I really prefer making smaller quilts, but our current bed quilt has taken a lot of abuse with dogs jumping up and down — and I don’t mind at all that dogs like to be on beds. 🙂 Since I’ve wanted for a very long time to try the Winding Ways pattern, that’s what I decided to use for the new bed quilt. I found some lovely Moda (mostly) fabrics and a very good book by Nancy Elliott MacDonald on how to make the blocks successfully — and it all came together. 🙂 I decided which free-motion quilting designs I wanted to use on it, but that’s where I stalled. Unfortunately, since the quilt is so large, I just couldn’t see how I was going to manage it in my then Bernina 630 and with some back problems of my own. However, a very good friend came to the rescue and did a gorgeous job of quilting my top on her longarm machine, adapting my quilting ideas a bit to what worked better for her. The next problem was how to get a photo of the quilt! I just have no place in my home to take a picture of such a large quilt! 😉 The problem was solved, though, by entering the quilt into our local show and taking a photo there — complete with its lovely blue ribbon from that show! 😀
The quilt was finished in February, 2011, and measures approximately 95″ x 112″. Here is a detail of some of the quilting:
This is a variation of the basic Drunkard’s path quilt, in that it has two inserted quarter circles in each block instead of a single one. I began the quilt in a class but hated the class; the instructor spent most of her time chatting with a few students whom she knew from before and did little or no real teaching. As a result, I put the pieces of the quilt away for a while, getting them out again over a year later to finish. The colors in it reminded me of Monet’s paintings, so I named it Water Lilies. I machine quilted it with swirls to suggest water in the background area and quilted “petals” in the circles. I finished the quilt in November, 2013, with my usual corded piping next to the binding; it measures 45″ x 45″.
And here is a detail of the quilting:
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This was a very quick project, made from some printed linen motifs and framed with more linen. It’s the second time I’ve worked with linen from this French seller (l’Atelier d’Isabelle), who comes to the Houston Festival. The fabric is so lovely to work with — so soft and smooth!
The piece measures about 14″ square and was finished in December, 2018. I did very simple quilting, since I didn’t want to quilt inside the printed motifs. Instead, I simply stitched in the ditch around them and then added the swags and circles in the outer border before adding the piping and binding.
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This is the first of three small quilts begun in classes given by Jennie Rayment at Quilt Camp in the Pines in July, 2007. Her classes were fantastic! This little quilt measures about 25 1/2″ square and was machine pieced and quilted, with a few little “twiddles” added by hand. I finished it on July 31, 2007, adding some corded piping into the binding.
And here is a detail of one corner:
In May, 2014, I was lucky enough to be able to take a quilting cruise onboard the Oasis of the Seas. Each of the at-sea days was spent in a class, and one of the classes was a Twister class taught by Marsha Bergren. Instead of making the quilt she’d proposed for the group, though, I chose to do another that had caught my eye. This one was designed by Marilyn Foreman. Her version was to be made in any size from baby quilt on up to queen-sized. However, I decided to make mine a miniature — the first mini I’ve made without paper piecing. My finished quilt measures 22″ x 18.5″ and is entirely machine pieced and machine quilted, and I finished it in June, 2014.
I used feathers to quilt the blue and aqua motifs, but then I experimented with curved cross-hatching (another first) for the black background areas.
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This one — from another class with Jennie Rayment — was lots of fun to make! The upper circle has 36 tucks sewn into it; each tuck was then twisted in opposite directions several times to get the effect seen here. The lower circle has only 18 tucks; these were brought together and tacked. Finally, the tucked points (Babies in Baskets) were added around the outside. After machine quilting the “rays” emanating from the circles, I added the little four-petaled “flowers” (I believe they’re called Folded Fabrications) with a button in the center of each. The quilt measures 32″ x 23″ and was machine pieced and machine quilted, with some of the twiddling and fiddling done by hand.
This is a detail of parts of the circles:
This Christmas tree skirt came from a pattern published by Susan Rand and Paula Kemperman and measures approximately 45″. I machine pieced and hand quilted this one in 1989 or thereabouts — I can’t remember! 😉
I took a machine trapunto class from Philippa Naylor at the Houston Quilt Festival in November, 2011. She gave us several patterns to choose from, and I combined elements of a couple to come up with this design. I used a combination of wool and cotton/poly batting for the trapunto layer and Superior Highlights thread for the quilting. I finished it in January, 2012, and it measures 21″ square.
I used pebbled stippling to flatten the background behind the trapunto motifs, and I also decided to adapt the feathers I like so much so that they resemble the hearts in the main portion of the quilt. The color in this detail photo is much more true to what the quilt actually looks like.
In April, 2003, our local quilt guild had its annual show, and the judge for that show came here from the Phoenix area. In the course of discussion, she mentioned that she designs patterns and that one might appeal to me, since it was in blues and was teapots — she’d discovered that I love tea. She was right, too! The blocks are all blue work and, while I don’t normally do hand embroidery, even I can handle stem stitch. 😉 The patterns were originally available as a block of the month designed by Valerie Boman and and Debbie Foley (Cotton Pickin’ Designs). I had some fabric on hand for the borders; I’d bought it some time ago with no idea what I was going to use it for. But it was just about perfect for this project, since it has teapots, cups and saucers, jugs and little flowers all over it. The quilt is hand embroidered, machine pieced and hand quilted. It measures approximately 40″ x 45″, and I finished it in March, 2005.
I like tea, so when I saw the pattern for this quilt, I just couldn’t resist! This was done using the same technique as for the dogs. That is, the pots were fused and then machine satin stitched. However, instead of hand quilting, I machine quilted this piece. It was only the second time I’d done free-motion quilting on the machine, but the quilt won a blue ribbon in the 1998 county fair. What a lovely surprise! The quilt measures 34″ x 32″.
And here’s a detail of the center teapot:
