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 !

Post 47-Pam's Quilt

Pam made a quilt for her granddaughter similar to the one I quilted for Quilter's Haven last summer.

I love designing the quilting based on the fabric, and I had so much fun doing that with this quilt.

A clover design on the green fabric and an orange peel design on the blue fabric.

And a fun star design on the star fabric.

I love this yellow chevron fabric!

But this adorable owl fabric is my favorite!

We celebrated Mia's birthday at The Mandarin in Bountiful. The restaurant is a local and national award-winning Chinese restaurant. It is always a long wait to get in. Luckily, parties over 8 can make reservations, so we didn't have to wait. But it was crazy to see people lined up in the rain 20 minutes before the restaurant even opened! The food is so worth it!

Mia's favorite part of the night was her cupcake. She showed no shame in shoving her face in it!

Post 50- They dug our hole! And an adorable baby boy quilt!

Digging a hole doesn't usually make people excited...unless its for the foundation of your soon-to-be new home! I haven't mentioned on my blog that we sold our home of 9 years and moved into a duplex while we wait for our new home to be built. We moved back in October and have patiently been waiting for the plans to be approved by the city. We finally had our preconstruction meeting last Wednesday and the very next day they dug our hole.

Here's a pic of our lot before the dig.

And here are the mounds of dirt after the dig. We were told the house should be finished in 90 days. Kind of amazing they can build it that fast!

Look at this adorable baby boy quilt my friend Tracy made for her daughter's first baby. I love the fabrics they chose-so colorful and fun! Perfect for a boy! I just have to say that I was a youth leader for Aubrey, Tracy's daughter, when she was in high school and she was one of the sweetest girls ever! I love that girl and am so glad her mom let me quilt this for her!

I decided to use the look of the cute chevron fabric as the quilting pattern.

What I'm Working On Now

The great thing about quilting for hire is I get to work on quilts I never would have made. And I fall in love with them! You see, I get in a rut with my color choices. I love pink and white and turquoise and red, but I don't even give brown or blue fabric a second glance. I'm so glad I get the chance to quilt the quilt tops other people piece! I'm learning to step out of my 'color comfort zone' and better appreciate the endless choices we have with colors and designs in quilting!

Circus Quilt

I was thrilled when Joni from Quilter's Haven asked me to quilt one of their Shop Hop quilts. The only request was no flowers...and you can see why...

This circus quilt needed geometrics!

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This was a rush job, so when it came time to take pictures I had to hurry and snap them despite the horrible lighting, but hopefully you get the idea...lots of circles and lines in this quilt!

It's hard to tell, but there are some really cute pinwheels in the blue polka dot print.

I have to give credit to Judi Madsen, aka the Green Fairy of Green Fairy Quilts. She is an amazing quilter whose blog is full of quilting designs. She really helped me out with this quilt! If you haven't checked out her blog, here is a link: http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/

Last Customer Quilt Before Baby

My baby bump is getting in the way of machine quilting, literally!  I'm finding it difficult to move the handlebars without bumping my baby bump into the "belly bar." So, this is my last customer quilt until after little baby Powell decides my belly is too cramped for her.

I loved this beautiful soft and silky lap quilt done by Tammie.  Being the busy mom she is, she allows herself to do one a quilt a year. Even one quilt a year can be so satisfying!

Fun with Blocks!

I started quilting this amazing block sampler quilt done by Shirley shortly after Christmas.  I used a mix of freehand and Pro-Stitcher.  I had so much fun with each block, but tried to keep the entire quilt consistent with the use of feathers and similar curves and lines.

Beautifully Modern

This beautiful quilt was a Christmas gift for my customer's sister, and it was her first quilt. I thought she did a great job, and I have to admit right now I'm in love with the navy blue/yellow color scheme, so of course I loved this modern quilt! She chose an edge-to-edge floral pattern, which nicely complemented her floral print, but this would've been a fun quilt to do some modern custom quilting on too!

Reindeer Tree Skirt

I know it has been a loooong time since I last posted, but I haven't been idly sitting on my behind (although being in my third trimester should be a good enough excuse to do that!)  I have, in fact, been working my butt off quilting and preparing for the arrival of my little girl. I've been so busy that trying to find time to blog has been a challenge.  At this moment, my Pro-Stitcher (computerized quilting program) is doing the quilting for me, so I finally have a moment to blog.  I did a couple of really cute customer quilts in December.  The first was an adorable tree skirt designed by my friend, Taira.  I just love these reindeer and their knobby knees!

Autumn Quilts

Has it really been a month since I last posted? Yikes! What have I been doing with all my time? It's bittersweet, but I've been cleaning out my sewing room to make way for the baby.

The good news is...

I'm finally in my third trimester! Whoo-Hoo!

The bad news is...

I have to fit a whole room of quilting equipment, including a 12-foot quilting machine and all my tools, into the rest of my house...somewhere! It hasn't been easy, but I'm almost finished. Things had to be separated. The quilting machine is now in the basement-luckily it fits! My regular sewing machine and all my fabric is now in a tiny corner of my bedroom. On the bright side, limited space means I had to reduce my scrap stash. It was a good feeling to get rid of some of those scraps I've been meaning to use for the past 5 years. I never would have used them, so it's nice to not have them hanging around haunting me anymore! Here's a picture of my little sewing corner in my bedroom. It's small but it works just fine.

Well, fall has come and gone, and with it two of the yummiest holidays-Halloween and Thanksgiving! I was lucky enough to do some customer quilts for each of those holidays. And I have to say how very therapeutic it was to quilt these. So, without further delay....

Halloween brought me a cute pumpkin quilt for a customer's granddaughter. I can only imagine the load of candy she dumped on this quilt after trick-or-treating!

Here's a close-up of the stars & loops quilting pattern. This pattern was requested by the customer, and I think it fit the quilt perfectly!

And for Thanksgiving...a 'Broken Dishes' quilt pattern that I think represents Thanksgiving very well!

 I loved doing the continuous curve on this quilt. It's a lot of ruler work, but so very therapeutic!

Besides cleaning out my sewing room, I've been working on my own creation-my baby's quilt. I just finished the top yesterday and am excited to put it on my quilting machine and start quilting it. I will be posting pictures as soon as I finish the quilting, but in the meantime here's a sneak peek to give you an idea of the color theme.

Past customer quilts

Over the last few years I have quilted quite a few quilts, some with just random stipples, some flowery freehand, and others using rulers and straight lines.  Here are a few samples!