AQS Show. You must go.

This week is the AQS Show in Des Moines!  It starts on Wednesday and goes through til Saturday the 6th.  This is your chance to see some amazing quilts (like ones you see in magazines) and do some major shopping.  There are hundreds of vendors with everything you could possibly want (sewing-wise!)  You can take classes and listen in on talks too.  There is sooo much to see and look at it's almost overwhelming! 

AND the Des Moines Area Quilt Guilt (DMAQG) also has their huge show there too, which my sister happens to be a member of and has entered a couple of quilts that I quilted!  She has entered the Double T and her purple Snail's Trail.

 I'm not sure if every quilt that is entered gets to be in the show, but I'm pretty excited about it nonetheless.  Because I've seen the high standard of quality this show has and to think that my work will be seen by so many in such a huge venue is exciting!  So if you go to the show and see them there you can say- "Hey, I kinda know about her!" 

So anyways, if you live close by, you should really make an effort to go to the AQS show in Des Moines.  Because a quilt show of this caliber won't be so close for long!  Click here for more info. 


And in other news, I have recently become an affiliate for the Shabby Apple!  They sell quality women's and children's clothing, and jewelry.  If buying clothing over the Internet is not your thing, they also have some super cute wall art!  How cute is this 'Mermaid Dance Party'  print?!  Go ahead and check them out, just click on the Shabby Apple button on  the right. 

OK, now I must quilt so I have some spending money for the show!

A 4-Patch for the 4th

 

Joan made this very festive red, white and blue quilt.  A 4-patch inside a 4-patch.

 

An all-over swirls and stars was requested.

 

And it suits it pretty well! 

This would be the perfect quilt to watch a parade on!

Another Super Scrappy Color Block Baby Quilt

 

This one is for Abram Leo, my newest nephew and God-son. 

 

 

Once again- the ususal different quilting in each block. 

 

 

And big bubbles in the sashing. 

 

Linking up to Megan's SMM!

 

Coaster Making

 

This house was very much in need of some coasters and has been on my "To Sew" list for a while.   This is a fairly quick project.  From pulling out fabric to the last snip I think it took me less than 2 hrs. 

 

There may be a better/prettier way to do this, but this is how I made them:  First I loaded up my longarm machine with a flannel back (I used an old sheet), cotton batting and then my top fabric.  (Cotton because it is way more absorbent than polyester.  And the flannel back because again, more absorbent and in the end I wanted my coasters to be thick and sturdy.)  I used a CD as my template for the circle.  (When I stitched my circle, I wasn't even concerend about it looking perfect because it is not going to be seen anyway.)  Then quilt as desired.  I tried to stay a 1/4 inch away from the inside edge of my circle.

 

 

 

Cut out your coasters.

 

 

Then to give them some weight I used some old jeans for the back.  Zig-zag stitch all the way around the edge then carefully cut off the excess denim, making sure not to slice through your stitches.  But if you do, just re-zig-zag over it.

 

My original plan was to sew the denim wrong-side-up to the mini quilt, leaving a small space, then flipping them right-side-out and then top stitching all the way around the edge, but that was going to be pretty hard on my machine and way more time consuming.  So zig-zagging the edge worked out much better.  But if you were to use a normal weight fabric instead of denim, I think that method would have a better finished look. 

 

 

Ta Daa!  Lots of lovely coasters!  It's a good way to use up little batting pieces and scraps of fabric, which I have plenty of. 

 

And, now your guests can admire your nice quilting!

 

Put a Bird on it!

 

I whipped up this little ...thingy... on a whim for my sister's birthday.  I used a part of a practice piece of quilting.  A small 6 by 8 inch piece where the tension wasn't terrible on the back and then pretty much cut out random scraps and stitched them down.  No wonder-under or anything.  I think she liked it...

 

 

And then I have another of Peg's embroidery quilts.  This is the peacock one!  How perfect is that fabric? 

 

I did a peacock feather from Judy Woodworth's book Freemotion Quilting around the border. 

 

Thea (who also happens to be my niece) was starting preschool and was not very happy about it.  But she gets to take a blanket with her for nap time and she said that when her peacock quilt was done she would be ready for preschool.  So Nana/Peg had to have it ready!

 

 

 

 

I think it's safe to say that Thea has the fanciest naptime blanket at school :) 

 

 

And that's my birdiest post to date!

 

 

A Fancy Rail-Fence

 

Norene made this quilt and wanted something kinda fancy quilted in the blocks. 

 

I did my funky feather again in the border.

 

 

And this is what I ended up doing in the blocks.  It's a design from a book I have- Free-Motion Quilting Made Easy by Eva Larkin.  It's full of block designs like this where you do minimal marking.  All the marking I did was a center line in the opposite direction of the strips.

 

And some custom borders.

 

 

 

Sometimes when you are quilting you have no idea how it really looks until you take it off the machine and lay it out and take a step back. 

 

 

A solid white back really shows off the quilting!

 

 

Taa-Daa!