Blacktop resurfacing

Kingbird Avenue- the blacktop just 1/4 mile from us is in the process of being re-surfaced.  So, if you are coming to drop off a quilt, you may find some road closed signs.  Right now they are just puting up stakes on the side of the road & you may be able to go around the road closed signs & get through.  It depends on what part of the road they are working on during the day.  I don't think the actual resurfacing will start for another week or two.  I'll keep you posted on when it's open again. 
Sorry for the inconvenience! 

How to make a T-shirt quilt Part 1- Preparing the t-shirt blocks

Here's the method I use to make t-shirt quilts.  It's a very simple layout & easy enough for a beginning quilter.  These directions are for a lap size quilt- 69" x 54". 

You will need approx. 1/2 yard of lightweight fusible interfacing per shirt.  I am going to be cutting twelve 14.5" t-shirt blocks.  So, you'll need about 6 yards of fusible interfacing for this quilt.

Step 1:
Cut out the whole front of the shirt- along the side edges, and along the top of the shoulder.  You should have 1 layer of shirt now with your design on it. 

 Step 2: 
Cut an 18" square of your lightweight fusible interfacing.  Lay your t-shirt, design side down, on an ironing surface.  Place the interfacing on your shirt, making sure the fusible side is touching your shirt.  Iron the interfacing to the shirt.  Make sure all areas of the interfacing get enough heat/time with your iron to securly adhere it. 

Step 3:
 Flip your shirt over right side up on your cutting mat.  Cut out a 14.5" square, centering the design.  If you are going to make alot of these, a template is helpful.  I had the lumberyard cut a 14.5" square template out of plexiglass.  Then I could just plop the template down & cut around all 4 sides.  It's not necessary, though- you can also just use the lines on your cutting mat.

Prepare 12 quilt blocks in this manner.

Custom quilting

Some pictures of a very involved custom quilt that was finished last month.  The straight feather sections were done with the IQ, also the diagonal 1/4" lines.  The outer border was hand-guided, echoing all the applique, and also the straight line filler. 
A very beautiful quilt- all that applique is done with perfect teeny tiny needle-turn hand stitching.  For some reason I can't find a picture showing the whole quilt.  But there are 9 large blocks just like the one in the first picture below.  The quilter had made this from a pattern in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine if I remember right, and the magazine article showed how the original quilt was done.  I tried to keep the same style of quilting as the original, but I did have to change it a little as the original one was antique, and the quilting was done by hand on that one. 

Chevron Feathers pattern

Showing you a fun batik quilt, that was quilted using the "Chevron Feathers" pattern. 

Here's the line drawing of the pattern- I thought the curvy lines of the pattern were a nice contrast to the sharp straight edges of the piecing. 

A quilt for me

I've had this quilt top pieced for a few years, but had never quilted it.  I often have a hard time motivating myself to quilt my own stuff when I have customer quilts waiting in line.  But about a month ago, I decided just to pin in on the frame & get it done. 
The feathered star quilt top is paper-pieced.  There is a combination of hand-guided & computer-guided designs on the quilt.  That large feather wreath is done with the Intelliquilter, I filled in the small stippling, and also the feather designs in the outer border as hand-guided patterns, as well as the checkerboard background fill in the cream corner areas.  

Different binding techniques

I was looking through some quilting blogs, and came across this site that has lots of links to different quilting techniques.  I thought this "faux" piped binding technique looks really interesting, and not really much harder than a regular binding.  I just might give this a try! 

http://tlcstitches.blogspot.com/2010/07/faux-piped-binding-tutorial.html


Let me know if you use this method & I'll post a picture here of how it turnes out-

This Snail's Trail wallhanging received a custom design.  I followed the piecing using a hand-guided swirly pattern. 

 A view from the back: 



Animal Stripes design

This t-shirt quilt was quilted using the Animal Stripes design- it went perfectly with the zebra design in the sashing fabrics. 

Table runner

Here is a table runner with custom treatment.  I used a scroll design in the open areas around the pieced lillies, and did some 1/4" echo around the piecing.  I think the curvy scroll design is a nice contrast to the sharp points of the pieced flowers. 

 A view from the back:



Carpet Scrolls design

I used the new Carpet Scrolls design on this quilt.  The borders have some pretty applique, and the center has paper pieced stars.  I used a white thread, so that it would blend well with the white background fabric. 

 Here you can see the design a little better on the back: 

Freehand water meander

This quilt had such pretty blue/green batiks, and I thought of water right away when I saw it.  This was quilted with a freehand water meander pattern. 

New patterns November 2011

One more day left in November for this year- can you believe it?  The months really fly by. 

Here are 3 new patterns that I've gotten this month to use on customer quilts.  The first 2 are holiday patterns- Holly Berries, and Lynne's Ornaments.  The ornament pattern has quite a bit of small details, and so it needs to be sewn out more slowly than some of the other patterns (and also the price per square inch is a bit higher than most of the other all-over patterns.) 

This other one, called Animal Stripes, I just used on a t-shirt quilt that had zebra striped fabric as sashing between the shirts.  This pattern was just perfect to go with that. 

2 Christmas quilts

Isn't this a fun quilt?  I used the "Oodles of Doodles" for this quilt, I thought it looked like curly ribbon on presents.  The customer thought it looked like swirling snow.  :-) 

And this quilt is done using "Holly Berries" pattern.  This pattern is new, so I don't have it up on the pattern page yet, I will try & do that soon.