New pattern

I've just designed a new pattern.... just in time for the coming winter months! I hope the snow holds off for a while! I needed a mitten pattern for a quilt that was here, and just couldn't find what I wanted. So, as they say, neccessity is the mother of invention, and so I designed my own. It works great as an all-over pattern, or a border.

Remember that all the IQ patterns can be re-sized larger or smaller. The pictures I show here are just a section of the pattern. Some quilters like a more open design, so I can stitch out the design larger. Like in the mitten pattern, the mittens would actually stitch out at about 6" high, but that can be changed.

2 new Intelliquilter patterns

Here are two new Intelliquilter patterns available:

Blaze pattern

I had the chance to use my own Blaze quilting pattern on a quilt recently. I think it was perfect for this little boy's quilt, since one of the fabrics was a flame design.





And, here is a custom quilt... I used the leafy swag pattern in the plain border, outlined and echoed the butterflies, and stitched-in-the-ditch around all the blocks.

More recent quilts

I was challenged to work on 3 quilts pieced exactly alike, but with different custom quilting patterns. I had fun finding something different for each quilt. I'm not sure which one is my favorite.
These quilts are good examples of how I can put motifs & border patterns in a custom quilt using the Intelliquilter. The block motif can be resized to fit the quilt block, and I can stitch out much more intricate designs with the Intelliquilter than by doing it freehand. All three of the center block motifs in these quilts would have been nearly impossible working freehand.

Quilt #1










Quilt #2








Quilt #3

Chevron Feathers

I took a few pictures of a quilt that I worked on recently that used the "Chevron Feathers" pattern. I think it has nice, even coverage. I really like this pattern.

And the winner is......

The winner of the $100 gift certificate is...... Ellen Smit of Hull. Congratulations, Ellen.

You can see my lovely assistant picking her name here:

We also picked 2 more names, and Gayle Moret of Littleton, CO and Karen Freking of Hospers, IA are winners of free Hobbs Heirloom batting in their next quilt.

Thanks again to all you wonderful quilters out there.

baby quilt

Here's the latest baby quilt for a baby shower at church. It has some fun girly fabric- they're talking on the phone & having pillow fights. It's really cute fabric.
The color in these pictures is a little off- it's a bright lime green, and a bright purple in real life.

I made up the pattern as I went- on had a little bit of the white fabric (it has teeny-tiny pink polka dots on it), so those strips ended up really skinny- only 1/2 inch wide finished. In the end I liked the effect.

coffee border

Here's a cute coffee cup border that I used recently on a quilt.... I thought the variegated thread added a nice touch to the design.

Americana Quilt

My sister requested an quilt to use in her guest bedroom, and she is decorating in an Americana theme. We chose the American Patriot fabric line, and I designed this quilt pattern, inspired by a customer's quilt. The size of the quilt, for a full size bed, is 85" x 78".

The color in this picture is washed out... it's really a dark navy backing.



And, to go with the quilt, I made this pillow. This amazing eagle pattern is from OneSongNeedleArts.com. I thought it would go perfectly with the quilt.

1,000th quilt giveaway!!!

I just want to say a huge "THANK YOU" to all of you wonderful quilters out there that have supported me & trusted me with your quilts. Without all of you, I wouldn't have had the enjoyment of being able to work from home & see all your wonderful quilts. Your confidence in me is truly appreciated.

I can harldy believe it myself.... I'll soon have quilted 1,000 customer quilts!!! (I'm on #980 as of today). Wow. And it all started out as a little hobby in 2003. I would never have guessed back then that I would ever finish a thousand quilts.

So, to say thanks to all my customers, I've decided to have a little giveaway. If you book a quilt from now until Halloween, your name will be entered in a drawing for a $100 gift certificate for quilting services. Any quilt that is currently here waiting to be quilted, will also be entered.

Thanks!!!

Custom quilt with feathers

I used a feather design in the diagonal areas, and a swag & beadboard design in the borders.

The quilting shows up better on the back in the pictures....

Christmas lights pattern

Here are some pics of the Christmas lights pattern.... I think it's really fun on the back of this quilt.

Metallic thread- spider web quilting design

Just finished a halloween quilt using metallic thread. I found the perfect spider web design to go on this quilt- it turned out just as I had hoped. The metallic thread really adds to the design.

The back of the quilt, I used grey thread in the bobbin to match the silver as closely as possible.

Log Cabin baby quilt

Here's the latest baby quilt that I just finished... it's a log cabin with fabrics that I pulled out of my stash. Some of my favorites. It's quilted with a simple free-hand loopy pattern.

Some recent customer quilts

Here are some recent quilts that have come my way...

Here is an embroidered quilt, with a block motif set in each block. Before quilting:

And here it is after:

This is what the block motif looks like from the back:

Here's another quilt, a Dresden Plate quilt, with a cable border.

And a Sunbonnet Sue quilt, quilted with a Baptist Fan pattern:

More new patterns

More new patterns!!! I've been busy digitizing some patterns to use with the Intelliquilter. These are free-hand patterns that are my own designs. They are all continuous all-over patterns.

New pattern

Here is a new leafy pattern available with the IQ... leafy swag. I really like how it looks on this batik quilt.....

Here's the pattern:

And here is the quilt using this pattern:

chicken-feed bag tote

The following picture is to prove my theory: "if it isn't moving, you can sew it!" :-) On a longarm list I read daily, someone made a tote out of a dog-food bag. She was inspired by this website: http://www.soaustin.com/home a lady in Texas recycles bird-food bags into totes and gets an amazing $20 reselling them! I just had emptied a chicken-feed bag the other day , and just had to try it out. Her bird-seed bags are much more colorful, this one for the chickens is a boring tan. Anyway, I think it will be a great way to carry all those apples we will pick off of our trees this fall. Sturdy, and disposable if needed. Not to mention, one-of-a-kind! ! !

Starry Nights pattern

Here's a few pictures of a new pattern that I'm using with the IQ, called Starry Nights. I thought the border fabric in this customer's table runner was a perfect match with the pattern.

Our farm animals

About a month ago, we got 8 chickens from some friends that have flock of over 30. They had some older hens that they wanted to separate from their group. We used to buy fresh eggs from them, but thought about trying out having our own chickens. We are really enjoying having them around. We let them free-range in the afternoon, they stay busy pecking at bugs & scratching in the dirt. So far, they haven't been much trouble. It will be interesting to see how it goes in the winter, when they have to stay inside. They really get excited to go out- when I go in to let them out, they race out the door, sometimes squeezing through two at a time. They love to eat table scraps- leftover noodles are their favorite. Or carrot peelings, bread, or watermelon.

Here are some pictures of them, and their coop, and nesting boxes. We found out after the nesting boxes were built that you only need 2 or 3 nests for 8 chickens, so we are way over-built here. But, I guess we have room to expand someday! It is funny, because they seem to prefer about 2 nests & all lay in the same 1 or two openings. We are getting 3-5 eggs a day- just right for our family.