Whew! Have I been busy! We just finished up our guild's annual quilt show for another year. It's a lot of work putting on these shows, but hope all that attended had a good time & enjoyed all the quilts that we displayed.
Good news! I had three entries & took home 3 ribbons! WOOHOO!! Also, two of my customers entered their quilts & both took home ribbons! So, everything that I had a hand in that was judged came home with ribbons! I think that makes for one successful show for me!  On to what am I entering next year! I've got some ideas, now to get them done.
I'm still exploring Irena Bluhm's ideas. I really like the idea of painting rather than piecing. Not that I object to piecing, but I like being able to come up with the shading of the designs that you can't do with piecing. I've got a quilt on paper that needs to be finished up & made into a quilt. I might have it ready in time for next years show. We'll see.
I will finish up what I affectionately call Mr. Eagle. I really didn't want to put him in this year as he would be competing against Heart Abloom & Bird of Paradise. They're all in the same class.  He'll definitely make the show next year.
I did get most of my swaps done & in the mail in the last couple of weeks also. Just the Secret Santa one to go.  I have some things left to make for that one & then in the mail it will go.
I'll try & do better at posting on the blog this next year. I know that once a month for updates is a bit too infrequent. Maybe if I set a goal of once a week I can do better.
Til next time...........happy quilting!

Well, here's another quilt for the guild's annual quilt show.  This one is called Bird of Paradise.  It's one of Judy Niemeyer's older patterns that I had picked up several years ago & finally got it together. I've heard quilter's say her patterns are hard, but I didn't. Once you get her technique of doing paper piecing down, it's not hard at all!

Well, I guess I got to the end of what's allowed in one post, so will continue with this one.  Here's the other picture I was trying to load.

As I said, I still can't believe I did it!

In between quilts, I also made a wallhanging.

I also found a picture of the full quilt of Calyspo too!

In between all this, I got 7 charity quilts quilted! Now you know why I haven't posted lately!

Well, I keep saying to myself that I will update the blog. Then promptly forget! Shame on me! I've done a lot since the last post!

Let's start with a customer quilt. I did Paula's Calypso quilt for her own use. It's her first quilt & did a very good job.  She helped me with adding the quilting designs to the blocks & then I quilted it.

Each of the striped blocks had a different sea shell & the solid blocks we put palm trees into. Came out great.  She's entered it into our guilds quilt show next month. Hope she gets a ribbon!

I also did a custom quilt for some trucker friends of mine. Their daughter just graduated High School & is of Indian decent, so I designed this quilt for her.

I just did a simple stipple to quilt it, as I didn't want to detract from the overall design.

Then, I got Hearts Abloom quilted.  But, I was quilting on black & I had done the design & didn't know how to transfer it over to the quilt.  I found somewhere on the internet to use water soluble Solvy, the heavy kind, to transfer over the design, quilt through it & soak it to remove the Solvy.  To test the theory, I made a vest.

I think it came out just awesome!

Then on to the quilt since the experiment worked!

I still can't believe I made this!! It looks like one of the more experienced quilters out there did it!  Here's some detail of it:

Will have to finish in next post.

Playtime this week! My Pastor & his wife just adopted a little girl from China. They had adopted a little boy from Korea previously. I decided to welcome little Sophia with a quilt. But, I didn't want big brother to feel left out, so I made him one too. Their room is done in Oriental, hence the cranes.  But, couldn't leave Mom & Dad out! So I made them a wallhanging!

Well, I must be on a roll lately with finishing up UFO's! Here's 2 I've finished!
The first is my Grandmother's Flower Garden. I started it in March of 2011. This was my truck quilt that I was working on while being loaded/unloaded & any down time I had. There are 3,979 1" hexagons in this quilt.  29 months later...it's in one piece!

The next one has been a work in progress even longer. I started this one in 2005. I wanted to do a Baltimore Album type quilt, but not like anyone else. So, I designed Blooming Hearts. The inspiration came from a photo of something similar that was awarded a ribbon post houmous. I hand appliqued the entire quilt. In the blank squares & the setting triangles I'm going to quilt feathered hearts. Still unsure about the outer border though!

I've also done a few other things, but will post later. Til then, Happy quilting!

Ok, it's been a month since I've updated the blog. But I've been busy! I got all 7 charity quilts quilted for the guild, but that pile seems to grow instead of shrink! There's 10 more to be quilted! But I did get some quilts pieced in this last month, as well.
Some friends of mine ordered a Queen sized quilt for their daughter's graduation. Since she's a direct descendant of Pocahontas, & they live in South Dakota, I'm thinking Indian. As luck would have it, my BFF, Judy, sent me a panel for Christmas that just fit the bill nicely. Now to make it bigger! I'd already downloaded the free pattern, Daisy in the Cabin, from Pam Bono's site. The eagles in it were perfect for the sides, now for the 4 corners! I decided on the Bear Paw block, but subtle. This is the finished top.

I used the same colors in the eagles for the borders, but thanks to Judy's suggestion, I put a small piping between the borders & the main body of the quilt to make it stand apart. Here's how it looks.

I did get some other things done, but have to take pictures to share later.