Another Embroidered Quilt

I am managing to get in some longarming time- a little each day during naptimes and Daddy-time.

Here's my latest quilting finish.  This quilt was pieced by Carol and hand embroidered by her husband!  The hand work helps with his arthritis- he does a really nice job!

Some custom work in each block.  I outlined the embroidery and added a few more flowers.

Last Quilt of 2011

Well, I have yet to turn on any type of sewing machine so far this year, and have barely set foot in the basement other than to fetch something from the freezer.  But I think I have a good excuse--I just had a baby! 

So this was my last big quilting finish of the year-meaning I quilted it about a month ago... It was pieced by Norene as a Christmas gift.  This quilt made my feet swell and my back ache something terrible--but I think it turned out great!

Hooked feather borders, Stitch in the ditch along the smaller border...

...and a free-motion filler in the middle.  See how I copied the red flower motif that is in the dark brown squares on the left?  I also threw in some feathers, double loop-D-loops, and lots of swirls.

Being my last quilt I quilted for the year- my total was 47!  I know I was a little short of my goal of a quilt a week, but I really lost steam the second half of my pregnancy and couldn't tolerate being on my feet for very long.  BUT that being said, I did actually have over 52 total quilts in my possession to be quilted, so I consider that a success!

  Hmmm...how many will 2012 bring??

A couple quilts from Karen

I met up with Karen at the AQS show a few weeks ago to hand off these two lovely quilts.

This pattern is called Synchronized Squares.  You can read Karen's post here.

Since the blocks have raw edges I quilted a flower in each block.  With loops in between. 

She even had a few extra blocks for the back.  I somehow managed to line up the blocks on the back with the ones on the front so the quilted flowers matched up.

And she made this throw with Christmas fabrics. And you can see Karen's post on this quilt here. 

Free-motion feathers!

Thanks for having me quilt your quilts once again Karen!

A couple more quilts and going to AQS Show!

Quilt #33 for the year was this scrappy 16-patch.

Meandering was requested.  No problemo.

This cozy throw is all flannels.  (#34)

I had free reign on this one so I went with the floral theme and did 5-petal flowers and leaves. 

There was a slight problem with this one.  As I got to the last pass I realized that the back was baaaarely long enough, if not a tad short by 1/4 to 1/2 inch.  Oof.  What do I do??  Rip it all out and start over easing the top in better?  Stretch the heck out of the back to make it fit?  Trim 1/4 inch off the entire edge of the quilt?  Noo way.  After consulting with my customer we decided to take it off  the machine and luckily she had plenty of purple flannel left to sew a strip on the back.  And it was no problem to put it back on and finish the last pass.  Phew!  It all worked out, but I hope I never let it happen again.  I always do lay out my quilts to make sure the backs and battings are large enough and oriented the right way, but somehow I neglected to notice how close this one was.  Lesson learned. 

**Also**

I know there is a lot of blogging going on about the Sewing Summit coming up, which I will not be attending.  But I WILL be attending the AQS Show in Des Moines later this week!!  Planning on taking a couple longarm classes from Sue Patten, looking at lots of gorgeous quilts, trying out all the new longarm machines, and maybe just a little shopping too.  But not too much shopping.  :) 

Anyone else going??

Summertime Row Quilt

This quilt has a bit of a story behind it.  One day my mom, sister and I thought it would be fun to do a row exchange where each person involved makes a row, then each month passes it on to the next person on the list.  They add a row to it, and pass it onto the next lady and so on.  Then at the end of it all you get all your rows back and -surprise!  Look at what everyone made for you! 

So we duped some friends and relations into joining in.  8 of us in all.  Each person had a bit of a theme.  One had Christmas, another 4th of July, one had a little girl theme, another was countries they had traveled to...  A couple of us sent fabric they wanted us to use, others said use whatever you have that will go with. 

 Aunt Diane's theme was Summer.  I had fun custom quilting each row. 

Of course I had to do a row of feathers :)

This row is the coolest!

This row had a swirling water theme.



This was the row I did- Flip Flops!  It's not summertime unless you've got on some flip-flops. 

This was a lot of fun to receive a new set of rows to work with each month and see what the quilters did previously.  But it was also challenging to come up with a block to go with the theme.  I'm really glad we did it, but I don't think we will be doing it again anytime soon! 

My  row quilt is still in rows in a box.  Maybe this winter I will figure out how I want to put it all together.  Maybe...