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

Austin quilt show

I went to the Austin, TX quilt show on Sunday, and wow was it great!  Here are some of my favorites:

Little Ruby Jubiliation

A red and white tradition of fifty miniature quilts created by sisters Ellen Carter and Andrea Blackhurst inspired by the 2011 Red and White Quilt Exhibit - "Infinity Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts" held in New York City. 

I loved this one and the border was little pieced lone stars!  It was made by Margery Hedges and is called Beauty of the Beast.

Below is a fun quilt that I think my bee should try someday!  It was made by the Tuesday Floozies, so cute...

 I loved this architectural piece by MaryAnn Vaca-Lambert.  It is a depiction of San Antonio's Mission Espada walkway. (below)

and I honestly did not realize this was three elephants until just now.  Sometimes you can see these kinds of pieces better through the camera.  Another by Margery Hedges called Wrapped in Love. (above)

Isn't he marvelous?  What a stare...  this Eagle Eyes quilt was made by Margery Hedges also....  she had some fantastic art pieces.  Ooh look I found her website: http://www.margeryohedges.com/

I'm going there to look after I post this!

oh boy, this depicts our daily routine!  The squirrels tease my dogs mercilessly, but the pooches get a lot of exercise and fun at the same time.  I loved the perspective of this quilt.  It's called The One That Got Away and was made by the Bee Cave Bee of Austin.

I loved the quilting and the colors on this quilt.  See the quilting up close below.

It was made by Mary Mikeska and quilted by Amy Mikeska and is called Elaine's Rosy East Texas Star.

There were lots of Mariners Compasses, but this center star was a doozy.  Called Circles, Circles and More Circles by Emma Krenek, it was quilted by Angela McCorkle (who is an amazing quilter who had lots of work in this show).

Love this Friendship Rings quilt by Liz Porter and the Sew Faster Group members who exchanged these blocks. 

Blueberries and Cream by Dottie May Groves is a quilted tablecloth that Dottie found at a flea market.  She did a marvelous job on this. 

And isn't this an old fashioned beauty?  Made by Harold Groves, it's called Rose of My Heart and is a reproduction of a quilt he found at a flea market.

This little beauty was made by Louise Brown and is called Little Leaves.  Look at the quilting, wow!  The applique was stunning, she was inspired by the work of Sandra Leichner.

This (above)  is called Summer in Montana by Linda Huff.  I love the colors and that gradation is great.  

This is called The Patience of Job and was made after Ellen Cabluck took a Let Me Surprise You class with Charlotte Angotti.  (the quilt above) 

Called Rose You Are Our Sunshine by Mona Corbett.  So creative and happy and fun!  I didn't get a close up, but this is like a snippets quilt, but the snippets are large.  

Called Spirograph by Kim Buchmann.  She took a class with Cindy Needham and this is the result, lovely...

ooh la la, this darling quilt had crocheted sachings and binding.  How beautiful and creative.  Amelai De La Rosa called it Blame It On the Rain.  

That was some fun show, you should try to make it in two years.  

Karen

Learning to free motion again

I have a few finishes to show you.  They were all done on my new (used) Innova longarm.  I believe that I should just jump right in and go for it to learn.  So I chose a donated top that I bought for a song.  I practiced stitching in the ditch, free motion quilting and feathers.  I now have more sympathy for my free motion beginner students.  This is hard!  I can barely remember learning to free motion on a domestic machine - it was so long ago.  But even then, I jumped right in and quilted real projects.  I soon learned that if my quilting didn't look so great, just keep quilting on it (echo echo echo).

I figured out some things while quilting this one above.  I don't really like the stitch regulator.  It's too jerky.  I learned that I can stitch in the ditch free hand IF it is horizontal or vertical.  Diagonal lines will not cooperate without a ruler.  I guess it's because the machine is engaging both sets of wheels when going diagonally.  

My wonderful, giving friend Denice invited me to her home to give me tons of great tips on the Innova.  She bought hers last year and is doing incredible work on it.  She had this quilt top from the guild charity comittee and she told me to quilt it and not worry about perfection.  It's done, but I hope no one looks closely!  fortunately the fabric is so busy, I think I'm safe.  

Now I really got brave to quilt this one on the machine.  I made this Arkansas Razorback quilt for my nephew who just started college last week.  

I had it in my head that it needed a giant spiral quilted on it.  But on the longarm, I can only work on a small section at a time.  So I stopped and started those spirals using a curved ruler. I added smaller swirls on the top and bottom when I got sick of spiralling.  

If there's a will, there's a way.  I did it on the longarm.  And it really does quilt up faster than my domestic machine.  Not sure why???  

So don't cringe, but I did not prewash these red fabrics (duh), so when I washed it I used lots of color catchers.  The first wash yielded pink color catchers, but more color catchers were white after the second wash.  The quilt washed up nice and cozy; and any blips on my quilting were camouflaged by the old fashioned lumpiness of the washed quilt.  

I'm working on this one now.  I started it on my sit down machine, it was already ditched, and the center blocks were quilted.  But this is what I did today on my longarm.  I found this top at an antique shop.  It was dirty and smoky-smelling.  I carefully soaked it in a linen wash and sandwiched it with a muslin back and a double batting of wool and cotton.  I am having fun quilting it in a not too- traditional design.  But I consider it a "rescue" quilt and I have given myself permission to experiment and play.  I will put more pics of the finished quilt next time.  

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."  Walt Disney

Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/new_things.html

I'm linking up with cooking up quilts

Christmas Auction quilt finish

got another auction quilt finished.  I picked this up at the guild meeting two months ago, thinking it would be quilted in an interesting way - it had potential, doncha think??  and it's not very big, so I thought maybe I could finish it quickly, ha ha.

And here is what I did with it...  Not so Christmassy, but it does give it some dimension and interest, right?  

Here are some close-up shots so you can see the border (which does not show up at all in the big photo - oh, well).

Don't look too close, you may see some imperfections.  I like to say I am a free motion quilter, so that gives me the freedom to play and not worry about little blips (and some big ones too!)

Heard last week that I got 2(!) quilts accepted into the Houston International Quilt Show.  Please look for them there if you go...  This one is called "Over the Fence" and will be in the Animal Portraits section.  

The other quilt that I entered is "the Chemist", (or Scientist Selfie - as I like to call it).  

I have been playing with my new Innova, not as much as I'd like, but here is the piece I am butchering.  I found this top at a quilt show emporium, so I guess it is a sacrifice to learning.  I was so silly, I actually thought I could quilt it prettily with just a little warmup...  But I wanted a real quilt, with real seams etc... to work on and learn.  It's hard making the switch, but I will keep on trying.  

The Greater San Antonio Quilt Guild auction is on September 17, 2016.  come by and pick up a nice homemade quilt.  I need a couple after my kids took a bunch to their new homes.  so maybe you can outbid me, :)   

“Whether You Think You Can Or Think You Can’t, You’re Right.”- Henry Ford

Talk to you later, karen

Evy's quilt

I have a new one to show today.  This is for my niece Evelyn, who recently graduated high school and is starting college at Appalachian State in August.  I purchased this as a kit.  All of the applique is fused and machine stitched.

  

I used a layer of Mountain Mist cream rose and a half layer of wool to make a thin comfy quilt that still has a little puffiness for the quilting designs.  The thread is Glide.

Those radiating lines were made with a Gadget Gals ruler, Linda Mae's rays.  Love that ruler, I got the 12 inch one.

I used the border fabric as markings for the beadboard quilting.  I quilted a straight line in the center of the loop motif, then one a quarter inch away on each side.  I used my straight line ruler to do this with no marking!

The sashing design is from Kim Stotzenberg's Angel wings tutorial.  I love it!

I marked an inner frame design and filled it with curlicues which looks like lace to me.  I hope she loves it and that it looks good on that dorm bed!

Last week, I took a fun class at a new retreat house in McQueeny Texas, called The Queen's Rustic Retreat.  It was a lovely place and the hostess, Doris Rice is very sweet and we had a lovely time painting a barn quilt.  It is very simple, but will look great on my fence.  

It's about 2 feet wide.  I will spray it with a coat of varnish before I hang it up.  And I plan to make more of these - so fun...

I have a friend who is selling her Innova longarm and I think I want it.  I have tried many longarms, but really didn't think I wanted to go that route.  I have been fine doing my sitdown machine quilting.  However, this is my favorite part of the quiltmaking process - fun and intricate machine quilting.  I don't even make quilts that don't have open space for a quilting design, that doesn't appeal to me.  I love the extra dimension that quilting brings.  Soooo, maybe it's just the thing for me to expand to a longarm.  But it has to be a machine that I can do little tiny quilting designs with.  

So I have tried many different longarms and I had decided that the Innova is the one that will work best FOR ME.  I have watched Gina Perkes, Mary Olson and Renee Haddadin quilt on the Innova and I would love to be as proficient as these ladies.  I tried the Innova at two different quilt shows and decided that is the machine that I will get IF I ever get a longarm.

Last week, I looked at Longarm University to see if there were any used Innovas.  There was one, and it was about 5 miles away and owned by one of my guild acquaintances.  So I checked it out yesterday and after sleeping on it, I think I will get it.  So, I will be transitioning to a longarm in the next few months.  It's going to be a scary journey for me, but hopefully a fun one.  

funky chickens finish

Whew!  I finished another project.  I didn't make this quilt, it was a group quilt made by members at a retreat a few years ago.
The blocks were lost for a couple of years and everyone was looking for them, until they were finally found in the janitor's closet at the church we meet at.
So I was the lucky lady who volunteered to quilt it.  And it seemed like I should do it proud, so that was my goal.  Enjoy looking at close-ups.

If you want to own this quilt, come to our auction in September and bid on it!  There will be many other lovelies there also (almost 100 quilts).

Greater San Antonio Quilt Auction

I thought some funky feathers would outline these funky chickens well.  Each chicken block has chicken wire, a nest (with various fill designs) and a feather motif.

Hope you enjoy and I will post a photo of the whole quilt when I get the binding on.

Have a great day, Karen