some more quilts

Hey there! Here are some more quilts I finished recently. This wonderfully sweet quilt I custom quilted all free hand. Not a stitch of computer. Can I tell you how much faster it is to hand guide than it is to plop in all those designs and stand by to wait for the machine to quilt them out for me?

There was some really fun dimensional piecing in this quilt that made the quilting something I really had to think about. The client wanted the folded bits to pop out. so I just quilted around them.

Next up is this doggy quilt. The center part is a panel that the client wanted custom quilted so it looked pieced. This quilt is all hand guided too.

I traced around all the dogs with the long arm and did some fun quilting in the parts we wanted to look pieced.

In the border I quilted dog words "woof", "yip", "Grrrrr" "Bark". I couldn't think of any more word sounds so that is what I went with.

Now the next two quilts are all custom computer quilted. They took ages. And in a way sucked my creative mind dry. I think while I was quilting them I was also painting garish colored Chicken portraits and trying my best to learn to knit toe up socks. I gave up on the socks. But the hen portraits look good.

The blocks in this quilt were made by my clients great Aunt years and years ago. Sorry about the cruddy pictures they don't do anything to showcase all the details.

And this top was done by the same lady's grandmother. I tell you what...there are some of the best little feedback prints in this Dresden plate quilt! I had to really hunt to find doubles.

She brought in pictures of how old Dresden Plate quilts had been hand quilted and she wanted me to quilt it similar.

And we had a photo shoot this morning before the terrible weather hit town. I am trying to get a good Head Shot for a book I have contributed to...but I almost never have my picture taken. I am always behind the camera taking pictures of others! Anyway I thought this one was pretty fun. Very Napoleonic wouldn't you say?

A T-shirt Quilt

Hey there! I finished another Shirt quilt last week. These are actually pretty fun to make. But I did learn a very important tip after I had finished and given this quilt to the client. In the future I will insist that the people who drop off or send the shirts indicate exactly which portions of the shirt are desired in the quilt. I was positive that the lady said to use all the shirts so I did....but it turns out I had insulted her by adding one of the red shirts. Apparently Dr Schabazz is a con traversal figure. Personally I had no clue who she was except that she has an exciting name. Whoops. It was pretty easy to fix by appliqueing another shirt on top and quilting over it with invisible thread, but boy was I embarrassed!

I hand guided the quilting with wind since the young lady who all the shirts belonged to was a runner. And I think these swirls are the most fun to quilt.

It was sashed with blue and backed with fuchsia, the young lady's favorite colors. So...learn from my folly and if you every make one of these quilts for someone, ASK what shirts they want and mark them with masking tape. My favorite Shirt client did that with her college shirts and her husband did the same with his. It made the process so much more simple.

I have lots of quilts to show off!

Have a happy weekend!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!!

I chose the winner from the blog hop. It is Mara. I emailed you, so let me know your address, that way you can get your hot hands on this lovely fabric!

MaraApril 15, 2014 at 2:08 PM

Love this line, especially the "spackle" one with the paint chip colors on it.

ReplyDelete

Creating with Carrie's Paint Fabric

Hey there! If you are on the blog hop welcome! I am Tia Curtis, a long arm quilter and quilt designer. I am also a friend of Carrie's. I pretty much dig her. We met at quilt market a couple years ago and what struck me first about her was this her kindness and a special thrum of intense creative energy just below the surface. Well, when she asked me if I wanted to sew for her again for quilt market I said YES! She sent me her awesome PAINT fabric and each print was better than the last. I wanted to do justice to each print and many of them screamed APPLIQUÉ ME!!!! So I did.

First up we have this wonderful Paint brush case. My best friend Sharon Smith had one like it that was old and torn. She found at a yard sale about 20 years ago. She brought it to me and wanted to know if I could use it to draft a pattern for another one. I have made several over the years and the pattern has developed a bit. Now that I have it the way I like it best I have been meaning to do something with the pattern, besides just making paint brush cases for friends and my daughter. When I saw Carrie's fabric I knew Paint was the perfect collection for this design.

I did a bit of hand quilting while my husband was making dinner and used one of my old Camp Follower Bag business tags in the binding. This is a great design. If it doesn't get picked up at quilt market I will release a PDF pattern for purchase.

The next project was a little needle turn appliqué wall hanging. At first I thought I was going to make a BIG 4 block appliqué  (like the beautiful antique ones I saw at the quilt study center in Lincoln, Nebraska) but even I couldn't make that happen in time. I will make one later though. I thoroughly LOVED working on this project. There is something magical about doing hand appliqué in a quiet house. It really helps focus my mind. I think I had menus planned for the next 5 weeks! I designed this quilt to be pretty simple and approachable for a new appliqué quilter...someone just wishing to dip their toes into simple shapes.

Here it is all finished. I custom quilted this one. It is so hard to pick my favorite print! I love the color wheels for fussy cutting, the text is great because it is just awesome and the new colors are fabulous.

Last but not least I made this big Cross and Crown quilt. This was actually all I was going to make but I got swept up in Carrie's wonderful Paint fabric! I couldn't help it! I used the Weave print for the big parts of the tulips (or crown I guess, but I always think they look like tulips) and I added an appliqué  vine in the center cross portion. All but the bias vine is fusible appliqué. WAY faster than needle turn. If this pattern isn't picked up at Quilt market I will write it up as a PDF for here as well. I love the idea of blowing up a classic quilt block into a large bed sized quilt. It is fast and fairly simple, you just need bigger cuts of fabric.

For the quilting on this one I used an edge to edge. I couldn't narrow down what I wanted to do to it with the time I had left, so and edge to edge worked well but still looked naked. My daughter sketched out some leaves and I quilted them on the vines and viola! It was ready.

Here is a better shot of the leaves! Umm. I love them.

OK, so I know you are here to win some fabric right? Well, leave a comment below about which print  form Paint you think you will do the most with. The paint brush print is perfect for fussy cutting too by the way! I will choose a winner Saturday and Carrie will send you an Charm pack! Start saving your fabric allowance folks. This collection of fabric it fabulous!

xo,
Tia Curtis

Don't miss the rest of the blog tour!

April 9 April Rhodes
April 10 Sally Keller + Julie Goldin
April 11 Shea Henderson
April 12 Ramona Burke + Jenny Kelly
April 13 Sam Hunter + A Vintage Fairytale (Staci Barrett)
April 14 Rachael Gander + Erica Sage
April 15 Karen LePage + Tia Curtis
April 16 Shelly Figueroa + Fabrications2b (Bonnie Bobman)

A pretty quilt

Hey there! I just finished a quilt I can show you! Isn't this a pretty one? I just love the prettiness to it. It is a modified Dresden Plate with some fun dimensional piecing in the centers.

I custom quilted it so the folded bits would pop.

Here is a better shot of the "pop" of the folded parts.

And a gratuitus shot of the back.

I did a wide border of my favorite quick feather...a hooked feather.

OK, back down to the lair! It was great seeing you...I will be back soon I hope!

Tia

New Jersey Beauty Block - a quick and dirty tutorial

Have you ever seen a New York Beauty quilt Block or quilt for that matter? Totally on my bucket list. They blow my mind. I even made a tiny New York Beauty quilt once......and then I gave it away as a quilt swap. I have always wanted to make my own New York Beauty quilt though...but not quite as rigid as the paper pieces make them. I love craftsy.com and I have loved taking classes from them. one of my very favorite classes was one by Sarah Fielke. In the class she showed how to make a New York Beauty quilt block ( a Not Quite a Beauty) whack I thought was so much more beautiful than the standard New York Beauty Blocks.

Well, I tried and tired to get it right and finally settled on the New Jersey Beauty Block (or at least that is what I am calling it).  I have been to New Jersey once. And New York Never. Crazy I know...well I may have flown through a couple times while doing meddevacs, but those times don't really count as I never left the airport and was just looking for a soft chair to curl up in and try to sleep in or trying to get my patients comfortable enough so they could rest.

I have ben playing with my New Jersey blocks trying to decide what orientation I like the best...There are too many great ways to make the block so none is better than another. I took some pictures while making the blocks and even made a video. I am not sure if the video will come out. My fingers are crossed. I fiddled with my camera and can't get it to return to the previous great quality pictures it was taking. Now everything looks blurry...or I am drunk?

I didn't do the spike parts for this block...just the curves. I love it and can invision it a hundred different ways!

As I was making the blocks I decided it was easiest to start with 5 long triangles or wedges and 4 background pieces.

Sew with a quarter inch seam the first two blocks. No sweat right? It gets harder...

For the second wedge you will really have to make a dramatic angle. It feels wrong, but just do it!

Make sure you trim off the background leftover bit each time.

This was the first block I made where half the spikes didn't develop...so ignore that...just focus on the nice curve I am trying to make here. Lay your spiky block part on top of the inner curve bit

Make a gentle curve with your rotary cutter. Be careful not to cut off your finger tips. You can do this. You are an Adult.

Do the same thing with another inner curve.

If you feel wild make even one more curve! See if the video helps. I hope it loads. I will try to fix it if is doesn't. I don't want you to miss any of the drama.