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:
I saw the pattern for this in the November, 2010, issue of American Quilter and was immediately intrigued by the very curvy effect of the straight-line piecing. The tree itself was paper pieced, though the background was added with traditional piecing. The pattern was designed by Renae Merrill. The finished piece measures 22.25″ x 19.5″, and I machine pieced and machine quilted it, finishing in October, 2010.
Using a variegated green thread, I put feathers into the light- and medium-green tree branches, with a swirl in the darker green. The background is done in straight lines of cream thread to suggest the light coming from the candle flames, and the area beneath the tree is done with a simple curlicue. Here are a couple of detail shots to show a bit of the quilting:
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It had been a long time since I’d done a swap, but there were two swaps in recent years among the members of my local group, and I couldn’t resist either one. The first, signature blocks, was done in October, 2010, and I really liked the idea of having signature blocks from these ladies who’ve been my friends for so long, so I participated even before I had any idea of what I’d do with the finished blocks. The second one, in July of 2011, was for exchanging half-square triangles, and that gave me the idea of combining these with the signature blocks to make baskets! Yay! I decided to set the baskets together in strips and on point, leaving room for some of the feathers I like so much. This photo of the quilt is really bad, but I needed to keep it a bit blurry to disguise names and maintain privacy. However, you can see how the baskets are set into the quilt.
As you can see, I machine quilted feathered swags into the plain strips between baskets, as well as into the borders. The baskets are outlined, and the setting triangles have concentric V’s quilted into them. The quilt measures approximately 70″ x 87″, and I finished it in April, 2012.
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When I saw this design offered as a class at the Lake Havasu, AZ, retreat, I knew I had to do it — I so enjoy watching quail run along on the wall around our back garden! It’s a paper-pieced pattern by Linda Hibbert. The quilt measures only 12.75″ x 33″, but I love the design.
I had a small silk batting I’d been wanting to try out, so I used it here, along with some silk thread for some of the background free-motion quilting, which I wanted to make rather unobtrusive. The saguaro cactus, though, is done with Superior Magnifico thread to make it a little more obvious. The border curved motif was quilted with Isacord polyester for a bit of subtle sheen.
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I bought my first kit when I went to the Houston Quilt Festival in November, 2010. It was a laser-cut kit for a miniature Storm at Sea, done by John Flynn. I’ve wanted to do this design for a long time and just couldn’t resist trying it this way. I think I’d normally do this pattern by paper piecing it, but this was a fun change. The pieces went together so easily because of the precision of the cutting and because the tips of the triangles had been cut off to facilitate matching. I machine quilted lavender feathers in a few of the diagonal rows, then used turquoise thread to add stylized wave patterns to the other diagonals. The outer border has larger, curlier waves, and I added corded piping between the outer border and the binding for a bit of added interest.
The center of the quilt is 14″ x 17.5″, and the finished quilt measures 21″ x 23.5″. I began working on it in late December, 2010, and finished in early January, 2011.
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This quilt was machine pieced and hand quilted as a gift for my younger daughter’s best friend (since eighth grade) when they graduated from high school in 1994. Stephanie lived on a ranch, which is the source of the theme here. The black and white fabric says “moo” all over. The quilting pattern I chose was the livestock brand Steph’s family used on the ranch. The quilt is approximately 28″ square.
Carol Doak sponsored a BOM for her online group, beginning in September, 2007, and ending the following August. I made all of the blocks at 3″ square and then couldn’t decide how to set them together. As I was trying to solve the problem, the 4000th member joined the group, and Carol designed another block to celebrate. That block became the center of the little quilt with the BOM blocks.
All of the blocks are in shades of purple and lavender with yellow as an accent and black as the background. The quilt measures 15 1/4″ square and is machine pieced and machine quilted. I finished it in August, 2008.
Carol Doak published a mystery quilt for her online group in 2007; I made the top and set it aside. Then a baby was born to one of our nephews and his wife, so I decided to quilt this piece for their new little girl. The quilt measures about 30.5″ square and was finished in March, 2009.
It’s colorful enough that I think it will keep a baby’s interest — especially in the borders. I machine quilted sprays of feathers all over in pale pink, using a darker pink in the borders.
I’d been wanting to experiment with this technique, since I’d heard how much fun it is. I finally decided to try making the hexagon star pattern; it was going to be a quilted table runner. However, I changed my mind and made two small quilts for two really good friends, instead. I gave them as Christmas gifts in 1999.
The two quilts are very small, about the size to hang over the back of a chair or couch. Since making them, I’ve decided that everything I’d heard about the Stack-n-Whack technique being fun was true!