If this is a kit you would like to make up let me know and I will push it a little harder at Quilters Quarters. It was a really quick quilt. I think straight lines would be just as lovely as the wild quilting I did.

Have a great evening!
Tia

Book Tour!

Hey there! I just wanted to give you a heads up about the upcoming book tour I will be participating in. You will have quite a few chances to win a copy of this really great book. My giveaway will be on the 20th.

Nov. 11: Lisa Calle, www.vintagemodernquilts.com
Nov. 12: Lynne Goldsworthy, www.lilysquilts.blogspot.com
Nov. 13: Lauren Hunt, www.myauntjune.blogspot.com
Nov. 14: Heather Kojan, www.heatherkojan.blogspot.com
Nov. 15: John Kubiniec, www.bigrigquilting.blogspot.com
Nov. 18: Adrianne Ove, www.littlebluebell.com
Nov. 19: Trisch Price, www.hadleystreetquilts.com
Nov. 20: Tammie Schaffer, www.craftytammie.com and Tia Curtis, tiacurtisquilts.blogspot.com
Nov. 21: Amy Smart, www.diaryofaquilter.com

Nov. 22: Susan Strong, www.strongstitches.wordpress.com

Leia's Wagon Wheel quilt

Here is one of my big fantasies….one day I am rummaging in an attic and find a box of old quilt tops waiting to be quilted. I love that dream…well my friend Leia actually got to live this dream! She was at her moms house and her mom mentioned the boxes in the attic filled with an aunts old quilt tops. What???? Well, this is one that she let me quilt up. There is another one ready to go downstairs.

I love how quirky the fabric placement is in the wedges.

It was a bit tricky to think how to quilt it. I finally asked myself how she would have done it if she would have had a long arm at her disposal back when they were pieced…so I settled on the ever wonderful swirl. This quilt was such a treat to quilt.