This quilt is also the result of a class at Quilt Camp in the Pines, but it was from July of 2002. The class was Jan Krentz’s Summer Salsa, though I’ve renamed my version since my husband thinks this one is “colorful”. 😉 Jan teaches wonderful classes; she’s very organized and gives lots of information and help. I finished most of the inner star points and one rocket block during the two-day class, then brought everything home and finished the rest in the course of the next few weeks, substituting simpler corners for Jan’s original ones in order to spotlight the focus fabric I’d chosen. Then I was at an impasse trying to decide how I wanted to quilt it! I finally bit the bullet and machine quilted it in January, 2003. I used a variegated rayon thread for all of the quilting except for some angular lines in four black corner sections; those were done with a bright yellow rayon. All of the quilting was done free-motion style. The quilt measures 46″ square.
In the photo below, you can see a detail of the quilting in one of the corners.
This quilt also went into our local show in April, 2003, and it also won a ribbon! It took third place in its category, so here it is proudly wearing its award:
I saw this pattern at the 2018 Houston Festival and couldn’t resist those sweet faces. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong fusible for the appliqué, which meant that I couldn’t do the type of quilting in the background that I’d originally planned. Still, I had fun playing with ruler work for the simple straight lines I did. The quilt, completed in March, 2019, measures about 26.5″ x 32″.
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I was intrigued by Martha Thompson’s technique, outlined in her book and shown on Simply Quilts, for taking hexagons and turning them into what she calls “swirligigs”. This is one of the patterns from her book, though I used several colors of hexagons where she used a single one. I happened to have some hand-dyes in my stash, so I used them with a background that I also already had and came up with this piece:
This was a fast, fun project. It took only parts of four days from start to finish! Since the hexagons-turned-swirligigs seem to have a lot of movement in them, I quilted them with a swirling pattern to underscore that movement. Here is a detail of the quilting:
The little quilt measures 21″ across the narrower dimension and 24 1/2″ across the wider one, and I machine pieced and machine quilted it, finishing in October, 2004
In January, 2012, some friends and I attended a retreat in Lake Havasu City, AZ; it was such fun! There, I took a class from Susan Cleveland, who developed the technique I so often use in putting corded piping next to my quilt bindings. This time, though, we used the corded piping within the blocks to go around curves — a really fun effect! Check out her book, called Piping Hot Curves for this pattern and technique. I used fabric I already had in my stash; it was pretty dated, but it’s made a cute little quilt I’m planning to use in my car when our little dog takes a ride; it will save the upholstery from getting road oil (we have a lot of road oil!) all over it from her paws.
I finished the quilt, which measures 28 1/2″ square, in February, 2012, and it has very little quilting in it, for a change. 😉 That’s because the piping in the blocks would begin to bulge if I’d quilted a lot. So I’ve quilted in the ditch and a couple of curved lines in the background of the blocks and borders. I also added piping next to the binding — of course. <g> Here’s a closer shot of one of the blocks:
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This is the first large quilt I made. It is a Grandmother’s Fan pattern set in love rings, or rings radiating out from the center.It is in shades of lavender, because my husband’s favorite color is purple. Each machine-pieced fan block is hand quilted with hearts, and the whole thing was lap quilted, following Georgia Bonesteel’s ideas. The quilt was finished in early 1988, over two years after I began it, and is big enough to drop to the floor on a queen-sized bed, measuring 95″ x 114″. Unfortunately, it’s seen some hard use in the past few years and is now in pretty bad condition — it didn’t help that the fabrics weren’t the best quality! Lesson learned: always get the best fabrics possible.
This was the first piece I’ve made for which the quilting was done in the hoop — that is, it was all done with the embroidery module for my Bernina. Since I really enjoy free-motion quilting, though, I doubt that I’ll do much more of this type. The design came from Janine Babich Designs, and the finished hanging measures approximately 8.5″ x 24.5″. It will be nice for Valentine’s Day. I finished it in September, 2017.
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I finally finished quilting this project at the end of December, 1999. This is the first somewhat larger (51 1/2″ x 65 1/2″) quilt that I’d designed and laid out using QuiltPro. What a difference in ease of drafting and figuring! The blue and white color scheme is a cool, refreshing look. I used blocks from the QP library, but I designed the border myself, basing it on one in an Eleanor Burns book. It’s machine pieced and hand quilted. There’s a sort of visual trick in this sampler, as it appears that there is a sashing between the blocks. However, the dark blue “sashing” is really a cross in the center of each block.
In July, 2009, I took a class from Rose Hughes on making landscape quilts. It was a fun class, but it’s not a technique I think I’ll be using again; it’s just not something that appealed to me. Because I wasn’t that excited about it, the unfinished quilt sat around until the end of October, 2010, before I finally finished it. It was supposed to have quite a bit of beading and embroidery to embellish it, but that just wasn’t going to happen. It’s machine appliquéed, using yarn zigzagged around all pieces and extra stuffing under some of the saguaro arms. It’s also machine quilted very simply, and I used a facing to finish it, rather than binding. This piece measures approximately 17″ x 23″.
This is the result of an online swap in 1997. I put the blocks together right away, but I didn’t get the machine quilting finished until November, 2000. It measures approximately 29 1/2″ x 27 1/2″, and it’s great in my sewing room!
Here are a couple of details of some of the blocks:
I saw this quilt at the Houston show in 2017 and fell in love with it. I finished adding the crystals (the final step) in June, 2018. The quilt was designed by Jacqueline DeJonge and is paper pieced.
I quilted it with free-motion feathers and fillers, as well as some ruler work around the New York Beauty blocks and for the feather spines. The quilt measures 60″ x 60″.
In April, 2019, our local guild hosted its annual quilt show, and La Vie Est Belle earned an Honorable Mention!
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