Quilt of Valor #1

 Hey there! How are you doing? I quilted a Quilt Of Valor this weekend (well, Friday really). Judy Modlin made the top, the Kansas Coordinator sent it to me and I quilted it. I will be sending it back to them on Tuesday when the post office opens back up.

 When I first began chatting with the QOV ladies they were talking about pantograph quilting. I don't like pantograph quilting. I don't like doing it with my Gammill. There are several reasons why, but mostly because I am a bit of a control freak. I want to see EVERY stitch that is going into a quilt and I can't do that from the back of my machine. And I think Pantographs are boring to follow. For me. I am only giving you my thoughts on this matter. I know zillions of quilters LOVE pantographs. And that is awesome. I have tried to like pantographs....when I bought my long arm it can with about 20 different pantographs. But I just didn't like following them. Quilting has always been my favorite part of the quilt making process and pantographs feel (to me) like being constrained...reined in.

Do you know what a pantograph is? Do you know what the difference between pantograph quilting and custom quilting is? I sure didn't until last year!  I was trying to describe the difference to my mom before she came out to visit and she had no idea what I was talking about.  I will talk about that in one of my next posts. I think it is fascinating. But until then...lets get back to this quilt.

 This is how I quilted this quilt. I think it is pretty. Lots of movement. The front has many patriotic fabrics and Judy did a great job assembling this top. I think the swirls look like wind or ripples in a stream...the pebbles look like pebbles. So maybe it looks a bit like a river bed?

 I added a feather to the boarder with lots of pearls. I hope this quilt can bring some comfort to a Vet or his family.

 I have another QOV up on the frame. It is by Judy Modlin as well. I do love all that patriotic fabric!

My Swoon Quilt top

 I made my Swoon Quilt! I pretty much LOVE it. I used Echo by Lotta Jansdotter and a hand dyed grey as the back ground. O do not normally use quilt patterns. I am more of a piece with abandon type quilt maker, so when I read the instructions and it said I needed 5 yards of background, I said to myself that that was nonsense, so I pulled out my pretty grey and went to town cutting. I quickly noticed that there is no way I would have enough fabric to finish the entire quilt, so I pulled all my light greys and tried to make it work. I love how patchy it looks.

 I also had to add more fabric to Lotta's 2 tones. SO I added my own map fabric that I made last year with spoonflower. I began to really fall in love with it!

As I was working on the last block for the quilt I made quite a few cutting mistakes. But you know what? I LOVE how it turned out! I think this is my favorite quilt block.  I can't wait to quilt it!

Pinwheel Quilt for John Adams

I have finished this quilt since this shot was taken, but I have not been able to get another picture of it yet due to wind or rain...or whatever the crazy Texas weather is doing. So, for this quilt I just quilted texture in the white background triangles, loops around the narrow boarder and swirls in the wide measuring tape boarder. It is a great quilt, I will strive to get a couple good close up shots out in the sun.

Another quilt for John - Joel Dewberry

 Hey there! This is the third quilt I have quilted for John Adams. It is made with Joel Dewberry fabric and has the most wonderful red grunge fabric around as a wide boarder. This was a tricky quilt to quilt. It was tricky because there is so much going on in the body of the quilt. At first I wanted to outline quilt all the triangles in the Pineapple blocks, but after I loaded the quilt up onto the frame I quickly figured out that the quilting would be lost, so I went with one of my favorite swirls for the body of the quilt and focused on the wide boarder for quilting that would be seen. I have been mad for Welsh quilting lately so I wanted to tie that in with this quilt. I wanted to make the arcs into pineapples.

 I think they look like pineapples, I put the pineapple tops into the spaces beside the cross hatching, so it is more stylized and sketch like.

Hayes baby quilt

 Hey there! I am way behind with posting finished quilts on this blog! Wow! I must have been sewing instead of blogging. This is the Hayes quilt I finished for my daughter's teacher. I can't tell you haw thrilled I am with the quilting on this little quilt. I have wanted to do all over feather/vines since the first time I saw them and I am so excited to add this technique to my little quilting arsenal.

I am quilting 2 Quilts of Valor this week, I am almost finished with the first one, but I may try this with the second one. The piecing on both quilts is quite simple and I think the quilting can really shine without being too distracting. We will see if I change my mind when I load the quilt. Sometimes I totally change my mind when I load quilts up and see them all spread out.

I hope this little quilts brings the Hayes family a bit of Joy....I know their sweet little boy already has!

 She also ordered a diaper bag to go with the quilt.

trying new things

 Long long ago and far far away in a kingdom not so different than our own there lived a quilter. She spent her day quilting quilts. But she only used one design to quilt her designs. She was really really good at her design, but seriously it was the only design she used. You see she did not know any other designs existed. Then a wonderful new tool arrived almost right at her doorstep in the form of a 36 inch Gammill Long Arm, so she began to explore the world of long arm quilting. She began exploring websites and watching DVDs that had been sent to her by mistake. She ordered books off Amazon and her eyes were opened to the wide world of quilting. She likes to learn new things. Truly she does!  She wanted to quilt all over a quilt with just a fantasy vine...a whimsical gathering of leaves and twirls...maybe she would toss in some pebbles (because every quilt needs some pebbles). But she wanted to start small.

 She has some favorite quilt marking tools. Clover chalk pens are the BEST! (I am not sponsored by anyone or by any shop...so trust me these things are fantastic). She just draws some curving lines with plans to go to town with leaves and feathers and loops.

 By the time the quilting is finished, most of the chalk will be gone. And that that remains will wash out easily in the wash. Before she tries this technique out on a large quit ( on the long arm) she tries it out on her regular home sewing machine. Small projects are easy to quilt up on the Bernina.

 She is in love with feathers. She loves the sketchy quality of the leaves and the flow of the tendrils.

It is good to learn new things!  Live happily ever after with quilting!

LauraJ's Village Quilt

 Happy Monday evening to you! I hope you are doing well. I just unpinned this quilt from the frame. It belongs to LauraJ up in Canada. I bet you know her from Flickr. If you don't go check out her Flickr stream. She is such a fabulous quilter. I have know her for years (through Flickr) and we have been in quite a few quilting bees together. She made this quilt for her son.

I got to quilt it. It is quite hard to see the quilting, between my poor light and the array of fabric, but I am sure that after it is washed the quilting will add texture to this quilt like mad.

You can see a bit of the quilting in this shot... I actually feel somewhat stupid for putting up such poor pictures. But oh well, it is what I have. I quilted cobblestones and pebbles in the sashing, and each house has a different quilted roof. The sky around each dwelling and tree is a bit breezy.


I have quilted quite a few other quilts that I can't show you pictures of yet because they are going in books and magazines and have to be kept secret until then. I have always thought I was rather dreadful at keeping secrets, but I guess I can when I am asked to.

I will leave you with some pictures of old quilt blocks. I bought them at my favorite antique shop in town. I should take my camera and blog about the goings on there...but that would probably be boring.

Have a great evening!

Tia