I can't wait to start quilting again!

We moved across country last year, from Georgia to Washington state. I have this wonderful area that is all set up just for me! There's a big window on one side of the room. My quilting machine fits in it just fine up under the window and out of my way when I'm not using it. I have my shelves set up and my stash unpacked, just sitting there mocking me. The sewing machine is tuned and ready to go. My ironing board and iron are in just the right place, and I even have my table and machine facing through the hallway so I can keep an eye on the kids while they're in their TV room/play room. Sounds like heaven, doesn't it? Well, it's not. Every time we go to unpack a box that is full of things that we aren't sure what to do with, I just say "put it in my quilting room" while I figure out what to do with it. It's my fault. I know it. See, here's the thing . . . we haven't been able to sell our house in Georgia in the last 18 months, which mean we haven't actually closed on this house here in Washington. I'm superstitious enough that I refuse to unpack the last few boxes until we close on both houses. Finally, we have gotten a signed contract on our house and hope to close in January. We only had to drop the price 79,000 from the original asking point. That's not even the worst part. We had to go below not only what we originally paid for it 5 years ago, but we had to go below the mortgage payoff! We're going to be taking money to closing.

Now that it looks like the end is near and this house will officially be ours in a month or so I'm absolutely itching to get my fingers on my stash. I'm going to do a scrappy log cabin with 30s repros. Or maybe a Double Irish Chain from the Mardi Gras fabric I've had for a couple of years now. I don't care if I just sew squares together, I'm going to do some sewing!

But not yet . . . after I unpack the few remaining boxes and hang pictures on the walls. (That's another thing I won't do until we officially own this house. Superstitious or not, I don't want to take any chances!)

You Are My Sunshine

This is for my friend's second daughter, Kyla. I knew I wanted yellow and I knew I wanted scrappy, so I bought two fat quarter packs, then stared at them for a while trying to decide what to do. That happens a lot. The middle medallion is made of one inch squares which I set on point. I added a small yellow border, and then stuck it on my design wall and thought about what to do some more, because obviously that little bit wasn't big enough. Since I was about to move across the country, I took the easy way out and went with the theme square I had going on. I didn't want this quilt to be square, so I grabbed some yellow from my stash to add top and bottom borders. I used binky on the back so it didn't need to be quilted. However, I had left the white around the medallion originally to quilt so I went ahead and did some free-motion quilting there. I got it done before we moved, and was able to hand-deliver it since we were moving to the same town as them.

It's the first time I've ever used binky, and I recommend it highly, especially if you're in a hurry and don't have time to actually quilt something. It doesn't even require a batting and is also softer than fleece or flannel. I may actually make a quilt for myself using binky for the backing, it's so comfy.

Caribbean Sunset

This quilt was very difficult to make. It's called Caribbean Sunset and was made for my brother-in-law Michael. He was diagnosed with liver cancer and I made this as a hug since I lived so far away. It got its name because shortly after being diagnosed, my sister and he were able to take a cruise in the Caribbean and turned out to be his last vacation.

When I mailed it to him, I enclosed a note that I was hugging him from afar but that I also wanted something for my sister that had a part of him that would comfort her when he was gone.

He died June 15, 2005. My sister now uses this quilt as a hug from him. We miss him very much and he was not part of our family nearly long enough.

Elexis' Quilt

I made this quilt for my grand-niece who lives in Michigan. I used a nine patch and snowball block set in the traditional pattern.

It's been so long now that I can't remember how I quilted it, but it was done free-motion on my tabletop machine.

Elina's Quilt

I made this quilt for my friend's daughter Elina. I crazy-quilted the background squares then appliqued free-hand cut hearts on top. Then using a wedge template, I cut border strips to set the blocks wonky. Then I pieced it all together.

The border is just free-motion quilting of hearts and loops that I made up as I went along.

I am currently working on finishing another baby quilt for friends who are adopting a baby girl from Guatamala. It's almost finished, and then I have to get right to work on another one, since they found out that they would actually be adopting two little girls. The first is 12 months old, and the second is her sister, who is due to be born in December. I also have two other quilt tops that I need to quilt, and then I hope to be able to make one for myself: a Double Irish Chain made from Mardi Gras fabric!

Parker's Quilt

Another baby boy's quilt, this was made for my dear friends who just had their first baby on August 9, 2004. His name is Parker and he's absolutely adorable!

This pattern is the log cabin and one of my favorite traditional patterns. The center square is said to represent the hearth of a fireplace, and then the strips are the log's making up the cabin. I actually got this one finished and delivered to the hospital before he was born.

The Forever Quilt

I made this quilt for my niece, Courtney. I started it back in 2000, she graduated in 2001 and I finally sent it off to her in 2004. This quilt traveled from Seattle, Washington to South Carolina, then finally to Georgia. It was also professionally quilted by a wonderful long-arm quilter named Julie Lawson. Below is a close-up of her quilting so you can see just what a stunning job she does.

The pattern is called "Garden Twist", but I named it "The Forever Quilt" because it damn near took forever to finish it.

I would never have been able to do this type of quilting on my small, table-top machine. I'm very pleased with it, and would highly recommend Julie to anyone. She does great work!

Here is a quilt I've entitled "Fractured Landscape". It is a wall quilt and my most ambitious quilt yet. It was by far one of the most frustrating quilts I've made. But it's finished and I'm very proud of it.

And here's a close-up of just how tiny those pieces really are.

This quilt is for the newest member of our family: my nephew Gunner. It was nice to make a quilt for a little boy for a change! The quilt is made up of friendship stars, each in a different batik. The background is a deep blue, with gold stars.

In 2002, I was brushing my kitty, Topaz, when I came across a lump on his hind leg. He had surgery to remove tumors on both hind legs. I was so very worried about him, so I spent the day before his surgery making him this get-well quilt to take with him to the veterinarians office. It is made of flannels and has a high-loft batt to make it extra snuggly.

Here he is, home safe and sound and sleeping on his quilt.

Speaking of the baby, I think I might just have a quilter in the making. Kyra, (who's almost 5 months old here), was sitting with her daddy when she spotted my scrap quilt. She started waving her arms and kicking her legs and going: "ahhhhhhhhh". Mitchell handed her the quilt and she got really still, said one more: "ahhhhhh" and then proceeded to play with the quilt. Here are a couple of the pictures I took:

Here is the quilt, (from the book, "Quilts from the Quiltmaker's Gift"),that I made for my youngest daughter. She was born on March 15th, 2002, and I finally finished it on April 18, 2002. Not too bad, considering I was on bed rest for the last two weeks of the pregnancy. I had the top completed before being put on bed rest, and was able to finish it after coming home from the hospital. I worked on it during the girls naps, when I was lucky enough for them to nap at the same time.I machine quilted it. First, I quilted in the ditch, then quilted a heart in the middle of each square. The outer border has a heart and diamond motif. I'm not very good at free-motion quilting yet, but I had a good time doing it and I'm looking forward to the next one.

This is quilt number 20! It is another Stack-N-Whack© done with a large scale jungle print. I made this for the new baby of a co-worker of my husband. I think that the color combination is quite striking. I had originally planned on setting the stars in a yellow background, and while that was a very vibrant combination, I think that I like this one better. It will definitely give the baby something to look at. I really like making these kaliedoscope quilts and can't wait to make another. I already have the fabric. All I need is the time!

Some quilts just scream who they want to belong to, and this quilt is no exception. When I decided to make a Double Irish Chain, the first person that popped into my mind was my friend, Leigha. She likes the traditional patterns, and this is pretty traditional. Anyway, I had her help me pick out the fabric under the guise of it being for someone else. That way, I knew she would like the color combinations. I finished it in time to give it to her for her birthday. It was fun, because I could show her the progress I was making and she still had no idea I was making it for her. That's me on the left, Leigha on the right and my daughter, McKenna posing in front. I love this quilt and can't wait to make another one.

This quilt was made for my niece.. Her favorite colors are black and silver. As you can see, there is plenty of both in this quilt. The name of the quilt is "Sunset Over Lake Michigan". That's what it said it wanted to be named, so that's what I named it. I wanted to simulate the sun off of the water, which is what the orange is for. It didn't work the way I wanted it to, and now I wish I hadn't used it. Oh well, the orange can always be dyed or painted over. The size of the quilt was very daunting, since it is almost queen sized. Up to this point the largest quilt I had made was a lap quilt, which isn't even as big as a twin. I'm going to learn to hand quilt just so I don't have to wrestle a big quilt through my sewing machine ever again!

These are called Friendship Stars. I learned a new skill with one of these: handquilting! I'm very excited that the stitches were mostly even, and I was able to get about 6 - 8 stitches per inch. These quilts will hopefully be used to warm preemie babies. I did these in answer to a challenge issued on the newsgroup I read, RCTQ, to make a baby quilt and donate it to a worthy cause. I initially was going to do one crib quilt, but figured I could help more babies if I made several for preemies. Besides, this way I was able to practice different techinques of quilting. One is stitched in the ditch, one is stipple quilted and the one I handquilted is done with an echo stitch around each star and then a diagonal crosshatch. Now that I've accomplished my goal of learning to handquit, my next goal is to handquilt a large one.

Here is a quilt that I made, just for me! It is made entirely of bias squares and is as random as I could stand. First, I cut bias strips, threw them into a bag and picked them out willy-nilly. I sewed those together and cut the bias squares. Next, I threw all the squares into a bag and drew out 12 at a time. I then arranged them in, in my opinion, a pleasing manner. There are some really horrible color combinations. I even have a few fabrics sewn wrong side out. I like it, though, and since it's for me that's all that matters. This was also my first experience with free-motion quilting on a large quilt. I did a stipple inside the blocks and stitch in the ditch around the sashing. I didn't lose too many points, and some of my Y-seams match. All in all, a pretty good experience.

This quilt is called a Mariner's Compass. I made it using the Wedgeworks method and the entire quilt is only 20 inches square. I made the square initially just to see if I could do it but I then had a block I didn't know what to do with. There is a woman on the newsgroup RCTQ that provides preemie quilts to her hospital in Finland, so I finished it off and mailed it to Finland. The back of the quilt is almost as nice as the front. Since I didn't have any pieces of fabric large enough for the backing, I had to piece it.

This is a log cabin quilt that I made for my mother. The way things were going, she's lucky she got it! Here's the story. I bought fat quarters to make a wall hanging. After showing the blocks to my mom, she liked it, so I decided to make a throw instead. I had nine squares done, but needed quite a few more. Well, I ran out of the darkest fabric, and couldn't find any here. I put out a call for help on RCTQ, and was lucky to find some. I finished the next 7 squares. BUT, before I was finished with the second set of squares, I bought a new sewing machine. So I finished them on a new machine. Big mistake! The squares were a half inch larger than the first nine. Okay, not a huge problem, I'll figure something out. So I started another set, (12 to be exact!). I sewed wrong sides together, instead of right sides. Damn it! Throw those out, start another 12. Damn it, I did it again! Threw those out, decided to wait until the next morning. Started over, did the first two logs just fine. Went to put the first grey log on, and wouldn't you know it, I put it in the wrong spot! Threw those out, almost started smoking again. Finally, after checking very carefully, I got the next set of 12 done correctly, (or so I thought!) Because these were done completely on the new machine, they were a half inch larger then the second set, and a full inch larger then the first set. DAMN, DAMN, DAMN! I hate this quilt! Okay, I'm going to finish it. I only have 11 more blocks to go. I started the last ones on June 30th, got to the first set of grey logs, and once again, sewed them in the wrong spot. (Ya saw that coming, didn't ya?) Threw them away, started a different quilt. After finishing my stack-n-whack above, I went back to working on this one. It was going pretty well. I was down to only three blocks left. Can ya guess what happened? I ran out of one of the orange fabrics. I absolutely was not going to go buy a yard of fabric when I only needed one strip. So, I just made four blocks using no orange and put them in the corner. Okay, tops done. I get ready to make the backing, which needed to be pieced, and Damn it all! I'm three inches short! I really wanted to get this thing finished, since I was going for a visit in a couple of weeks, so I made a trip to the quilting store, bought the fabric and that, as they say, was that!

Here is, "The Mistake I Meant To Make"! This quilt is made from log cabin blocks that were the wrong size. (Check out the whole story next!) In order to make this quilt, I cut a square template that was six and a half inches, put it on each block, gave it a twist and cut it out. I then had 16 blocks all the same size. After rearranging them several times, I finally decided I liked this particular pattern. It is machine quilted with a one inch grid. Thanks to Barbara Watson for such a great idea.

This quilt is called a "Stack-N-Whack©". I had read quite a lot about the technique on RCTQ, (Rec.Crafts.Textiles.Quilting), so I bought the book to try it out. I hate to admit it, but this was a simple quilt to make, and I love the results! It really is much brighter then it appears. Also, the orange swirls have a gold lamé in it that just glistens in the sun.

This wallhanging was made using a foundation-piecing pattern, entitled "Radiant Rainbow". I got the fabric from Janet Smith at Textile Art. It is hand dyed, and so beautiful I didn't want to cut it! As you can see, I overcame my reluctance and cut away! I think it's clear that the pattern and fabric complement each other, and my quilting isn't so bad, either!

This is a little tiny quilt ... only four blocks, each of which is nine inches square. Mostly, I wanted to practice machine quilting that was a little more involved than stitch-in-the-ditch. You can see the celtic knotwork along the bottom border and the circles in the blocks. I must admit, however, that there is some stitch-in-the-ditch happening in the quilt along the block borders.

After making that purple thing, I wanted to make a quilt with a little more oomph, so I chose a card trick pattern. Since her room was painted four different colors, I figured that I'd better choose some pretty aggressive colors for the quilt. It's perhaps hard to tell from the photograph, but all of the fabrics are variegated just like the orange/yellow one. I'm really proud of the way this one turned out.

After my purple adventure, I decided that for Christmas I would make quilts for several women in my family. Each one has pictures transfered onto fabric and made into a memory quilt. This is the one I gave to my mother-in-law and has a picture of my husband and his sister as young children and again as adults with their own children.

This is my very first quilt. I decided one day that my daughter needed one, so I made one without a clue how to do it. I guess it wasn't too bad for a first try. She still loves it, sleeps with it every night and calls it "The Falling Apart Quilt". I don't know what the fabric is that I used, but it wasn't cotton and it's definitely falling apart.