Tuesday, October 25, 2011

More Quilts from PHQ Quilt Show

 Above is the wedding quilt I made for my daughter, Sondra and her husband Rich.
 This quilt is called Sky Blue Pink, a pattern from Kaffe Fassett's book, Caravan of Quilts.
 Here we have Garden Blooms, a kit from Intown Quilt Shop.
 This is the All Seasons Quilt. The pattern is by Mary Mashuta and it is in a book by Kaffe.
Another Kaffe, I call it Stripes, in his book, Quilt Romance.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Lollypop Trees Best of Show!

 Yes, it is true, I finished my Lollypop Trees, put the quilt in the Pieceful Hearts Quilt Guild Show this past weekend in North Augusta, SC, and won Best of Show! Wahoo! I am excited as I had worked on this quilt over a period of 3 or 4 years. In fact, I finished the top a year ago and it took another year to get up the courage to quilt it.
But, here it is!! It was such a pleasure to make this quilt, from choosing all the different fabrics with my friend, Ille Waters, shopping for the fabrics, trying to discern exactly what had been used on the pattern, to slowly hand stitching each circle, leaf or flower.
 Here is a portion of the border and sashing. I did just a continual swirl through all those squares and then treated the other little baby lollypops with lots of quilting like the large blocks.
 This green block below was the Judge's Choice on her comment sheet. I think the quilting showed up in it better than many others.
 Below is another closer view of this block.
 Just another block. I did all the quilting just as each block 'spoke to me' you might say. I stitched in the ditch around all the blocks and the applique, then filled in with swirls, feathers, whatever seemed to fit that block. I will not deny that it was very tedious work, even on a longarm.
 Another close up.
 One more block!
 This was a fun center. Oh, and I ended up stitching a lot on the applique as the shapes were so large they needed to be quilted to balance out the heavy background quilting.
 The above block in full view.
 And yet another!
 And another. . .
 And one of the corner blocks! What can I say? I really enjoyed this quilt and so appreciate the ribbons awarded me for my effort in time. Hope you enjoy looking at these pictures!! I know from seeing this quilt in the show that there will be more Lollypop Trees started. You can find this lovely pattern by Kim McLean at Glorious Color.com.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Lollypop Trees Quilted!

It may not be very easy to see these pictures, but I have completed my Lollypop Trees quilt! That is very exciting for me as this project has been ongoing for several years, but such an enjoyable journey. I enjoyed every applique stitch. Wish I could say the same about the quilting as it was quite a difficult quilt but worth the effort.

Lollypop Trees is in a quilt show this weekend in North Augusta, SC at the North Augusta Activities Center. I hope to get some better pictures with it hung properly.
Here are just a couple of close-ups of the blocks. Now, let's see what project I'll work on next! Oh, I know, I'll finish my Flower Pots that are just lacking a few tiny circles.