Boutique Quilt Number 2

This was a cute little quilt that I quilted for the boutique at our upcoming show.  It had the Holiday fabric so I used the holly berry pattern and love the way it turned out.  The small greenish border and the backing were a knit fabric, so I didn't trim it up after I finished it like I usually do.  I suggested binding it first and then trimming it, because if you trim it before hand, that knit fabric will curl up and make putting on the binding a real pain.

Our Independence Hall Quilters show is this weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) at Ironstone Vineyards in Murphys.  Come by and check it out!  There will be some great vendors this year, and some beautiful artwork and this boutique quilt will be for sale!

Back of the quilt with the knit fabric.

Binding Project Number 4 and 5

Two more binding projects from mom!  These are also from the fiber artist lives in San Francisco.  She definitely has a specific style and mom is quilting them all with straight lines.  She wants them all with the art quilt binding as well.  She is apparently going to have a show soon with these pieces.

I love her use of color

Art quilt binding, back.

This one looks like the forest





Love the look of the binding fabric with the backing fabric on this piece.



Binding in progress...





And mom gave me another quilt from this woman to bind just today!

Fabulous Flannel Quilt

I had the privilege of quilting this beautiful flannel quilt for Lois, who lives in Monterey.  I have worked on a number of her quilts now.  I just love the look of flannel after it has been quilted! 

Flannel quilt front.

In the 9-patch center, I quilted a meandering pattern with trees.  Then I did each of the additional five borders with a different freehanded pattern including leaves, swirls, meandered stars and clouds.



Detail on borders.



Back of quilt.

The freehanded meander stars looked great on the back of the quilt too!

Bed Scarf

I had never really heard the term 'bed scarf' before this client brought me this piece.  I thought at first that she said, 'bed skirt' as I had actually just finished one of those for another customer.  But a Bed Scarf drapes over the foot of the bed.  Purely decorative, but what a great idea!  I actually quilted the quilt that this woman has on her bed as well, so the bed scarf is going to match.  I just love the batik fabrics that she uses!

Full length of the bed scarf.

I quilted an overall pattern in the middle of the bed scarf, but because she has that little greenish flange between the outer brown border and the next lighter border, it couldn't be an edge-to-edge pattern.  I freehanded a vine with leaves in that last brown border, so now the flange stands out as it should, and isn't sewn down.

Detail of quilting.

Back of bed scarf.

Boutique Quilt Number 1

Actually, it's more like Boutique Quilt Number 10, but this is the on that I just recently finished.  What is a "Boutique Quilt"?  Our local quilt guild, Independence Hall Quilters, sets up a fabulous boutique of all handcrafted items at our yearly quilt show.  Each member of the guild is required to make a contribution to the boutique.  Being a long arm quilter, I contribute my quilting.  A number of the members make quilts for the boutique and I, along with several other long arm quilters in the guild, donate our time and service to quit these pieces. 

This was my latest one!  I just loved the batik fabrics.

Love this pattern too.  The strips are actually different sizes and it makes for a great effect.

Back of Boutique Quilt.

Close up.

Just think, the beautiful quilt will be on sale at our quilt show in October!   The show is October 21, 22 and 23.  It is held at Ironstone Vineyards, in Murphy's CA.  Come by and visit!

Binding Project Number 3

This is the latest binding project forwarded to me by mom.  This fiber artist lives in San Francisco and she wanted an 'art quilt binding' put on this piece.  I did an art quilt binding on my guild challenge last year, so I agreed to do it.  The art quilt binding wraps all the way around to the back so that you don't see it at all from the front.  You have to do square corners on the back though, because if you try to turn mitered corners all the way back, you'll end up with a giant lump of material at the corner.

I don't know what the woman is planning on doing with this piece, but it would look stunning on the wall.  When mom gave her the piece back, she loved the way that I did binding and wants me to do all of her bindings now!  Sweet!



There were a variety of different fabrics in this piece, not just your standard cottons, and it added some wonderful texture.



Square corner on art quilt binding.

Binding in progress..

Binding finished!

Sampler Quilt

So what have I been up to lately? This fabulous sampler quilt was sent to me from my boyfriend's mother who lives in Monterey. This will be the 5th quilt of hers that I have machine quilted on the long-arm! Number six in on my machine at the moment, a beautiful flannel piece. This sampler of hers just begged to be custom quilted. By the time that I was finished, I had used 12 different color threads in the piece, including a nylon thread for the stitch-in-the ditch.

Front.  I love how each of the blocks are different sizes.

Very unique fabric that she used for the back.

Close up on back of the meandering stars on the final border and the two-tone feather on the two inner borders.

The varied and unique blocks needed to be finished with quilting just as original.



Close up of the detailed house block with quilted bricks and stone.



Back of the house block.





Detail on pinwheel block.






Applique flower block.

 








 





Loved the applique heart block.



I did a meander with hearts in red inside and in
camel thread outside the heart applique.




Creative Mending

So what do you do when you tear the backside out of your favorite 'skinny' jeans?  The button on these poor jeans had fallen off some time ago, and I was holding them together with a safety pin and just making sure that I wore a shirt long enough so that no one would notice.  But one day it finally happened...

There was just a small hole by one of the pockets in the back.  That was all that started it.  It was on the way home from a field trip with my son (and luckily not on the way TO the field trip).  I got out of the car at home after the field trip and felt the cold breeze on my backside.  Yikes!  I bolted into the house, probably giving the old guy across the street a nice show.  Once inside I surveyed the damage.

Not good!

Well, these poor jeans just sat in my mending basket in the sewing room for weeks.  I was too distraught.  As I was going through my buttons, ribbons, embellishments and patches the other day, I got inspired.  The perfect way to fix the skinny jeans!

There are three different patches sewn on.

I even fixed the button!

Fabulous button that I found at a quilt store in Santa Cruz.

Organization

A local gift shop in the area is closing its doors and having a huge sale, so the kids and I stopped by yesterday.  I found these great glass canisters that were just calling out to be filled with crafty stuff from my studio.  My plan was to fill the big one with ribbon, lace and embellishments, since my crafty drawers are overflowing, and fill the small one with thread.  My thread box seriously needed organizing.  I quickly found out that the tread was going to almost fill both canisters!  And now I can see what colors I have instead of digging through the box.

The ribbon, lace and what-not made its way into the old thread box:

And now my embellishment drawers are much more organized!:

There's the piping, biased tape drawer.

The feather and patch drawer.

And the spooled ribbon drawer!

Hmmm.... Wonder if they have any of those glass canisters left?

Binding Project Number 2

Got this one finished today!  This is another referral from mom.  This woman does not enjoy putting the bindings on her quilts at all, so I sewed the binding to the front, flipped it and did the hand work on the back as well.  Love these fabrics!





Up close...



In progress...

Binding Project

My mom has a number of clients that don't do their own bindings, and she "doesn't offer that service" (is how she puts it).  She doesn't mind doing her own bindings, but she has no desire to add that to her long-arm quilting services.  I, on the other hand, do offer binding services!  So she has been sending clients my way!  Sweet. 

This is a quilt that mom just finished for a woman in Switzerland. On this one I am just sewing the binding on the front and she is going to flip it and do the hand work on the back (although I do offer that service as well). It's a beautiful quilt and I've always wanted to do this pattern, but I would probably do it with much bolder colors. 

I always sew the bindings on with the walking foot on my machine.  It's so much easier.



Walking foot.



Binding project.





I have actually never minded doing bindings.  In fact, I enjoy every part on the creative process with fabric art:  designing, choosing the fabrics, cutting, sewing, arranging the pieces on the design wall, adding the final borders if necessary (okay, I actually don't like doing mitered corners.  I can do it and sometimes the piece definitely calls for mitered corners, but it's not my favorite thing in the world), applique, quilting, binding, adding a unique label and a sleeve.  If I had to pick one thing that I really disliked, it would be any bead or button work.  I have definitely done my fair share of both, but it is probably my least favorite part of the project.

I-Spy Star Quilt

It's Spring Break for the kids this week, but I did manage to get into the studio for a bit today.  Ahhhh!  I finished quilting a very cute I-Spy Star Quilt for a customer today.  She is another fabulously talented member of our local guild here.

It was fun to quilt as each block was different.

The quilting with the off-white thread
showed up wonderfully on that dark green border.

Close up of the I-Spy Star blocks.

 



Quilting on the back.

 I also got to use one of my new patterns on this quilt.  I got this swirly hearts and stars pattern at the Pacific International Quilt show in Santa Clara, and I hadn't found the perfect quilt to try it out on yet.  Yea!

Pantograph pattern.



Quilty/Crafty Blog Beginnings

I have had this blogger account for ages with the intent of starting a quilting/sewing/crafty blog.  But I've been so busy!  I got the website for my quilting business going (Have any quilt tops that need finishing!? I do bindings also!).  Then I added the Facebook page for the business.  I also manage the Facebook page for our local quilt guild -  Independence Hall Quilters.  Check us out!

After seeing a friend's sewing blog here, I've been inspired to get this going as well!  Check out her blog - Twain Harte Quilter.  She has a great eye for color and is doing some amazing things.

As most quilters and crafters do, I usually have several projects going at once.  Both personal and professional.  So where to start?!

Well, let's starts with what I did in the studio today.  I finished a bed skirt for a customer, who is a member of our guild.  It was definitely a challenge as it was longer than my machine! 

and reversible.

It's super long!

I had to load it the entire length of the  machine, finish that section, then remove it and move it over to reload it and finish the rest.  Whew!  Also, it is chocolate brown on one side and white on the other, quilted with dyed neutral thread.  So I knew that the quilting would really show up on both sides.  I used a fabulous meander patter that turned out great.  I didn't trim this one at all, as I usually do, since I didn't exactly know what her plans were for the completion of the bed skirt.  I'm delivering it to her on Monday at our guild meeting, and I think she'll love it!



Close up of quilting on bed skirt (front and back).