Jessica's Dilly Dally Lily Pulitzer

 

Jessica made this super fun Dilly Dally quilt using Lily Pulitzer fabrics. 

 

I did an extra large "lel" in the outer border, a ribbon in the smaller border and the center I did flowers and swirls. 

 

 

I just love how this quilt turned out!  And before I even got this posted, she has already listed and sold it off her Etsy site.  That was quick!  She does have several more of "our" quilts listed though--if you'd like to have a peek. 

AQS Show- A tiny sampling

Here is just a itty bitty sampling of the amazing quilts from the Des Moines show.

 

 

This one was made and quilted by Judi Madsen of Green Fairy Quilts. 

 

Dimensional flowers

 

And here is Best In Show and her majesty Patricia Delaney.  She was so cute with her princess crown.  She bought it herself, it was not awarded to her in a large ceremony by last year's best in show winner all dolled up in evening gowns like I imagine in my head. 

 

I chatted with her a little bit about her amazing quilt.  It was inspired by a trip to Barcelona where she went to a market and saw a large booth selling nothing but eggs.  Huge ostrich eggs, tiny quail eggs, all kinds of eggs in every size and color.  She even showed me a picture of it on her phone. 

 

She pieced and quilted it all herself on her Viking home machine.  Each little strip is quilted individually and each ring a different design.  Teeny tiny designs.  And I didn't get a close up of the edge, but it is made of hundreds of loops of cording that she made herself.  So many little details in this quilt that made it stand out above the rest.  Congrats Patricia!

 

 

 

 

"When life gives you lemons" by Sara Sharp.  And I just checked the program and yep, those are prints from real lemons.

 

 

A Slice of Life by B.J. Titus

 

Down on the Farm by David Duwe.  The background fabric was made from a 1902 county atlas of Harper County Kansas

A Rose in Full Bloom by Rosalie Baker

 

 

My AQS Show Haul

 

Well, I survived another year of the AQS Quilt Show.  Or, maybe I should say: My pocket book survived another AQS Show.  Hee hee.  Here is what I brought back with me. 

Starting with the upper left is a new hobby (Just what I need, right?!)  I'm going to try--Needle punch.  Have you tried this?  It looks really easy to do, and you can make all kinds of things with them-- ornaments, pillows, or just frame them.  I think it would be really cute to turn your kid's artwork into a needle punch project.  I've got a lifetime supply of DMC floss that's just calling my name!

 

 I also got a few fabric samples, a Christmas charm pack- In from the cold by Kate Spain.  It's so cute and pretty at the same time.  I like how it's mostly red and greens.  I'm a traditional Christmas colors kinda girl.  But there is also light turquoise and grey colorways in there too.  I'm going to turn that and the rest of the Christmas fabric you see here into an Advent calender with the Countdown to Christmas Quilt-A-Long.  I've already made some progress with it! 

 

I picked up a few random fat quarters, binding clips, and a photo matte.  The idea with the photo matte is to put pictures of your quilts in there.  The frame I already have is a bit longer than the matte, but I'll just fill that in with more pictures.  Because what quilter has made only 6 quilts?  Uh, if you've been a quilter for a few years, I'll bet you have more than 6 quilts to your name.  Even if they are mostly baby quilts.  :P  I'll be sure to post a pic when I get it together.  But don't hold your breath!

 

My class with Sally Terry was fun.  This is my sample that I got to take home with me.  All the other classes I've taken didn't let you take your piece home.  So this was a nice surprise.  They didn't have backing fabric on our samples, so it quilted up kinda goofy, but I guess they save a lot on fabric that way.  It still worked well enough to get the hang of it.  We made birds, fish and butterflies.  And ginkgo leaves.  And other pretty things.

 

She signed my books.

 

And we all got a special certificate.

 

Oh, and I also got this infinity scarf.  It's so soft and pretty.  I'm excited to wear it.

 

And most importantly a roll of Hobbs 80/20 batting.  No shipping charge for this cowboy. 

Yee Haaaw!

 

I took some pics of some of the quilts, but that will be in another post.  The show was so much fun and inspiring.  I'm on a sewing high right now.  Soo many ideas and inspiration, so little time!

Self Binding Baby Blanket

 

Looking for a super quick and easy handmade baby shower gift?  This is it!  My mom shared this video with me on how to make this self binding flannel baby blanket.

 

 

To explain it in a nutshell, you cut out a 30' and a 40' square of flannel, center and stitch the edges then stitch your mitered corners.  Flip it right side out and sew a decorative stitch along the edge to close it up and that's it! 

 

See the video link for the real How-To from the Missouri Quilt Co.

 

Like my flannel panel?  I scored a yard of this at a random garage sale for $2!  Yep, I'll take that!  And the baby boy this was made for was just born last week.  Welcome to the world Jase!

 

Katie's Birdie and flowers

 

 

Here's another applique project from--you guessed it!  My sister.  :)  This pattern is from a book she has.  I don't know the name of it though. 

 

The beads say 'my sweet girl'.  Don't know what that's all about--she has 2 boys!  Must be a top secret gift for someone else perhaps??

 

It's hard to see the quilting here I know, but I had fun with it.

 

 

Pretty funky stuff!  I like it. 

Ready for Quilt Week & Katie's Flower Medallion

Hey--  The AQS Quilt Show in Des Moines is coming up in just a couple weeks!  (October 2-5th)  Are you going??  I just purchased my multi-day pass and registered for a quilting class with Sally Terry.  I have a couple of her books already--her "Hooked on Feathers" book is what really got me going with feathers.  And funky feathers too.  So I'm pretty excited to meet her in person and have her sign my books. 

 

(This was 2011 Best in Show- AMAZING!)

 

I've been attending the show for at least 4 years now and always have a blast!  There are tons of amazing quilts to see and tons of vendors to check out.  Fabric, tools, threads, rulers, gadgets.. you name it, you can probably find it there!  AND don't forget the classes, and lectures! 

 

 

This is from last year--My sister on the left and me on the right.  We went to the quilt show, did The Color Run, and then went right back to the show.  I couldn't believe they actually let us back in looking like this!  I thought for sure we would be escorted out of there!  What a fun weekend though!  No Color Run this year--it was in DM earlier this summer- no, we didn't go. 

 

Anyway- if you are in the Des Moines area, you should really go check the AQS quilt show out.

OK, lets look at some quilting now, shall we?

 

 

Applique, bright, bold colors and funky fabrics... Any guesses as to who made this quilt? 

My sister!  I think her style is really becoming her own and I can spot it from a mile away. 

 

This one was fun to do- adding little details to the flowers and leaves.

 

I used the branches in the border print as a spine for a few feathers.

 

Figuring out what to do in the flowers was tricky, but settled on a outline design on two and a swirly/pebbling design on the other two. 

 

The background fill is mostly feathers and swirls, but it is hard to see.

 

Winter Critters

 

I finally finished this cute little wallhanging this week!  This pattern is called "Winter Critters" by Sonja Callaghan that was in Quiltmaker magazine.  A 2-parter in Nov/Dec '11 and Jan/Feb '12 issues.  When I first saw these guys with their little hats I might have squealed.  I had to make it-they are just so darn cute!  So, I started it by tea-dying some fabric for the tree, and I bought a few fat quarters for the raccoon and squirrel and I had the top done within a year.  Then came the applique for the hat tops and embroidery for the eyes.  So it sat.

And sat.

Until a few weeks ago when I decided to complete this thing in time for winter.

 

Aren't they cute?!

 

And here's Rocky the Raccoon. 

 

My blanket stitch skills could use some improving- I might re-do this pink one.  Or I might just let it be and let the amazing quilting outshine the embroidery/applique imperfections...

 

So for now this will go into my personal to-be-quilted pile.  Which means it gets low priority over everyone else's quilts.  But hopefully I can have it done and up for this winter.

 

Linking up to Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts

Joan's vintage kids baby quilt

 

Joan made this adorable baby blanket featuring some vintage-looking kids playing with thier toys. 

 

I quilted an over-all swirl design on it.  This little girl is hard at work pressing her doll clothes.

 

 

And now she is taking her doll for a ride. 

 

And this little dude is pounding away.  This quilt could be for either a boy or girl.  My little guy enjoyed pointing out the puppies and things in the border print.   

 

Thanks for having me quilt your sweet baby quilt Joan!

 

 

 

do. Good Stitches March Quilt: Completed!

 

OK.  So the pictures of this quilt top are blurry.  My kiddo got a hold of my camera one too many times, and now I have to fiddle with the zoom sometimes to get it to focus.  Plus it was 100 degrees out and super bright outside and couldn't really tell how terrible my pics were until it was too late.

 

Anyway, this is the Haven do. Good Stitches March quilt.  The gal who was supposed to put the quilt together was not able to so I stepped in to finish it up.  I do recall thinking when she had us make the blocks any size we wanted to, "that's crazy.  Have fun putting those together!"  Well, the joke is on me then since I ended up being the one to put it together.  But it actually wasn't all that bad really.  I had pulled some bold colored prints to fill in the blank spots, but decided that it was pretty wild already and what it really needed was some negative space.  So good old white it was! 

 

I threw in a few little 4-patches I had leftover from another project (my Christmas triple 4-patch quilt that just needs binding.  So stay tuned for that post.) just for the heck of it. 

 

 

Love the little critters in this quilt...

 

I did make this pinwheel block to fill this spot up.

 

The back.  A solid peachy/orange.  I was a little short with my red checkered binding, so I used a yellow check to finish the job. 

 

And the label.  I thought these birds went well with the critter theme of the quilt and they matched the back really well too.  Now it's on its way to Rochester, NY to a women's shelter.