Women of the Bible Quilt Sampler

 Hey there! I have another quilt finished for 2012.  Hot dog! Well, this one was started ages ago. It began as a BOM (block of the month) back in 2006.  The BOM was with Stitchin Heaven. If you ever want to do a BOM they are wonderful! You pay your money and every month they send you wonderful fabric to cut up and instructions about what to make. It was wonderful and I learned so much from it. I finished the blocks while we were stationed in Australia, but I was too unsure of how to quilt it. Back then I did not have a Long arm in my quilting studio like I do now. I was quilting up a storm on my Berninas, but something this big...and something I had put this much work into needed special quilting so I put in in my closet, or drawer or bin...we moved to Kansas and then we moved to Texas.

 Well, my quilt taste has changed quite a bit since I made this top and it was no longer a priority or even really a favorite. Isn't that horrible? I worked so hard on this quilt and put so much money into it and I really don't even like it. Right after I bought my Gammill and had my sweet husband set it up for me I knew that this would be one of the first quilts I quilted on it. Between you and me I wish I would have waited. I HATE how I quilted this quilt, but live and learn right?

 I finally finished the binding on the quilt (even though it was been on my bed since I took it off the quilting frame). My husband likes the quilt, so I guess we will keep in and throw it into the family quilt rotation.  It is really wonderful and the fabric is so pretty.  If I could magically remove all the quilting I would quilt is so very different now.

 I did quilt on a wild vine boarder...which you can barely see so I don't know why I bothered, but I did. It is actually my favorite part of the quilting.

The quilting is all these wavy, ripply lines. By themselves I love them...but I don't think it goes with this quilt much at all. I be the women of the bible are rolling around in their tombs...well maybe they aren't quilters and could really care less. That is probably it.

I think this is the book that these block came from More Biblical Quilt Blocks. Just in case you are feeling the urge to make a sampler quilt.

Have a great evening!
Tia

BIG Texas flag quilt

 Hey there! I hope you are doing good. Is your new year off to a good start? I hope it is! So this is one of my first finishes of 2012. It is a large Texas flag quilt. A client of mine ordered a bit before Christmas. It is a really great throw size at 60 x 80 inches. She and her husband will be able to curl up under it on the sofa or they can use it on their bed. I hope they use it all the time and drag it all over the world with them in their travels.

 So, when you think of Texas, what do you think of? Lately I have been thinking of wind. It is so windy here. I wanted to take the swirly stary night quilting from the Alaska flag quilt and put it into this one....but make the swirls represent wind instead of stars. Can you see it?

 I also decided to quilt in some feathers and pebbles and a couple other elements.

 For the Back I used a 200 TC Muslin which is so wonderful. I love the swoosh sound it makes. The Cotton Batting is the low loft request weight from Quilters Dream . I am really pleased with how this quilt turned out and I hope it brings a bit of Texas to some Texans who are far away.

See, I tried to take outside pictures, but it was too windy and the quilt blew away. I said a bad word and set up shop in my quilting studio.

Have a great new year!

Tia

Alaska Flag Quilt

 Hey there. I sure hope you are doing well. It has been pretty busy around here with my family visiting, but I wanted to pop in to show you one of my latest finishes. I designed this quilt around the Alaskan Flag. I decided to make the stars a bit more liberated than the 5 pointed stars that are actually on the flag. As I finished this quilt top, I knew just how I wanted to quilt it.

 I bet most everyone is familiar with Vincent van Gogh's Stary Night painting, right? I love the swirls that he painted into it and I have always loved taking that to my quilting. So I did it again here on this quilt.

 I also quilted the names of each star. Don't you think star names are funny?

 The second star of the big dipper is actually 2 stars. Did you know that? Well, you do now. And the stars are named Alcor and Mizar.

 Polaris is up in the top corner of the Alaskan flag. I love this quilt and I can't wait to wash it. I am giving it as a gift (late Christmas) / swap with my friend Sharon. She has been making me some wonderful paintings. She misses Alaska terribly, so now she has a quilt to remind her.

 

The smaller stars have circles around them...I think it looks a bit like star dust. I used some more of my favorite Presencia cotton thread for this quilt. I will be sad when I run out of it that is for sure. 

I hope Sharon likes this quilt!

xo,

Tia

Another Quilt For John

 Hey there! I have finished another quilt for John. He wanted very simple quiting for this quilt. So...this is me doing very simple quilting.

 Some simple zig zags in the bars, and the rest with my favorite determined meandering. This is really fun fabric too. Stanley certainly approved. Again, John is a great piecer. Not a block out of line on this quilt.

Here is a bit of the back, with a print back the quilting is hard to see, but I think it is wonderful.

I have a massive Dresden plate quilt to load up onto the frame next for Katy.

Have  great day and keep warm if you are in the Northern hemisphere!

xo,
Tia

My Bee FF quilt

 I took my BeeFF project out to work on a bit during a quiet moment this morning. I have really enjoyed the slow thoughtful time I have been able to spend with this quilt. I am hand quilting it in a quilt as you go method. As you can probably see many of the blocks are different sizes. I am adding boarders to the smaller ones because in the end they will all need to be the same size. I have big plans for the final boarder of this quilt. My wonderful BeeFF group helped me out with these blocks. I sure hope we stick together for another great year of quilting. SOme of our members are onto bigger and better things or at least cutting back on all their swaps. I totally understand that. I did the big cut back a couple years ago and I am very happy I made that decision. It is hard to never take time to sew for your self or just for your family.

So, I am loving this applique. All the wonderful little stitches made by friends are each a treasure. When you see something so obviously hand made, do you ever wonder about what was being thought about while it was being made. I do. I love holding old hand made items and imagining all the lives that have touched and have been touched by them. This quilt is going to be one of my magnum opuses when it is finished. Maybe I will try to find a show to enter it into?

OK, I am off to bed. This has been a very busy and wonderful weekend.

xo,
Tia

Some art for Lady June

I am having this made into a bumper sticker for my Long Arm. Her Name is Lady June. As soon as Sharon first saw my Gammill Supreme she said it needed some nose art. I agreed! Sharon had this whipped out in no time. I wish I was as fast as she is.

A quilt for John

 I finished quilting this quilt for John (aka Quilt Dad) on Friday. The temperature finally dropped below 80 (to 34F that is how it is in Texas. Nice and warm one day and mighty cold the next...no time to prepare), so it actually felt like fall in my quilting studio. I will need to find some sort of heater for winter use for sure. I was decked out in gloves, a wool toboggan, one on my Dale of Norway sweaters and long Johns...oh and my daughters furry house shoes. Quite a sight to behold.

 John made this quilt for Quiltmaker Magazine out of the block he did for Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Magazine.

 John wanted it quilted fairly simple. I find circles so soothing and I wanted the chevrons to be quit simple as well so the focus was on the blocks and not the quilting. I am very happy with how this one turned out. Sharon came over and we were admiring the fabric as I was loading it up onto the frame. I was thinking about how to quilt it and Sharon suggested modernized poppies (basically 3 circles inside one another), so I took that and made this design. It has a bit of a flow to it. It is so nice to have an artist across the street. Sharon is brilliant.

I have 3 more to quilt for John, he is a great piecer. I will show them as soon as I have them finished.

I have ordered some Spare parts for my Lady June (my massive Gammill) and I hope that they will come in Handy eventually. I was having some tension issues with her, but the folks at Gammill were so very helpful. I have had to become somewhat of a sewing machine mechanic. My husband wanted to have that job, but most of the time I have issues I can't wait for him to come home from work, so I just grab my screwdriver and go to town. It is so satisfying to take it apart and fix the problem (in the last case it was a thread jam in the rocking finger) and then go back to awesome tension. I love my long arm.

Anytime I get a new machine I have tension issues at some point. They drive me crazy, but it is so wonderful to figure what the problem is and be able to fix it. Speaking of sewing machines, my Bernina 820 is STILL in the shop. It is making some sort of alarm sound that no one can figure out what it means. That is something I love about my older machines. When they develop bad tension I can sort them out fairly easy. But when my fancy computer ones mess up there is nothing I can do but go to a professional.

OK, have a happy weekend and I will talk to you soon.