Memory Quilt, loaded and begun!

I love this part! It takes quite a bit of prep work to get the quilt and quilt backing (and batting!) ready for loading on the frame! But once those are done, the fun part begins! The backing fabric JUST arrived today, but I was able to get it cut to size and pieced for this double sized quilt. It's been a VERY productive day!

You can't tell but I am using a cream colored 100% cotton thread - I wanted the color to show a bit on the white border and sashing (as opposed to using white thread), and also wanted the color to pop a little on the shirt blocks, but also blend a little on the more neutral colored ones.

I like how the quilting shows on the red floral block but blends on the green palm leaves block. The name of the panto is Budding Bough - it's one I got from Urban Elementz. In fact, all of my E2E pantos are from Urban Elementz. 

A Blast from the Past!

I found this old picture from when we lived in Denver. I was on a quilting frenzy, making many quilts a month! At 9 years old, E's favorite color was blue (and still is!)… not pink, purple, or violet. Blue!

This is a "whirly-gig" pattern I got from Crazy Mom Quilts (love her!), and was quilted on my Juki, long before I ever got my midarm machine. Lawd Almighty, those were different quilting times! Having my midarm opened up a whole new world for me, and allowed me to crank out the quilts even faster (I gave most of them away to charity).

 I love this simple pattern, both in the pattern itself, and the use of a variety of blues and white for the background. 

This was back when I was still putting borders on my quilts. I have since liberated myself from HAVING to do anything to a quilt design - the "quilt police" don't live here! Lol!

Log Cabin Quilt Progress

I'm working really hard on Charlie's log cabin quilt! I have all eighty blocks pieced and pressed, and now I am sewing the rows together! I love this part! Nearing the finish line! I'll have the top completed by the end of the day today. Then on to piecing the backing and getting it loaded on the frame to quilt! Squeeee! Can't wait for my client to have it in her hands!

The back will be pieced in a variety of fall flannel selections, as well as a moose print here and there. It's going to be reeeeally cool! I might have to keep this client quilt for myself! Haha!

Just Listed in my Etsy Shop

This is a full/double sized quilt, made with yummy Kona Cottons and quilted in 100% cotton thread. If you are local, PM me. I offer free delivery in Summit County.

Another Happy Customer!

Remember that large t-shirt quilt I was making for a client? He finally received it in the mail yesterday! He sent me this!

Nothing says "HAPPY CUSTOMER" more than that happy grin! Thank you so much for choosing me to make your memories come together in one awesome quilt! 

Quilt Showcase

I had the honor of showcasing my quilts in the display case at the library in Silverthorne. All of these were made by me a few years ago. It was super fun having them displayed like this! So bright and colorful! I especially like the selection of threads! I buy most of my threads at Connecting Threads. They have a huge selection and my midarm machine loves them!

 This is a self-portrait challenge I did with the Summit Quilters Group in Frisco. I went in a VERY different direction with mine! We did have parameters within which we had to work: blue background, 12"x14", and it had to include an embelishment (I chose the earrings, which I made using glass beads).

More Log Cabin Blocks!

I was hard at work yesterday getting strings cut and strips sewn! 25 more blocks in five hours - now that's some log cabin block progress! Forty-eight blocks to go!

Most of this is from my stash. There are not enough of C's shirts to make anything more than a lap quilt (with limited options for designs), so we decided it would be okay to add yardage from my stash to build it up to the queen sized requested. I'll be playing with placement, of course. I just slap the blocks up on my design wall when I finish with a block. There are too many like fabrics touching each other right now, and that just will NOT do!

What is my design wall made out of??? Batting! I stuck pins into the batting and right into drywall - the blocks just stick to the batting = static cling! Haha!

I am working on a log cabin quilt memory quilt with a client's father's flannel shirts. I have a long way to go (I need 80 blocks for a queen sized quilt!). Despite being more of a modern quilter, the traditional log cabin, in scrappy flannel plaids, is one of my favorites! I love watching as the blocks build up and a picture emerges. D wants a Sunshine and Shadows layout. There are only seven blocks here but you can see the pattern very clearly already!

Commissioned Memory Quilt

I love it when I get to work on cherished memories! A community member gave me the honor of turning her husband's Aloha shirts into a quilt! We settled on a simple pattern to highlight the bright, large prints of the shirts. I got right to work prepping them for cutting. These were a variety of different fabrics, so it was important to use a stabilizer to make them easier to work with. T-shirt/memory quilts can be a challenge sometimes because knit fabrics like to stretch all wonky!

Here it is on my design wall - all those blocks need to be arranged so that your eye moves around the quilt, rather than being stuck on any one spot. Such fun colors and designs! There are exactly 100 aloha blocks in this quilt! 10x10!

Here it is - all the rows sashed and sewn! I had to stand on a chair to get that shot, and then immediately banged my head on the...protruding thingy on the ceiling that is covered by drywall but it probably a vent underneath is all...whatever that's called! I can quilt but a construction person, I am not! Haha!

Tomorrow I'll have a picture of the borders all sewn on! Just waiting for the backing fabric to come in so I can get that pieced and loaded on the longarm! Can't wait to get this quilted and in the arms of its owner!

4 Wheelin'!

We took the jeep up Chrystal Lakes this past weekend. Lordy! What a ride! A few spots were pretty dicey...wasn't sure we'd make it out because of possibly high-centering...or falling off the side of the mountain! But it was a real thrill, too! And then, at the Lake, the views are spectacular!

This is in the Jeep on the way up.

This one is at the Lake. Hubby did some fly fishing while I sat on a rock and enjoyed the view!

 It'd be so cool to spend the night up there - maybe soon, before the snow flies!

I'm almost done with a commissioned t-shirt quilt - this guy rocks! Lol! Look how many concerts he's been to! So many memories in this quilt! He wanted as many shirts in there as he could get, so we settled on a collage style design. I also put some of the shirts on the back - those were the ones that were not cooperating, cutting-wise. Sometimes the graphic goes so far up into the neckline, that you can't get a full block out of the shirt. Very frustrating! But it's still a memory, and needed to go into the quilt! Putting in on the back was the perfect solution! (Pic of the back coming soon! I love a pieced back! I chose to use a bunch of patriotic fabrics that I had in my stash - stars, stripes, red, white, and blue!)

I bound it in royal blue from Kona. Love me some Kona cotton! I was going to bind it in Kona black, but that felt too boring. I wanted a splash of color to make it pop. I love the color - it frames the quilt nicely! I free-motion quilted on my midarm in an all over large meander. It's hard to quilt through fusible interfacing (used for stabilizing the shirts), so a lot of us do straight stitching along borders and/sashing. I elected to use a thinner poly blend thread in a neutral darker tan color so that the stitches would blend in more.

That's my husband holding the quilt up on a step stool! The quilt is 86" long and 76" wide - quite a stretch, even for him!

If you need me to make a t-shirt quilt for you for a graduating student, I suggest you start gathering those t-shirts as soon as possible! The busy season will hit before we know it!