Shine

"Shine" is quilted, bound and DONE!  This was my first quilt for the Lib Amish Get Together.

I can't belive it's taken me a year to get this done. I just couldn't decide how I wanted to quilt this. I finally took my inspiration from antique Amish quilts (should be a no-brainer, right?) and machine-quilted triple diagonal lines. Free-hand, of course. I was liberated enough to use my sewing machine, or it would be a realllllly loooong time before this got finished . . . hee hee!

I didn't measure anything, and I didn't stress about it. It only took me a few hours to get this done, once I got going.

 

I really like this quilt.  I think it finally came together just right.

Making progress

I thought I would post a few pictures of the front and back as I am deep in the throws of free motion quilting the improv quilt. I need to have it quilted and bound by March 22 and I think I am going to make it. I have about 75% of the center quilted, then it will be onto the borders.

Improv quilt

A friend of mine, K, decided at the last minute she would like a quilt for her daughter. K picked out the colors and saw a quilt in the direction she wanted this one to head. We shopped in my stash and found everything except the light red fabric which K bought. It will be used for the binding also. The blocks were made by making a large (about 28" across) log cabin block and then I cut them into quarters. I did all the cutting and sewing; K did the designing and pressing.


The borders on two sides are just pinned to the design wall


Pinned basted and ready for me to free motion quilt it.


Here is the pieced strip we made for the back. This is a queen sized quilt.


Here is the quilting on the back and front. I am using the same color in the bobbin as the top thread.



I need to have the quilting done by March 14.

Is it done ?

Or is it boring, I just don't know. Here it is:

I'm happy I managed to continue the shape of one of the triangles in the binding:

And I added a tiny triangle in the binding on the left side:

I thought about adding another layer of machine quilting in another colour or maybe adding shapes of triangles hand quilted with thicker thread... but I really don't know. I don't want to 'overdo' it.

The hanging sleeve isn't attached yet...

Thanks for your suggestions !

Heidi

Plaidtastic, quilted, bound and done!

Inspired by Amish designs, driven to wonkiness, with a splash of batiks, and quilted with the spirit of Gee's Bend, it's plaidtastic!

Liberated me!!!!!!!

It all started with a request for help from a young mother in making a quilt similiar to this one.

I tried the technique here- sewing together strips, cutting the triangles and putting together the hexagon. It worked and I added end triangles to make it a rectangle. This will be for big brother. Then I had leftovers............so i became liberated and pieced this for the little guys' doll.

I could do the technique, so then tackled the baby quilt. The mom bought the fabrics and I added some yellows to brighten it all up.

This one will remain in the hexagon shape - something different.

Once again - leftovers!!!!!!!!!

This will be the crib quilt.

I really enjoyed using what I had and trying to get a rectangle out of cut off triangle pieces......

There is NO MORE fabric.........this is it!!!!!!!!!!!

No Words Necessary

I believe this fabric might have been from the 80s.  I had a whole bolt of it. Needless to say the rest of the bolt went in the trash.
 One thing for sure I will really give black fabric a good test before I use any of it again.
I think I will see if I can quilt NO WORDS and just use it as a wall hanging once in a while.  With a big label on the back to never ever wash it.
I wouldn't bother but this is the first Challenge I ever entered and my first Liberated Quilt and I hate to lose it.

Sad News

Christmas 2009 I made a quilt for my Son in Law.  He is a huge GA Bulldog fan.  When my Daughter washed it for the first time disaster  struck.  The black I used for the inner border just fell apart.

Well, this is a sad enough by itself but the real problem is I made my Liberated Amish quilt from the same black fabric.

I can't believe I didn't notice the fabric was rotten.
I guess procrastinating isn't all bad because at least I haven't quilted it yet.

Day Dreams

 Last weekend I completed side two of of my Day and Night Quilt.  The words have been pieced for five months but life got in the way and my sewing machine had to wait.  I am so pleased to finally have the second side finished. 

Next weekend I will start machine quilting this twin sized quilt. Hopefully side A and side B will line up easily when I baste them together.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This has been a fun project to work on. I love having a chance to let my imagination run wild. 

Warm wishes from snowy Wisconsin!  Chris Daly

Finally getting around to posting these

I made quilts this past fall for a fellow and his wife who were expecting twin girls. The fellow's mother had save a lot of his clothes - baseball t-shirts, jeans, a favorite pair of Michael Jordan shorts, etc. I made two quilts - one for each girl out of these items. Here are pictures of one of the quilts in process. They were a lot of fun to make and the father was thrilled with the results.







These are also for the twin girls. Their father is a huge Notre Dame fan which explains the colors. I rough cut the centers then just started improvising. I ripped the strips for the logs and then trimmed them with the rotary cutter as I pieced them together. I think orginally we were suppose to use just sissors - oops I'm bad! I was pleased with the way these came out and so was the father.







Have a happy and safe holiday!

Merry Christmas

.. and a Wip and a finish :-)

Here's my finished test piece for ( still ) the first challenge

here's a bit of 'Befreite Dreiecke' showing my machine quilting . I think it will be 2011 when I'll finish it..

and this  is a small present on it's way to France

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Heidi

Orange Sqaure Quilt

I had so much fun making this Orange Square Quilt. I pulled out a few orange and yellow fabrics from my stash. I used batiks, solids,plaids and a few reproduction fabrics...some would say you can never use all these  fabrics in one quilt.  But it is so much fun to break the quilting rules!

 I love to stipple or meander my quilts.

 I also love  washed and crinkled quilts with simple clean lines.

Happy Quilting to all of you!

My Challenge quilt

I'm so pleased to report that I have completed my challenge quilt . This quilt was a really big task for me. First, I researched Gee's Bend quilts and Amish quilts. I actually went to the library and looked in their reference books. I decided that Amish Bars pattern and some Gee's Bend quilts had a lot in common. The rules of Lazy Gal's Challenge were no rulers, templates or rotary cutters. And use a lot of solid colors. I found cutting long strips of fabrics using only scissors and by eye was difficult, unless I decided to simply have fun with it. You know that saying, "don't stress the small stuff." I pulled out a bunch of scraps for the scrappy row that I made going down the whole quilt. Then I used the size that that came out to be for the approximate length of the strips. If the strips were too long, I chopped them off, and if too short, I did what Gee's Bend quilt ladies do, and added a scrap to the edge. The edges of the quilt were quite uneven. So instead of quilting, I tied with size 10 crochet cotton. I use a curved needle when I tie a quilt. I think I ended up with what the quilting books politely call a "utility quilt." I didn't actually know if I liked this quilt all the way through the creating process. It was only after I finished hemming down the grey binding on the outside edge, that the full impact of the quilt was apparent. You know what, I decided that I like it just as well as any other quilt I have made!

Dancing Star

Dancing Star is finally finished . . .

You can see read more about this more-Gee's Bend-than-Amish quilt 

and the journey to completion here

on my blog.

Thanks for the challenge, Tonya!

Quiltdivajulie