Friday, March 27, 2009

Thankful knees

This wonderful quilt top has been waiting to be quilted for quite a while. Being a full size quilt I was procrastinating on putting my quilt sandwich together. Finding floor space to spread the quilt out to pin baste it together while damaging my knees in the process is not what I call fun. While I was attending the big quilt show this spring, I met a woman standing by the wonderful Gammill quilt machine. She mentioned that she was a nearby quilt shop owner and frequently basted peoples quilt sandwiches together so they could then take it home and quilt it themselves! While she was at it I had her do two other full size quilts for me. She is an answer to my prayers and my knees and back are forever thankful!
Instead of quilting this on my Bernina, I decided to get creative. I came up with a quilt design and digitized it for our commercial embroidery machine. I am hoping to get this quilted and put the binding on so I can post the completed quilt next week.


Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Freedom

Let me just say WWaaahhooo!! Ya know that feeling you get when summer is here and you peel off your wool socks and shoes that have been so confining? There's that moment you slip on your most comfortable pair of flip flops that have been beckoning from the back of your closest all winter long? Oh yes, this is freedom! I must say making this quilt was a very freeing experience for me. You should have seen my grin at the completion of my first block...yippee!I was inspired by this quilt and Amanda Jean to create this baby. No pattern, no rotary cutter or mat. It was just me, scissors, fabric scraps and my trusty machine (and my dog that couldn't understand what all the excitement was about). Log cabin quilts are a favorite of mine, so this was a fun way to add a "wonky", modern twist. I pieced the binding out of scraps and machine quilted it with a meandering flower pattern. As a quilter, part of being creative for me has always been taking a pattern and making it my own. Whether it was using different fabrics or modifying the pattern. Thanks to many bloggers out there I am now stretching my creative muscles further by finding inspiration in what they create. I'm putting on my flip flops and wiggling my toes....freedom!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Rose Medallion

After completing the Basket of Hope project from my previous post, I wanted to continue in my journey of machine applique. The wall hanging pattern I used is called Rose Medallion from the book Vintage Blooms by Pat Sloan. I also used her line of fabric called Old Blooms. I'm usually not one to go "by the book" when creating from a pattern, but I sure did on this one. This time with the machine applique I used matching thread to the fabric rather than all one color thread and I'm much happier with the results.
I took liberties with my quilting and did my own thing. Isn't that what it's all about?