T-shirt quilt

T-shirt quilting season is in full swing here in my studio!  Karen made this T-shirt quilt for her grandson.

I did large pebbles in the narrow black border, stars in the cornerstones and filled in the background with paisleys.  The border fabric is so busy, the quilting just disappears in it. So I didn't get too fancy with it, like I did the last one which had solids as borders. 

I like to fill in large negative spaces with something different.

Solid gray backing.  Thanks Karen-hope your grandson loves his quilt!

Jelly roll race

Norene made this jelly roll race quilt with some bright springy florals.

I quilted a feather border and filled in the center with flowers and leaves.

The back.

Thanks Norene!

Graffitti quilting on a t-shirt quilt

Joyce helped put this T-shirt quilt together for a soon-to-be high school graduate, Tiffany.  Tiffany picked out the colors and designed the borders. Nice job!  I thought I could get by on this one with some graffiti style quilting on this one.

Feathers, flowers, and filled in with paisleys.

All kinds of things!

Thanks Joyce and congrats Tiffany!

Chloe's Chevron quilt

Joyce's granddaughter made this cool quilt.  She is only in high school and did a really great job on a pattern that is probably not the easiest.  I'm starting off with a shot of the back--solid blue. Woo hoo-I love a solid backing!

The front.  She requested following the chevrons in the center and flowers in the border. Very nice choices I think!

I incorporated a variety of flower patterns in the border. I like it a lot.

This quilt was done before my machine was fixed so I had to quilt each zig-zag line from the left to right, then move the machine back to the left side. Each time. The thread would break every few inches when quilting from right to left.

Since the points of her chevrons didn't always match up between the blue sashing, I decided to quilt in the center in each strip instead of in the ditch.  This way I could make the corners centered in that narrow blue sashing every time where it is very noticeable.

Even with a goofed up machine, quilting this one was fun! Thanks Joyce and great job Chloe- Grandma has taught you well!

Elephant Baby Quilt and Splendid Sampler

Jessica made this custom order for a baby quilt using elephant fabric.

She requested the same quilting as this one I did for her a while back.

My most recent finishes of the Splendid Sampler. 

Blocks 1-14

Only 86 more to go!

Seeing them all together, I think I need some more green, orange, and definitely some purple.  Might have to go shopping one of these days.  I have intentions of doing some of the bonus blocks, but I'm trying hard to just keep up with the regularly scheduled ones.  Loving this project so far though!

Katie's arrows and machine issues

Katie (aka my sister) made this super cool modern arrow quilt. Solid red and lavender fabric meant lots of fun quilting details. And I added plenty of details to this one.

The red areas I made random straight edged shapes and filled them with swirls.

In the lavender I mimicked the triangles and flying geese designs and filled the background with straight edge quilting.

It was pretty fun making up random designs and placement of shapes, but this was the quilt that I realized that there was something wrong with my Nolting Fun Quilter 20" longarm machine.  I had lots of troubles with this one! The thread kept breaking every few inches when quilting left to right, no matter what I tried to do to fix the issue. Adjusting tension, both top and bottom, changing the needle, I even re-timed it. 

Long story short, after a few phone calls to technical support, I took my machine to Nolting for repairs and now it is good as new!  The bushing was shot along with part of the hook assembly. They also replaced a few other random things- new grips, they replaced my wooden dowel spool holder with a real one, new light bulb, a couple new oil wicks, and a new switch on the left hand side.  It was just time for some upgrades.  I have used it a lot in the 4.5 years since I bought it and it was used even then. So I guess I'm a little proud that I have some wear and tear in my machine. I wonder how many 'miles' are on it!

A couple shots of the back. I used a pink thread throughout the quilt, as well as the bobbin.

Thanks Katie!

(And Nolting!)

March dgs and Gina's

Our blocks for DGS Haven circle were pretty quick to do for March.  Disappearing 9-patch, and we didn't even have to sew the units together! A warm color palate for this bright quilt.  I was glad to use some of my larger prints for these blocks.

Gina made a couple of unisex baby quilts.  This one features a cute printed panel with a large border around the outside.

She requested quilting animal sound words like those in the fabric. Cute idea! I often forget about including words in the quilting. (peep and baa)

(tweet)

(baa)

This rail fence is all flannel, and Gina requested more words for this one too.

(baby, giggle)

(smile)

other words included were snuggle, love and laugh.

Thanks for the adorable baby quilts Gina!