Sunshine!

Another busy week!  We had a wonderful visit this past week with my hubby's sister and her husband and just took them back to the airport on Tuesday.  Now I am busy preparing to spend the weekend quilting on the Tiara for Blakeman Vacuum & Sewing at the local annual quilt show. It should be a super weekend.  Two recent finishes for customers, Christmas in July and Asian Feathers, will be in the show.  I am looking forward to checking them out hanging up.

And........another customer finish!  I don't know what she will call it, but my name is Sunshine because it is exceedingly cheery with a nice sunny day feeling.   This was actually from a Thangles class taken at our local quilt store.  Sunshine is just gorgeous!

The quilting was kept simple.  The owner wanted an all-over design so again, we went with my most popular design that fit the feeling of the quilt and in this case it was again the swirls.  The owner provided a light yellow 50 weight Aurifil thread for this center portion.

We kept the borders very simple yet elegant and classic with very simple feathers and for this we used a dark chocolate 50 weight Aurifil thread that blended perfectly with the border fabric.

The backing was a beautiful orange fabric from Connecting Threads.  It worked perfectly.

I am thrilled with how this very lovely quilt finished.  That brings me down to two customer quilts remaining and one is a king size for a friend that is already half done.  Yay!

Hop on over with me to http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com on Wednesday, 

http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com on Thursday and http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com on Friday!

Happy quilting to all!!

Asian Feathers

I love this quilt!  Not often do I have clients who will let me go to town on their quilts and are willing to pay for it.  This one did.  I found out that this was actually a mystery quilt and the owner was not sure she chose the right colors but I think it is fantastic.  It will be hanging at our local quilt show in mid-August.  I will be there as well with Blakeman Vacuum & Sewing doing demos on the Babylock Tiara.

The red fabric is an asian print with butterflies.  Some of the butterflies were fussy cut and appliqued as well.  That proved to provide challenges in the cross hatching and feathering as I had to work around the butterflies.

The cream is a print with a hint of metallic and the black, although it shows up differently at times in the photos,  is the black Kona cotton.

So the first thing I did is a 1/4 curve with Hemmingsworth metallic thread in the red squares followed by feathers in the quilt center:

Next were the stars.  I cross hatched the points and put a type of squash blossom in the cream portion of the nine-patch.

In between each star is a feathered wreath:

Outside of the stars are more feathers and a duet of plumes in corner blocks

In the corners are more feathers but I included my own butterfly:

And to take a little break from the feathers, I added some straight line quilting in the borders:

Here are some photos of the back.  The photos came out more grey because I was in strong sunlight but it is actually black Kona Cotton:

Love how this quilt turned out.  Now it is time to switch gears and begin quilting an outdoorsy quilt with deer fabric.  Have a great quilty day.

Join me as I link up with http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com on Wednesday, Needle and Thread Thursday at http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com and http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com on Friday as I check out what other quilters are up to.

Serger Retreat!

I had a magnificent Thursday, Friday and Saturday this weekend over at Blakeman Vacuum and Sewing in Cheyenne.  Since I have been asked to provide customer support for our Babylock sergers, not to mention I own Eva (see one of my first posts), I decided I needed to know more than the basics.  This class was totally awesome and the Babylock sergers are out of this world!  The class was taught by Sue Green Baker, Babylock serger diva and she was fantastic:

Although I have the Evolution (love it!), we all used the top of the line Ovation:

And that's the master arranger of it all, Chris Blakeman.

The class started with the very basics of threading the machines.  If you haven't seen these air threaders, you would be blown away!  Threading is awesome!  

Sue had a complete book for us to use to go through as she instructed using a projector and document camera.  We also had packets of fabric each day to complete our own samples.  The presentation and instruction was great!

We ended the event with the final day (Saturday) spent mostly on how to use the coverstitch, which other sergers cannot do.  I was awed at this sample quilt using the coverstitch:

Isn't that amazing.  The Ovation can handle up to a twin size quilt in it for the coverstitch.  This quilt was made using the quilt as you go method, which is what I will have to do because the Evolution has a much smaller throat space.

So if you ever have a chance to attend a Sue Green Baker event, jump on it.  You will be thrilled!

Have a great Sunday!

Christmas in July!

I love the whole season of Christmas,  don't you?!  I know it has become ridiculously commercial but the main reasons I love Christmas are because: it is a reminder of the birth and love of Christ and his reason for being born; and, I love all the joy everyone shares; and I love all the wonderful smells from cooking and candles; and I LOVE all the most beautiful Christmassy fabrics!  I had a chance to enjoy one of those beautiful fabrics as I finished a quilt that will be hanging in our local quilt show in mid-August.  It is jut stunning.  I love the Cardinals!

Black, red and white seems to be popular at this time of season!  The quilt is to be used for snuggling so the quilting was kept somewhat simple.  The middle bird blocks were quilted with swirls, but not too small.

The black border surrounding the birds and then used as the inner border, was quilted with a very simple and loose squiggle to keep the quilting open and not distract from the fabric.

I switched up just slighty and had to do something else fun for the piano key border so the middle of each strip has a simple serpentine line but I felt the quilt needed a little more for stability so rather than stitch in the ditch, I did a small squiggle on the seam line.  Different but interesting.  I figure it matches the large one in the border.

The back was a large black plaid flannel.  Nice and snuggly feeling!

The quilting actually showed up quite well on it.

This quilt was a joy to complete because I just love working on a Christmas quilt, especially my favorite, Christmas birds.  I think after I finish my current client quilts, I will take a break and start my hunter star quilt I am so eager to do for Christmas.  More about that later!

Have a glorious week and join me as I link up with http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com, http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com, http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com.  

My Own Jesus Goggles!

Before I get to my own little wall hanging for my quilt studio, I thought I would share a small taste of Wyoming with the annual Cheyenne Frontier Days & Rodeo held the last full week in July.  

Besides a circuit rodeo and all that goes with it, one thing that is actually fun, is the pancake breakfast held Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Thousands of people file through for a free (yes FREE!) breakfast of pancakes with syrup, ham and coffee.  The most amazing part of the event is how it is pulled off.  How, you say, do they handle all the pancake batter?  No problem.........

A cement mixer (I'm sure it's up to health code) holds all the batter you will need along with huge griddles for the cooking:

Boy scouts are behind the cooks with large trays.  The cooks flip the pancakes in the air and the boy scouts catch them on the trays.  I was unable to get a photo of that in action this year.  

The line to get your breakfast is probably at least a half mile long but it moves incredibly fast and the wait is probably no more than 15-20 minutes and the morning is filled with entertainment and fun.  Everyone needs to experience the Frontier Days Pancake Breakfast!  So if you are ever in Cheyenne, Wyoming the last full week of July...........!

My Own Jesus Goggles

If you followed the quilts my friend Debbie and I made for Elijah and Autumn following their automobile accident, you will probably remember the small momento I made for Elijah's mom called "Jesus Goggles".  She had shared a post of one of her darkest moments and called it Jesus Goggles because God showed her how she needed to look at the entire situation with Goggles that would allow her to see things as Jesus would see them.  Check out my prior posts for a photo.

Well, I loved that so much that I decided to make my own Jesus Goggles wall hanging from scraps for my quilt studio.  I am needing some cheery quilty hangings for it and this would be perfect.  So, here is my own rendition of Jesus Goggles:

At the bottom of the inner border I uses the alphabet on my Nina and wrote "A reminder to look at every moment of life through Jesus Goggles"

I had a little fun with  of the quilting:

I often forget to take photos of the back but caught it this time:

I love this little quilt and need all the reminders I can get.  Once I get a sleeve put on, it will hang above my sweet sixteen.

Hope you enjoyed my quilty fun and a fast of Cheyenne.  Have a fantastic week!

Lavender

Oh my goodness!  Where is summer going to so quickly?!?!  Life has been busy but very delightful.  We spent nine days in Cody, Wyoming in the outdoors and playing tennis tournaments.  While there, I stopped here:

What a fun quilt shop!  It has everything!  I usually plan to leave at least two hours open to spend some time at Friends and Company.  So if you are ever in Cody, check it out.

I also spent time in Denver with Hubby while he was working.  While there, I visited quilt shops in the area and spent a couple of days with Elijah Lowry and his family.  I had the opportunity to give his family a couple of breaks, attend some therapy sessions and feed him lunch.  I was so blessed.  I understand that since changing his medicine right before I left, Elijah is progressing rapidly and is reading and talking a lot!  I truly praise God for that progress.  It was awesome to see everyone.  You can find out about Elijah and Autumn here:  https://elijahandautumn.wordpress.com

Not only have I spent time "running around", I have also started working just a couple of afternoons each week at Blakeman Vacuum and Sewing here in Cheyenne.  It's just enough and I love it!  Because I own the Bernina 750QE and the Bernina 350, I will be providing customer support and education for Berninas, the Tiara and Handiquilter sit-down machines and the Babylock sergers.  Mid October will find me in Aurora, Illinois at the Bernina training center.  Oh my, I hope I am ready for this!  I will also still be moderating the Quilt Club each month.  

Finally, quilt shows are beginning to fill the late summer and early fall months and quilters are finishing up their winter projects and I have been hit hard!  Photos will be coming in the near future of some of the quilts I have been working on.  But first, those quilts for show were put on hold for just a bit while I quilted an adorable baby quilt for a precious quilting friend.  I call this quilt Lavender because the lavender colors in it, actually all the colors in it, are stunningly beautiful together.  The quilt is very simple but quite lovely.

The center area was quilted with echoed swirls:

while the inner border was very simple with loops.

The outer border was quilted with what I call pansy feathers with a vine coming into each pansy petal.  Each corner stone was embellished with my favorite:  a feathered heart. 

 I just love this little quilt.  It measured approximately 42 inches square and will be much loved by a much loved grand baby and her mother.

Have an awesome weekend and join me as I link up with http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.com on Wednesday, Needle and Thread Thursday at http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com and http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com on Friday as I check out what other quilters are up to.