Hearts and Stars Wedding Quilt

April 6, 2012March 19, 20131 Comment

I recently made wedding quilts for my husband’s two sisters. The first one I’m blogging about today was for his sister Cresen who got married about two years ago. (I’ll show pictures of the other one next week.) I titled this one simply Hearts and Stars.

I made the blocks in a quilting class years ago but was never quite sure what to do with them. When Cresen got married they matched her home decor nicely!

Both sisters are really into the Day of the Dead theme, so of course I had to include that fabric on the back. This red fabric is from Alexander Henry, called “Paseo De Los Muertos”. An alternate title for this quilt could be “Americana De Los Muertos.”

For the star quilting I made a template out of a sticky label and stitched around the outside edges. I also added lots of micro-stippling for texture. Click the pictures to see closeups.

For the borders, I played around with some loopy stitching and used a stencil to mark a double-wedding ring motif around the outer border. It took5 hours to mark the outer border and 4 hours to quilt it. But I was loving every minute of it! I used wool batting because it seems to show of the quilting more. I quilted it with Superior Threads Highlights TriLobal polyester (40 weight) in the top with matching Bottom Line thread in the bobbin. I changed threads to match the fabrics so the texture would show, rather than the stitches.

Here it is hanging up in a my guild’s quilt show. Alas, it did not win a ribbon because there were so many other more beautiful quilts in the show. But my sister in-law was happy to receive it and I was thrilled to get in more free-motion machine quilting practice!

Mini Baltimore Album Quilt

March 27, 2012March 19, 20133 Comments

Today I wanted to share pictures of a miniature Baltimore Album Quilt I made recently, for my quilting guild’s miniature quilt auction as part of our quilt show held earlier this month.

I love machine applique and lots of machine quilting so I combined both to make this little quilt, measuring approximately 20 inches square. Here’s a closeup of the back where you can see the quilting a little bit better.

My friend and show auctioneer Georgi bid on and won this quilt for a friend of hers for her birthday. I was very pleased that this quilt was the highest selling mini quilt (it made up for the fact that I didn’t win any ribbons on my other entries, but more about that later!) The quilting shows up better in this picture I think.

For the applique, first I appliqued all of the blocks, matching my thread colors as close as possible to the fabric.

I used Superior silk thread for most of the applique because it’s very thin and blends well. I didn’t mind switching threads at all.

Once blocks were sewn, I added the swags and appliqued them as well before basting and quilting. I use an open-toe foot to see where I’m going.

This quilt was actually a remake of a quilt I made about 10 years ago for myself. It’s taken me that long to make another! The original quilt had more blocks with different sashing.

I used a busy back and appliqued the same time that I quilted.

My techniques are much better now!

More Amazing Quilts

March 19, 2012March 17, 20122 Comments

I wanted to share a few more pictures with your from several of my quilt guild friends. These were all entered into the Desert Quilters of Nevada Quilt show and are shown with the permission of each artist. (If I’d have had more time and space, I could literally show hundreds more – there were over 300 pieces in the entire show – it was a feast for the eyes!) Be sure to see my previous posts for more amazing quilts!

Maribeth Benedict, Best Friends

This adorable piece was begun at our guild’s quilting retreat last year. We had a class on Sunbonnet Sue and it was fun to see everyone’s finished quilts. This one took 2nd in the Hand Quilted category. It’s nice to know that people still enjoy hand quilting.

Ann Pugh, Happier Than a Bird...

Ann’s whimsical quilt above says, “Today I will be happier than a bird with a french fry!” I thought that was so cute with the coordinating french fry fabric! Ann was one of the first people I met when I joined the guild over 15 years ago. She’s one of the founding members and is still making scores of quilts. Our guild has been around now for over 25 years!

Sandy Crawford, Mojave Majesty

The quilt above is an example of Sandy’s beautiful landscape work. She was our featured quilter for this show. For years she’s been making beautiful landscapes depicting the desert areas surrounding Las Vegas. This took first place in the Wall-Applique quilt category. Be sure to click on the picture to see a larger version. The details are amazing!

Jenna Watson, Jenna's 1st Quilt

Finally, I’ll end this post with quilts made by my daughter Jenna, and her friend Ashtyn. Jenna was so excited to get a 3rd place ribbon on her quilt in the youth category and Ashtyn took 2nd with hers. We were pleasantly surprised that there were enough youth entries that they could actually be judged, not just displayed.

Ashtyn Whatcott, Rubies for Ruby

DQN Quilt Show Part 2

March 16, 20121 Comment

Here are some more lovely pictures from my guild’s Quilt Las Vegas Quilt Show from last weekend. As tomorrow is National Quilting Day, I’ve resolved to aspire to such great workmanship as these shown below. Pictures are shown with the permission of each artist.

Helen Baczynski, Can You Hear the Music

We had a category for show theme, which was “Trip Around the World”. Helen’s beautiful quilt above took 2nd place in the category. It depicts a traditional Folklorico dancer of Mexico swirling her skirt to the music, surrounded by Mexican Star blocks. This quilt also took viewer’s choice. All of that color that you can see in the black background was gorgeous machine quilting with colorful variegated threads.

Jean Schantol, When Pigs Fly

There was also a special recognition given for the quilt with the best humor, given to my friend Jean, for her quilt above, “When Pigs Fly”. Notice the pig in the outhouse. Too cute!

Jean Schantol, Northern Lights

This quilt was also made by Jean and I love how she used lots of beads to create the appearance of sparkling stars and galaxies beyond. Very artistic!

Karen Garth, Hearts and Roses

Karen combined lots of machine embroidery with colorful machine applique and intricate machine quilting to create this beautiful piece, which took 3rd place in the use of embroidery as a design element category.

It will take me at least one more post to show you the last set of quilts I found very fascinating. Then I’ll wrap up with a couple of other fun events at the show. Until next time!

DQN Quilt Show Part 1

March 13, 2012March 13, 20121 Comment

It will take me multiple posts to share with you just a few of the beautiful quilts from my local guild’s quilt show this past weekend. All photos were taken at Quilt Las Vegas 2012, presented by Desert Quilters of Nevada. Quilts are shown with permission of each artist.

First off, I must start with the best of the best: two Best of Show quilts.

Anthony Ratola, Military Around the World

I met husband and wife quilting team, Anthony & Carolyn this year whom I previously only knew from their work. Each year they enter, and each year they take some very top honors at our show. Just take one look at Tony’s wonderful quilt above and you can see why!

Cynthia Anderson, Stars for a New Day

My friend Cindy received top honors for her “mini” quilt shown above. I was so thrilled for her (and just a tiny bit jealous – but not really!!) I sat in on the judging process and the judge went on for several minutes gushing about the fine workmanship, precision and quilting of this quilt. It truly is a work of art!

Helen Baczynski, Sundae Treats

Helen is another one of our guild’s top quilters who deservedly receives many awards each year for her outstanding machine quilting. This fun piece was embellished with fabric paints and delicious threads! It won best machine quilting.

Karen Garth, Fire Baskets

The quilt above is my personal favorite. Fire Baskets, made by our guild president, amazed me with all of the hand-dyed fabrics, exquisite quilting, and colorful machine applique. It was begun in a Ricky Tims workshop and she hand-dyed most of the fabrics herself.

This is just a sampling of all the wonderful quilts our members make. I’ll post more pictures later in the week. Now I have to get back to work!

Quilt Las Vegas This Weekend!

March 9, 2012March 9, 20122 Comments

This weekend is my quilting guild’s 22nd annual quilt show! The show theme is “Trip Around the World” and it will be held Friday through Sunday at the Henderson Convention Center. There will be dozens of vendors, over 300 outstanding quilts and dolls, with prizes for the most outstanding quilts, a fashion show, bed turning, and a mini quilt auction.

It was my job to get all of the quilts checked in and ready for judging. A crew of about 8 ladies met in 4 different quilt shops this past week as guild members dropped off their quilts. And that was just my committee. We had several others in charge of judging, vendors, set up etc. I learned that it’s quite a lot of work to put on such a large show!

What you don’t see behind us in this picture is stacks of beautiful quilts piling up.

The week before the show had a different task each day. Quilt delivery on Monday, judging on Tuesday, frame set up and hanging on Wednesday, tagging & ribbons on Thursday, show opening on Friday. I’ve been so tired I can hardly think straight. But it’s been fun!

Here’s another part of my crew below. We are preparing the quilts for final presentation, attaching artists’ statements to the front of the quilts and winners’ stickers so the ribbon committee can properly hang the ribbons on the correct quilts. We want no mistakes there!

After the final two weeks of planning, preparation, and paperwork, we are ready for the show!

My next blog entry will show pictures of some of the ribbon winners, after the show opens to the general public. Hope to see you!

Next on the Quilting Agenda…

May 13, 2011March 19, 2013Leave a comment

The next big project on my quilting agenda is a class I’ll be teaching this fall at my guild’s annual quilting retreat. I’ll be teaching with my good friend Stacy who attends the retreat with me each year. This is a picture of the quilt we’ll be making:

Isn’t it cute? (And no-I didn’t cut off my hair yet – it’s just in a ponytail!) The sample shown above was made by Teri Christopherson, author of the book “Patches and Posies”. With her permission, we borrowed the quilt to show around until our samples are finished.

Machine applique is my favorite technique, so I’ll be doing my quilt utilizing this method. And Stacy is the scrap queen so she’ll probably use a different fabric for each block! Now, I’ve just got to get started…

A Visit With Annette Kennedy

April 29, 2011March 19, 2013Leave a comment

Fiber artist Annette Kennedy came to our quilting guild meeting last night and it was quite a treat! Her specialty is landscape and pictorial quilts and she uses beautiful embellishment techniques to bring her images to life.

She likes to paint on the surface of her quilts to add detail, texture, and depth with elements of shadow. She then quilts them by machine with decorative threads.

Here are two beautiful examples of before and after quilts that she’s teaching our guild how to do in a couple of workshops this weekend (images used with permission):

The picture above is Red Rock Canyon. Below is Calla Lillies. It’s amazing how such details add to the beauty of the finished piece. I think I have been inspired!

Machine Quilting With Charlotte Warr Andersen

January 28, 2011March 19, 2013Leave a comment

The last class I took at Road to California was learning how to quilt allover geometric shapes on a quilt WITHOUT marking! This class was given by Charlotte Warr Andersen and she was so energetic and full of great quilting wisdom. She gave me permission to take photos during class so that I could share them on my blog.

Here’s Charlotte showing us her award-winning quilt using her no mark-method:

It’s amazing what you can do with blue painter’s tape!

The basic idea is starting quilting with just one straight line. Her book, “One Line at a Time” expands on this premise.

By using tape to mark off certain areas and intersections, you can achieve amazing results.

Here are some step by step photos showing the creation of a plaid texture design starting with a square grid.

This one is slightly more complicated but very cool. It’s all about sewing from point to point to create the design.

You can see a little closeup of Charlotte’s quilt underneath. I thought it made a nice background for my picture!

The photo below shows a Double Wedding Ring Quilt with a different quilt motif in each ring. Old meets new in this quilt. It’s called, “Double Charlotte”, named for her grandmother Charlotte Warr who pieced the top.

Machine Quilting with Mickey Depre

January 26, 2011March 19, 2013Leave a comment

I took “Advanced Machine Quilting” with Mickey Depre when I attended Road to California recently – the quilters conference and showcase extraordinaire.

Mickey taught us three simple principles to achieve fabulous machine quilting stitches.

1. First, – make that mind body connection drawing out your free motion designs on paper. If you can draw it – you can stitch it. Here’s my pencil drawing and then the stitched out design done free form with no marking on a practice quilt sandwich.

2. Next, look for inspiration all around you.

Mickey handed out some ads and had us look for design elements within that ad. Here’s what I came up with – can you tell what part of the ad I’m using?

I saw diamonds on the fabric in the ad and they morphed into concentric squares. The lamps gave me two shapes to play with – a tapered squiggle and half-moon design. The sun/stars came from playing with the tassel design in the picture.

Then we combined two of the styles and did another pencil drawing and quilt design. I combined the squiggles with the stars and here’s what I got:

3. The final words of wisdom she gave is that we need to practice several times a week. I call it “quilting exercise”. Once your quilting hands are primed for daily quilting, it will be as easy as drawing on paper. This was a fabulous class, taught by a fabulous teacher!

Check out Mickey Depre’s website at mdquilts.com.