Patty's Labyrinth Quilt...

Patty gave me this to quilt two months ago and I'm just getting around to getting it quilted.  It was an intimidating quilt because it looked like it took a while and I didn't want to screw it up.  Anyhow, I quilted it with the panto Vertigo...It measures about 84" x 84"...

UPDATE:  this is the pattern info from Patty...

The pattern is from the QUILT magazine April/May 2012 issue.  The five blocks that make the "X" are easy, the four blocks that make the "+" minus the center are confusing if you do not follow the pattern to the T.

The quilt is really amazing in person, I wish I could have gotten a pic of the whole thing...Here is an up-close pic...

Anyhow, I hope she likes it!  I'm loading a baby quilt tonight to quilt tomorrow, hopefully!

Happy quilting to you all...and Happy New Year!

Sharon's Mini....

This is the mini quilt that I got from Sharon at the LVMQG swap last week!  Isn't it wonderful...

The fabric I picked was the black and white sewing machines...she embellished with Swarovski crystals and some hand embroidery.  Nice job, Sharon...

I love it and can't wait for the next swap!  I'm finishing a big quilt and will post pics tomorrow...
Happy Quilting!

Get 'er done Wednesday!

I've really fallen behind on a lot of things in the last month.  I'd make the excuse that I've been sort of sick since Thanksgiving, or I've had too much to do at work, or issues at home, but the fact is...I don't know what happened to the time!  I lost lots of hours to online shopping and the TV...but today I started getting caught up! 

I finished Sharon's quilt for the swap tonight!  Check it out...The fabric she picked out that I needed to incorporate into the project is the binding....a Kaffe.  Lucky Sharon, I had lots of Kaffe to make a cool Kaffe color wheel!  I used the Essex linen for the background and prequilted it prior to applying the spikes on the wheel.  Then I pulled some random buttons (I was afraid to use the hot fix crystal applicator) and applied them around the wheel!  Tada....I hope she likes it!

UPDATE:  I used the "Recs" part of the Tri-Recs Rulers to make the triangle wedges...EZ Quilting by Darlene Zimmerman....

She gave me a little mini this week to hang in my sewing room....leftovers from the Bonnie and Camille challenge...cute, huh?  It is hanging in my longarm room...

And I quilted one baby quilt for Ev...two more to go!  Patty L, yours is this weekend!  I have to get my quilts quilted just to start fresh in January!  Sorry it took so long....

Anyhow, I have to get my stuff together for the LVMQG meeting tonight.  It is my last meeting as an officer and I look forward to just letting someone else figure it all out.  Also, I put my first pattern on Craftsy....Maybellene!  It is downloadable as a PDF....how cool is that??  I've always wanted to design patterns so that might be what I focus on in 2013!  Yeah!

I'll have a few more finishes in the next few days, so check back!  Happy holidays!

Sunday Sew-In...

I had a great time at the sew-in yesterday!  It was a small but fun group of ladies...Nicola, Sharon, Andrea and Maria...

Do you see all the little bundles on the table?  They are our cut up fat 1/8ths for the Madrona Road challenge next month...How cute??  We have 30 little bundles for our members who wish to participate in the challenge...That is how we spent half of our time at Fabric Boutique.  The other half was spent sewing, snacking and goofing off....

It was a great time and I'm excited for another year of LVMQG!

Denyse Schmidt Obsession....

Wow...I'm a little late in the game on this one, but I recently fell in love with the old Denyse Schmidt lines Sugar Creek, Picnic and Fairgrounds, and some Katie Jump Rope.  Sadly, they have been out of print for years so I'm scavenging from the clearance area at Jo-Ann's, Ebay and Etsy.  Obsessively.  Denyse should get a restraining order against me and my fabric craziness!

 

This pile is over a foot high and it doesn't even tip the iceberg of what I acquired.  I bought over 30 yards at Jo-Ann's one day a few weeks ago.  The green/blue combo is easier to find than the red/pink combos.  But I bought 1/2 yard cuts of the whole collection off Etsy so I have some of the reds.

 

I'm inspired to do the Kaleidoscope Quilt Along and make one of these....by SoHappy...or this one....It turns out that quilt along was 18 months ago but why not join in now???  LOL....

 

Today I am finishing my swap quilt for LVMQG.  Nothing like the last minute!

Happy Quilting...

 

Oh yeah, I have 16 days off now for Winter Break!!!

 

 

Denise's Quilt...

How adorable is this quilt??  I quilted it for my friend Denise...it is a belated anniversary/early Christmas gift for her parents...I think it might have been a layer cake-friendly pattern.  Anyhow, here it is...I measured about 50" x 60".

Some big hook swirls in the center...freehanded!  Love the Bliss rails...

A fat feather border around the edge and some ribbon candy quilting in the inner border.  No kidding, I got dizzy doing the ribbons... ;-)  More practice needed on those...

In addition to the quilting, we also put up the Christmas lights on the house.  This is quite a feat because we have a 2 story house now and a really tall 10' ladder was needed for the low peaks.  Forget about the higher ones...I am very afraid of heights but I put on my big girl panties and went up the ladder anyhow.  But I didn't look down once, just straight ahead!  Not bad for two chicks putting up the lights, huh?  We are trying to "Keep Up With The Patais"....our friends and neighbors who had their lights up the day after Thanksgiving...

This is the first year for lights at this house so we had to screw in all the little metal hooks to hang the lights.  I used to go sort of crazy with the staple gun but Denise suggested a few years ago that the hooks were easier and so we hooked up the last house.  Maybe our renters will use those hooks and hang some lights of their own this year!  Anyhow, the hard part is done so future lighting should go faster...These are lights on our front palm tree....This must seem funny to people who have snow...

We would have done them sooner except Rebecca's Mom passed away last week.  She was in NY for most of the week for the wake and funeral.  Linda battled cancer for the last 7 years or so...The weather was decent and the service was very nice.  I think that is about as much as you can hope for a winter funeral in upstate NY....

Two more weeks until Winter Break!!  Yeah....

Maybellene--Judge's Choice!!

OK...so here is my Bonnie and Camille challenge quilt revealed!!  I named it Maybellene after the old Chuck Berry song.  Camille Roskelley herself (of Bonnie and Camille--Bliss/Marmalade/Vintage Modern Moda fabric designers) came to our Modern Quilt Guild meeting and judged the quilts.  Maybellene didn't disappoint...she got Judge's Choice!!  Awesome...

Hot off the longarm, quilted with Random Clams.

The sexy shot of Maybellene draped over the railing at the local park....

And now the best part...I wrote a pattern!  The quilt is super pre-cut friendly and though I've seen similar quilts, I haven't seen this one....I'm going to take the quilt to my local quilt shop, Quiltique, and see if they want to display it and sell my pattern.  ;-)  I'm super excited by this adventure.... I listed it for sale on Craftsy...you can buy it in PDF form here.  Please e-mail me if you have any questions....

Anyhow, that is as exciting as my day got....yeah!

Micro Paisleys....

I was quilting an appliqued wallhanging for a friend of a friend and I needed a background fill to make the applique pop.  I started doing this little, really tight paisley thing and ended up having to do the whole outside border like that!!  Ack....I've never quilted that tightly before and I'm not sure I'd do it again, but it looked good on the wallhanging...

Upon closer inspection, maybe they aren't paisleys....maybe just echoed swirls??? Who knows...

Anyhow, I also quilted a little angel for her...she will finish off the details herself as I can't do faces...

 

She provided gold thread for the angel wings and I was able to get it to run on the longarm.  Whew....hope she likes them!

Buddy Missed the Memo...

I'm binding my quilt for the challenge (it is due Thursday) and I walked away from it for one minute...look what I saw upon my return!

It is like he doesn't get how important this quilt is to me!!!  Ack.....

Here is a brief pic of the front while quilting....

I can't keep it secret.....I LOVE IT! Just a bit of it though....the quilting is a panto called Random Clams. This is for our Bonnie and Camille Challenge at Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild. Camille Roskelley herself is coming to judge the quilts on Thursday! I hope I'm a winner....

 

Anyhow, I have to finish binding and watch Season 3 of The Walking Dead.  We watched Seasons 1 and 2 this last weekend....and the prior weekend we watched all of Homeland!!  Awesome!!

More Prozac = More Fabric

True story.  Prozac causes me to obsess and online shop.  And grit my teeth.  But it is good for work so take it daily...LOL!  And I think I take it for the people around me...;-)  Anyhow, I recently doubled my dose and did a lot of online shopping.  This is only part of the haul, I believe.  More comes in the mail everyday...

Some Kate Spain Good Fortune...

 

Dena Designs Kumari Garden

 

Oh I love the Cosmo Cricket Christmas fabric....

Riley Blake Avignon...just beautiful...

 

Some Kaffes that were on sale at Hancocks of Paducah.  Thanks Sharon!

 

Sophie's Garden??  I don't know, it just arrived the other day....

 

Some of these lines are older and I just had a little more constraint when they were new.  Now, GAME ON!!  No fabric is safe from me....Tonight I will buy some Riley Blake Flutter fabric...and maybe some Amy Butler.  And I'm seriously addicted to scrap packs available on Etsy.  Who are Southern Fabrics and why do they keep sending me more stuff???  LOL....

 

I plan on designing some patterns and I needed some fresher fabrics.  I did make a new pattern for my guild challenge quilt but I can't reveal it until the meeting at the end of the month.  Maybe I'll quilt it today???  ;-)  Happy quilting to you!!

Last Charity Tablerunner...

One more for the Mesquite Club auction...I might buy this one!

I made a rainbow batik one of these myself (this is Joyce's) but I need to get a good pic to post.  Maybe tomorrow....Happy Quilting!

Curls Quilting...

Wow....another tablecloth for Dana.  66" x 170" of curls...and more curls.  !

Oceans of curls...LOL

It took 25 bobbins and an entire cone of black thead... ;-)  I've been working on a quilt for a LVMQG challenge this month so I can't share any pics.  But soon, I promise!

Dana's quilt...

I quilted this Granny Square quilt last weekend...and a charity one for Joyce but I couldn't get a pic because I finished it late at night. 

I'm working on my challenge quilt for LVMQG...I'm using the Marmalade fabric by Bonnie and Camille.  Here is a bit of a pic...I can't show the whole block because it might be an original design!  Maybe a QAL or tutorial is in the future...

I'm writing another pattern as well.  Maybe this is my future??  Pattern design??  LOL...maybe graphing pairs of lines in the coordinate plane??  Darn it, work comes first. 

Happy Quilting....

Christmas Wreath Quilting...

I quilted this for a friend of Joyce's...Apparantly I used to babysit her daughter when I was in 7th grade...Anyhow, here is the quilt.  It measures 35" x 35"....

Not too bad...it really looks like a wreath!!  Success....Very nice piecing as well--flat!  I hope she likes it.  I'm doing another post on the sew-in on the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild blog as well.  Check it out!

Baby Quilts...

So I gave Sharon a bit of help with a few baby quilts...Two boy quilts and two girl quilts.  The quilts were identical, but the quilting was slightly different (different panto)...

This panto was called "Bloomin' Stars"....cutest. panto.ever!

"Square Spiral"....nice texture for a boy's quilt...

This panto is "Spring Garland".....how cute is that??

Anyhow, I have a few more quilts to quilt and I have to get working on the LVMQG challenge due in November.  I'm making a quilt from the new Marmalade collection.  Camille Roskelley will be the judge and some jelly rolls are at stake for prizes!  Wish me luck...

Baby Boy Quilt..

This is Sharon's...one of two boys quilts she is letting me practice on.  The panto is Happy Times...

I'm loading on a beautiful Baby Girl quilt next...wish me luck on picking the right thread!!

Las Vegas MQG Charity Quilt...

This last summer I won a red Kona FQ stack from MamaCJT.  We used it at the LVMQG to make a charity quilt for the Mequite Club auction in November...

It was pieced during our meeting in August, assembled by Patti A., quilted by me and will be bound by Regina.  A final pic will be coming when it is completed, but here is how it looked after the quilting today...

The quilt is quite large...78" x 93".  I freehand quilted the swirls using Persimmon Signature cotton thread.  It took 13 bobbins...but only a few hours to quilt.  Let's hope it raises a bit of money at the auction this year.  I still have one leftover red pieced strip--what to make now??  A pillow??  A table runner??  Hmmm....best get on that, right??

I LOVE the Bliss system that I bought.  Worth every frickin' penny I spent.  Honestly, I feel like I'm such a better quilter now...my stitches are awesome, my swirls are not boxy, and my back and hands don't ache at all!!  Fantastic...

Happy Quilting!

Quilting lately...

I haven't been posting much lately because school has been so busy...life has been so busy.  But this weekend I got some quilting done...

A 14 ft long table cloth...over 5 ft wide...I had to quilt in the dark with side lighting because the thread blended so well with the busy top fabric.  She wanted tone on tone thread for the back as well so that it could be reversible...

Overall swirls...the bliss made these look so wonderful!

This is the back side.  You can see the quilting better...20 bobbins on this one!

And I did a Halloween spiral tablerunnder...

And a first for me...a wool applique wall hanging.  I just had to quilt some fills in the background...

I hope she likes it!!  ;-)