Cross and Crown anyone???

If anyone every asks you "What is Tia Curtis's Favorite quilt block?" you can tell them it is the Cross and Crown. I love it as a Barn quilt.

I love it as a simple quilt block

So what the heck…why not make it into a massive bed sized quilt? Did you know I have never made a quilt just for my bed? Nope. Not once. Now I do have a princess and the pea sized stack of quilts on my bed (all are about 70 inches square) so my husband and I fight over them and kick them off and snatch them off one another during the course of the night…but it was time for a bed sized quilt. I guess I arrived at this conclusion from quilting many many many other ladies bed sized quilts. People actually make quilts for their beds? What? Why?

I have had this puppy assembled for months, and finally decided to quilt it when I got my Lady June back from the shop.

I tossed it up on the bed as soon as I trimmed it. Yes, we are totally sleeping under it and it is not bound. I hate binding quilts…but this one I NEED to bind and soon. Lots and lots of straight line quilting MUST be bound. Seriously….soon.

So, it is not as intuitive as you would think to take a simple block and blow it up into a massive bed sized quilt. Maybe it was the linen…maybe it was the bias…maybe it was human error (that is my vote)  but in the end it was fine. I did try something I have been very excited to try. I quilted zillions of pieces of advice I have received over the years. I quilted quotes all over the aqua parts of this quilt. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the texture it created.

My handwriting is so much better when quilted! But it is crazy hard to read with this blending thread. This was really just a test piece, next time I will use contrasting thread!

All the fabric used in this quilt is linen that I dyed myself. I used 2 layers of batting (quilters dream cotton in deluxe loft and quilters dream batting in Wool) to really give the quilting a great definition (the pictures don't really show the pretty quilting. Sorry it was a super dreary day. And as a nod to going green I used one of our old flat sheets as the backing. Of course this will drive me bonkers next time I try to make the bed.

Have the best evening ever and happy quilting!
Tia Curtis

AMERICA!!!

So I have been busy quilting…trying to clear my plate a bit before some of the top secret Quilt Market projects start rolling in. This time of year and before Fall Quilt Market are my favorite times of the year. Anyway, I was on my way to pick up my kiddos from school and guess what swooped down in from of my car? A magnificent Bald Eagle! Few things make me as thrilled as seeing one of those great raptors in flight. I always feel like shouting "AMERICA!!!!" When I am lucky enough to spot one.

Sometimes they come visit our back yard and eat our poor hens. But if you have to be eaten by something being eaten by an eagle isn't a bad way to go.

One day my husband and I were in our kitchen putting dishes away or some such glamorous activity and we spotted a man in a cloak in our chicken coop. All the sudden my husband swears and dashes outside and before my eyes the "man" in the coop straightened up and spread his massive wings then preformed a vertical takeoff. It was an adolescent bald eagle perched on the door to the coop peeping in and checking our sweet (juicy) hens out. Letting them know that he would be back! Lucky for the girls that day he didn't feel like humbling himself and hopping around inside a chicken house. 

Here is inquisitive Midnight. She is the detective of the flock…no question is too tough for her to ask!

OK, I am babbling. Sorry. Lets talk quilts.

 I am pretty sure I shouted "America!" when I unfolded this patriotic quilt. April wanted me to quilt feathers around the star and stipple the rest….I may have went a bit overboard with the center quilting, but I love how it turned out.

Some nice traditional feathers around the star, and echoing lines inside the star.

Mr Eagle himself got a bit of fancy quilting too…just to dress him up a bit. I see from this picture that I need to brush off the chalk marks. 

This was a BIG quilt. 90 x 112. I like quilting big quilts.

Have a great evening folks!

Coming up from my quilt lair for a moment to show you what I have been up to

Hey there folks! I have been busy busy busy and it has been cold and snowy here!  The kids were out of school for 4 of 5 days last week due to one heck of a snow storm so we did a painting craft to make it fun, not that snow days are ever bad. I just wanted to do something fun with them. See those pictures at the end of the post and a link to the website I found the templates and instructions for in case you want to try it with your children next time they are home due to bad weather.


I have been quilting heaps of quilts too. This is a lovely Irish Chain by Jenny. I custom quilted it with a twist on traditional quilting.

I really dig the back too. Green on a natural muslin is lovely.

I also quilted a Quilt of Valor last Saturday on Quilt of Valor day.

I got carried away on this one and custom quilted it. Raylene pieced the top and back. I love quilting Raylenes quilts.

Here is a lovely Bargello quilt made from more of Shari's shirt stripes.

I love the border I quilted on this quilt. I definitely will be adding this design to my bag of tricks.

The body of the quilt was quilted with these arches.

This is Lori's Irish chain. I quilted it Classic Denyse Schmidt. I just love it.

Last but not least quilt is this feathered Star I quilted for Julie. It is made with the Downton Abby fabric collection. It is hard to tell but I quilted lots of feathers.

Here are some more peeks of what is going on in my studio. I am slowly quilting my massive Cross and Crown quilt. It is all my hand dyed linens and an old sheet for the back. I am using 2 layers of batting for this quilt. A deluxe Cotton and a wool. It is going to be so warm when it is finally finished! I love using my newly refit Gammill Supreme. It is so very nice to quilt with.

Over on the Statler is a rainbow quilt I am freehand quilting with all ruler work echoing triangles.

Here are our painted Pony Stampede. This is the project we worked on for the Snow days. All three kids and I worked on the horses. We got them painted and assembled rather quickly, but I didn't think out how I would mount them to the wall down in my studio. I solved that problem by using a blank canvas and Entomology pins. This was super fun and I totally recommend this project!

Ann Wood Card Board Stampede on Design Sponge.

Give that link a go!

OK, I need to go get the eggs before they freeze and vacuum before ladies come over the drop off/pick up their quilts.

Have the best Monday ever!!!

xo,
Tia Curtis