Here it is the end of September already and I am enjoying how cool it's gotten! I love fall and went today to buy some pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn. I feel so energized!
Today out power was out for over 4 hours and instead of wasting time I went to my studio and cut. I cut out a kit that I'd bought from Fat Quarter Shop, it's made with reproduction fabrics designed by Jo Morton from Andover Fabrics. It's all golds, greens, turkey reds and browns, just yummy fall colors. I cut the binding out as well and then I cut out a table runner that will be a Christmas gift and legs & binding for a Spider table topper that I am making. I will post pics of these projects and my customer quilts later, just wanted to get something up since it's been awhile!

It's been a very busy week, my daughter, Brianne celebrated her 30th birthday last week and had company for the weekend. I've also been puppy sitting for Bandit while Kevin works, which is a good thing since she gets me out and walking! Exercise, need to do it? Get a puppy!

These are 2 of the quilts that I completed for my customers this week The top quilt is a Terry Atkinson pattern pieces with many paisley fabrics and quilted with Highlight's thread from Superior Threads. The quilting is a freehand all over design of leaves and loops and some feather meander in some of the larger blocks to complement the paisley prints.

The second quilt is the Carpenter's Star or Wheel that is free hand custom quilted. This quilt had some issues, mainly that the backing is dark blue and the batting was very thin in places. I had to use light threads on the back to maintain the integrity of the quilting. I told my customer about the thinness of the batt and she states that it is Dream Cotton, select loft. The only thing that I can say is that it was a king size batt and she opened it and maybe laid it out on the quilt which
distorted the batting and then
when she refolded it it stretched even more, causing thin spots.

Lesson to learn, leave that batting in the package and just give it to your quilter!

Second lesson, don't use plain, dark backs on light quilts!

That being said, with all the difficulities I encountered the quilt
turned out beautiful.

Busy Week

Good Saturday Morning! It's quite chilly here with a north west breeze. Fall is running in it seems.
We have a new family member, my youngest son has adopted a 10 week old German Shepherd, her name is Bandit. She's been the center of attention for most of the week and not just because she's so cute, the crate training and house breaking are all consuming. She's doing pretty well with the potty biz but is very vocal about the crate, not her happy place at all and boy does she have a set of lungs!
She's beautiful, the older pups aren't thrilled with her yet but they will come around I'm sure, I just hope that I can handle them while we wait for this to happen!

Wrist Purse

Happy Sunday! The sun is out and it's beautiful, fall is coming day! We've had days of rain, again so today is a blessing!
I was at Country Quiltworks to meet some of my customers. It's nice to run into shop customers that I used to help when I worked there. Today there were 2 regulars and I said hello and remembered their names which was quite a surprise to the one lady! I made her smile.

I dropped off my sample for the wristlet handbag class that I will teach next month. It was fun and easy to make. I met the designers in Pittsburgh at Spring Quilt Market this past May. Nice ladies with some really neat patterns, Purse-O-Nalaties of Palm Harbor is their name if you want to see their other patterns!

I think that this little bag would make a great gift for a young woman, a teacher or babysitter!

Today I am working a 104" square Carpenter's Square quilt. Each block is 20" square and they are sashed with no real border. It's for one of my customers who has been making quilts for all of her children and grandchildren. She usually goes to Florida for the winters and leaves me with 5-7 quilts to do over a period of months. It's a bit overwhelming sometimes but I do my best and work my stitches to make her quilts more beautiful. She's a sweet lady, Colette and her good friend Dottie does all of her bindings for her. Here's a pic of one of the Carpenter blocks-

Magazine quilt pictures

Here is the sun with rays from the upper left corner. I didn't get any photos that really show all of the quilting. Since this was for a magazine the quilt needed to shine without the quilting overshadowing it so I matched the threads to keep it subtle.
The quilt was designed by my friend and it's called 'Indian Summer', this was taken prior to quilting.

Credit where credit is due, maybe....

Today I received my copy of Quilter's World magazine, with my friend Gina's quilt in it. It's called 'Indian Summer', it's a very striking design as are most of her quilts. I quilted this quilt, it was custom work, a pictorial design with a sun and rays, clouds, butterflies, corn stalks, flowers, vines and leaves.

I've quilted several quilts for Gina to put in this magazine and in the beginning my name, in very small print would be listed as the machine quilter. Now it does not get listed in any way, the editor, per my friend said that they don't put the quilter's names but the magazine tells a different story. Some of the quilts in this issue have the quilter's listed and some do not.

I get paid to quilt these quilts, it's what I do, BUT I always go above and beyond for magazine and book quilts. I don't expect anything extra but it's sure nice to see my name attached to a quilt that I worked hard on to increase the beauty, to make it shine it's best for the designer.
I guess I am steamed but not sure who to be steamed at! I will write Quilter's World and probably cancel my subscription.

I personally love to see the quilts and the quilting and I really appreciate the magazines that make it a point to show how the quilt was quilted. It's all inspiring to me, like going to a mini-quilt show!

So if you get the opportunity to quilt for a designer ask them to make sure that you are credited with the quilting!

Times & Seasons quilt views

Here are some snapshot views of the Times & Seasons quilt in progress. My customer really did a fantastic job with her machine applique and embroidery.

Breast Cancer Awareness

Got this on the 'net, a cause that is near and dear to my heart as my sister is now surviving breast cancer...
Let's hope she gets her wish!

This is Janice's 'Winter Rose' quilt, I used a pantograph to quilt it all over. It was a kit that I originally custom quilted for Anne at the quitl shop.
Rosemary's Batik Diamond quilt, all over leaf and loop quilting. It's so much more beautiful in person!
Ruth's 'Romantic Heart" colorwash wallhanging. I quilted feathers around the heart.
Joyce's Monkey quilt, for her first grandson, very cute!
A wedding signature quilt made by Barbara, lovely sentiments written in the light rail fence blocks. A lot of stitch-in-the-ditch, leaves and dogwood flowers.

Above is one of my recent customer quilts, it's Mary's 'Walk About' quilt, made from Andover fabrics. I quilted fern feathers in the printed zig zags and concentric triangles in the black triangles. In the red sashing I did a freehand pineapple and loopy meander in the B&W border.

Daisy Bear

This is Daisy, she will be 7 this November. She is very intelligent, can figure out how to get out of cages at the groomers and she watches TV looking for animals to bark at.

My Morgan

Here's a pic of my 12 year old Golden, Morgan. She hates having her picture taken, loves to be petted and chasing squirrels off the bird feeders.

Well here goes, my first blog entry. I am in the process of quilting a beautiful pieced and appliqued quilt for a customer. The pattern is from The Piecemaker's and it's Times & Seasons. It's very well comstructed and she's used so many beautiful fabrics. I am trying to highlight the piecing as well as stabilize the quilt as it is to be a wall hanging. I'm making a lot of thread changes to match the fabrics and it's just a really great quilt!