Monday, March 17, 2014

Post 43- Quilter's Haven Churn Dash Quilt


I love getting phone calls from Joni at Quilter's Haven! I love the fun quilts she asks me to quilt because I get to 'go to town' on them! This Churn Dash quilt was no exception. Joni's only request was that crosshatching be incorporated into the quilt design. It took me a full day of auditioning quilt designs on preview paper, but I love the final result! 


The hardest part for me is figuring out what to quilt in the darker fabric where the quilting doesn't show as much. I want a design that shows off the fun fabric and doesn't try to overpower it with quilt lines. As you can see in the picture above, I did crosshatching in the blue fabric and took the crosshatching a step further in the white fabric with the continuous curve, which gives a diamond look to the squares.



The center medallion was a doodle I had drawn a few weeks earlier. I embellished it with lines and circles for a stunning effect.


I loved the green dot fabric and got a lot of my design inspiration from it.



I did get frustrated at one point in the designing process and made a quick order on Amazon (and actually paid for the one-day shipping) to get Judi Madsen's new book 'Quilting Wide Open Spaces.' I love her quilting and her book is full of inspiration. I have to give her credit for the border of this quilt.


This was such a fun quilt to quilt!

Quilt Specs:
Batting: Hobbs 80/20 and Wool
Thread: Superior So Fine 401


Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Post 44-An Exciting Day and Tracy's Quilt

Today was a huge day for Miss Mia. She took her first steps by herself today! She didn't seem to understand what all the fuss was about, but she kept me entertained all day with practicing! I sure do love this girl (though I have to say I'm not in love with her preferred method of communication-screaming)!
Her favorite place to play while I'm quilting is under the quilt frame/machine. Some things never change. So many people have told me how much fun they had under their mother's/grandmother's 'hand' quilting frames.

This is a beautiful quilt Tracy made for her granddaughter.

And a closeup of the back. Its a little hard to see the detail of the quilting in this picture, but I alternated a square scroll design with a square box design. I thought this gave it a modern yet feminine feel. My design inspiration almost always comes from the fabric of the quilt. The cute charm pack
Tracy used for this quilt had both flowers (feminine) and straight lines (modern). I stitched in the ditch around each square then let the computer do its thing inside each square.








Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Post 45-The ugliest quilt of the year award!

I had to laugh when Kay called me and told me that she had won the award for the ugliest quilt of the year. She was just kidding, but she hoped some specialized quilting could add some character to this cute quilt she made for her new grandbaby. I think it's an adorable baby quilt! Who doesn't love Peter Pan and all his friends and foes?!! :)





House update: We found out yesterday that we only have a month until our house is finished! It's so exciting to watch it progress! We walked through it last week and the heater was on and it felt so cozy I just wanted to stay there forever. The only thing I don't look forward to is the whole business of moving again, but I try not to focus on that...at least not yet. I have 2 more weeks of bliss before I have to start packing !





 
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