Friday, October 31, 2014

Vicki's Quilts

 I quilted these two quilts for Vicki, my very regular customer.

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  She is always piecing up new quilts.  Swirls on this one.



 Flowers, leaves and butterflies on this quilt.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Love Entwined Part 8 Completed

I've been working on this section of Love Entwined pretty consistently since the beginning of August.
 So it's been almost 3 months.


 It has many small pieces of applique.  I found a flower to use in the flower basket which let me avoid all those tiny flowers that it called for.


 The first section took longer because I had fabric decisions to make along the way.  The second strip was much faster because those decisions were already made.


 It was very fun to do watching it come alive.


 I've sewn one end to the center piece.  The other is just pretending right now.


 This is all needleturn applique.


 How do you like it?



Friday, October 24, 2014

The Elephant's are Coming!

This is a quilt I completed recently and decided to enter it into the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  It is being entered in the small quilt category.

I made this for a friend who recently had a baby.  The baby likes elephants and the mom likes the colors. 


 I had never done a chevron quilt before.  I did it putting 2 rectangles together ( I am not a fan of half-square triangles).  It came together quickly.


 I had fun with the quilting also.  You can see the baby's name on the bottom.  I had a friend do the embroidery.


This quilt came together so quickly that I forgot to take pictures in the process.



 I did see the Mama and baby elephant on another quilt and copied it.  I liked them.

 

Here is the quilt on it's crib.  Don't they all go together nicely?



Thursday, October 16, 2014

Nancy's Quilt

Nancy made this quilt for Quilts of Valor. She told me I could practice on this quilt and do whatever I liked.


 I looked through all my pins and decided on something that Judi at Green Fairy Quilts has done.
It is a lot of ruler work, but I did learn some things such as putting velcro on the back of my straight edge to hold it in place better.  This did take concentration.


 I think Nancy will be happy with this quilt.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Hexie Flower Tablerunner


I'm starting another new project.  I never thought I'd be doing hexagons, but I did discover a hexagon tablerunner that I liked.  Here it is.  My inspiration. 
Mine has different colors.  In fact, it's very scrappy and patchworky.  I think it's farmhouse style.  They want to decorate our house farmhouse style.  I'm telling them there was no style in farmhouses.  They just had what they had.  Colors didn't necessarily coordinate.  They would not consider this runner farmhouse style.      Hmmm......
I cut about 100 hexagons.  I don't like to waste scraps so they were pretty individually cut.


 I cut them a rough 1/4" larger than the template all the way around.


 I then pressed each side down over the cardboard.  I do about a dozen each day, because it is a rather hot project.


I've checked out quite a few tutorials on hexagons.  Some are quite different than others. So I'm doing a variation of my own adapting techniques from those I've seen.
I took the cardboard out and basted all the sides down so they don't lose their form.
 




I then handstitched the sides together.  These flowers don't have any centers, so it does mean breaking the thread after each side. Two flowers done, many more to  go.



Tuesday, October 14, 2014

A Birthday Shawl

I love challenges in knitting and this was one of them.  My friend saw a picture of this shawl and really liked it, so I made it for her for her birthday.  She's a good friend. I see her most every day as she works out of our shop doing upholstery next to my daughter.  Our home is hers throughout the day.  She gets to be a part of our lives, the good and the not so nice.
 Here is the shawl.


 It is called the Juneberry Triangle Shawl.  This is one of the more difficult patterns that I've done.  Not only do you do the yarnovers and decreases on the right side, you also do them on the wrong side.  That takes immense concentration.


 It has several different patterns within it and they flow together beautifully.


Isn't it gorgeous?  I used a knitpicks yarn that is a mixture of wool and bamboo.  It is very soft with a nice sheen.


Yes, I had to do some ripping out at times and I fudged mistakes in other spots.  I don't think you'll notice them.


 The border was attached by a knitting on method instead of sewing method.  I really liked it.




Wednesday, October 8, 2014

The Squares of Jacob's Ladder


I've been slowly but somewhat consistently working on this small quilt.  It contains 4 different squares.
This is a corner square.


This one goes on the top and the sides.


And this goes in the body of the quilt

 

 This one goes in the body and on the sides and also 2 corners.  I've had a lot of problems with this one.  If I turn it one way and sew, and then turn it on it's side and sew, it comes out wrong.  I've had a lot of ripping out.  And I'm not exact.  I thought I should make  a smaller quilt and just work on exactness with points.
I'm not going to try that here.


 Here is a square done wrong.  Another ripout  to do.


Here are 9 squares set.  Maybe I'll try one this size. I'm using up scraps in this one. These fabrics you see?
I used them all up.  That feels rather good. Although I don't think I really made a dent in my brown bin of scraps.


Friday, October 3, 2014

Paddington Bear

I was asked to make this cute little bear for a customer.  I had never heard of him, but I saw when searching that he is a story.  It might be a nice one to read to my grandchildren.  I'll have to check him out.  Either way, he's a cute bear.


 He wears a coat and a hat.  This bear has no boots, but some do.  He does carry a suitcase, but I didn't make him one.


 I like the button eyes that I found.


 He has a pom-pom for a tail.


 And a safety pin in his hat.


 I do have him on my Ravelry link.  Then you'll see where you can get the pattern.


 Isn't he cute?

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Susan's Quilt


This is a very pretty quilt that I quilted for Susan.  I did swirls all over it.