NEW TWITTER ACCOUNT

Well...I've just signed up for Twitter.  Am I crazy?  I can hardly keep up with 'FaceBook' and my 'Blog'.  But they say that you can set it up so that you can do one entry and it will go to both sites (Twitter and FaceBook).  I have yet to figure that out. If you look to the top right of this blog, you will see me Twitter.

This past week I finally quilted my Buggy Barn Witches quilt (after it sat on a hanger for a year!) using Anne Brights 'Charlottes Web' design.  I have to bind it still. 

And Judy and I are making a Table Topper Sampler for Fall. It will have stitchery (done by Judy), needle turn applique, raw edge applique and blanket stitching.  We will quilt through it all as a sample of what it looks like.

I also finished blanket stitching around my quilt called 'Sanctuary' from Moda.  I bought the kit about 5 years ago, my friend Kari Ramsay of Fresh Cut Quilts pieced it for me and left the Blanket Stitching for me to do (It took a week for me to finish it!).  Thanks Kari!!  I'm going to custom quilt it this weekend...should be fun :-). 

FREDA'S FLOWERS QUILT by Freda's Hive

I have made so many friends though quilting.  One of them is Nannette Merrill of 'Freda's Hive.'  I covet most of the quilts that I quilt for her, but about a month ago I did one called 'Freda's Flowers Quilt' that I fell in love with.  I called her about 9:30 one evening while I was quilting it to express my utter envy of this quilt and to beg her to make me one (I don't make quilts anymore that take more than 5 hours to piece).  She told me that she needed to make another quilt using a 'Jelly Roll' for her pattern instructions and that she would make that one for me. She used '1933 Chloe's Closet from Moda for the 1930's prints and her border fabric was from 'Happy Trails.' These fabrics were bought from Material Girls in South Jordan, Utah. The rest of the fabric came from her stash. I have been on Cloud-Nine waiting for it and she gave it to me finished just yesterday.  (I did get it back so I could quilt it.  I used Anne Brights 'Geneleness' for the border and 'Gentleness e2e' for the edge to edge on the inside of the quilt. 

Close-up of the 'Gentleness' Border

'Freda's Flowers Quilt' by Freda's Hive

SAMPLE SALE!!

 I never thought that I would sell any of my quilts. But, since my Suburban died (I mean the deaths of all deaths) this past summer, I have had to purchase a new car. I LOVE IT! It's a Black Honda Element. It has all the room I need to tote the quilts that I pick up from the shops and Batting and it get GREAT gas mileage! I was spending 500.00 a month for gas on the Suburban and then another couple of hundred for repairs that always seemed to be needed. So, in order to help pay for the Honda I'm selling some of my samples. If you are interested please call or e-mail me.  The way I figured the price was $10.00/hour for my piecing time (Prudence and the Red & White were both done in 5 hours and the Zig-Zag took 10)  the rest of it is materials and the regular cost of quilting. If the prices seem high, know that I only use the very highest quality fabric and each quilt is extremely well made. Fabric (quilt top, batting and backing) for most quilts runs around $200.00.  If you have any questions PLEASE CALL.  I'd be more than happy to answer them.

My Dear Prudence was quilted with 'Oriental Flowers' by Designs by Vickie. It's quilted VERY dense. I used Cotton Batting and Cotton Satine for the backing.........................................................$375.00

54 x 63 'My Dear Prudence' by Abbey Lane

Rag Applique on 'My Dear Prudence'

76 x 100 - EMQ Design by Wendy

The next quilt is one of my own designs and yes I did a 'Humility Block' on purpose at the top center (there's a story if anyone wants to know).  It has a Pico' binding, Bamboo batting and is quilted very dense with 'AE Flower w/ Butterfly' from Designs by Deb.......................................$435.00

Close up of my ZigZag quilt

Last, but not least, I made this red and white On-Point cotton quilt.  This quilt is SO warm.  I used Tuscany Silk Batting.  It's a real treat.  The quilt is light weight but warmer than any fuzzy quilt that I've ever had.  It was after I made this quilt that I decided that all my personal quilts would have Silk batting in them!  Each of the Sashing strips and the posts are made from different red fabrics.  This quilt is quilted very dense too with a Poppy Design by Anne Bright that is no longer available.  The back is pieced with different red and white fabrics.......................................................................................$365.00

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63 x 81 Red & White On-Point Quilt.  EMQ Design

Guitar Hero? Making a Very Special Quilt

Marty Miller and her Son Eric with his 'Guitar Hero'

I love quilting for my customers!  I love to hear the stories of why a quilt is made and who it's for.  Sometimes a very special quilt will come to me with a story that touches my heart.  It gives me a feeling of privilege to be a part of a customers special quilt.  One such customer is Marty Miller. I think many of us have kids that love to play video games to pass their time.  But Marty's son Eric took his love of the game Guitar Hero to levels that most of us won't see our kids go to.  In August 2008, Eric found himself at the Aerosmith Guitar Hero Contest in Boston, after several local and national competitions.  To Marty's surprise and pleasure, Eric won that contest.  He also won a really cool motorcycle.  Marty designed and made this quilt to show her love for her son to celebrate his special day in a way that only a Quilter could conceive of! 

Thanks Marty for sharing your story!

Eric with Steven Tyler of Aerosmith

Quilting Vickie's Star, pieced by Donna Dowell

This is my first time putting something on 'YouTube' by myself.  It's titled "Quitting Vickie's Star" if you want to find it there.  So, yes, I misspelled the title and don't know how to fix it. I also just got the new HTC Evo phone by Sprint (LOVE IT) and I took the video with it.  I'm learning new stuff all the time!

This quilt was made by Donna Dowell of Springfield, Colorado.  She took a Block of the Month class at Justa Stitchin in Springfield CO.  They did a paper pieced quilt from Carol Doak's book "Mariners Compass Stars..".    It's a beautiful quilt!  We chose a design by Anne Bright called 'Swirling' and I used Citron Green thread by Perma Core. (I buy it at this warehouse.  Talk to Lenard @ 801-756-6016 if you want to order from them).  She also used a beautiful Batik that is the 'Signature' Fabric (so they always have it in stock) from a quilt shop she came across.  The store is called Kapaia Stitchery, in Lihue on the island of Kauai. I couldn't find a web site, but you can Google their name and get directions. If you look closely you can see the Sea Turtles and Coral patterns stamped into the Batik.  It's really stunning!  Sorry about how loud the machine is on the video.  I'm used to it.  I usually have 2 machines running and an air compressor (off and on) all day long.  When I turn everything off at the end of the day I get a little 'ahhhhh' moment to hear the quiet again. :-)
  Thanks Donna for sharing your quilt with us!

Signature fabric for Kapaia Stitchery in Lihue Hawaii

Summer's CRAZY!

Summer has been a whirl of events for my family and business.  As many of you know, my mom has been suffering an illness (undiagnosed!) for the last several months and it has become critical this summer.  She has lost almost 100 lbs and we don't know why.  The doctors are baffled and she's had several surgeries and many hospital stays and yet she continues to not be able to eat.  So....that has taken its toll on our family.  The kicker this summer was when my Hard Drive 'broke'? (do you say that?) and I lost ALL the info off my computer for the last year and a half!  I cried for several days.  However, I have a wonderful neighbor who installed a new hard drive and has helped me restore as much as possible, which wasn't really all that much.  My e-mail also took me 3 weeks to figure out how to acess (the guy who did my web site, doesn't work there any more and I had to track him down to find out the 'secret' to getting into my e-mail).  Also, we've seen an increase of business this summer which suprised me because...well, you know...it's summer. Anyway, it's been difficult to do as much of my own piecing as I enjoy.  But, I wanted to show you 2 quilts that I did around the beginning of June.  They are the same design and almost the same quilting.  I made the quilt with the red border first and used Anne Brights 'Sail Boat Border Set' from her 'By The Sea' March 2010 special. (I LOVED IT!), and I used her 'Ocean View b2b' for the inside. 

 This is all for the quilt with the red border.  I really liked the quilt, but the red border didn't show the cute Sail Boats on it. so I made another quilt and bought the blue border with the express purpose of having the quilting show up.  So I chose a dark blue with tiny white dots.  And, I think you'll agree, it turned out wonderful!!  The Red Border quilt was donated to my daughter Jourdan's swim team fund raiser, and there's a picture of her diving off the blocks (I'm so proud!) The quilt she's laying on is one of my "Uber-Ezy" quilts with Flannel for the batting.  We've enjoyed using it this summer as an easy picnic quilt.

More "Uber-Eazy" Quilts

This is the same quilt as the FREE quilt I'm giving away this month.  The difference is that the borders are 6" and not 8".  I quilted the quilt first then added the applique and RicRac while it was still on the machine.  I used Janet Platt's "Quick Points Ruler to make the 1" Prarie Points in yellow fabric.

I sewed the Prarie Points into the binding.  The centers of the flowers are the really large buttons (they cost $2.50 out here!) but I thought that they were well worth the effect.  I backed this quilt in Minkie too of course!

This quilt is a crib size.  It needed something more so after I quilted it I made a Lazy Dazy applique flower.  I used "Heat-n-Bond" just around the outside edges of the applique and ironed them onto the quilt.  Then I used variegated DMC floss (3 strands) to stitch a large "Blanket Stitch" around the outside of the applique.  I then used a "Chain Stitch" down the center of each petal and leaf to help secure them better.  Around the yellow center I used a new product called "PomPom Baby" from Riley Blake.

In order to put the PomPom Baby around the outside we sewed the binding onto the back (instead of the front like you usually do) and hand sewed the binding to the front and included the PomPom Baby in with it.

Another quilt I did using the same design, but doing something slightly different with the corners of the border.  This Black quilt is done as simply as possible.  I used black minkie for the back of this too.  This gives the quilt a lacy look.  For all my Scalloping I use "Easy Scallop" by EZ Quilters.  It takes a fraction of the time that any other method that I know of. 

Have a great day quilting!!

FREE QUILT GIVAWAY!

I am having a drawing for a free quilt for the months of April and May! I call it "Uber-Eazy" because, face it, I couldn't have made a more simple quilt. The Scalloping on the edges is what make it so pretty. The finished quilt is "55 x 70". I backed it with "Minkie" which is really "Cuddle 3" by Shannon Fabrics, Inc. I like to use the plain flat minkie because it really shows the quilting in a relief form. It's also softer than anything! For the quilt top's fabric I used Riley Blake Designs' "Ivy Trellis" by Gabriella Hunter in teal. It was quilted using Anne Brights' new design from April called "Tristin". The approximate value of this quilt is $185.00.

The winner will be chosen from the invoices (or quilts done) during April and May. For a Instructions on making this "Uber-Eazy" quilt yourself go to Tutorials

"Back in the Saddle"

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to keep up with my Blog. Well, it's May and I'm finally getting "Back in the Saddle" again. I guess I'm mostly afraid of doing this because I'm not really much of a writer, and the thought of having anyone read this is more than a little frightening. So, excuses aside, Here's what I've been up to.

Mary Cowan, of "Mary's Cottage Quilts" brought me a quilt last year that I fell in love with. It's called "Boston Creme Pie". We struck a deal where she pieced it and I did the quilting. It's been touring around the U.S. with her "Trunk Show" for the last 6 months. Now it will reside on my wall in the shop forever! I keep looking and it while I quilt and it makes me so happy to see it there.

I used Anne Bright's "Wonderland" design set to quilt the blocks and borders.

Well, it's taken me 2 hours to do this much, so hopefully I'll get faster.  I actually have a lot to write, but I'm so incredibly slow!  Stay Tuned for more!