Another T-shirt Quilt- Volleyball Coach

 

It's another T-shirt quilt!  This one was made for a former college volleyball coach. 

 

 

The quilting for this one I took straight from the fabric.  Flowers and curly Q's. 

 

 

 

Quilting around this one was kind of tricky...

 

A solid navy back really shows off the quilting.  Especially with lots of back-tracking.

(In gray thread)

How in the heck am I going to quilt Kenny?- A T-shirt quilt

 

Roxanne made this T-shirt quilt for her daughter.  She is fairly new to quilting, but you would never guess that with this quilt!

 

Swirls were all over the backing fabric and in the cornerstones too so that's what I quilted in the black border. 

 

 

I filled in the blocks with plenty of loops and a few stars and flowers. 

 

 

The center block I did a little special...

 

 

 

And then there was the Kenny Chesney block.  How in the world was I going to quilt this?   I couldn't just meander all over his face!  I ended up outlining his body, hat, necklace, and chair.  And chin.  And the words.  And set him on fire.  :)  That ought to do it! 

Scrappy Strips

 

Norene made this super scrappy quilt using 2.5 by 4 inch strips.  She used up a lot of scraps- it will cover a queen size bed with plenty of overhang. 

 

Norene likes plenty of quilting, so I tried something different.  Free-form waves with random circles here and there. 

 

I got the inspiration for the quilting from Allison's quilt.  Lots of trips back and forth of the table with this one!

 

 

AQS Show: A teeney-tiny Sampling

Well the Show has come and gone.  Once again I was blown away at the show quilts and by all the vendors. 

 

 

This was in the Japanese quilt display.  The designs in these blocks are all hand embroidered. 

 

 

Another awesome quilt in the Japanese display. 

 

This one was in the DMAQG Pineapple quilts display.  Whoa.

 

 

 

Each of those pineapple layers is 1/4 inch wide!  And it was all paper pieced. 

 

This is one of the many amazing quilts in the "Stitch like an Egyptian" display- all of which were for sale.  All hand embroidered and appliqued.  Very cool.

 

 

There was also a display of improvisational medallion quilts.  I really liked this one.  The flowers in the pots are not appliqued, it's just the fabric.  Very clever! 

 

That's pretty much all the quilt photos I took! 

 

 

 

And this little trooper took it all in.  He didn't even mind giving himself his bottle while Mom wandered around all the quilts.  :)

Fall Double Dresden Delight- Table runner style

 

Before...

 

 

After!! 

OK.  This is probably the worst before and after photos ever.  Because it looks exactly the same.  But what I did after I quilted and bound this table runner was tea-dyed it!  Yes, I had another adventure in tea-dying.   

 

I made this table runner for my Mom's birthday.  She loves fall and fall colors and she hosts numerous Thanksgivings, so this will get a lot of use.  My random assortment of "fall" colors from my stash didn't quite mesh together; some were light, some were pretty vibrant, so I thought when it was all done, a tea bath would bring it all together.  I don't have any close-up photos of it before, but there is some difference, especially in the lighter pieces. 

 

Oh!  And I got the idea for the Double Dresden Delight from Amy!  Her post here led me to the tutorial.   To sum it up in a nutshell you sew the insides just like you do the outside points.  No center circle applique needed!  Although I will say that pressing and turning all those points got to be pretty tedious.  Not difficult though :) 

 

Linked up to Sew Modern Monday!

 

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!