more recent quilts

Have some pictures here showing some recent quilts. The first one is using "Wildflower". This is a really versatile design, that works well on alot of quilts.

 

The next one is a pattern called "Vining for You". I think this is very pretty, a nice swirly pattern that work well on leafy or floral quilts.

 

This next one was a batik quilt, and I thought something geometric would work well. It's quilted using double spirals. Very graphic & bold, like the fabrics in the quilt. And, this last one is Puzzle Pieces by Ellen Munnich. Very fun for a kid's quilt. I can't wait to use this one a quilt that' I've pieced. Especially cute with variegated thread. It doesn't show up well in this picture, but the thread color changes from medium to light blue & to white.

 

Baby quilt with fan border

Here's an example of using the baptist fan pattern in a border....

Speedy 1/2 square triangles trick

I found this trick on the internet lately, called tube-strip piecing. I am working on a quilt that needs hundreds of half-square triangles, and this is a really neat time-saving trick.

You put together 2 strips, right sides together, and sew a 1/4" seam on both sides of the strip:

The cut at a 45 degree angle. A ruler with these markings make it easier. I am using 3" strips here, and it will yield 3.5" squares. There will be a little waste on the end with the first cut.

Keep cutting at a 45 degree angle, alternating directions. The cool part is you will be cutting off those pesky little dog-ears while you're at it.

You'll end up with thirteen 3.5" squares, from a 44" strip of 3" wide fabric.

Finger press them to the darker side, to get lots of these:

Another nice thing is that the diagonal seam is not on the bias, and will not stretch. This makes the block a little more stable.

Give this technique a try- it's really a time saver. I made hundreds of these little guys in no time. And they're much more accurate than cutting all those pesky triangles before you piece them together.

Quilt using the Peace pattern

This quilt was the reason I found the "peace" pattern. It was made out of cordurouy, and it quilted up just fine.

My summer schedule & custom quilts

I've been thinking about my schedule this summer... It's Chloe's last summer at home before she starts preschool, and I want to make the most of the time I have with her & the boys at home, especially with the short summers we have here in Iowa. I like to garden, and do quite a bit of canning, and enjoy evenings outside by the fire pit.

I've decided that I will only be taking a limited number of custom quilts from now until school starts again in the fall. I already have 2 large custom quilts booked (one for April and one for May), and so there will only be room for one or two more this summer.

I will still be taking quilts that require an all-over pattern as usual.

New patterns

Here are the latest patterns that are available using the Intelliquilter:

Feathered Star quilt

I'm starting a feathered star quilt.... I've always wanted to make a feathered star, and came across a pattern that I had saved out of an old quilting magazine quite a long time ago.

The feathered sections are paper-pieced- I wouldn't attempt this any other way. The little triangles are less than an inch wide. It really went together easier than I had expected. The magazine pattern showed a full-size quilt with 9 or 12 of these blocks (they're 18 inches square), but I think I am just going to show case the one block in a small wall-size quilt.

It was a fun challenge- lots of "Y" seams in the LeMoyne-star center block area.

I'm thinking of adding a sawtooth border with the red fabric, and another plain tan border.

Freehand swirls

Here's a customer quilt that I thought would look good with some freehand swirls on it... I was happy with how it turned out. I tried to mimic that green swirly fabric in the 2nd picture.

Baby quilts

I've just quilted to two of my own baby quilts lately- the first one is a fun zig-zag quilt, pieced without triangles using this technique:

http://beesquarefabrics.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-make-zig-zag-quilt-without.html

I quilted this with a new ice-cream cone pattern that I designed. After I finished the quilt, I re-designed the ice cream cone to look a little more realistic & curvy.

The backing has a fun strip of leftover pieces from the front. I think it adds a little interest to the back.

And this boy quilt is my own design, using up scraps from other projects. It's fun to look over the quilt & remember other quilts that I've worked on. I suppose it can be a sort of I-spy quilt, there are things like frogs, fish, and cars to find in the scrappy areas. I quilted this freehand, using the Circuit Path pattern.

Custom quilt- paper pieced

Finished this quilt lately... the client made this beautiful paper-pieced quilt with batik fabrics. I love how the design almost looks 3-D. She had made it from a pattern in a magazine, and wanted it quilted like the example given with the pattern. All of the quilting on this one was done freehand, without the Intelliquilter. I use rulers to help guide the machine on the long, straight lines. The quilt was 50" square.

Leafy Swirl quilting

This was a king-size quilt, over 110" square. She decided on one of my own patterns, a leafy swirl design. She said it took over 6 months to piece, isn't it pretty? It was fun to look at all the different fabrics in the quilt while I was working on it.

The front:

The back:

new pattern... Clamflower

A new pattern is available, called Clamflower by Jodi Beamish of Willow Leaf Studios. It combines an old-faithful clamshell design with a fun flower in the middle of each one. I found this pattern for an up-coming quilt, I'll post pictures of the finished quilt when I'm done.

Embroidered quilt

This is a beautifully embroidered quilt, made for a church circle. I thought the feather wreath fit so nicely inside the embroidery. The border pattern is called Dogwood by One Song Needle Arts. I love the white quilting on white fabric.

Kite quilt

Isn't this a cuite quilt? It was the customer's first quilting project, can you believe it? It turned out so well with the brightly colored kites & just right blue for the background. She wanted the quilting to look like "wind", and so we decided upon doing a freehand swirly windy looking pattern. I was happy with the outcome.

It's hard to pick, but I think my favorited color combination is the yellow/gray kite.

Pillowcase gifts

Wow, has it been since December 12 that I posted last? In a few hours it will be February already.

Here are two pillowcases I made last week to bring to a shower for a family that has just adopted two children. Middle-school and junior-high age. These are some of my all-time favorite fabrics. I hope they like em! I embroidered their name on the edge of the case, I love that little personalized touch. It only takes a few minutes to add a little hand embroidery, but I think it really adds something.

Isn't this print just delicious? You can almost tase the sprinkles on that ice-cream.

And this one has all the states & their capitals. I just think it's so much fun.

This car fabric might be my most favorite of all time. For sure in the top 5.