vintage top quilted

I found this top at an antique store in Cibolo, TX, right next to a wonderful bbq joint called Harmon's.  What a winning day, bbq and quilt tops on our road trip.  This top was hand pieced and was in a pile of tops, smoky smelling and dirty.  I gently soaked it in Retro Clean before I layered and quilted it.

Some may think that I should have hand quilted this, but I feel as though I rescued it, therefore, I had the right to quilt it however I pleased.  My opinion is that there are not enough hand quilters in the world to rescue all the unfinished tops!

So I layered this with wool and cotton (2 batts) and played with different designs.  I wanted to do an overall design instead of putting the same motif in each white snowball block.  So I divided it up and played.  Really, this was so fun (and not monotonous at all).  

I started in the center with a feather design, then finished with feathers in the outer half snowball blocks.  

I even put this on my longarm for the section with the pumpkin seed designs.  But my skills aren't so great on the longarm, so I finished it up on my sitdown machine.  

I hope you enjoy this quilt, it is going to live at my house and keep me warm this winter.  

"It is easily overlooked that what is now called vintage was once brand new." Tony Visconti

Have a great day, Karen

Leaves

My husband has been asking me for a leaf quilt for years and years.  This year I finally made him one.  It was a very quick project (for me).  I found this pattern in the Autumn issue of Quilter's World magazine. It was designed by Julie Weaver.  Hers had an ecru background, but I wanted mine to look like that New Mexico sky that I remember so well.  The leaves look so pretty against the blue.

I quilted this on my new Innova longarm.  It quilted so fast and mostly pretty.  I had a little trouble with my feathers in the outer border. 

But I used a ruler to guide me around the ditches and for those border lines.  I had fun and my hubby loves it.  I used Glide thread and Matilda's Own poly/wool batting.

Below is a bundle of hankies and table runners that I bought from ebay.  25 pieces for $8, yea!  Some are really pretty with handmade lace and pretty embroidery.  I plan to do some of that vintage, Cindy Needham type quilting on these.  

Then I won this pretty lone star quilt at my guild's chinese auction.  So another project that needs quilting, it will be good practice for my Innova.  It is well-made and will be very pretty quilted up.

I am sharing a photo of my confederate rose bush.  It's a type of hibiscus, but it only blooms in October and November.  The blooms are huge.  

I better get back to work.  I have a ton of projects to quilt.  I will try and be better about sharing and even make a couple of videos of my process.  Thanks for viewing.  

Karen