Saturday, February 23, 2013

Getting things done!

Seems like I have been trying to get this post up for weeks... 

Here is what’s on my sewing table…

piano key border for T-shirt quilt
T-shirt quilt in progress
This has been a fun quilt. I am loving it. I had bought a bolt of fabric I thought I wanted to use on this quilt, and then… I saw the pattern from Windham Fabrics for the Good Vibrations fabric line, and then it was all over. I am changing the plan and making the borders look like a piano keyboard.  The piano works great with the theme of this quilt. The recipient has been playing the piano for years, many years (and he is only 18), he is very accomplished and his mother is very proud of him. The piano border is perfect. This quick quilt just got a little less quick. But I love it.

And, Here is what is off the sewing table.

Redwork Revival sampler block of the month BOM
A year later the Redwork Revival BOM that Lisa and I designed and taught at the Parish Quilt shop is OVER. As soon as Glamping yardage is available, I will put the final borders on this, and then I need to make time for the quilting.

Now for the American Beauty photos I promised.

I ran into a problem with them. As you can see, many of them are blurry. Our weather is so dreary here in the Pacific North West, and we have a serious lack of sunshine. I kind of blew it, I didn’t look at the photos before I delivered the quilt. Now I have out of focus photos, but…just for the record, Julie loved her quilt. These are what I have for photos of this quilt.

1 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

2 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

3 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

4 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

5 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

6 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

7 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

8 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

9 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

10 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

11 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

12 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

13 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

14 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

15 American Beauty BOM marti michelle

Here are the finishes for the last couple weeks.

I have had a couple quilts that were quick and fun. I quilted a couple quilts with fabric from Afric. This is not the first time I have quilted fabric from Africa, I have a pretty hard time keeping things square. I finished them, but they were just quick quilts that I had to pin and pin to keep square. My customer loved them. The quilts were made from clothes her children had when they lived in Africa. She wanted to remember them and use them in a quilt. How great is that.

These photos are not a great quality, but you get the idea. 

memory quilt 1

memory quilt 2

memory quilt 3

I then got busy on the Fabulous Felines Quilt.

Fabulous Felines Quilt 1
Fabulous Felines Quilt 2

Fabulous Felines Quilt 3

Fabulous Felines Quilt 4

Fabulous Felines Quilt 7

Fabulous Felines Quilt 8

It is so hard to see the detail of the quilting on this dark fabric, sorry these photos are the best I have. This was a fun quilt from one of my regular quilters. Marla seems to keep a quilt or two running through me. I appreciate your patients and thank you! Now I had better get back to quilting.

It has been a very busy couple weeks.

...sneak peak at the quilt that I am just finishing up.
quilted wreath 1

quilted wreath 2

quited wreath 3
Thanks for checking - Star

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A quick post, and a quick quilt

This is a quilt that just clicked into place. I just worked quickly on the quilting and it just flowed. It is nice to knock out a little custom quilt and know that the customer is going to be happy. I have been doing the Thimbleberries for a class here in town and the ladies really like this style.

Here are some quick photos I took of the quilt as I quilted it and after it was finished. I hope you enjoy the photos. I will warn you in advance, you better like feathers. Most of the people that have me quilt for them are wanting feathers in the big border, and piano keys to finish off the edge. I am blessed with a pretty good feather. I have bad days and times when my mind wanders, but generally I am pretty lucky with the feather, NOT perfect but I am happy and continue to improve.
I don't have a lot of time and I have to get back to the frame, but I thought I would share some of the photos with you.

PS. I know I owe you some of the images from the American Beauty, but they may be hard to come by. The lighting was horrible and most of the images are a little out of focus. I am looking into it and I will see what I can come up with.











Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog.
Star

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Friday, February 8, 2013

Finished a few "Big" Quilts

As for the quilting “thing”…

I know it is not the best photo.   This time of year I struggle with my photos.
I am sorry in advance for the poor quality.
I have been crazy busy. I had the wonderful opportunity to quilt a Tonga Rhapsody Quilt for Sheila. What a “huge” quilt that was. I quilted it with lots of detail, and it had a ton of 1 inch finished blocks. I couldn’t believe how long it was taking. But the end result is “Beautiful” (I hope you agree). And for the best part… Sheila was happy with it. I am never sure when I go off the reservation (and do my own thing), how people see the quilting. I usually try to do what the quilt looks like it needs, and tone it down. I try to leave the quilt with texture, and compliment the quilt with tone on tone thread. The Tonga Rhapsody quilt is such a colorful quilt and it is a different layout than most samplers, I found myself wondering how I could change it up without being CRAZY or too EXPENSIVE. I try to quilt so people can afford my service, and I can actually finish them in a reasonable amount of time. 
Here are some of the pictures… See what you think.


I am just going to post a bunch of the individual block for you to see.
























The best part about that quilt, My customer loved it.


Finishing this little quilt was quick and easy. Thank you, Lisa…

She had no control over when the baby was actually born…but, it’s just nice to actually have the binding on the quilt by the time the baby is born. Lisa made my job super easy, she opted for a quick pantograph. It may have taken longer to pin it on, than to finish the panto. But the quilt is still very cute.

I know it is just a panto, but it is still really cute!


V and Co: how to: faux pleated pillow

My version, it looks so cute. :)

A great tutorial pillow tutorial.  I highly recommend this one.  I picked up the Sew Stitchy jelly roll by Aneela Hoey. It is the perfect use as far as I can see.
My selections in progress! I Love them! :)

I am looking for a little input…



I am looking to move my blog? I want to know if I should move my blog from the blogspot url to “StarlitQuilts.com”.  I do very little with my main page on starlitquilts.com, and people tend to link through it to get to my blog easily, so…. I was thinking that moving my blog would be the ideal solution? I don’t think it would be a big change, but it would like to hear what experiences and or opinions might be out in cyber land? I could use some input on this. I am not sure if I want to move my followers or if they will follow me there?  If you have any input that would be so helpful.

And then we have the Breezy update… 


She has had the mammary glad cyst removed from her abdominal area, and had the stitches removed a couple days ago. She continues to improve and we are now watching the areas, (like I know what I am looking for) to make sure everything stays normal and no new lumps appear. I must say, this is very difficult, because if any of you, have had surgery the scar tissue is pretty difficult to accurately detect much through. The lumps that are there are “normal” and we need to watch them. Like I have a clue or a degree for this stuff. I just keep praying that I do the right thing.

And then I had some fun with the American Beauty quilt.

American Beauty in progress
American Beauty is looking so good! I hope you like it.
I am so happy with this block. Love it!


Julie has been waiting for this for a while. So if feels good to get some of the big quilts done.
I always enjoy quilting the “American Beauty” quilt, it is such a pretty quilt finished.  Julie let me use my absolute favorite batting “Quilters Dream Wool” and… yes it is washable.  The borders are done with flowing feathers and I finished them off with some piano keys (my favorite…also). Every time I quilt one, I realize…I really need to finish mine. Finally… here are some of the photos…. Let me know what you think, I would love to hear from you. I will have to post images tomorrow or something. I am waiting for some sun. The photos will be better if we are lucky enough to have some sun.