Cross quilt for Julie

Hey there! My middle son is off at a sleepover and the volume of our home is so quiet. Ethan is the most quiet of the lot of children I have so his presence is really missed. Part of me does not like sleepovers at all. I like having my children around me. But I guess it helps them mature.  So since we are in the mind set of low volume, lets look at a fairly low volume quilt.

I just finished quilting this great quilt for Julie. I always love to quilt Julie's quilts. She wanted me to do whatever I wanted to this quilt, but she wanted swirls. I have never met a swirl I didn't like, so swirl I did! I love how the undulation of the background quilting makes the crosses pop out to the fore.

I tired to only use swirls for this quilt, but I did feel it necessary to toss in a couple pebbles just for the heck of it.

Happy quilting folks!

Free Piecing Class at Show Me Quilting!

Hey there! Now that these guys are back at school, guess what I am doing?? I am going to be teaching! Hot Dog! I will be teaching the joys of free piecing at Show Me Quilting in Raytown, MO. I will be teaching a workshop on free piecing on October 19, 2013 from 0900 to 1700. SO we will be packing some great stuff into a Saturday. Here is the class description...

Free Piecing Workshop with Tia Curtis

Are you ready to set your artist free with liberated piecing? If you are, then join Tia Curtis for a Free Piecing workshop. She will instruct how to make 8 different traditional blocks in a liberated, pattern free method and she will show various ways to combine the blocks to incorporate modern and whimsical boarders. We will end the class with a fun twist on applique. You will leave the class with an imagination filled with possibilities and at least 8 finished quilt blocks, the start to some borders as well as an applique block to work on at your leisure.  All the pieces can go together to make a wall hanging or you can add to it to make a larger quilt.

Free piecing is my absolute favorite way to make quilts. I do hope you will join me! Visit Beth's Facebook page to sign up for the workshop!

You can email me of make comments below if you have any questions.

Cheers!
Tia

Kansas City Star Quilt - Block of the Month

Hey there! Happy Monday morning. I am delighted to present to you my latest quilt! If you follow me on facebook or instagram I am sure you have been overwhelmed by all the pictures I have been posting of this quilt. It was a blast to make and I learned so much in the creation of it. I created this quilt to be used as a Block of the Month for the spouse group quilt club here on Fort Leavenworth. If you don't live on fort leavenworth you can still quilt along with us from the comfort of you own sewing room! I will be posting the blocks and the instructions here on my blog. This will be a quick block of the month as most ladies who come to Fort Leavenworth are only here for a short year. We will do 2 blocks each month, then the cornerstones and finishing up. I will give piecing tips and of course quilting tips. I just can't wait! I do hope you will join me.

There is a book I recommend you purchase, it is an old one and you can pick it up for a song on Amazon. Just use it as a guide! I warn you now it is FILLED with errors. I am intimately familiar with each of the errors from the making of this quilt. I will tell you the proper dimensions for each block as we make them, don't worry!

Here is the top before I quilted it.I love how happy the colors are and I love the history in each block.

We will make simple blocks, that are perfect for the less adventurous quilters.

Blocks that are a bit more tricky

We will also try appliqué! Don't be scared, this block was actually really simple and it was so nice to step away from my sewing machine and do a bit of needle turn appliqué. This block can easily be adapted to fusible appliqué if needle turn intimidates you.

This block was my very favorite! Someday I will do an entire Maple Leaf quilt....it is on my bucket list.

So, please join me back here in September and we will have a blast making a Kansas City Star quilt. Please let me know if you have questions! 

https://www.facebook.com/ftleavenworthquiltclub

I even started a Facebook group. Feel free to join. I do caution you...I stink at face-booking, but I am making an effort!

The Local Quilt

Hey there! How are you doing this lovely Saturday? I want to show you some quilt eye candy! This wonderful quilt was made by Lori and she let me quilt it for her. What a thrill! This quilt is a pattern by Carolyn Friedlander (designer of my very favorite fabric Architextures). The pattern is named The Local Quilt. If you like paper piecing this pattern is for you!

I had a blast quilting this piece. I think the texture of the free form Baptist fans looks so much like puffy clouds and a perfect day. They fit so well with the neighborhood.

I love the texture in this quilt and it will look awesome in Lori's real estate office.

Have a great weekend!
Tia

So many quilts, so little time!

Hey there! It has been ages since I blogged, but there has been heaps of things going on around here. LOTS of quilts being quilted and a studio being renovated, and the pool to visit with the kids! Whoa! I get tired even thinking about all that is happening...but soon the kids will be back in school and I will be working hard on quilts and designs again. This is a picture heavy post, but it is full of pretty quilts!

QOV made by Raylene Mason and quilted by me. This one was presented along with about 30 others yesterday to the 705th MP battalion who just returned from a tour in Kuwait. They kindly took us through the military prison on Ft Leavenworth. I have always wanted to see the inside...but I don't know anyone to visit there. I don't really do a great deal of thinking about prisons, but it was a very secure facility and very beige. I never want to be a guest let me assure you! But they do have a really amazing textile repair room filled with the most lovely bunch of Juki industrial sewing machines. The prisoners repair damaged military gear.

This lovely quilt was made by Pam for her daughter to take to college. So pretty. I love the Baptist clamshells.

This is the back of a secret quilt. But I love this quilting design. It is an edge to edge design but it looks so custom, doesn't it? If you would like this one request Modern Maze (by Krista Withers, a quilter I admire so very much.)

I also have mostly finished these 2 quilts. The grey and red one will be for a class at Show Me Quilting in Kansas City, the blue and black one is a Welsh style quilt that I started years ago on my domestic machine and finally finished up on my long arm. I just need to bind it.

This is a lovely traditional quilt that I had a complete blast quilting! I quilted it with a combination of computer designs and my own free hand work. I am thrilled with how it turned out. The wild batik was selected by the teenager that this quilt was made for. In her defense it does have all the right colors in it.

This is one of the t-shirt quilts I have been working on. It really needs its own blog post.

The back of the t-shirt quit is a Texas flag quilt! I thought that was a stroke of brilliance if I do say so myself.

So, that is what I have been up to! Along with planning some classes and a block of the month. I guess it is really no surprise that I can't sleep at night. Too many plans whirling around in my mind! I just need to make them realities!

Happy sewing folks!
Tia

T-shirt quilt

Hey there! Here is a T-shirt quilt I finished for a lady on post. It is all her daughters swim team T-shirts from the last couple years. Australia, Canada and Kansas - that is quite a swimming sprawl. The girl's favorite color is Aqua, so I choose that as the background color. I quilted it to look like water. My favorite part is the big "Ceileigh Loves Swimming" quilted into the center of the quilt. It was very fun to play with the writing feature of my Statler Stitcher. The background ripple quilting was done freehand.

You can see the writing a little better in these two shots.

Funny how this quilt came to be. I was at a Tastefully simple party about a month ago and 2 ladies were chatting about the trouble they were having with getting their T-shirt quilts made. My ears perked up at the word quilt and I joined the conversation. By the end of the week I had bags and bags of T-shirts under my sewing table from ladies all over post. Turns out there is quite a market for T-shirt quilts. Who knew? My goal with T-shirt quilts I make for folks is to take them to the next level. This one is pretty tame, but my next two are much more Modern and personal.

I would be more than happy to make one for you. I charge $10 a square foot for a simple T-shirt quilt (like the one above). That rounds out to be about $20 a T-shirt. That should help you as you look through your dresser or the boxes out in the garage. Send me an email if you would like to discuss T-shirt quilts a bit more. The next 2 are going to be pretty great....and not your normal T-shirt quilt by any means.

Have a great day!

Tia Curtis

The quilts I finished before I went to the beach

Hey there! How are you all doing? Good I hope! I just got back from Ft Walton Beach. It was awesome but so good to be home. I was in a giant rush to finish 3 pattens and quilt several quilts right before I left so I could relax a bit while on vacation. So busy in fact that I didn't post anything about the quilts I was working on. This is a great one! It was made by one of my favorite clients, Julie. She presses such pretty seams. Anyway, she wanted me to go crazy with lots of swirls to make this quilt pop. Well, I never met a swirl I didn't like!

In my mind I assigned each color a different quilting design and switched between 4 different thread colors. I adore the humps. I see this happening again in the future!

This is the back of Julie's quilt. I wonder what this will be like after it is washed and loved on a bit?

This is the back of Tammy's quilt. It is super secret....hence only the back can I show. The front is so much more wonderful.

Next post will be a t-shirt quilt.

xo,
Tia